Wick Street Theatre - A Sinclair Odyssey

The streets and harbour of Wick held a spectacular street parade tonight. Theatre Modo in association with Lyth Arts Centre presented "2009: A Sinclair Odyssey". The legendary and adventurous voyage to America by Sir Henry Sinclair was magically brought to life by a cast of 300 children.

The giant puppet, stilt walkers and fire dancing were particulary impressive. A moving audience of approx 1,000 followed the parade from Market Square to the harbour, where the show ended with a firework display.

The low light and constant moving made it very challenging to get good photos. I used a slow shutter speed for the fire dancing to try and get a "sculpture" of fire.

Bon Jovi Tribute Band - Bad Name

Brilliant Bon Jovi tribute band - Bad Name (from Edinburgh) - played at Wick's Waterfront last Saturday. They got the crowd rocking right from the off and went down a storm. Check-out their website www.bad-name.com.

I went along especially to take some pics and struggled with the poor lighting. I made full use of my new 50mm f1.8 prime lens, which I was trying out for the very first time. The lead guitarist Gavin Buckley, saved the day by giving me some classic gig action to capture.

The next big gig at the venue is the famous "Smokie" who are playing on 3rd October. Tickets are £35 and are going fast.

Pony Club North Cup Competition

The Caithness branch of the Pony Club held the annual North Cup competition yesterday at Northfield, Halkirk. It is a one day event (dressage, showjumping & cross country) for all branches north of the Forth. After a very sunny start, around 70 riders braved the constant rain and soft conditions.

A huge Orkney contingent were delighted when it was announced that their team won the cup, just ahead of Caithness.

August SWPP Awards

The results of the SWPP monthly competition for August are just out and I'm pleased to have been awarded with 3 silvers. My tally for this year is now 3 golds and 13 silvers.

The photos are of the Berlin Circus which arrived in Thurso in early August, a landscape of the Lake District taken in June and a photo from the 2008 Latheron show of some young riders on shetland ponies.

All 3 were converted to black & white to give more striking impact.

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.