West League Update - West 2 - 25th March 2018

No change at the top of West 2, so with eight Saturdays of the season remaining, we still have four Clubs jostling for the title.  At the foot, bonus points are making a difference, whilst Waysiders are getting dragged into the relegation dogfight as they again were unable field a team.

West Results - 24th March 2018

There were comfortable wins for each of the top four in West 2, with bonus points all round, so no change to the championship contest.

In this weekends games, it looks like Paisley have the toughest test with a trip to 6th placed Cumbernauld, but with Endrick having put 45 past them last weekend, Paisley will be looking to do something similar to retain their top slot.

Any slip up from the top teams at this point in the season could spoil their chance of the title, and whilst we’re predicting wins for each of the top 4, the bonus point is also important.

There’s a few things that we need to be aware over the final eight weekends of the season.

Ayrs 2nd xv have now finished their competitive season, so those players duel registered with Millbrae can be used to strengthen the squad.

We’ve had a couple of questions around duel registration, so we double checked the Championship Rules and there's two bits that stick out:

4.17 - A dual-registered player may not play for the first XV of his lower-placed club in any of its last three league Matches
4.19 - No more than five dual registered Players may be included in the Match squad of their lower placed Team where it is also the Player’s Secondary Club

We hope this covers the queries we received

The second issue is that Strathendrick have 9 games still to play but only 8 Saturdays to fulfill them, so a similar situation to Oban in West 1.  However, arranging a mid-week match for Endrick will be a bit easier than it will be for Oban.  Millbrae are in a similar situation, though they have 10 games remaining.

What happens come the season close if these two are still in contention but have games outstanding? Well, we don’t know.

The only change at the foot of the table came from Clydebanks lose bonus point against Uddingston.  There's no shift of positions, but it moves Clydebank a point closer to Loch Lomond and another ahead of Millbrae.  Clydebank are now 12 ahead of Millbrae, but Millbrae have four games in hand.

For the second week running, Waysiders failed to field a team, so with another possible points deduction (we’re guessing at four points for this week and last) they’re slowly being dragged into the relegation battle.

Birkmyre at the foot have had a further three point deduction so are almost certainly relegated.  They’ll be glad when the seasons over and they can get back to West 3, but of their six remaining games, they have Strathendrick to face twice as well as Cumnock.

For the second relegation spot, we now have four teams jostling to avoid the drop.  This weekend sees three of them facing up to one of the title challengers so wins maybe out of the question, but any sort of bonus point would be important.

Loch Lomond have an interesting game away at Uddingston.  Clydebank ran Uddy close last weekend, losing out by a point, so Lomond will be looking at this as an opportunity to move clear of Clydebank.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again, West 2 must be one of the most competitive leagues anywhere across the world of sport.

West 1 Update 

West 3 Update