Scottish-National-Ra..

Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club Annual Dinner & Dance
& Presentation of Prizes
The annual presentation of prizes was held on Saturday 31 st January, once again in
the excellent Cairn Hotel Bathgate where the manager Jennifer and her staff
excelled themselves again with first class service ensuring that everything was
carried out to perfection down to the last detail.
What a super venue this has turned out to be this is our fourth year at the Cairn and
it gets better and better each year we return.
As is the custom of our club the main guests and major winners were piped into the
hall to take their seats before club president George Wilson welcomed the
company of 164 members and friends and introduced the guests for the evening.
This year our main guests were R.P.R.A. President Les Blacklock and his wife
Meril and the late Jim Hamilton’s two daughters Francis and Anne and their
husbands. After a delicious meal George got the serious business underway by
inviting Les to say a few words and toast the club as expected Les did this as
eloquently and professionally as ever.

The presentation started by Francis and Anne presenting the club with a hammer
and gavel beautifully crafted out of elm wood and presented in an inscribed box in
memory of Jim this will ensure that his name will live on, as this will be used at
future meetings and events within the club.
Anyone who had the good fortune of knowing Jim will appreciate what an
appropriate gift to the club this will be as this was his forte, there was no one better
at conducting the business of a meeting than Jim Hamilton.

Jim played an enormous part in the formation of this club he would have been an
immensely proud man today to see the way that George has guided this club
forward since it’s inception in 2005.
Following this Francis and Anne were asked to remain on the floor to carry out a
very special presentation to that great ambassador of the sport Mr Robert
McLaughlin he was invited to come forward to receive an Honorary Life
Membership of the club, this was a thoroughly deserved honour for Robert who is
undoubtedly one of the greats of Scottish Pigeon Racing.
There was one more task for Francis and Anne to do and that was to present the
silver medal donated by their late father for the winner of the extreme distance race
from Saintes to Pete Patrick of Thornton Fife for his great performance with his
bird winning 1 st Sect M.

The following presentations were made by Les Blacklock, Meril Blacklock, Ally
Forrest and George Wilson
The Young Bird National
Winner Dave Owen of Coldingham was next to be presented with his silver medal
along with the section winners who received bronze medals

Sect C : B McKenzie Dundee. Sect D : Mr & Mrs Forrest & Son Newbridge. Sect
E : Mr & Mrs D Elliot Newbiggin. Sect F : B McCrindle & Sons Glasgow.
Inland National Wanstead Flats

Winner of the Silver Medal for 1 st Open was John Ellis of Wellbank Dundee and
section winners
Sect A : R White Gretna. Sect B : A Lees Eyemouth. Sect D : J McNeill Broxburn.
Sect E : N Peacock Biggar and Sect F : J McCallum Glasgow.
The Reims Gold Medal Race
Winner 1 st Open and Gold Medal : Stuart Mullan Port Glasgow.

Section winners
Sect B : P Virtue Cockburnspath. Sect C : J Proctor Kirkcaldy. Sect D : J Mack
Alloa. Sect E : W Mitchell & Son Lesmahagow.
Messac
Winner 1st Open and Silver Medal : Wilson & Jack Lanark.
Section winners

Sect B : P Virtue Cockburnspath. Sect C : T Currie Dairsie. Sect D : J Mack Alloa.
Arras
Winner 1 st Open and Silver Medal Peter Virtue Cockburnspath
1 st Yearling and Silver Medal : J Bell Tranent.
Section winners
Sect C : J Ellis Wellbank Dundee. Sect D : R Jack Falkirk. Sect E : K Buchanan
Hamilton. Sect F : J Alexander Glasgow.

Overall Average 2008
Winner of the Claret Jug ; Peter Virtue Cockburnspath.
Extreme Distance Average
Winner of the Decanter : Peter Virtue Cockburnspath.
Section Average winners for 2008 :
Sect B : P Virtue Cockburnspath.
Sect C : J Mackenzie Anstruther.
Sect D : J Mack Alloa.
Sect E : A & E Stokes Carstairs.
Hall of Fame Gold Award

Dennis Dall Ladbank Fife
The John Fairbairn Memorial Plaque was presented to the winner of the Gold
Medal race Stuart Mullan who has the honour of being custodian of the plaque for
a year. The plaque is inscribed with the names of the race winners yearly.
Our P.R.O. Mr Ian Brown was called upon to close proceedings, It should be
acknowledged that Ian does a tremendous amount of work on behalf of the club
throughout the year and I know speak for all our members in saying that it is great
to see him getting back to better health once again.
Ian’s opening remark was to state what a difficult task it was to follow Jim
Hamilton who’s job it has been each year to give the closing speech but Ian did so
with inspiring style and finished his excellent closing speech with three words
endorsing what this club is all about:
Fellowship, Friendship Unique.

So another great S.N.R.P.C. weekend was over all too soon and the many members
who attended said their farewells after breakfast and wished old friends and new
acquaintances the very best for the fast approaching season.
Everyone left the hotel in high spirits confident that the club is in good hands and
that we will continue to prosper in 2009.
Duncan Knox for the Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club