Scottish Reunion Lunch September 2007

`Landing at Glasgow Airport late on a wet and windy Saturday evening, the weather forecast did not look good for the Glasgow Tigers v Birmingham meeting at Ashfield the following afternoon.

Glasgow Airport was on full security alert following the recent terrorist attack when a flaming Cherokee Jeep was crashed into the terminal doors. With typical Glasgow coolness, the staff inside the terminal were not too worried as they thought that it was only BBC Top Gear presenter, Richard
Hammond, checking in late for his flight!

The wet weather did not let up on the Sunday, so, with deep puddles flooding the car park and the Ashfield track, there was no alternative other than to cancel the meeting and save the fans a wasted journey.

Fortunately, our Scottish Reunion Lunch was to be held indoors at the Ashfield Stadium, so there was no chance of US being `rained off`.

Glasgow Skipper, Shane Parker had to head south and missed the lunch, but Craig Watson, Michael Coles, Trent Leverington and Robert Ksiezak all stayed around and joined the Scottish `Golden Oldies` for the lunch. As usual in Scotland, there were plenty of prizes donated by members for the
raffle, and as you would expect in Scotland, most of those prizes came in a bottle,...whisky, wine, Irn Bru, the lot. This encouraged the 2007 Tigers to spend some of their traveling expenses on raffle tickets and they were last seen staggering out of the stadium with a armful of bottles!

Owing to the wet weather, quite a few of our `Scottish Legends` were missing from the lunch (you think that we would be quite used to rain north of the border) but we still had ex-Tigers, Jack `Red` Monteith, Bobby Beaton and former Glasgow promoter, Jimmy Beaton plus ex-Monarchs, Gordon Mitchell, Harry Darling, Jimmy Tannock, plus former Team Manager, Tommy Hughson, former
Team Mechanic, Arty Fisher and current Monarchs` statistics Supremo, Mike Hunter.

Talking of Jimmy Tannock, our Scottish Chairman, resplendent in his beautiful gold Chain-of-Scottish-Office (designed by Ian Grant Silversmiths of Edinburgh) gave a welcoming speech but also passed on the sad news that former Glasgow Tigers` skipper and keen WSRA member, Maury Mattingley had suffered a serious stroke and had been taken to hospital the previous
evening.

Maury is well-remembered in Glasgow for his high-scoring and also for being perhaps the first rider to fly to home meetings. Maury would fly up to Glasgow from his Southampton home, ride his bike, usually scoring double figures, then fly home again, leaving someone else to wash and prepare his
bike for the next meeting. Nice work if you can get it!

Now poor Maury was lying in hospital and his Scottish friends wanted to send him and wife, Rossita their regards.  As it was Sunday and too late to buy a `Get Well Card`, most shops would be closed, Glasgow promoter, Alan Dick came to the rescue, donating a 2007 Glasgow Tigers calendar which all the guests signed and it was posted down to Maury in Southampton.

Jimmy Tannock also mentioned that Ian `Mose` Hutcheson tells us that there will be a special bench seat erected in memory of the `Speedway Doctor`, Carlo Biagi in his home village of Clovenfords in the Scottish Borders. Let`s hope it is placed outside the local Clovenfords Inn, Carlo would
appreciate that as it was his `home-from-home`!

The Glasgow Cycle Speedway Association also had a reunion at Ashfield, so it was good to meet up with some of my pedal-powered ex-team mates along with my ex-Motorcycle Speedway team mates, so it was a nostalgic weekend, even the rain was the same as I remember it during my Glasgow youth!

After the lunch, with no Speedway to watch, it gave us plenty of time to catch up with all the gossip and as we all headed off into the now evening sunshine, which came a few hours too late to save the meeting, we all agreed to meet up again at the Scottish Reunion Dinner Dance in Livingstone next
February just before the main WSRA Dinner Dance on 1st March.

My message for both of these great events is,......`SCOTS;...Wear The Kilt`. LADIES;......Pray For Wind!!

Bertola
Bert Harkins
Photo,...Scottish Committee Chairman, Jimmy Tannock with some of the raffle prizes behind him.

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