Rugby players left stranded by ferry ID ban

May 4 2008

A RUGBY team abandoned half their players after ferry bosses demanded photo ID to travel from Caithness to Orkney.

Grangemouth RFC were heading to the Orkney Sevens tournament played yesterday.

But three of the seven were left stranded on the quay at Scrabster.

When they tried to buy £14.50 tickets to Stromness, NorthLink Ferry staff told them the rule had come into force the previous day.

Anthony Hayes, 32, Craig Bird, 37, and Bruce MacFarlane, 27, were forced to make the five and- a-half hour return trip to Grangemouth.

Anthony said: "We tried to explain we were rugby players heading over for the Sevens but they were having none of it.

"They just said if we didn't have photo ID we weren't getting on."

A NorthLink spokesman said the players decided not to proceed on their own account.

He said if it was known they were a rugby party "discretionary decisions could have been taken."