Blair Castle International Horse Trials

There were lots of Caithness competitors and spectators at the Blair Castle International Horse Trials. Conditions were like last year, rain and plenty of mud, with lorries and trailers getting pulled into the car parks.

One of the highlights for the Caithness contingent was watching Halkirk's Debbie Bowes and Mr Orange (above) competing in the CCI* three day event for the very first time. Many of the opponents were Olympic riders. The cross country fences were huge and yet they made it round with only one refusal at the second water jump. The dressage proved to be a tough test and I left before their show jumping round on Sunday afternoon.

Most of the classes could only be entered if horse and rider had won an event at a qualifying show during the summer, so the Caithness riders were competing against the best in the country.

Some of the successes that I heard were; Alistair Matheson and Dunedin Magnus were champions on Thursday. Emma Coghill won her Working Hunter class. James Munro and O'Brogain won a class. Ashley Miller (Anderson) and Tomi gained a 3rd. Lynn Sutherland won a 3rd. Jessica Florence won a very credible 5th riding Jillian Gunn's Megland Royal Pretence and Jillian got a 5th in the in-hand with Eddiston May-bee.

Wick Groats - 1st Div Champions

Wick Groats played the last league game of the season vs Pentland Utd in Wick and the result was 1-1. However, the result did not matter as the league was already won.

Wick Groats made a clean sweep of the trophies as Sandy Sutherland was the Caithness AFA player of the year and Andrew Cumming the young player of the year. The presentations were made by Caithness AFA Secretary, Angus MacKay, after the match at around 8.45pm. It was getting fairly dark, hence the need for flash.

Prior to the match, Christine Calcott, widow of Innes Calcott, presented the Innes Calcott memorials cups for the fair play awards. Luke Bunch accepted the 2nd Div award for the Francis St club and Angus MacKay for the 1st Div winners Wick Rovers (who were playing elsewhere).

Pony Club Hunter Pace Event

The Pony Club held a Hunter Pace event at Northfield today. It is basically a cross country practice event where riders can pick and choose fences and even jump them more than once. I choose the water jump to see if could catch a nice dramatic spray.

I have processed some pics in photoshop to try and make them more dramatic.

Halkirk Utd vs Invergordon

The opening games of the North Caledonian League were played today and Halkirk Utd beat Invergordon 6-2 at the village's Recreation Park.

Launch of New Caithness Book

Thurso High School has just published a book and DVD entitled "Fae Fields to Fuel" and it was launched at a special event last night at the High School. It is about life in Caithness before and after Dounreay arrived. The author of the book is pupil Rachel Tolworthy and she is pictured below with school Rector Dr Fiona Grant. The book and DVD cost a very reasonable £6.99 for both.

As Dounreay's Heritage Officer, I helped in its production by reviewing it and making suggestions for some of the book's contents.

The people who feature in the video were presented with a copy (see bottom picture). John Thurso, MP and Jamie Stone, MSP, both wrote forewords for the book and Jamie attended the launch event.

Thurso Gala Photo Competition

The winners of the Thurso Gala Photo competition got presented with their prizes last night by the Gala Queen. My son Christopher swept the boards in the U16 category by winning 1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes and the overall best photo award for the Mario Luciani memorial cup. Christopher used my old Panasonic "bridge" digital camera and he now has more trophies than me!

In the seniors, Duncan McLachlan won 1st and 3rd, while Carole Henderson won 2nd.

The photos were judged by the Thurso Camera Club Chairman and two other club members. Christopher's winning photo was of 3 punk rockers at the Gala Float evening.

Castletown U11s vs Hakirk U11s

Halkirk U11s travelled to Castletown for a Junior league match and after trailing 1-0 went onto win 7-1.

My Top 100 Photos

As photos normally get taken off my website gallery after 2 months, due to limited space, I have added a section called "My Top 100". This shows the photos that I particularly like, no matter how long ago they were taken. The gallery is split into;

Architecture
Birds & animals
Events
Landscape
Misc
Nature
People
Sport ball games
Sport general

There may be more or less than 100 as I did not keep count when I copied the photos over to the folder!