We are disappointed to announce that the scheduled testimonial lunch for Alan Horne, which was due to be held at Loanhead Miners Club on Sunday 22nd has been cancelled as it also co-incides with our South Challenge Cup final vs Auchinleck Talbot at the Falkirk Stadium on the same day.

As with all events of this type, this was arranged several months ago and couldn't be organised any earlier due to coronavirus restrictions in place at that time. The rationale as to why the date of the 22nd May was chosen was at the time we were top of the league and could potentially be in either two or four play off matches, so wished to avoid any clashes. It couldn't be any later as all of our squad are on 52 week contracts and with the majority of them signed for next season (spoiler) they are entitled to annual leave before returning for pre-season in mid June and the league started earlier this season due to the aforementioned coronavirus concerns. At the time of arranging we had played only three SCC matches.

We gave the fixture secretary a heads up (at this stage we had been publicising and selling tickets for the event) the day after our last 16 tie with Dundonald Bluebell on March 22nd that we could have a potential issue with dates should we get to the final. This dialogue continued at regular intervals until the final opponents were known, upon which time we were directed to the Secretary of the SCC Competition Committee and a change of date was proposed by us. The Competition Committee, which is made up of reps from the SoS, WoS, EoS and SLFL rejected the proposal. A further two dates were suggested and these were also rejected.

The challenge of "knowing the fixtures were in place since the start of the season" is fair, but could challenge that with not playing two games on April 30th, which were the scheduled dates for both the SCC semi final and the second leg of the Pyramid play off semi final vs the SHFL champions, with the latter brought forward to April 12th on April 2nd.

After consultation between club officials, the management team and Alan, it was decided to postpone the event as there were other options available to us. We would like to apologise to our supporters who have bought tickets, Loanhead Miners, the Browns who we had organised our catering with, our speakers who we had booked and lastly to Alan Horne. We will look to reschedule the date somewhere towards the start of the season.

Refunds

Tickets bought online. No action required as we will process these refunds automatically
Tickets purchased in person via cash or card. We will need you to return your ticket(s) in person to us at the Andy Kelly Lounge and we will return your money. We will start this process on Thursday 12th May between 18:00 - 19:00 and announce further dates if required.

We can now return to focussing on our sole priority at the moment, which is Saturday's fixture at Cowdenbeath. We hope our supporters understand the process we followed which we have outlined above and look forward to seeing you in your usual large numbers to back the boys in this historic match.

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