The Scottish Cup will resume on March 23 and bring the curtain down on the season on May 22, the Scottish Football Association said on Wednesday, after lower leagues got the all-clear from government to resume playing. The second round was left incomplete when the SFA and Scottish sports minister agreed on January 11 to suspend play outside of the top two tiers due to the worsening state of the coronavirus pandemic at the time. However SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said with the vaccination programme going so smoothly and infections on the decline they felt it was timely to resume the competition. "The Scottish Cup is our flagship competition and we are pleased that the temporary suspension of the lower leagues has now been lifted to allow the matches to resume," he said in an SFA statement. Once the remaining second round ties are completed the third round will be played on the weekend of April 3. The last two weekends in April will see the fourth and fifth rounds of the competition completed prior to the semi-finals which will be held across the weekend of May 8. pi/kca/td