Good morning everyone,
On behalf of everyone involved at New Anniesland we wish you and your family a very happy and successful New Year.
From a rugby playing perspective the last five week of the old year proved to be a non event with the last game being played at Newton Stewart on Saturday 20th November. Earlier in the week there were high hopes that we would be back underway this Saturday when Newton Stewart are the visitors to New Anniesland for a first round tie in the Scottish Shield kick off 1-30, however with the frost coming back in it looks unlikely to be played. There will be a pitch inspection on Saturday morning at 9am to give the visitors time to cancel their transport should the game be postponed.
We now have a backlog of four league games and it seems that the season will run until the end of April to catch up assuming that there are no more postponements.
The advantage of the layoff is that a number of players have returned to fitness and availability.
The team for tomorrow is listed below.
Although there has been little activity on the field this is an important week off the field. The National Leagues teams are meeting at Murrayfield to discuss the future of the game at this level. After a wide consultation it seems that the three Premier league teams wish to maintain their status quo leaving the National League teams to sort out their own destiny. There is one option on the table that would suit Accies best. That is a West League of 10 teams consisting of the best 10 sides from National 1 and National 2 and depending on league position at the end of the season 2 teams from National 3. This would be a more competitive league than the current National 2 as it would probably contain East Kilbride, Garnock and Irvine from the league above. It would certainly cut down the travelling with the only longer distance away games being at Annan, Newton Stewart and Stewartry.
We will have to await the outcome of the meeting.
With the continuing inclement weather there is the usual clamouring for summer rugby and a winter shutdown. There are a number of Clubs actively pushing this and the momentum may be difficult to withstand. The main resistance comes from Clubs where the pitches double up for cricket and rugby and we are of course in this group along with GHK, Hawks, Heriots, Watsonians and others. The suggested solution is that all rugby is played on a Friday evening. It might work but the decision, I feel, is still someway off.
A better solution is probably the installation of undersoil heating. A massive investment would be required but Gala have proved that by having undersoil heating they have played throughout the festive season and their pitch has been used by top English Clubs like Newcastle and Sale. I imagine that the costs of the heating have been more than covered by that and good attendance's at the other games. Just a thought.
Hopefully when we get underway the players new year resolution will be to be fitter, more committed, more available than their opponents and stay clear from injury.
We look forward to seeing you at New Anniesland soon.
Accies Team for Saturday
15    Ben Wilkinson
14    Mike Hermes    
13    Stewart Smith (Captain)
12    Brad Bell
11    Craig Wright
10    Ali McLaren
09    Stephen O'Donnell
01    Jamie Coskry
02    Matteo Giovanazzi
03    Fabio Marchetti
04    Fraser Cameron
05    Chris MacLellan
06    Adam Taylor
07    Andy Jackson
08    Graeme Simpson
 
16    Chris McAlpine
17    Kenneth Beattie
18    Chris Wright

This article was originally posted on 7-Jan-2011, 08:57 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 7-Jan-2011, 08:59.