IT LOOKS as if the way may be cleared for the 2010 sporting season to get under way from this coming weekend.

GAA games, soccer, rugby and other sports were all hit last weekend as a result of the country and county being held in the grip of arctic weather conditions for more than three weeks.

Even the Tinahely point-to-point races fell victim to the freezing temperatures, snow and ice last weekend and had to be postponed to a later date.

Worried Leinster GAA secretary Michael Delaney was starting to fear that the O'Byrne Cup competition - the annual January warm-up competition in preparation for the national league - might have to be cancelled altogether this year because of the rare Siberian-type weather hitting Ireland.

However, a thaw started to click in along the east coast on Monday, with temperatures predicted to rise considerably before next weekend, paving the way for a reprieve for the O'Byrne Cup games.

A second weekend of postponements would, according to Delaney, almost certainly have sounded the death knell of this year's competition.

The one hurdle still to be cleared is the availability of pitches for matches with many grounds expected to be too soft underfoot from the long spell under snow.

Wicklow have a home game in the O'Byrne Cup against Louth next Sunday – provisionally fixed for Baltinglass – and Mick O'Dwyer's men can expect a torrid encounter from a Wee county team hell bent, under new management, of atoning for a 2009 Leinster championship campaign that was below expectations.

Louth posted their intent to up the ante in 2010 with a decisive win over Meath in a challenge match two weeks ago and they will be hoping to repeat their decisive O'Byrne Cup win of 2009 when they had the legs and speed of movement that Wicklow could not match on the day.

Mick O'Dwyer has been hampered in his preparations for the O'Byrne Cup by being constrained by the weather to gym work with his players.

And furthermore the O'Byrne Cup has never been high on Micko's list of priorities, seeing it as no more that a limbering up exercise for the league in February, with the championship in May and June the only games that really count at the end of the day.

It's always nice to win games to build the confidence of a team, but irrespective of the results, two or three games in the O'Byrne Cup or Shield will help to clear away the winter cobwebs before Wicklow face into their first National Football League match away to Clare on February 7.

- MARK KENNEDY Sports Reporter