|
A
wild & windy Saturday night in Livingstone, near Edinburgh, was not
the ideal time to be wearing the kilt, but many of the 112 guests at the
7th Annual Scottish Dinner Dance braved the gales blowing around the
Trossachs and donned full Highland dress for the occasion, and quite an
occasion it turned out to be.
This year, two of the almost unsung heroes of
Scottish Speedway were our joint Guests of Honour, Willie Templeton, who
rode for Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cowdenbeath and Berwick, and Gordon
Mitchell, who began his career with Bothwell Bulls and graduated to
Lanarkshire Eagles, Glasgow Tigers and Edinburgh Monarchs. Although
never an out and out No. 1 in the sport, Gordon was one of those many
"unsung heroes" who formed the backbone of many teams
throughout the UK.
This annual event is growing in stature every year
and, although we could not match last year's guest list of New Zealand's
three World Champions, Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger, we
still had an International flavour to the evening. Former Edinburgh
Monarch who became a Speedway promoter in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and
South Africa, Alex Hughson, made the long trip over from his home in
California and those Wimbledon stalwarts, Darrell & Sue Mason flew
over from their home in Teneriffe.
From South of the Border, came Terry "Cherry" Stone, who rode
for Glasgow Tigers under the Trevor Redmond banner and former World
Finalist, Derek Close who was the top man at Motherwell back in the late
'50's. Derek had the unusual honour of riding for both Scotland AND
England in various Test Matches.
Amongst the other former shale-shifting stars of Scottish Speedway were
Kenny McKinna, Brian "Pogo" Collins, Alistair Brady, Harry
McLean, Tom Blackwood, Neil Hewitt,Phil Jeffrey, Andy Meldrum,
Gary Beaton, Andy Bousie, former Edinburgh team manager, Tommy Hughson,
ex-Monarchs' team mechanic, Arty Fisher and former Glasgow Tigers'
promoter, Jimmy Beaton plus referees, Jim McGregor and Gus McLeod
.
A nice touch was that many of the tables in The Almondvale Suite of the
Livingstone Football Club, were named after various riders and
personalities, thus we had the Carlo Biagi Table, named after the famous
Speedway doctor, The Ivan Mauger Table, The Jack "Red"
Monteith Table, The Willie Templeton Table, The Doug Templeton Table,
The Harry Darling Table and The Gordon Mitchell Table.
Jimmy Tannock, Chairman of the Scottish Committee of The WSRA, had
just arrived back in Scotland from his "World Tour of Australia and
New Zealand" in time to be our Master of Ceremonies, and, along
with Mike Hunter, Geoff Craythorne and our Scottish Poet, Iain "Mose"
Hutcheson, kept us all entertained throughout the evening.
Another "first" is that the Edinburgh Monarchs have their own
official tartan registered in Scotland, and Monarchs' PR man, Mike
Hunter, proudly wore his new kilt in the official Monarchs team tartan.
I guess even Coventry or Swindon cannot equal that .for team colours.
By the early hours of the morning, as the staff wanted to go home, we
all made our way back out into the gale force winds and rain.
Fortunately it was very dark, as many a kilt flew up over the wearer's
head, giving an answer to that age-old question of what a Scotsman
wears under his kilt, so if you want to know, make a date for NEXT
year's Scottish Dinner and you may find out!"
BERT HARKINS
|