Hockey: Date change could force Inverleith out of Cup

Inverleith are contemplating withdrawing from their Arthur McKay Scottish Cup semi-final tie with Grove Menzieshill tomorrow after the Taysiders’ apparent refusal to agree to an earlier start time that would have allowed two of their players to attend a wedding later in the day.

The problem arose when Scottish Hockey moved the date of the semi-finals back from the original date of 20 April to accommodate Scotland’s build-up for the World League tournament early in May.

Inverleith are now short of four or five players due to wedding and holiday arrangements.

Steve McCurry, Inverleith’s coach, has now asked the club as a whole to consider the following options – make up the squad with 2nd X1 players who would then be cup-tied for their District Cup semi-final, ask Scottish Hockey to waive their by-laws on eligibility, or “throw the tie” because of the change of dates.

“I am really disappointed in relation to all of this,” said McCurry. “Firstly that this mess is of Scottish Hockey’s making, they moved the date of the semi-final to a free weekend on their fixtures calendar, and secondly that Menzieshill are unwilling to move the fixture an hour and a half and their reasons for not doing this are very poor.”