Double treat on Boxing Day for Caithness rugby supporters
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Rugby lovers in the far north looking to beat the post-Christmas blues will be heading for Millbank on Tuesday.
They will be in for a double treat this year as the annual Boxing Day clash between the Greens and the Exiles/Students is being preceded by the first festive fixture involving the Krakens.
The women's 10-a-side match will see the local team take on one mainly made up of exiles.
The men's game, in memory of Sinclair Cadzow, went ahead last year for the first time since 2019 after the lifting of Covid restrictions.
It was inaugurated in 1996 in the wake of the 21-year-old Murkle student's death after he fell overboard from a ferry shortly after it left Stranraer en route to an Ireland v Scotland match in Dublin.
The Exiles fielded one of their strongest squads last year and romped to a 41-8 victory on a snow-covered Millbank.
Dundee-based Stuart Kirk is again in charge of putting together the visiting XV.
The 23-year-old final-year dentistry student turns out for National League 1 side Dundee Rugby, where he plays outside centre.
The visitors will be missing fly-half Liam Brims, who has this season been playing for Glasgow Hawks and who starred in the Caley Reds' Scottish inter-district winning team in May.
The PE teacher, whose family are from Gills, is sidelined by injury but is to serve as backs coach.
The pack will include Kirk's Dundee colleague Cammy Fraser; Cammy's fellow Orcadians, brothers Craig and Glen Brough; ex-Super6 and current British Army under-23 Jordan Miller; and former Caithness stalwarts Stevie Campbell and Grant Anderson.
Stand-off is Grant's brother Marc, the club's record points-scorer, who is working in the south of England.
Another former Green who is set to make another retirement comeback is former Scotland under-19 scrum-half Kris Hamilton.
Kirk, from Castletown, is set to spring one or two surprise last-minute inclusions in what he says will be a competitive squad.
Former Greens coach and ex-Border Reiver Tom McGee is head coach and has threatened to make a cameo appearance.
Ex-Scottish junior internationalist and Super6 prop Shaun Gunn is forward coach, while former Green Danny Gordon is team manager.
Greens coach Cameron Boyd says the game is a red-letter date on the club calendar.
"It's a game we all look forward to and it's good to expose the guys to a different challenge," he said.
"It's also good for continuity, which we have obviously not had so far this season with so many of our home matches having gone by the board.
"We have Ellon at home in the league on January 6 so we're not going to have much of a break.
"Tuesday's game is going to be a really good test for us as we will be up against a very decent outfit."
The men's match kicks off at 2pm, with the women's game getting under way at 1pm.
The Greens won 19-5 away to Aberdeen Wanderers last weekend.
