FOUR Scots are victims of Scottish Claymore's head coach Lary

Kuharich's first cut.

Pat Shields, Don Edmonston, John Letham, and Gary McNey have been

dropped from the team taking part in a pre-season training camp in

Georgia, prior to the start of the World League season on April 8.

The cut, in which six Americans also were dropped, leaves three Scots,

Scott Couper, Stephen McCusker, and Ben Torriero fighting for their

professional futures.

However, the door has been opened to three of home-based replacements.

Paul Balfour, from Glasgow, Aberdeen's Darren Chapman, and Andy Meikle

-- who all missed out on the trip to the US -- have been told to be on

standby when the squad returns to Edinburgh later this month.

The fourth replacement is already at the camp, Canadian kicker Derek

Noble, who holds a British passport and originally comes from Castlemilk

in Glasgow.

For McNey, who took a four-month break from his job as a Strathclyde

bus driver, the news was devastating. ''I thought something like this

was going to happen when the coach brought in the Canadian guy before

our match with Barcelona on Saturday,'' he said.