Your regular round-up of news from around Angus.
BB is back
Dundee and Angus Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade staged a successful BB is Back activities day at their Scott Lodge outdoor centre in Glen Doll.
More than 80 youngsters and 20 staff from companies across the battalion took part.
Younger members of the junior and anchor sections tackled activities around the lodge.
Older company section boys went Munro-bagging with a climb to the summit of Mayar.
The day was organised and run by the newly-formed Seniors Forum, a group of 14 senior boys from across all the companies supported by four young officers and three of the battalion leadership team.
Karen Melville, chairwoman of the Dundee and Angus Battalion leadership team said: “This was a marvellous way to kick off our BB year after such a long wait caused by Covid.
“To see over eighty of our young people here at our very own outdoor centre in Glen Doll enjoying themselves so much was fantastic.”
The battalion is keen to attract recruits into all age groups.
For more information visit dundeeangus.boys-brigade.org.uk or email dundeeangus@boys-brigade.org.uk
NESS moves in to Friock Hub
A charity which helps deaf and blind people across the north-east of Scotland is moving to new Angus premises.
North East Sensory Services (NESS) will move to Friockheim Hub after receiving financial support from the Angus Society for the Blind.
It follows the extension of a contract with Angus Health and Social Care Partnership to deliver services in the area until April 2023.
The charity aims to support blind and deaf people in becoming more independent.
Their work includes assisting with new technology, support in maintaining or finding employment and everyday help with a range of activities.
NESS chief executive Graham Findlay said: “Our staff and volunteers work tirelessly to help deaf and blind people gain more independence, and the use of this space will support that aim even further.”
Arbroath Rotary return to Meadowbank
Arbroath Rotary Club has returned to its regular venue of the Meadowbank Inn after 19 months of Zoom meetings.
Their first guest speaker was Alex Thomson from Inverkeilor who recently published a book entitled Stories from the Scottish Hills.
Alex worked as an engineering lecturer at Angus College until his retiral and developed a love of the outdoors taking groups of students to activity centres.
Proceeds from the book are going to mountain rescue.
Six Men of Hillside remembered
A commemorative event marking the Angus spot where Robert Burns halted on a Highland tour in 1787 has also honoured a much-missed local enthusiast of the Bard.
A plaque at Hillside, near Montrose, marks where Burns stopped to water his horse during the travels of 1787.
Burns’ father, William Burnes, was born at Clochnahill, just outside Stonehaven then left as a young man for Edinburgh and Alloway.
His poet son’s 1787 tour saw Burns return to visit family in the Mearns.
The inaugural commemoration event took place during the 2009 Year of the Homecoming as a result of research through the Father of the Bard project led by Dave Ramsay.
The joint initiative involved Aberdeenshire Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It also celebrates sculptor Adam Christie, who spent fifty years as a patient in nearby Sunnyside hospital.
Christie developed a skill for sculpture in stone, using only an old file, a six-inch nail, and broken glass for finishing, becoming famed as the ‘outsider artist’.
The commemorative plaque was originally installed in 1930 by C J Shaw, Joseph Harris and Willie Herd, all Burns enthusiasts at Sunnyside.
This year, Tom Murray of Montrose Burns Club paid a moving tribute to past president Nomie Braes.
Hillside hotelier Nomie, who was a great enthusiast of the Bard, died suddenly in October 2020.
His widow, Catherine, laid roses at the memorial to the ‘six men of Hillside’ –Burns, Christie, Shaw, Harris, Herd and her late husband.
Montrose Tennis Club champs
Montrose’s standout junior player Cameron Fryer won the men’s singles and Orla McLeod the ladies’ final as teenagers dominated in the Montrose Tennis Club championship finals.
Cameron, Britain’s seventh ranked 16-and-under player, beat fellow teenager Orin Forbes, while Orla beat Allie Henderson.
In the men’s doubles, Rob Bennett and Orin outlasted Andy Baxter and Fraser McGlynn while in the ladies’ event Orla and Jenna Henderson beat Niamh Beth McGlynn and Wendy Sanger.
The father and daughter pairing of Fraser McGlynn and Niamh Beth squeaked past Julia Russell and Orin in the mixed doubles final.
Other results:
CV Baxter Handicap – Simon Devnani, runner-up Colin Duncan
Veteran mixed doubles – June Buchan and Martin Simson, runners-up Rhona Alston and Neil Werninck.
Juniors: Mini Red – Alexander Brown, runner-up Harrison Stanaway; Mini Orange – Duncan Lyall, r-up Callum McOuat; Mini Green – Callum McOuat, r-up Duncan Lyall; girls U12 singles – Sarah Simpson, r-up Ava Watson; boys U12 singles – Charlie Kerr, r-up Cameron Suer; girls U14 singles – Ellis McEwan, r-up Hannah Simpson; boys U14 singles Noah Watson, r-up Fraser McOuat; girls U16 singles – Hannah Simpson, r-up Carolyn Kerr; boys U16 singles – Noah Watson, r-up Harvey Thomas; CV Baxter handicap – Noah Watson, r-up Thomas Morgan.
Girls U12 doubles – Rebecca McOuat and Ava Watson, r-up Sarah Simpson and Lucy Ballantyne; boys U12 doubles – William Farris and Sandy Suer, r-up Cameron Suer and Colin Reynolds; girls U16 doubles – Sarah Simpson and Ellis McEwan, r-up Katie Chree and Carolyn Kerr; boys U16 doubles – Noah Watson and Fraser McOuat, r-up Charlie Kerr and Harvey Thomas; mixed doubles – Charlie Kerr and Katie Chree, r-up Carolyn Kerr and Eddie Baxter.
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