Northern Nashville Caithness Country Music Festival - coming soon

This weekend sees Halkirk again welcome the BBC, country music bands and visitors from all over the world for the annual Northern Nashville Caithness Country Music Festival.  With five shows from Friday to Sunday there are plenty of opportunities for some good pics.  A selection of my pics from last year are shown here.

All of this week, the main restaurant at Dounreay is celebrating the event with special decorations and menus with a USA theme.  A continuous slideshow of my pics from last year are being projected onto a huge screen in the restaurant.

Wick vs Fraserburgh

Wick Academy lost 3-0 to Fraserburgh at Harmsworth park today.  Despite having more chances, Wick found the Fraserburgh keeper in top form and were unlucky when a free kick thundered back off the crossbar.  All three goals were scored in a similar manner, with a quick through ball over the top and a fast running forward expertly slipping the ball past the advancing Alan Bokas.

Always a Six at Skinandi's

Local Wick band "Always a Six" got a late call up to support Canterbury and He Slept on 57 at Skinandi's on Saturday night and acquitted themselves well.

He Slept on 57 at Skinandi's

One of the two support acts to Canterbury at Skinandi's on Saturday night was "He slept on 57" from Inverness.  They were very good.  The lead guitarist kept jumping around and was difficult to catch just right.

Canterbury at Skinandi's

Cracking gig by Canterbury at Skinandi's on Saturday night.  They are on a British tour to promote their new single out on 5th April.  They gave only their second ever encore and seemed to enjoy the night - the crowd certainly did.  Next stop Aberdeen.

Check out their website http://www.canterburythankyou.com/

Caithness RFC vs Greeenock Wanderers

Caithness lost out to the league champions Greenock Wanderers by 7 points to 62.  The Greens had most of their regular team missing for various reasons and fielded a mixture of experiencd (but match rusty) old hands and inexperienced youngsters who are still at High School.

The Greenock stand off, Kieren Smith, ran riot and scored 4 tries with some powerful runs through the shell shocked defence. Very painful to watch for the home supporters!

Halkirk Utd vs Dingwall

Halkirk Utd drew with Dingwall Thistle 2-2 yesterday in the PSG North Caledonian League.  I arrived late after taking in the Caithness RFC vs Greenock match and only caught Dingwall's equaliser just before half-time.

A nice sunny day most of the time, but very breezy.

Edinburgh views

While in Edinburgh for the rugby international, I had time during the morning of the match to take a quick tour of the city with my camera.  The reflection pics with the red bus show the Scottish Parliament building, which I saw for the first time.

Football Focus Magazine

The latest edition (issue 2010-07) of Football Focus magazine features Wick Academy and 3 of my photos appear with the article.  The main one is of Stevie Cunningham and the two small ones are of the team at the start of the season and one of Gary Manson in the Scottish Cup tie against Brechin City.

SWPP Awards for Feb

The SWPP monthly competition for February produced 3 silvers.  Gold awards (i.e. scoring over 80%)  are proving elusive!

The rugby pic is of the Scotland U20s vs France at Inverness. 
Thurso's Craig Spargo is the high jumper at the 2009 Helmsdale Highland Games
The Scrabster harbour pic was taken at the Thurso Camera Club's night-time photoshoot session with Martina Cross.