CHAMPIONSHIP COMMITTEE
Posted: 12/Feb/08
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The Championship Committee has disqualified seven clubs that failed to fulfil Scottish Hydro Electric Cup ties last weekend.

The clubs were: Strathclyde Police, Hawick Linden, Langholm, Hawick Harlequins, Duns, McLaren FP and Liberton.

In a letter to the clubs, the Committee  which comprises representatives elected from the clubs themselves  acknowledged: This was a very difficult decision for (us) to take, in particular as the reason for the non-fulfilment was that your players wished to support the national team at their match in Wales.

The Committee took the view, however, that in order to be consistent and to maintain the integrity of the tournament it had no alternative.

The decision to use away international weekends as standby dates and increase the number of fixtures in an already congested season was one taken by clubs at the 2005 annual general meeting of the SRU. Earlier in the same year the SRU SGM had decided to forbid the scheduling of fixtures on Sundays.

The standby dates were notified to clubs on the fixture list prior to the start of the season and were further highlighted to clubs by letter last June. While it is often possible to postpone League fixtures, the deadlines imposed by knockout competitions make it impractical to postpone Cup fixtures, given that any delay impacts unfairly on other clubs waiting to play fixtures in subsequent rounds.

Notes to editors: Clubs were disqualified under Cup Regulation 9  Any club not fulfilling a fixture on a date notified by the Championship Secretary shall be disqualified from the tournament, shall forfeit the right to any prize money and shall be disqualified from entry to the competition the following season. Any appeal against any or all of these sanctions must be made in accordance with National Competition Rule 16.

This article was posted on 12-Feb-2008, 21:14 by Hugh Barrow.