Thurso firefighters 'gutted' at having to delay fundraising match with Rangers legends
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Organisers of a fundraising match between Thurso firefighters and a team of ex-Rangers stars say they are "gutted" at having to delay the event – but are aiming to make it even bigger and better when it does happen.
The game was scheduled for the Dammies on Saturday, August 7, with funds from the match and an evening function at the Weigh Inn being used buy life-saving defibrillators as well as helping local charities. However, uncertainty over Covid-19 has led to a postponement.
An organising committee was put together by firefighters Brian Davidson, David Bain and Karl Drummond of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. They had fixed up a Rangers legends squad featuring such famous names as Nacho Novo, Michael Mols, Gordon Durie, Marvin Andrews, Colin Hendry, Charlie Miller and Marco Negri.
Brian said: “We just couldn't take the risk of not being able to get as many people to the football as possible, and also we were going to be struggling to get the foreign boys over. We thought it would be best to put a postponement on it.
“It's not cancelled – it has been postponed until a later date, and hopefully we'll have dates in the next few weeks. We're thinking we might actually just leave it until next year now and try and make it that little bit bigger and better.
“We didn't want to be taking people up from down south and if somebody comes up with Covid would that reflect on us as a station? We just didn't want to take that risk.”
Some 170 tickets have been snapped up for the sportsman's dinner and charity auction and around 400 tickets have been sold for the match, with the organisers hoping for as many as a couple of thousand spectators on the day.
Brian said: “The response has been really good. I've had loads of messages and everybody has been really supportive and they understand.
“Nobody has asked for their tickets to be refunded yet, so that's another big bonus. Everybody seems to be quite happy to use their tickets for the next available date.”
In a social media post, the organising committee said: “We can't be certain our special guests will be all able to travel and we can't guarantee with social distancing that we can run the evening event with the capacity we would wish.
"We are genuinely gutted but would hate to disappoint anyone that has bought a ticket. We feel the best way forward is to have the event at a later date.
“All current tickets purchased will be valid for the revised date. However, for anyone unable to make the new date for the football or dinner a full refund will be given.”
