Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

All roads lead to St Andrews for traditional games

Post Thumbnail

The sunshine drew bumper crowds out to St Andrew Highland Games.

The games are relative newcomers to the highland games circuit and this was only its 32nd year.

It had humble beginners back in 1984 when it was held on a Thursday afternoon in a field on the outskirts of St Andrews.

(Photos by Kris Miller / DC Thomson)

 

This time around it had one of the most famous backdrops in the world, being sited on Station Park in front of the Old Course hotel.

Crowds enjoyed an afternoon of traditional events, including cycling, heavyweights, highland dancing, running, solo piping and a fiercely competitive tug of war.

Secretary Ian Grieve said a very healthy size of crowd of spectators had turned out to watch the games.

That was matched by a large field of competitors.

“There were lots of overseas visitors and there was as good an entry on the track as I have seen.

“There were 17 runners in the mile, and that is very unusual,” he added.

One of the runners was MSP Willie Rennie, who didn’t appear to be in the prize money this time.

KMil_HighlandGames_StAndrews_310716

“It is good to see him supporting the highland games,” added Mr Grieve.

“The weather was favourable to us, it was nice and dry but a bit windy.”

The games were officially opened by the City of St Andrews Pipe Band around 1pm.

The 16lb ball and 800m cycling heats were then the first events to take place followed by the 90m heats and youth 90m heats.

A solo piping contest took place around 1.30pm followed by the 28lb weight for distance competition at around 2pm.

Crowds were thrilled by the speed of the 90m final and children got to show their prowess during races held around 3pm.

Overseas visitors got their chance to join in the occasion with special races at 3.10pm and 3.15pm.

Always a favourite, the tug o’ war took place later in the afternoon followed by tossing the caber.

The Deil Tak the Kindmost cycle race wrapped the competition up around 5pm.

The games actually past the closing time to allow a large number of competitors who had signed up for the tug of war to compete for the spoils.