Border League returns for first stand-alone fixture since August but scheduled Hawick-v-Jed-Forest game postponed

Defending champions Hawick were due to play their first game of this season’s contest tomorrow, November 15, hosting bottom-of-the-table Jed-Forest in a fixture originally scheduled for this Saturday, the 16th, but it’s now been postponed due to their visitors being unable to field a team.

Peebles, the only one of the two teams playing this weekend in with a chance of going level with table-toppers Selkirk and second-placed Gala on eight points, are away to Melrose on Saturday, with kick-off at noon at the Greenyards.

As things stand, Jed are without any points from three fixtures at the moment and Hawick and Melrose are also on zero points, the former having not played yet and the latter with one loss to their name thus far.

Peebles are fourth from both top and bottom of the table, on four points from two fixtures.

Melrose go into this weekend’s game on the back of a win, by 30-19 hosting Edinburgh Academical on Saturday and they’ll be looking to keep up that momentum ahead of another derby on Saturday, November 23, away to Hawick in the premiership, according to scrum-half Bruce Colvine.

“We’ve got Peebles this weekend for a Border League fixture and we’ll look to get a good bit of momentum out of that game and then build on that going into playing Hawick, which we know is going to be a challenging test,” he said.

Peebles head coach Graeme Paterson, on the other hand, is looking to bounce back from a loss at the weekend, by 27-10 at home to Stirling County.

The equivalent fixture last season was a 22-22 draw at the Gytes in March as Melrose headed for a second-placed finish, on 16 points, four behind Hawick, with Peebles ending up bottom of the table on two points, four adrift of second-from-bottom Jed.

One of next month’s two scheduled fixtures is a double-header, Kelso away to Selkirk at Philiphaugh on Saturday the 14th, at 3pm, and one is a stand-alone, Gala hosting Melrose on Thursday, December 26, also at 3pm, that being the two sides’ traditional Boxing Day contest for the Waverley Cup, currently held by the visitors following a 15-10 home win last festive season.

Melrose and Gala’s Border League game last season, a National 1 double-header, yielded a 53-31 home win for the former at the end of September and Kelso and Selkirk’s, a top-flight double-header, ended with a 21-19 scoreline in favour of the travelling Souters.

Next year’s first fixture is a stand-alone game seeing Peebles hosting Selkirk on Saturday, January 4.

That’s followed by a trip down the A68 to Jedburgh for Kelso on Friday, January 31, and one to Hawick for Gala, both with kick-off at 7.30pm.

The former’s corresponding match last season, another double-header, resulted in a 30-21 home win for Kelso but the latter’s went unplayed as the Greens secured the title before it could be scheduled, rendering it a dead rubber.

As things stand, the current season for what’s billed as the oldest rugby union league in the world is due to finish in March.