Sport halted on Arran and around the world

Sporting fixtures which were meant to take place over the weekend on Arran were suspended following advice from the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Hockey.

The decision saw the cancellation of both a double-header weekend of two hockey games in the West District Hockey league for the Arran Ladies Hockey Team and the much-anticipated Ayrshire Sunday League game against Grange Amateurs, which was also cancelled for Arran AFC.

These decisions affecting grassroots football and hockey naturally trickled down from the governing bodies which have also cancelled professional-level sports nationwide and internationally in an attempt at curbing the spread of coronavirus.

The activities of all three jogScotland affiliated running groups on the island have also been suspended.

Sport in general, across the world, has been thrown into disarray with major disruption affecting sporting calendars and fixtures.

This has affected all Scottish and English football including the Premier and SPL leagues and, earlier this week, the Euro 2020 football tournament was postponed for a year until June 2021. Some of the games were due to be in Glasgow.

Rugby Union has been suspended with the Wales v Scotland game in the final round of the Guinness Six Nations – which was meant to take place over the weekend – being postponed, following the cancellation of the France v Ireland and Italy v England games.

Golf has fared little better with the first major golfing event of the year, the US Masters, being suspended. PGA tour events and other European tour tournaments have also been postponed.

Cricket tours and test series have been postponed and the final two days of the one-day internationals between India and South Africa will now take place without spectators.

The season opener for Formula One racing, the Australian Grand Prix, has been postponed with the season now delayed and set to start in June.

The largest sporting event, the Olympics and Paralympics, are, at the time of going to press, still scheduled to take place in Tokyo this summer, however, high profile figures are already expressing doubts as to whether this will go as planned.