Caithness MotoX

Colin Gregory took some pics of the latest round of the Caithness Motocross series last Sunday at the Ravenshill track, Forss. The weather wasn't good by all accounts.

Halkirk Highland Games

The sun shone brightly for the Halkirk Games yesterday and another huge crowd of over 4,000 were enthralled and entertained for over 5 hours. The popular "Heavy" events had 11 competitors including Kate Mason from USA, who is ranked 2nd in the world for women's heavy events.

Jason Young from Tain was declared overall Heavy champion and Murray Gunn, Halkirk (above) won the County Championship from his brother Alistair and also the SGA Scottish Championship medal for the 28lb weight for distance.

Alan Clark, Thurso, swept the boards in the cycling, including the SGA 2000m Scottish Championship.

Andrew Raeburn, Thurso, won a barrow load of trophies in the track and field events and also established Caithness records in the long jump and hop, step & leap.

The pipes and drums of The Highlanders flew in from Germany on Friday evening, just to play at Halkirk.

Wick Academy vs Halkirk Utd

Wick Academy beat Halkirk Utd 4-0 in the North cup tonight. David Allan was a hat-trick hero and was voted man of the match. In the pic above he is scoring his second goal as Highland League Player of the year Richard McAdie gets out of the way pretty sharpish!

David's brother, 16 year old Ross Allan, is on loan from Ross County and he came on as a sub to play alongside his big brother for the first time ever. Their dad Donald, was a stalwart with local derby rivals Brora Rangers in the 80s and 90s.

The game was marred by a serious ankle injury to Halkirk's Chris Sutherland after only 3 mins and he was taken to hospital by ambulance - see bottom 2 pics.

Thurso Acks vs Wick Thistle

Thurso Acks were presented with a new yellow strip and blue polo shirts by Johnston the Bakers, Thurso, prior to their match vs Wick Thistle. They couldn't use them as Thistle turned up in their away strip which was also yellow! Manager David MacGregor accepted the kit from Eilidh Bruce.

The rain started just as the whistle was blown for the kick off and never stopped for the whole of the first half. The light was so poor that I had to give up at half time - the score was 0-0 and I'm unsure what the final score was. I didn't get many action shots as the more interesting play always seemed to be at the other side of the pitch.

Caithness County Show 2

After the working hunter jumping, I followed the riders into the showing ring and snapped away as they passed me. This has given a different set of photos from the normal. I also took side views to try and catch the horse/pony in the perfect stride position - not easy to get, even in continuous shooting mode. I still have 30 to process and will update my website when all are ready.

Caithness Festival of Cycling

The Caithness Cycling Club held its annual festival of cycling weekend with a 25 mile time trial on Saturday (Thurso to Watten and back), a 10 mile time trial on Sunday morning (Thurso to Georgemas and back) and a 11 mile Hilly time trial on Sunday afternoon (Thurso, Westfield to Glengolly). There were entrants from all over Scotland for this popular event.

I covered the Sunday races and tried to perfect my panning technique as they whizzed past me. It's not easy to get a pin sharp pic as my camera speed must perfectly match that of the cyclist, so that the background is blurred, thus giving the impression of speed.

I also had my telephoto lens on another camera and took some pics as the cyclists came towards me. Luckily the weather was perfect for both races (in between the thunder storms).

Alasdair Washington, Thurso, winner of the veteran class

Peter Alexander, Moray, overall winner

Caithness Show

The Caithness Agricultural Show was held in Wick on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th July. The Working Hunter classes were held on Friday afternoon and overall Champion was Alex Henderson on Amaro Rose (see immediately below). It was dry, but very dull and so this made it difficult to get a high shutter speed in order to freeze the action in the jumps. By 6pm it was just too dull, so no pics of the showjumping qualifiers.

Saturday was a total washout with most horses and riders being wet and bedraggled looking. I only got my camera out for the horse championships, when the constant rain turned to a slight drizzle. The overall horse champion was James Munro on O'Brogan (see above) owned by George Harper. The combination were 2nd at the recent Royal Highland Show.

I did not stay for the show supreme championship as I had to leave to take pics at the Halkirk vs Avoch cup match.