The Scotsman
Tue 24 May 2005

Hastings fails to win support of clubs

DAVID FERGUSON
CHIEF RUGBY WRITER

GAVIN Hastings last night failed to win a place on the new Scottish Rugby Council as Scotland's top clubs opted instead to elect an Edinburgh lawyer at the heart of the club game.

George Clark, the Boroughmuir club secretary, was chosen to become the new Division 1 representative on the SRC, to be formally adopted at next month's SRU agm. A key member of the "Premier One Forum" in recent years, Clark held off the challenge from Hastings, a Watsonians club member, Hawick vice-president Terence Froud and Mike Dalgetty, an outspoken critic of the SRU and director of rugby at Melrose.

The Midlands District Union also held its vote for the new council representative and it marked the end of the road for Jim Gracie, a long-serving general committee member who was only a year away from becoming SRU president. He was one of the committee men who voted for the removal of David Mackay, the former SRU chairman, which sparked a widespread change of governance in Scottish rugby.

However, he last night lost his Midlands seat to David Nicol, the Midlands member who voted against the committee's controversial move, by 12 votes to eight. Nicol, the father of former Scotland and Lions scrum-half Andy, considered resigning from the committee after Mackay's exit was followed by three non-executive directors and Phil Anderton, the chief executive, quitting the SRU in January. But he was persuaded to remain by Midlands clubs and last night received another vote of confidence.

This article was posted on 24-May-2005, 15:07 by Hugh Barrow.