Barassie's Neil Lockie revealed yesterday how his grandmother's dusty scrapbook had provided the inspiration for his surge into the quarter-finals of the Mobil Scottish Boys' Championship at Dunbar.

The sepia snaps contain hazy details of his dad Bill's win in the same event at North Berwick 33 years ago, and now the youngster stands only three matches from repeating the feat of the man who is now the Scottish Golf Union's director of coaching. ''It was inspiring reading what he did all those years ago, especially as winning this tournament has always been my dream,'' Neil said.

''That and to play for Scotland would be the ultimate in boys golf for me, and I can't believe I'm getting close to it, especially as I did not expect to be here past Tuesday.'' An indication that Lockie was not prepared for a long stint in East Lothian was the fact that yesterday's 3 and 2 win over Mark Cameron of Alyth saw him run out of clean clothes.

He will definitely need some dry ones as well since yesterday's play was halted for a while in the afternoon as a hail shower swept across the course.

''My dad wasn't sure he could get down,'' said Neil. ''But I think he'll have to come now to bring me some new gear.''

Standing in Lockie's way is Kirkcaldy's Mark Donaldson, the Fifer who, in 1995, lost in the final at Royal Aberdeen to Steven Young.

''In all honesty there was no way I was going to beat Steven that year - I just did well to reach the final,'' said Mark. ''I had never played that amount of golf in my life and my hands and feet were all blistered at the end.

''But this year is different. Being an internationalist, I'm looked on as one of the guys who can get to the final and I'd like to think I'm ready to win now.'' Pick of the other quarter-finals comes in the bottom quarter where current Scottish caps Peter Whiteford and Lee Rhind face one another.

The other ties see John Doolan (Dalmilling) play Graham Gordon (Newmachar) and Mark Anderson (Leven Thistle) play Craig Gibson (Hamilton).