Orkney’s meeting with West of Scotland was one of a handful of games to beat the big freeze in Scotland.
The islanders’ game in Glasgow was only able to go ahead after the home club transferred their National League Three game from the club’s main pitch at Burnbrae to their 4G pitch.
It proved an inspired decision, giving West the opportunity to close the gap on leaders Gordonians, while enabling Orkney to pursue its top five ambitions in a rollercoaster of a game, shaded narrowly 31-30 by West to close to within six points of Gordonians who were not in action.
The Kirkwall side landed two points for their four tries and coming within seven points of the home total.
‘We were magnificent’
But for Orkney head coach Derek Robb it was an impressive performance from his charges.
He said: “We were magnificent throughout against a team who are riding high in the promotion race.
“We rose to the occasion, picking up two bonus which lifts us into fifth place.
“We might well have won, but I am proud of the manner in which they went about their business.”
Orkney will, however, be reflecting on a disastrous start to their afternoon when after scoring the first of their four tries, the bench was unable to find the kicking tee, resulting in kicker and stand-off Connor Hancock having to unsuccessfully attempt to drop kick the conversion.
“In the end, these two points were the difference between winning and losing but no blame is being apportioned.
“These things happen. For want of a kicking tee a game was lost,” said Robb.
The visitors put the hiccup behind going on to dominate the half, taking an 18-14 lead into the break but falling arrears in a pulsating second half to which they contributed a further two touchdowns, only to fall short at the death.
Unperturbed by the early mishap Hancock ended the afternoon with a personal tally of 10 points, made up of two conversions and two penalties.
‘Heroic performance’ from Thomson
A heroic performance from centre William Thomson saw him grab a hat-trick of tries, while front rower Scott Rendall added to his ever-growing tally of tries with one of his own in the first half.
Among the games which did go ahead was an entertaining Caley 2 North game at Lossiemouth where the RAF team eased to a 36-15 win at the expense of 2nd Gordonians.
In the only game played in Caley 3 North, Stornoway were 71-0 winners at Turriff.
Among the casualties to the weather was Aberdeen Grammar’s vital relegation battle in National League One game away to Watsonians in Edinburgh.
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