It was an unhappy start to the New Year for the Stewartry’s sporting calendar at the weekend.
All rugby and football matches planned for Saturday and Sunday fell by the wayside due to a combination of coronavirus and the bad weather.
Stewartry RFC’s Tennent’s West Division One clash at Allan Glens was postponed on Saturday as was Stewartry Sirens’ Sunday encounter with Ayr.
First XV head coach, Sandy Currie, said: “The SRU had issued a statement saying that if teams wanted to cancel for Covid as a precaution then the game would be rescheduled without penalty.
“We were in contact with Allan Glens about it and gave it until the last moment as both teams are going well and it was a top of the table clash.
“It was looking fine until around 11pm on Thursday when they said they had a couple of cases in the camp and could we cancel it.
“We didn’t do training because it’s hard getting the boys motivated to train on a Saturday so we had a weekend off.”
He added: “It’s a bit frustrating as it’s been a stop start season. We’re going well, we’ve only suffered one defeat.”
Covid also put paid to the majority of the South of Scotland League card, including Abbey Vale’s trip to Newton Stewart and Threave Rovers’ game against Upper Annandale at Meadow Park.
Threave gaffer Vinnie Parker said: “We tried to see if we could get things changed and bring the Wigtown game forward instead, but I think everybody was pretty much wiped out with Covid after Christmas and the New Year.
“Hopefully that has settled down now and this Saturday’s fixtures go ahead. We had two boys isolating so we have a full squad to choose from now.
“I think we’re in a different position to last season when things were abandoned. I’m no politician or health expert but I don’t think as many people are as ill.
“It’s more people having to isolate so I think it’ll die down a bit in terms of getting fixtures played. We’re in a strong position with a big squad. I can understand that for teams that don’t run as big a squad and have four or five people out they can’t fulfil our fixtures. If we have four or five out we can still fulfil our fixture.”
It had looked as if Dalbeattie Star’s trip to Rangers B would survive but it was called off due to the weather on Saturday morning.
Star gaffer Ritchie Maxwell said: “They had informed the club on Friday night that after the snow there would be an inspection on Saturday morning. Between the snow and the rain there was surface water lying so the match referee postponed it, which is a bit unfortunate.
“We pre-empted it and did get a training session in, although it’s not the same as a game.”
The weather also claimed Creetown’s game against St Cuthbert Wanderers.
Saints boss Jordan Williamson said: “The boys ended up training at home.
“It was still a weekend off but we gave them a programme to work through at home and monitored that.”
