Beast from the East is a ‘disaster’ for Pirates
Club is counting cost of call-offs
Paisley Pirates head coach Ian Turley branded the weekend a “disaster” after Scottish Ice Hockey cancelled both their ties.
The Pirates are counting the cost of the weekend after both of their fixtures fell foul to the Beast from the East snow storms – as well as leaving them with a significant financial hit.
That left the Pirates facing an idle weekend and they are now facing an uphill battle to cram in their remaining fixtures between now and the end of the campaign.
Turley admits he thought the SIH were hasty in their decision to call off the complete weekend card.
He told Express Sport: “It was a weekend we could have done without. To be quite frank, the whole week was a bit of a disaster.
“We lost our training for the week because Braehead Arena had no option but to cancel all bookings due to the terrible weather conditions, and there was no quibble about that.
“However, on the Friday, all clubs got a message from Scottish Ice Hockey, the ruling body, to say that all fixtures, adult, junior, and recreational, had been cancelled for the weekend, meaning that we neither had to go to Dundee on the Saturday to play the Comets, nor host Kirkcaldy Kestrels on the Sunday, on the grounds of safety.
“While we have, obviously, no argument with any decision made on the grounds of possible health and safety concerns, we did feel that the decision to scrap all of Sunday’s games 48 hours in advance was a little premature, given that the forecast was for conditions to become less severe, as in fact they proved to be over the weekend.
“We felt that there was enough time in hand to allow a decision on Sunday matches to be reviewed early on Saturday, at which time the position would have been a little clearer.”
With the costs of running the side mounting up, Turley admits that the extra bill for unused ice is one that the side could do without.
He added: “As a result of the cancellation of our home game, we were left with a significant bill for ice that, in essence, was no longer required, but which the Arena was nevertheless entitled to charge us for.
“It’s a big hit on our finances, particularly at this time of the season, when opportunities to recover that kind of outlay are extremely limited.
“Add in the fact that we’ve been drawn to play Aberdeen home and away in the Scottish Cup semifinal in a few weeks’ time, and we could play Elgin home and away in the preliminary stages of the playoffs, and you have two extra buses to arrange, neither of which, like the cancellations, were budgeted for.
“We would never try to equate safety against financial cost, but we feel as if somehow we’ve been left with a situation not of our making, which has left us with a financial headache we could have done without.”
But it is the on- ice situation that has left the head coach most frustrated.
The remaining fixtures have a huge bearing on where the league title could eventually wind up, but with a limited timeframe, Turley reckons it is going to take a lot of work to ensure all games are played.
Turley said: “It’s also presented another challenging issue, in that with both our games scheduled for last weekend having a significant bearing on the destination of the league title, and with time running out, both games will have to be played.
“Otherwise we could be left with a ludicrous situation which would see a team win the title for no other reason possibly than it managed to get more of their games played than their challengers.
“That’s an unacceptable scenario whatever way you look at it, and our guys have worked hard this year for their chance to go for it.
“We will very definitely be pushing the people in charge to make sure all games are completed without disadvantage to any of the teams in the frame, ourselves included.”