Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Rugby: Orkney pipped by West of Scotland in close contest

Orkney head coach Derek Robb. Image: DC Thomson
Orkney head coach Derek Robb. Image: DC Thomson

Orkney’s meeting with West of Scotland was one of a handful of games to beat the big freeze in Scotland.

The islanders’ game in Glasgow was only able to go ahead after the home club transferred their National League Three game from the club’s main pitch at Burnbrae to their 4G pitch.

It proved an inspired decision, giving West the opportunity to close the gap on leaders Gordonians, while enabling Orkney to pursue its top five ambitions in a rollercoaster of a game, shaded narrowly 31-30 by West to close to within six points of Gordonians who were not in action.

The Kirkwall side landed two points for their four tries and coming within seven points of the home total.

‘We were magnificent’

But for Orkney head coach Derek Robb it was an impressive performance from his charges.

He said: “We were magnificent throughout against a team who are riding high in the promotion race.

“We rose to the occasion, picking up two bonus which lifts us into fifth place.

“We might well have won, but I am proud of the manner in which they went about their business.”

Orkney will, however, be reflecting on a disastrous start to their afternoon when after scoring the first of their four tries, the bench was unable to find the kicking tee, resulting in kicker and stand-off Connor Hancock having to unsuccessfully attempt to drop kick the conversion.

“In the end, these two points were the difference between winning and losing but no blame is being apportioned.

“These things happen. For want of a kicking tee a game was lost,” said Robb.

The visitors put the hiccup behind going on to dominate the half, taking an 18-14 lead into the break but falling arrears in a pulsating second half to which they contributed a further two touchdowns, only to fall short at the death.

Unperturbed by the early mishap Hancock ended the afternoon with a personal tally of 10 points, made up of two conversions and two penalties.

‘Heroic performance’ from Thomson

A heroic performance from centre William Thomson saw him grab a hat-trick of tries, while front rower Scott Rendall added to his ever-growing tally of tries with one of his own in the first half.

Among the games which did go ahead was an entertaining Caley 2 North game at Lossiemouth where the RAF team eased to a 36-15 win at the expense of 2nd Gordonians.

In the only game played in Caley 3 North, Stornoway were 71-0 winners at Turriff.

Among the casualties to the weather was Aberdeen Grammar’s vital relegation battle in National League One game away to Watsonians in Edinburgh.

Conversation