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|  CLUB NEWS: Quarter 3 - 2008 Club News as it Happens
 30th September 2008 - Rotary Club of Perth continued on their merry winning way, when they won the latest round of the Gavel Challenge against Howe of Fife. Our team of McCabe, Charles Hay, Alan Calderwood, Bill Montgomery, David Anderson, Alison Milne, Gordon and Sandy Dow performed well to win this round, played at the Village Inn, Pitlessie.
 25th September 2008 - Today being the 93rd aniversary of the Battle of Loos in 1915, the first major battle fought on French soil by the volunteers of Kitchener's New Army in the First World War. Our own Willie Coupar related the events of the battle as only an old soldier can, he gave a very honest, fair but heartfelt assesment of the British effort, in particular the Scottish Regiments, who lost a dispropotionate number of men. The Loos offensive began on 25 September following a four day artillery bombardment in which 250,000 shells were fired, the first phase was called off on 28 September. The British committed six divisions to the attack, but were concerned at the marked shortage of shells and the fatigued state of the troops; there was further concern at the nature of the terrain that needed to be crossed. Set against these concerns however was the reality that the British enjoyed massive numerical supremacy against their German opposition, in places 7 to 1. Once the preliminary artillery bombardment had concluded, General Haig's battle plans called for the release of 5,100 cylinders of chlorine gas from the British front line. The quantity of gas used was designed to entirely overcome the primitive design of the German gas mask. Unfortunately the release of gas was not without mixed results, in places the wind blew the gas back into the British trenches, resulting in 2,632 British gas casualties, although only seven died. The battle continued until 13 October, when further heavy losses combined with poor weather caused the offensive to be called off. During the battle the British suffered 60,000 casualties a very high price to pay! German casualties were estimated much lower, at approximately half the British total. 
25th September 2008 - President Bill Montgomery, left, and sponsor Ben Gunn, right, welcomed new member Iain Inglis to the Rotary Club of Perth this week. He is construction manager with the Property Department of Perth & Kinross Council and moved from Edinburgh to Perth in 2006 in search of a more rural way of life. Ian and wife Morag have twin daughters of two-and-a-half years old.
 21st September 2008 - Visitors to Elcho Castle at the weekend were given a taste of crimes and the punishment meted out in the bygone days of Old Perth Town on the Jougs and Just Dessarts tour.
Gary Knight, the St. John’s Tour Executioner told visitors that drunkards, adulterers and petty thieves, were made to walk around the town wearing a board around their neck detailing their crime. The dunking stool was used in the River Tay for shrews and witches. There was even a form of iron maiden for troublesome women who would not keep quiet and this would stop them talking. The stocks were at the bottom of the High Street and miscreants were locked in them so that the local population could pelt them with rotting fruit and vegetables. Persistent thieves would be branded with the letter T on their cheeks. The cat of nine-tails was was used on miscreants and the usual sentence would be three rounds of five lashes. The prisoner would be revived with a bucket of river water and salt water thrown over his flayed back.The father had to wield the cat on children sentenced to the lash.
Torture was routinely used to obtain a confession. Murderers were sentenced to be hung and sentence was carried out on the hill of Burghmuir, outside the town. A single drummer paraded the High Street at 10am and 11am on the day of execution and at 12 noon the prisoner was taken by tumbril, behind the drummer, to the out of town scaffold. He stood on top of the tumbril and it was driven away leaving him hanging. If he was heavy it was all over quickly, but if he was light it could take some time for him to die. His friends had to rush forward and pull on his legs to help him die! A splendid day was rounded off with a delicious high tea at the Brig Farm Shop, Bridge of Earn. Members and guest tucked into some splended main courses prepared with the farm's locally sourced products followed by a mouth watering selection of cream cakes and scones....
 13th September, 2008 - Perth Rotary Club’s Charity Fayre in the city centre on Saturday raised £3,300 for charity, including £1100 from the raffle. This does not include the sums raised by the other charity stands on the day! “This was a superb effort considering the weather,” said Bill Duncan, the Club’s Vice-President. Organisation of the event was due to the hard work of Rotary members Sandy Dow and Harry Robertson who arranged for other local charities to take part. Local charities benefited financially, with nearly 20 local organisations given their own stands to operate on the day with their costs being paid by Perth Rotary Club.
Bill Duncan later spoke with most of the Charities and they thought it had been a good day although they may have risen a little less than last year. Most asked about coming back next year as it was very worthwhile. As an example, Crossroads Care Perth raised around £100 for their funds. This will allow them to take ten of their disabled clients on an afternoon outing, but more importantly raised awareness of what they are doing locally!
 4th September, 2008:  RYLA 2008 - Rotary clubs in district 1010 were asked to send two delegates to this year’s Camp RYLA at Nethybridge.The week long course is an opportunity for students to improve their leadership and public speaking skills and our club sent two of the best!
Lorraine Gillespie of St. Columba’s School and George Thompson of Perth Academy both admitted to being nervous about the course, but at the end of the course said how much they appreciated the opportunity to take part.
They attended a recent meeting of Perth Rotary Club and Lorraine said that she could not have appeared at our meeting if she had not experienced Camp RYLA. George found that it was a life changing experience resulting in many new friendships.
Pictured: President Bill Montgomery presents Camp RYLA certificates to Lorraine Gillespie and George Thompson. Also pictured are Margaret Sinclair, left, teacher from St. Columa’s School, Willie Coupar, centre, of Perth Rotary, and Liz Angus, right of Perth Academy.
 27th August 2008 - 8 finely honed athletes from the Rotary Club of Perth headed off to Glenrothes for the first round of the Gavel Challenge. In true Olympian fashion, they had been training for minutes and were mentally and physically well prepared for the challenge. The games consisted of teams of two challenging a Glenrothes pair in a series of four events. These events were the throwing the hammer (modified in that it was throwing tennis balls into a basket), discus (connect 4), balance beam (Jenga) and target shooting (putting). The competition was intense, but, Perth held their nerve and romped home to take Gold by 19 points to 11.
  14th August, 2008 - Speaker Sandy Scrimgeour introduced the Club to the New world of the Street Pastors, explaining that it is an inter-denominational Church response to urban problems, engaging with people on the streets, to care, listen and talk. It was pioneered in London in January 2003 by Rev Les Isaac, Director of the Ascension Trust, in it's short history it has seen some remarkable results, including drops in crime in areas where teams have been working! The Perth group of Street Pastors began training in September 2007 and have been working on the streets of Perth since February 2008. As the Street Pastor gets to know people in the community he/she will find out their needs are and what can be done to help. A presence of Street Pastors will earn credibility in the community, so that people know that the Church is there for them in a practical way. The role is not about preaching heaven and hell, but one of listening, caring and helping - working in an unconditional way, with today's society.
  12th August 2008 - Our Treasure Hunt saw 10 cars with some 42 rotarians and guests set off on an adventure round Perthshire’s rural lanes in search of clues based on information, local knowledge and observation. Sadly, the weather was not kind and our sympathies to the poor soul who was nominated to get out of the car and look for the clues in the pouring rain. However, all 10 cars made it to the finish and were able to hand in their completed answer sheets. Some answer sheets being noticeably more complete than others. While we had an excellent meal at the Crieff Golf Club, Neil had the onerous task of working out the scores. Participants suitably refreshed, it was time to announce the winners and losers. The outstanding losers were in the car of Joe Cairns. In his defence, he comes from Greenock and was accompanied by his wife from Plains, Sandy Pearson from Rutherglen and his wife from Springburn, so, local knowledge was non existent. The expertise of the team can be summed up when Joe made the point half way through that an observation clue meant we had to look for something. However, in spite of Mr Rowlands derision, they did get the first question right as there were two valid answers. Catherine Glover was the Fair Maid of Perth and was the daughter of a glove maker, so, team Joe sought restitution – but still lost. There was a tie for first place, local boys Alistair Ritchie and David Lindsey had the same scores. (Local knowledge perhaps an advantage?). So, a tie breaker question was asked and Alistair Ritchie’s team won the day. Overall, an excellent evening and the result as to who the losing team were, was vindicated when Joe couldn’t find his way out of the car park!
  7th August 2008 - President Bill Montgomery and convener Ben Gunn present a cheque to Sarah Cierans, Service Manager for the Perth Branch of ENABLE. The cheque is for furnishings and equipment for the charity's two cottages in Scone. ENABLE Scotland is a dynamic charitable organisation run by its members. It campaigns for a better life for children and adults with learning disabilities and supports them and their families to participate, work and live in their local communities.
ENABLE Scotland helps people by campaigning, providing services, supporting people to do things in new and innovative ways, and by helping children, young people and adults to have a say in the decisions which affect them. Most of all they make sure that children and adults with learning disabilities and their carers are at the heart of everything they do.
  7th August 2008 - At the monthly business meeting of the Club, following the recent decision to change our venue for our weekly Club meetings, after an evaluation of the various options was carried out, the members were asked to vote for the venue of their choice, by a very narrow margin McDairmid Park, home of local football Club, St Johnstone FC was chosen. St Johnstone Football Club has a hard-won reputation as being in the very top bracket of Scottish football hospitality and every match day at McDiarmid Park brings a host of guests to the stadium for the best in fine dining, service and atmosphere. We look forward to our meetings at our new venue. | |
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