Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Spirited Shire hit back for victory

Aberdeenshire Rugby team's Alex Duncan (Pic by Kenny Elrick)
Aberdeenshire Rugby team's Alex Duncan (Pic by Kenny Elrick)

Aberdeenshire kept their promotion hopes alive in National 2 with what coach Alex Duncan hailed as a character win against Biggar in the Borders on Saturday.

A stirring fightback helped Shire start 2017 on a winning note, much to the delight of Duncan.

He said: “We trailed 17-3 after only 20 minutes but hit back with an encouraging display of resilience and even at the end held off a determined fightback.

“It was a great collective team effort and once again Greig Ryan proved to be a first-class leader.

“His tackle to save the game in the last minute was typical of him but there were other heroes, including our front five who stuck to the task.”

Matters had looked ominous after Biggar had raced into a 14-point lead, stemmed only by a lone penalty from Shire Carne Green to trail 17-3.

The visitors were facing a drubbing and the prospect of losing ground on the leaders in the division.

But captain Ryan steadied his charges, nursing them through to the half-time break without conceding another point before easing themselves into the game with four tries of their own, attributed to wingers Mike Mac-Lugash and Michael Mc-Keand, centre Paul Paxton and Green, who also added three conversions to his considerable points tally.

In reply the home side managed a converted try but had some near things as it desperately sought to reduce the five-point deficit but, thanks to the inspirational Ryan, was unable to get the better of the Woodside defence.

The try bonus victory keeps the Aberdeen side in fifth place with eight games to play.