Halkirk Utd vs Thurso

I caught the first 30 mins of the Halkirk Utd vs Thurso match, before heading off to the rugby. It was 0-0 when I left, but Halkirk went on to win 4-0. The other league scores were;

Clach beat Balintore 5-2
Dingwall lost to Golspie 0-4
Muir of Ord beat Alness 6-0

All of the North's sporting news is on a new website, see; http://www.north-sport.co.uk/

Wick Academy vs Coldstream



David Allan wins a penalty





Stevie Cunningham is congratulated by Gary Weir





Gary Weir leaps over Mark Walters and watches his effort go inches past the post





Stevie Cunningham scores his third with a simple tap in




Gary Weir scores his second




Gary Weir is congratulated on scoring his hat-trick

 Wick Academy beat Coldstream 9-1 in the Scottish Cup today. It was 2-1 at half time and Wick turned it on in the 2nd half with Gary Weir and Stevie Cunningham scoring hat-tricks. Craig Shearer, David Allan & Richard MacAdie scored the others. It could have been a lot more but the Coldstream keeper was in fine form, saved a Gary Weir penalty and pulled off a lot of great saves.

That is 17 goals in the last 2 games for 'e Scorries. The Highland League teams cup results can be seen on the link;

http://www.ngrfoundation.co.uk/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25734&Itemid=1

Caithness RFC vs Strathmore

I caught most of the first half of the Caithness vs Strathmore game at Millbank today. The Greens were losing 5-20 (Evan Sutherland got the try) when I left and the final score was 19-30. Graham Fryer had a try disallowed for an infringement (5th pic).

Highland, Orkney, Aberdeenshire & Aberdeen University all won today. See the results;

http://www.scottishrugby.org/community/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showResultsRank&p=303&Itemid=789

Pics of Halkirk vs Thurso (4-0) and Wick vs Coldstream (9-1) coming up later. A busy afternoon!

Halkirk Cadets

The Halkirk Cadets presented a cheque for £1,060 to Susan Somerset of the Help for Heroes charity, after a summer of fund raising activities.

On the same evening, they were inspected by the Lord Lieutenant Anne Dunnet, who also presented certificates to the cadets who passed their proficiency awards.

Professional Imagemaker magazine feature

I'm chuffed to have my photos featured in the latest edition of the Professional Imagemaker magazine. The "Surf 'n Turf" article covers my surfing pics from the O'Neill Cold Water Classic events at Thurso and my pics from various international rugby matches. I have been featured in magazines before, but never with so many pics and it is the first time that I have written an article (covering my tips for taking surfing pics).

The magazine is not generally available in the shops. It is sent to the worldwide members of The Societies, a group of 8 photographic societies, including The Society of International Sport & Leisure Photographers (of which I am a member).

The magazine also features the work of top UK fashion photographer John Denton, who gave a talk to Thurso Camera Club two weeks ago.

Thurso Acks FC - Blood Donors

Gemma Coghill, wife of Thurso Acks captain Murray, recently gave birth to Sam and days afterwards had complications that required urgent hospital treatment in Wick, including the need for 12 pints of blood. After some anxious moments, everything turned out fine.

The Acks players and officials decided to replace the 12 pints by donating their blood when the transfusion service visited Thurso recently. The blood transfusion service was so impressed that they wanted pics for a press article.

Ross County vs Celtic

The Scottsh Communities League Cup match between Ross County and Celtic was played last night in Dingwall in front of the live TV cameras.  There were 8 photographers at the ground, with all of the big daily papers represented. It poured rain throughout the whole of the first half and I had trouble keeping my lens and myself, dry. Celtic scored a goal in each half to win 2-0, so no repeat of the 2010 Scottish Cup fairytale
The park is very tight and I was only 5 feet from the edge of the pitch, which meant a danger of being hit! Celtic winger James Forrest flew into the advertising hoardings only 20 feet away from me.

A crowd of 5,300 watched the action, which included some smoke bombs. The Celtic supporters end was uncovered and they all (around 600) got totally soaked.

A big thanks to Neil Reid for giving me a lift to the match.