Things round here are getting almost as combustible as a Fedex parcel on the 5th of November. Not to mention fairly complex. The Scotland squad have no idea how easy they’ve got it! Sure they have had to do days of “minging bosh” (Jim ‘The Bear’ Thompson) on a windswept park in St. Andrew but, then, they have everything neatly set out for them.
Unlike the Scottish Premier Clubs. Yeah, we knew the new league systems would take some getting used to but we had no idea it would become a bureaucratic nightmare. The problem was that each team wants a fair split of home and away games over a season, but with the size of leagues being chopped down to 8, it is impossible to get a fair split. The Blazers at Murrayfield inexplicably took an extra day to pour over these potential fixtures. Furthermore, with every club wanting the most home games someone had to lose out and, with unbelievable rumours of this coming down to a coin toss, Dundee and Hawick got the bullet and have to play away games they have already experienced this season. There are some unhappy campers out there!
So here are how the leagues are set up now;
And here are the fixtures for the top eight and the first games for the middle eight;
| PREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 1 Ayr v Dundee Glasgow Hawks v Boroughmuir Melrose v Heriot’s Currie v HawickPREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 2 Ayr v Glasgow Hawks Currie v Melrose Dundee v Boroughmuir Heriot’s v HawickPREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 3 Melrose v Ayr Glasgow Hawks v Currie Boroughmuir v Heriot’s Dundee v HawickPREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 4 Ayr v Currie Glasgow Hawks v Melrose Heriot’s v Dundee Hawick v Boroughmuir |
PREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 5 Ayr v Boroughmuir Dundee v Glasgow Hawks Currie v Heriot’s Melrose v HawickPREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 6 Hawick v Glasgow Hawks * Heriot’s v Hawks * Boroughmuir v Melrose Currie v Dundee *PREMIER A (TOP EIGHT), ROUND 7 Heriot’s v Ayr Melrose v Dundee * Boroughmuir v Currie Glasgow Hawks v Hawick |
PREMIER B (MIDDLE EIGHT), GAME 1
Aberdeen Grammar v Stirling County
Edinburgh Accies v Selkirk
Watsonians v Gala
Peebles v West of Scotland
Yep…different, isn’t it! Thank the Lord everything will get easier from here… unless you get relegated from Premier C because there are also rumours circulating about Premier 3 getting dispersed into regional leagues. Wow. That should make thing…ermmm…different? The good news is there will be plenty more meetings on the horizon. Dust off that tweed number…
Of course, we had to get here, and it wasn’t easy. In round 10 we had some ridiculously high scoring affairs (Selkirk lost to Hawks 92-0 and Dundee beat West 92-7!). Yet the real shocks came in the final round as Ayr lost to Currie and Melrose just edged Stirling to ensure there is nothing between Melrose, Hawks and Ayr at the top of the league. Here were last week’s results;
| Saturday, 30 October 2010 | |||||||||||
| 14:00 |  |
Stirling County | 20 | : | 24 |  |
Melrose | ||||
| 14:00 |  |
West | 29 | : | 64 |  |
Heriot’s | ||||
| 15:00 |  |
Currie | 24 | : | 12 |  |
Ayr | ||||
| 15:00 |  |
Watsonians | 30 | : | 39 |  |
Dundee HSFP | ||||
| 15:00 |  |
Boroughmuir | 10 | : | 39 |  |
Glasgow Hawks | ||||
| 15:00 |  |
Selkirk | 0 | : | 25 |  |
Hawick | ||||
*As well as this, the next round of matches sees the family bet get more intense as games get tougher. As it stands the scores are, in order;
Alan Dymock- 10pts
Andy Dymock- 7pts
Neil Dymock- 5pts
*Also, a quick mention for Andrew Easson, who retired from professional rugby yesterday. All the best, mate. You’ll be alright…
