Cardiff trips see clubs kicked out of the cup





THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
GARETH BLACK

SEVEN clubs have been thrown out of the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup after failing to fulfil fixtures because many of their players were in Cardiff to support Scotland.

Strathclyde Police, Hawick Linden, Hawick Harlequins, Langholm, Duns, McLaren FP and Liberton have all been shown the red card by the Championship Committee of the SRU. In a letter to the clubs, the Committee, which comprises representatives elected from the clubs themselves, said: "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 agm of the SRU. Earlier in the same year the SRU agm 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.."

Eric Beattie, president of Langholm, said: "It's a blow, but there's not much we can do about it. It's just unfortunate that the original fixture was called off due to the weather. A lot of locals were looking forward to the possibility ofmeeting Premier 1 side Glasgow Hawks if we had beaten Hawick Linden and that's now not going to happen.

"I feel particularly sorry for Hawick Haelequins because they had a long-standing fixture with a side in Wales which has been going for over 40 years. In one way the SRU want you to support the national side and in other ways they penalise you for doing that."

Alan Bell, President of Hawick Harlequinsexpressed bitter disappointment. "We may well appeal against it but it could well be too late in the day. I believe our opponents Duns had players in Wales so we both agreed the game couldn't go ahead. We spent all that money (£4000) to go to Wales and support Scotland and it's very hard to take!"

The reward for Hawick Harlequins (had they beaten Duns) would have been a home tie against Premier 2 side Hamilton and a money spinner for the club, and that has now disappeared.

This article was posted on 13-Feb-2008, 08:16 by Hugh Barrow.