ROAD RUNNERS

Most games in Scotland were called-off due to frozen pitches but Perthshire’s fixture at Greenock Wanderers got the green light on Saturday.

Whether that should have been the case was a real talking point and lengthy discussion took place pre-match to decide if a ball was to be kicked.

When the Perth bus arrived they were met with a hard pitch, the referee feeling the west coast surface was “marginal, but manageable”.

Club captain Ewan MacKessack-Leitch was all for postponing citing safety of his players. But the call was eventually made to play.

And it started brightly for Shire when Scott Alcorn flicked the ball onto James Mair to score, converted by Jonny Armitt in the second minute.

The hosts would retaliate and, after a couple of phases, holes appeared in the visiting defence which allowed Greenock to exploit for a try.

From here the remainder of the half followed a similar pattern as Wanderers dotted down for a further five tries before the break.

With a half-time score of 34-7, skipper for the day Mat Rae had words with his team at the interval. And they appeared to have an immediate impact as aggressive, assertive and decisive Perth players put Greenock under the cosh.

The scrum and lineout dominance were paying dividends as the game was played for long periods in the home 22.

Eventually the penalty count was too high and Greenock were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes.

After a powerful burst forward, Mair quickly picked up the ball and spotted a gap round the ruck and dotted over for his second try of the afternoon. Armitt added the extras.

Perthshire, with urgency they’ve not shown most of the season, claimed the restart and with a clever kick put Greenock in all sorts of bother. Ali Nisbet got low and won a ruck penalty presenting a lineout just outside the Greenock 22.

As he did all day, Ross Dougan found his man and the ball went out to the backs where Armitt picked a sweet line to get deep within the 22.

A couple of short phases followed then Adam Dearden spotted a large gap, called for the ball to switch direction and lined up Mair for a one-on-one.

Two tries already to his name, he made no mistake and claimed his hat-trick.

The game swung back in Greenock’s favour when restored to 15 men and they touched down for two softish tries.

Then, in a blow to the men in black and white, Dan Rae went down with his knee injured. This is a real concern for the coaching team and they hope it won’t be too serious.

As time ticked away, the pitch was hardening and sun was getting lower in the sky, but Perthshire still needed another try. When the time was right Jack McIntosh retook control of the ruck and released the back line.

Alcorn, on the wing, was the final recipient and he sprinted down the touchline and danced past two defenders to score out wide. The conversion was missed but the try bonus secured.

Bizarrely, Greenock were awarded a penalty at the restart following some “ungentlemanly language” uttered from the lips of a Perthshire player.

The home team took the lineout and worked well to score in the final minute. There was time for the restart but it went to touch and the final whistle blew with the score at 49-24.

This weekend Ardrossan, who put 114 unanswered points past Caithness on Saturday, visit the North Inch. It’s a 2pm kick-off.

Perth Road Runners were in action from Fife to Florida this week.

And on a chilly weekend for running, Stewart Reid decided to brave the freezing conditions by taking on the Foxtrails Nocturnal Ultra in Dunbar.

This involved running as many five kilometre loops from 4-10pm, with Stewart meeting his target of 10 loops within the six hours. That rewarded him with a finishing place of 36th solo male.

Seven Perth Road Runners, meanwhile, ran in the Blairadam Trail Race in Fife on Sunday.

The route had to be changed due to the icy conditions but the cold did not stop the PRRs from putting in some impressive performances.

Neil Muir was first club member to cross the finish line in a time of 27:47, followed by Lisa Aikman who was third female overall in 28:39.

Stewart Dallas 30:15, Bryan Jenkins 35:12, Louise McLaren 36:02, Steph Boyd 37:18 and Margaret McIntosh 40:44 completed the Perth line-up.

With the calendar turning to December, Lou Ella Cole took part in the first of the Christmas themed runs.

She travelled to Cumbernauld for the Christmas Cracker 5k Santa Dash, finishing 11th female overall in 24:32.

In somewhat warmer temperatures, Roy Mitchell ran the Trail Hog Half Marathon in Venice, Florida.

The challenging course and heat made it tough going but Roy won the V60 age category prize in a time of 2:02.35, which was also good enough for fifth overall.

The club’s winter parkrun challenge encouraged more members to hit the parkrun tourist trail on Saturday.

Stuart Robertson was first finisher at

Loch Leven and was joined there by Kate Marshall, Neil Muir and Veronica Muir.

Andy Miller, Julienne Christie-Henry and Chrisy Blyth were at Camperdown, Gillian Smith was at Dean Castle while Kevin Riddell, Gillian Edwards, Catriona Liddell and Steph Boyd took on University of Stirling parkrun.

Further afield, Rhona Barclay was at Ormeau in Northern Ireland, Steven Brooker ran Street parkrun in Leigh and Laurie Carruthers completed her 50th parkrun at Port Macquarie in Australia. Closer to home Sue Bothwell got a new personal best at Perth, finishing in 28:34.