Aberdeen Grammar may not have got the result they wanted against GHA on Saturday but two Orkney players went the extra mile to play their part.
Front rowers Alistair Linklater and Scott Rendall had arranged to travel on the overnight ferry on Friday from Shetland to Aberdeen, which due to technical failures was not able to call in at Kirkwall on its way south.
Plan B then came into operation, instigated by Orkney head coach Garry Coltherd who contacted two of his friends who fly light aircraft from Kirkwall but the winds proved too strong for the short trip to the mainland to be considered.
Desperation was setting but the twosome persisted, first trying to find a flight to Edinburgh with Loganair before making it onto the Kirkwall to Glasgow flight.
Grammar’s chairman Gordon Thomson met the pair at Glasgow Airport in time to whisk them off to Braidholm where GHA played their part, moving the Premiership game to a secondary pitch where the floodlights were of better quality, allowing the game to go ahead an hour behind schedule.
There was no happy ending for Grammar, as they slid to a 64-27 defeat on their way to relegation to National League 1, but for the Orkney duo it was a day to remember.
Coltherd added: “From what I can gather both Ali and Scott acquitted themselves well.
“I am very proud of them both. I wish Grammar good luck in their rebuilding process. We were delighted to have been involved. Where there is a will, there is a way.”
