If all four go ahead, that will be twice as many played in pre-season as last year and in 2022 and quadruple the number contested in 2023. The first of those early-bird matches will see Arnold Clark National League Division 2’s Peebles hosting top-flight Melrose on Saturday, August 9. That’s followed by two fixtures the Saturday after taking National 1’s Jed-Forest to Melrose and the Greenyards club’s Arnold Clark Premiership rivals Selkirk to second-tier Gala. The last of this year’s regional league fixtures ahead of the premiership kicking off two days later is a trip to head coach Graeme Paterson’s Peebles for opposite number Ewen Robbie’s Gala on Thursday, August 21. Kick-off times have yet to be announced. Last term’s corresponding fixtures yielded thumpings by 50-14 for Peebles at Melrose in January and 57-12 for Gala at defending champions Selkirk in March and a 32-17 National 1 double-header victory for Gala hosting the Pees at Netherdale last September. Melrose’s scheduled trip to Jed was one of five fixtures to go unplayed last time round but they did meet the season before, drawing 19-all at Jedburgh’s Riverside Park in April 2024. The prior season also saw Melrose draw 22-22 away to Peebles in March 2024 and Gala beating Selkirk by 32-12 at home and Peebles by 15-12 at the Gytes that same month. The next five games confirmed after that are all premiership double-headers being played on Saturdays – head coach Gordon Henderson’s Selkirk away to Graham Hogg’s Hawick on September 6 and to Bruce McNeil and Nikki Walker’s Kelso two weeks later, Hawick at home to Scott Wight and Iain Chisholm’s Melrose on October 25 and to Kelso on November 29 and Melrose hosting Kelso on December 13. A stand-alone fixture for Gala at home to Kelso is pencilled in for Friday, November 7, amid that handful of all-top-flight derbies but that’s yet to be confirmed and that also goes for a provisional fixture potentially taking Hawick to Galashiels on Saturday, January 3. Melrose and Gala’s traditional Boxing Day Waverley Cup match, being hosted by the former this time round on Friday the 26th, will be 2025’s last Border League fixture. Only two games are confirmed for next year thus far, a National 1 double-header for Gala at home to Stuart Johnson’s Jed on Saturday, January 10, and a stand-alone match taking Peebles to Selkirk on Friday, February 13. Five fixtures have yet to be allocated calendar slots – Peebles away to Jed and Kelso and at home to Hawick and Jed on the road at Kelso and Selkirk.