So at last it looks as though we might get some rugby this weekend, six weeks after the last game at Millbrae on December 12th last year.

The lay off will have affected most of the teams in Scottish Hydro Premier 1 but Stewarts Melville, Ayr's opponents at Millbrae on Saturday, have the benefit of a game under their belts having played West at Inverleith last Saturday.

Mind you it is debatable whether that will have done much for the spirits of the side, currently adrift a the bottom of the table, since West came back from being down a half time to win 44-33. Stew-Mel did score thee tries however and when Ayr made their foray to Inverleith earlier in the season, it was a very stuffy contest with the home side leading 13-10 into the second half until a couple of tries from Paul Burke and one from Mark Stewart clinched the points for Ayr.

Stew-Mel full back Hayden Lingard has been on the scoresheet regularly thhis season and the home defence will have to keep an eye on pacy wing Richard Borthwick while Stewart Ker is a pretty reliable goalkicker but given the choice of opening 2010 with a trip to the Greenyards, which would have happened had last Saturdays match against Melrose not been called off, or this weeks visitors to Millbrae, Stew Mel at home would have had the overwhelming vote.

Just to re-cap as it is so long since many people have had a look at the Scottish Hydro Premier 1 league table, it stands like this. Currie are top with fifteen wins from fourteen starts, a points differential of 391 and sixty seven points. Ayr lie second having played fourteen, won thirteen, points differential 202 and 62 points with Melrose in third spot with fifty eight points from sixteen games. Ayr still have eight games left of their league programme, the regular fixtures against Stewarts Melville on Saturday, away to Selkirk on January 30th, home to West on February 20th then away to Currie on March 6th although that one will have to be re-scheduled due to the British and Irish Cup..

That makes a total of four outstanding postponed fixtures to be played - against Heriots, Hawks, Dundee and Melrose with three away from home and only the Dundee match at Millbrae and the Currie fixture having to be fitted in as well.

It was this congestion which saw Ayr president Billy McHarg make the headlines last week when he was reported as saying that the Scottish Hydro Premier Cup should be scrapped. A rather extreme call perhaps and one which annoyed the powers that be and while your correspondent does not entirely agree with the suggested solution to the fixture congestion problem, I have total sympathy with the sentiments and would suggest that an alternative option would be that Ayr ask to be withdrawn from the current Cup competition. The former sanction of being banned from the next seasons cup tournament for non-fulfilment of a cup tie no longer applies so all Ayr would lose would be the cup prize money but that would presumably be acceptable if dates were freed up for re-scheduled fixtures and it would also mean that players would be able to focus on the league and the British and Irish Cup. The price of success eh!

Finally, the Millbrae injury jinx strike again, spookily suggesting that even if a player has moved away from Ayr, fate will pursue him. The Ayr players who have suffered serious leg injuries has been well chronicled in this column but all the professional players who were drafted to Ayr last season and won a Championship medal have collected injuries, James Eddie for Glasgow last season, Ruaridh Jackson at the beginning of this season for Glasgow then on Friday night. Calum Forrester suffered a dislocated knee cap against Newport Gwent Dragons in the Heineken Cup. Calum has not had too many starts for Glasgow this season but was having an absolute blinder on Friday before the injury saw him stretchered off. He will be out for a while but we wish him good luck and a very speedy recovery.