St Andrews in Focus Issue 12 Sep Oct 2005

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

September / October 2005, Issue 12

the magazine for St Andrews

£1.50

www.standrewsinfocus.com

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

From the Editor As usual, I wake up at this time of year filled with regret that summer is over. This summer has been particularly noteworthy, as Dr Lang’s article underlines. It started with the exceptional June graduations, went on with the Open, then the regular RSCDS Summer School, Highland Games, Lammas Fair, Harbour Gala and many other events, all bringing visitors from around the globe. St Andrews must be a speciality of the Weather Man, for the cold days of a late spring miraculously turned warm and sunny when it mattered most. Now, once again it is perceptibly autumnal, and thoughts turn to a new academic year.

I hope we’ll forever remember this summer in St Andrews for the happiness it generated, the successes it brought, and the convivial holiday spirit of the crowds.

May its memory sustain us all in the winter months ahead.

Flora Selwyn The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com

Contents TOWN/GOWN •

Dr Brian Lang, University Principal

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Evening Degree Graduates

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Bill Baxter and music

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Ben Crane – entrepreneur

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Sonia Fodor’s Old Red Gown

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Teachers’ Pe(s)ts

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EVENTS •

Leuchars Airshow

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Theatre News : Byre productions The Play club

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Maddy – Scotland’s Gardens Scheme

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Charities Christmas Cards

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List

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FEATURES •

The Community Council

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The Howkers

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The ‘lost’ Frenchman

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Dovering by the Fire

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St Andrews in Tangier

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Family Connections

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DESIGNER University of St Andrews Reprographics Unit

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A glint o’ Fife

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Ask the Curator

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PRINTER Tayport Printers Ltd.

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Crossword Competition

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ADVERTISING MANAGER Michael Milbank Mobile: 97887 756 980 Email: mwam@st-andrews.ac.uk

DISTRIBUTER Elspeth’s of Guardbridge PUBLISHER (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: enquiries@standrewsinfocus.com SUBSCRIPTIONS St. Andrews in Focus is published 6 times a year, starting in January. Subscriptions for the full year are: £10.00 in the UK (post & packing included) £18.00 overseas (post & packing included) Please send your name and address, together with remittance to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND: 255564

THE PAPER USED IS 75% RECYCLED POST-CONSUMER WASTE

Cover: ‘See-off’ – photo by RAF Leuchars

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SHOPS & SERVICES •

Invalid Services

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Travelling Hopefully

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Toonspot

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The Samaritans

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MLD

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Roving Reporter

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OUT AND ABOUT •

Sport : International Pairs Putting The Tennis club

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Hidden Gardens remembered

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Flowery Language!

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NEXT ISSUE – Nov/Dec 2005 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 SEPTEMBER All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

TOWN/GOWN From Dr Brian Lang, Principal of St Andrews University

St Andrews, ‘ΑΙΕΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΕΨΕΙΝ’

Everyone knows that Scottish seaside towns are ideal get-away-from-it-all hideaways. Quiet, without the sorts of evening pleasure domes that attract the brash and noisy, far enough away from the over-populated English south-east and midlands to be placid and tranquil even at the height of summer, and with weather that is bracing and keeps you guessing, our coastline is littered with them. They tend, alas, to have suffered from the economic disasters that have hit their traditional activities of fishing and serving the local agricultural community. Visitors, and the local population, too, tend to be what the tourism industry tends patronisingly to call ‘the silver tops’. These are quiet towns, in economic decline, with aging populations and with futures that have big question marks against them.

At least, that is the stereotype of Scottish seaside towns. Then there is St Andrews.

This seaside town is one of the most cosmopolitan spots in Britain. The two industries for which it is best known, education and golf, are booming, and in addition to the thousands of people from around the world attracted by the links and the university, there are all those who come simply to look. For while St Andrews is by any standards one of the most beautiful historic towns in Britain, sightseers to our bit of East Fife come to see not just the cathedral and the ancient university buildings as well, of course, as the West Sands, but to observe the international populations and the possibility of catching sight of a personality otherwise to be seen in Hello magazine.

The past few weeks have seen a frenzy of activity in St Andrews, as an astonishing sequence of events have made the town a centre of world attention. The end of June saw forests of camera lenses, television satellite vans and crowd barriers in North Street for Prince William’s graduation. The day which saw a united, happy and achieving Royal Family in St Andrews (including a very proud Regal Granny) was reported

by Kingdom FM of Kirkcaldy, but also by ABC Television of New York. The G8 Summit which followed, was accompanied by crowds rather different, given the sinister and unpleasant intent of many people who came north to harass the world’s leaders. Serious rioting took place in Edinburgh, Stirling and around Gleneagles, but St Andrews, despite being the location for a side-meeting of the summit, escaped the attentions of the international anarchy movement.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, and the evercontroversial World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, were entertained by First Minister Jack McConnell to a magnificent – and utterly peaceful – dinner at St Andrews Bay Hotel.

And then there was the Open. The Old Course Hotel, recently bought by Herb Kohler and benefiting from his refurbishment, was home to household names, including Mr and Mrs Tiger Woods. The University bestowed honorary degrees on Peter Thomson, Nick Faldo, and Peter Alliss.

Bruce Forsyth came to lunch afterwards. There is something about golf that it attracts the nicest people, whether they are players or watchers. Thousands of people descended on St Andrews, but they behaved well, enjoyed brilliant golf in the most benign sunshine, left no mess and then moved on.

The new University academic year is now upon us. We will be seeing young people representing, literally, the world’s brightest, arriving in town, many with their parents, for an educational experience that will change their lives. St Andrews will change their lives, not simply by the attention they are given by professors and lecturers who make the University of St Andrews one of the best, and most popular, in Britain. Just being here in St Andrews will change them. Who could not succumb to the pleasure and advantage of a few years in this utterly Scottish setting that is simultaneously so very international?

University of St Andrews Open Association

Enrolments are now being taken for courses in Arabic, Chinese, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and English, for non-native speakers. Courses will start week beginning 3rd October 2005.

Continuing Education offers a wide range of day and evening courses in subjects as diverse as literature, history, music, signing for the deaf and artmaking as well as a popular Friday evening “town and gown” lecture programme.

Courses commence during week beginning 19 September 2005.

For full details contact: Linda Ednie Telephone: 01334 462206 Fax: 01334 462270 Email: le3@st-and.ac.uk

2005 Courses

Application forms and further information are available (Monday – Friday 9am-5pm) from ELT, University of St Andrews, Kinnessbum, Kennedy Gardens, St Andrews, KY16 9DJ, Tel: 01334 462 255/65/06

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TOWN/GOWN This June the first Evening Degree students graduated. St Andrews in Focus profiles three of them here, sending them, and all their fellow graduates,

Sincere Congatulations!

1. Margaret Ferguson, daughter of a young couple who met on board ship on their way to Canada, was born and brought up in Toronto. Too young to take up her place at University, Margaret went to Scotland to study nursing, and met her husband. University went on ‘hold’! Four children later, Margaret was tempted back into education, taking her Highers in Dundee College, in 1976. There followed two years at St Andrews University studying English History and Archaeology.

However, two more children intervened! “I just gave up!” Margaret said.

Until the high rates defeated her, Margaret had a shop, Ferguson’s, in St Andrews. Then in 2001 she heard about the Evening Degree course. This summer Margaret graduated with a General MA. Her subjects were remarkably varied: IT; English Modern and Medieval History (to Honours level); Human Biology; Economics; Psychology; Art History; Divinity; Philosophy. “I found it really very interesting,” Margaret enthuses, “I enjoyed it socially, plus it got my brain going, and finally, nearly 30 years on, I’ve graduated!”

And in spite of the rain which fell on her big day, Margaret “couldn’t have asked for a nicer graduation.”– followed by a family celebration in Ceres, organised as a surprise by her children.

Modestly she didn’t mention that she also received the Provost’s Prize as Evening Degree Student of the Year 2005.

Evening Degree Programme Keen to get a degree?

Too busy to study full-time?

2. Doyenne of the University’s first, full Evening Degree Course, Elma Cheetham is a shining example of the concept of lifelong learning.

Her parents insisted on her remaining in school long enough to take her Highers, at a time when the leaving age was still 14. And now, so at 83 the oldest many years later, Elma honours graduate of Scotland’s them for the considerable sacrifice they made for her. In oldest University!

2000, Elma relates, she was having a cup of coffee when the local free newspaper arrived, and an advertisement for the University’s Evening Degree Course caught her eye. “I thought, that looks really interesting,“ so she applied at once and was accepted. Then potential disaster struck; coming out of an October evening lecture in the Old Quad, she fell and broke her hip. It looked as if poor Elma would have to delay her studies. However, to her eternal gratitude, the teaching staff rallied round, arranging for Elma to attend every day in January before the next semester began to enable her to catch up on lectures she had missed. Elma had a further problem to overcome. Both eyes had had corneal transplants, and one began to show signs of rejection. In spite of everything, Elma graduated with a General MA this summer; at 83 the oldest graduate of Scotland’s oldest University! Elma can’t speak highly enough of her new Alma Mater, “They considered me all the time. I wrote to the Principal after Graduation to tell him how wonderful everyone had been.” Three children and three grandchildren heap the same praise on Elma herself, as she prepares for her “gap year“!!

3. Tom Potter was the very first student to enrol on the new Evening Degree Course in 2000. His first encounter with Higher Education had been at St David’s College, Lampeter, in Wales. However, he dropped out in the 60s – “who didn’t?” asks Tom. His career in software then developed and he travelled all over Europe, being “based latterly in Prague”. In 1997, when his wife Christina was appointed Principal of Elmwood College, a move to Fife was indicated. Tom gave up his career.

Buying an old farm steading, he built traditional stone cottages as selfcatering holiday homes. He claims that “the marketing and business set-up was relatively easy,” because of his long experience. This project succeeded, and it was not long before Tom began to feel the need for more intellectual stimulus. The Degree Course was ideal, and Tom graduated this summer, having won three English prizes, one Philosophy prize, and a joint Saltire Essay Prize along the way. What of the future? “I have always been an avid reader,” Tom says, so he is now preparing to study for an M.Litt on the subject of Women, Gender, and Writing.

Try the flexible route to your MA General degree at the University of St Andrews via the Evening Degree Programme • • • • •

One or two evenings of classes per week Broad range of subjects Minimum age 21 Flexible entry requirements Fee Waiver scheme for people on low income or State benefits

Find out more from: Alison Andrews Evening Degree Co-ordinator Telephone: 01334 462203 Email: parttime@st-andrews.ac.uk Tom Potter and Elma Cheetham

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TOWN/GOWN

“Music, the greatest good that mortals know And all of heaven we have below.” (John Milton, Paradise Lost) St Andrews is fortunate in having many talented young musicians. It was a happy day for all of us when Bill Baxter came to live here, for he has brought together many of those young people and inspired them to play to the highest standard. Flora Selwyn managed to catch him just before he disappeared for a well-earned holiday.

Born and brought up in Edinburgh, Bill started playing the violin at the age of ten. His natural gift shone through early, and he soon became leader of his school orchestra. By the time he was 13, he had joined, and become leader of a Youth String Orchestra newly-formed by the professional cellist Marion Macmillan, cousin of Sir Ernest Macmillan, conductor Bill Baxter (photograph by Peter Adamson) of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

While on holiday in Scotland, Sir Ernest visited the young players, giving them much encouragement. On one occasion, when illness prevented Marion from conducting a concert, Bill, aged 15, took her place on the podium! Bill warmly remembers the orchestra as a wonderful grounding in orchestral playing.

When he was 17, Bill’s first professional engagement was with Tim Wright’s Scottish Country Dance Band, from which flowed his life-long interest in Scottish fiddle music. He continued this association after completing his National Service. At the same time, he studied with Thomas Matthews, leader of the Scottish National Orchestra. It was Thomas Matthews who greatly encouraged Bill to study full-time at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, and Bill is forever grateful to him for his support.

Hearing one day that the Hallé Orchestra was seeking a violinist, Bill applied, and one month later he was in Manchester at the start of a 13year career under Sir John Barbirolli, playing for many of the world’s great soloists: Menuhin, Oistrakh, Stern, Tortelier, du Près, Rubinstein, Arrau, and others. The Orchestra toured extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East and South America, and Bill feels much indebted to Sir John both for the opportunity to travel to countries he might otherwise never have seen, and for the superb guidance he received.

Some time after Sir John’s death, Bill left the Orchestra, returning to Scotland with his wife and two children. He then worked for a while at the BBC, freelanced, and taught violin in the Music Faculty of Glasgow University. He also taught and started string orchestras in a number of schools, including the High School of Glasgow, Strathallan School, and Glenalmond College. For his own private pupils Bill founded the Da Capo Strings, whose cellists came on the recommendation of the late

Miss Grace Dick, a cello teacher at the R.S.A.M. All the proceeds of the concerts they gave went to children’s charities, so that the young players “all knew why they were playing; that they were doing something positive through their music.”

After moving to Strathkinness with his family, Bill was asked to teach in the St Andrews University Music Centre. There soon followed an invitation to reinstate the University Chamber Orchestra, which will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this coming academic year. And, of course, Bill started another youth string orchestra – his eighth! Now known as the Younger String Orchestra, it gives concerts for both town and gown. In addition, Bill began the Scottish Fiddle Players. As last year, they will again be performing on 26th November as part of the St Andrews Week celebrations. Knowing that Bill arranges much of the music for the Fiddle Players, I asked him if he also composes. He replied, “I have been composing Scottish-style fiddle music for about thirty years. The Players have performed a number of my pieces, and may well include some in the programme on 26th November.”

I was happy to tell Bill how much pleasure the town derives from the immaculately dressed youngsters who know how to behave in public, and who play to such a high standard. “It’s been a joy,” Bill said, pointing out that there is perhaps more opportunity for music-making in St Andrews University than anywhere else, due entirely to the commitment of all the tutors and staff of the Music Centre. What, then, is his ambition for the future? “Hopefully to continue to encourage young people to make music to the highest standard that they can achieve – for their own enjoyment and that of others.”

Students wishing to join either the University Chamber Orchestra or the Younger String Orchestra should contact the Music Centre office in the Younger Hall, North Street, St Andrews, or phone 01334 462 226

Music Centre Tuition available to all ages from beginner to diploma on all orchestral instruments, piano, organ, harpsichord and guitar as well as voice A wide variety of orchestras and ensembles available to musicians, irrespective of whether they are members of the University Ensembles and choirs specifically for young people Practice and library facilities available to users as well as facilities for electronic composition and publishing using Sibelius Regular concerts including Wednesday lunchtime Full details available from Music Centre Younger Hall North Street, St Andrews Telephone 01334 462226 Email music@st-andrews.ac,uk http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/services/music

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TOWN/GOWN Recent graduate Ben Crane asks . . .

Have you been to UniverCity . . . ?

Have you mastered Europe’s first UniverCity game, in which players collect departmental sets aiming to become the first to expand one set to professorship status? The first player who achieves this becomes “Chancellor of UniverCity” and the player who then has the most money becomes “Rector of UniverCity”. Through my experience of board, card and dice games I knew what aspects I wanted to incorporate into “UniverCity of St Andrews” and which to avoid: you start with no money (as in real student life); the game has a fixed goal; there is a race round the board in which you can never be certain of retaining your lead; and, finally there are two winners.

Many games have the following concept: land on x first and buy it, and then get “money” from the players who land on it immediately after you. To change this I decided that players start without any money. Initially the players cannot buy property when they land on a property-crest, but receive the relevant Franchise Card, which they put in the so-called ‘Horizontal Line’. The rules are quite detailed, but until you have paid for the Franchise Cards and put them into your ‘Vertical Line’, other players can take them off you, if they land on the respective propertycrests. Often enough, participants have a brilliant set, both of University and City properties, in their ‘Horizontal Line’, but before they were able to buy even one of the Franchise Cards, the whole set was taken. You can imagine the number of times, these players tried to get their cards back – this aspect adds to the fun and the individual strategy.

Some games go on and on and on, with two or three of the original four to six players competing to the bitter end. In UniverCity I decided that the game would end as soon as one player becomes bankrupt. Also that there should be a fixed goal – to expand one of the seven university sets to professorship status.

I like a racing element in games and have included it in UniverCity.

Initially players need to cross Start as often as possible to receive the 400 UniverCity Pounds; this is like real life, one never has enough money and even one’s friends play their part in making life difficult. The racing element continues as you can expand a departmental set to the next year only when you have passed Start again. When you have expanded one set to professorship status and pass Start with the set still at this status, you win, become “Chancellor of UniverCity”. This expansion race can unexpectedly change through the Saint Cards: they can send players up to 49 crests backwards or up to 52 crests forwards – a round is 54 crests. Several times I have experienced that the Chancellor position was decided on the final curve of the last round of the board.

You all know the stress, tears, and ill-feeling that can come from someone else winning a game, so I thought that UniverCity would have two winners! Is this the first game to have two winners? There is the title of “Chancellor of UniverCity” for the player who crosses Start first with

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a departmental set at professorship status, and the title of “Rector of UniverCity”, for the player who has the most money. In all the UniverCity games played it has rarely happened that a player wins both Chancellor and Rector titles. This view has been supported by the many positive responses received through the website: have you visited www.univercity-game.com ?

Behind UniverCity

I was first challenged to devise rules when I was 8. My godmother had given me a collection of games entitled “The games of the Ancient Romans”, which she had bought from the archaeological park Xanten, near Cologne. In the introduction the author writes: “the Romans understood the rules of these games and saw no need to write these down in any great detail. Therefore it is often difficult for us to reconstruct any exact rules from the brief literary references to the games… The rules of some games we established by piecing together information from the archaeological remains found on site... If you have any experience or suggestions for improving any of them please let us know”.

Perhaps this Christmas present was the reason why I studied Classics here at St Andrews, and reading the author’s challenge, why I soon developed new versions of these Roman games. Later, in my teens, I developed other games.

During my time at St Andrews I was a University Ambassador: I was a Vice-Principal for one year, Hall-tour coordinator for two years, and designed the first University Ambassador rugby shirts. I was a member of the St Salvator’s Chapel Choir – for which I organised the Choir Tour 2002 to Germany. I was active in the Christian Union, being on the committee for the Orientation Week 2003, and in worship bands. For most semesters I was a representative for a Latin or Greek Module and from my second semester onwards I hosted the so-called “German Ben’s Games Evenings” in University Hall’s Party Room, which was attended by as many as 45 students .

I graduated from St Andrews in June 2004, and had a rough concept of the game ‘UniverCity of St Andrews’. In September that year I received the University’s written consent. Three months later I contacted Tayport Printers, and in January 2005 I found sponsors (BESS, Murray Donald and Caithness, The Russell Hotel, and David Brown Gallery) and shops (J&G Innes and BESS) that would sell the game. UniverCity was launched at the Russell Hotel on 1st March 2005.

If you would like more information about the game please contact Ben Crane, +353-1853-0294 (land) +353-851595-479 (mob) email: Ben.Crane@gmx.de or send a cheque for £30 (if you’re in the UK) to: 9 Crescent House, Howth Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3, Eire.

TOWN/GOWN

Teachers’ Pe(s)ts – brought by email TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.

MARIA: Here it is!

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?

MARIA: Maria

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TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t have ten years ago.

WINNIE: Me!

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TEACHER: Why are you late, Frank?

FRANK: Because of the sign.

TEACHER: What sign?

FRANK: The one that says, “School Ahead, Go Slow.”

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TEACHER: John, why are you doing your maths multiplication on the floor?

JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables!

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TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell “crocodile?”

GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-A-I-L” TEACHER: No, that’s wrong GLENN: Maybe it‘s wrong, but you asked me how I spell it!

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TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD: H. I. J. K. L. M. N O! TEACHER: What are you talking about?

DONALD: Yesterday you said it’s H to O!

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TEACHER: Goss, why do you always get so dirty?

GOSS: Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground than you are.

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London primary school 1904.

Flora Selwyn’s mother is somewhere among them!

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TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with “I.” MILLIE: I is.

TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, “I am.”

MILLIE: All right... “I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.”

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TEACHER: Can anybody give an example of COINCIDENCE? TINO: Sir, my Mother and Father got married on the same day, same time.”

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TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now, Louis, do you know why his father didn’t punish him?”

LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.

TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON: No sir, I don’t have to, my Mum is a good cook.

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TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on “My Dog” is exactly the same as your brother’s.

Did you copy his?

CLYDE: No, it’s the same dog!

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TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?

HAROLD: A teacher.

Sonia Fodor can’t part from . . .

My Old Red Gown I wonder if anyone is as sentimentally attached to their undergraduate’s gown as I am? I matriculated in 1946 when the only gown I could buy was a rather worn pre-war one. When I graduated I couldn’t bear to part with it – I had been so proud to wear it (as we all were in those days).

I took it to London when I got married, and wore it one evening to walk up Haverstock Hill in Hampstead. A young Alumnus – a complete stranger – accosted me, and I felt a bit of a fool! Then it came with me to Karachi, worn in theatricals at the British School where I was Headmistress. It returned to London, and again appeared on stage at a Junior School in Hendon where I was teaching. Eventually, my student daughter wore it briefly in St Andrews until she bought her own.

I’ve still got it – I won’t part with it. My University scarf occasionally gets an airing too. It was machine-knitted by someone at the Institute for the Blind in Dundee, in 1946.

Photograph: Undergraduate wearing his gown in South Street last summer; fairly rare these days

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EVENTS

Back to the Future RAF Leuchars Airshow 2005

RAF Leuchars proudly presents RAF Leuchars Battle of Britain Airshow on Saturday, 10 September. Aircraft from all over the world will be taking part in what is to be a breathtaking demonstration of precision flying, coupled with a vast number of static to be airborne within 15 minutes of displays and interactive activities. This In recognition of the courage and sacrifice upon alert. See exactly how they defend their year, to mark the 60th anniversary of Station from enemy aircraft in an upthe end of WWII a series of ‘Old to of colleagues who helped to preserve the close dogfight.

New’ displays will celebrate the past freedom that to this day we continue to This year’s focus is to get you, the achievements of the RAF, contrasting public, involved as much as possible some of its oldest aircraft with the enjoy, we remember those who were lost and make it your day, which is why forefront of modern technology. and those who brought us to victory. we have introduced two new sections Sixty-five years ago, on Sunday, 15 to the display. With our new Fly Static September 1940 the Royal Air Force Park you can get up close and hear the legendary engine noise of the fought its last major engagement in the Battle of Britain, which effectively Battle of Britain Memorial Flight aircraft as they start up and taxi out for concluded a pivotal period of the war in which the Luftwaffe failed to their poignant displays. You also have the chance to try your hand at destroy the heroic British air defences. In recognition of the courage various skills used daily by the RAF in the interactive zone and visit our and sacrifice of colleagues who helped to preserve the freedom that to all-new Crew Room, where the pilots will happily talk to you and sign this day we continue to enjoy, we remember those who were lost and Programmes straight after their displays. You will have the chance to get those who brought us to victory. RAF Leuchars is the last remaining RAF to know how they started their careers, how they manage to pull off some Station to hold an airshow around the traditional Battle of Britain weekend of their breathtaking displays and any other questions about flying you and we ask you to join us and celebrate their heroic achievements. have always wanted to know.

This year sees the welcome return of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with their legendary Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire and Dakota. The Lancaster is one of only two that remain airworthy out of an original 7,377 This year’s Airshow will be truly memorable, with seven solid manufactured. This, together with two of the most influential fighters of hours of stunning flying; Exhibitions; a new Scottish Fair; WWII will provide a memorable and awe-inspiring display complemented Trade Fair; Simulators; and a Funfair. Special packages include perfectly by the presence of the 29 Squadron Typhoon, the RAF’s Aviation Enthusiasts Weekend; Corporate Hospitality; and most modern, swing-role, supersonic aircraft. Typhoon is an extremely Veterans Hospitality. manoeuvrable aircraft capable of speeds in excess of 1,300 mph, or Mach www.airshow.co.uk 2 – twice the speed of sound, it can go from brakes off to take off in just 5 Ticket Hotline 08700 130877 seconds. In comparison, its historic counterpart the stalwart Spitfire flew at a maximum dive speed of 450 mph!

From the Belgian F-16AM to the French Mirage 2000D, the RAF Merlin HC3 to the US Army Black Hawk UH-60 and the Army Blue Eagles to the RAF Falcons parachute display team, RAF Leuchars has a fantastic day to offer. Living up to their motto, ‘Eclat’, meaning ‘Brilliance’, the Red Arrows, performing moves such as Cyclone and Caterpillar, will demonstrate flying at its highest standards with precision loops, rolls, and high speed passes.

A unique tactical demonstration will showcase how the RAF would use its assets to function effectively and defend itself against an airfield attack. RAF Leuchars Tornado F3 pilots maintain a quick reaction alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and are depended

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EVENTS

NPH Cinema 117 North Street St Andrews

In addition to seeing all the latest films at the NPH we now have a Screening Lounge available for hire for parties of up to 20, where you can enjoy watching your favourite film with your friends or colleagues.

The Byre Theatre Stephen Wrentmore, Artistic Director of the Byre, spoke to Flora Selwyn about the coming Season.

Loot is coming! This is the anniversary year of its first production in London in 1965. “It’s a fantastic black comedy – a little bit more than just standard fare,” written by Joe Orton for Kenneth Williams, who took it on tour and then won Play of the Year on its return to London.

It features a bank next door to an undertaker. The robbers who rob the bank hide the loot in a coffin. Ah, but what happened to the body?

Go to the Byre to find out! Stephen said he chose the play specially for St Andrews. It will be co-produced with Perth Rep. And it will then be the opening production of Perth’s new Horsecross Arts Complex.

Tom McGovern, who played Elyiot in Private Lives, is returning to play Inspector Truscott. Regular theatregoers will enjoy the play and Stephen added, “I hope that new students will be attracted and come along for a hearty laugh.”

The Byre, of course, is a community theatre, a vital and thriving centre for the town. Haydays will be starting a new subscription period every Tuesday from 13th September. If you are over 55 years of age and looking for stimulation, both social and creative, then come along and find out what’s on offer.

There will be on-going play development in collaboration with Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. At the end of October Stephen will be directing The World, a new play by John Clifford. It will take place in the Levy Studio.

On Thursday nights there will be Acoustic Jam, a light music mix of jazz and folk, open stage, in which anyone can join.

The art exhibition is changed every month.

A busy season is ahead, with something for everybody, from serious drama to comedy. Stephen is happy that he has an ongoing, lively dialogue with the town, “leading to a celebration of the Byre’s foremost place in the country on every level.”

Tons of Laughs Alan Tricker invites you to another Play Club Comedy at The Byre Theatre The St Andrews Play Club continue their 2005 season of comedy at the Byre Theatre with the Aldwych farce, Tons of Money, in November.

Having broken all club box-office records with A. B. Patterson’s golf comedy, The Open, they aim to do it again with a comedy of quite different pedigree.

Beginning in 1922, the brilliant series of Aldwych farces became part of theatre history. But for Tons of Money, it might never have happened. When the script arrived through the letter box of the theatre producers it was read initially by the office boy. However, it was put on at the Aldwych, where it ran for 733 performances and the legend of the Aldwych farce was launched.

In 1922 there were no easy laughs from explicit sex and bad language – actors and writers had to work hard for their money. In Tons of Money, unsuccessful inventor, Aubrey Allington, is on the verge of bankruptcy when he learns that he has inherited a fortune. Celebrations are cut short when he realises that after paying off his debts there will be precious little fortune left. To the rescue comes Louise, his seriously bright and beautiful wife, with a cunning plan. In best farcical tradition, it all goes wildly wrong, with conniving butlers, eccentric aunts, dozy gardeners, gormless lawyers, accidents and imposters, right left and centre.

Alan Ayckbourn is the most successful comedy writer since the war.

In recent years The Play Club has presented his Chorus of Disapproval, Season’s Greetings, and Absurd Person Singular, all of which have gone down well in St Andrews. He decided to update Tons of Money in 1986. He kept the original plot, complete with its ‘Age of the Flappers’ atmosphere, but completely modernised the dialogue. His reward was the success of the ‘Ayckbourn version’ at the National Theatre in November 1986 with Michael Gambon and Simon Cadell. Nineteen years on, The Play Club hope to notch up another success for Tons of Money at the Byre Theatre, 10th to 19th November.

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EVENTS

St Andrews gardens to help children with heart disease On Sunday, 11 September, three gardens in St Andrews will be open to the public under the Scotland’s Garden Scheme, in support of a charity that promotes advances in the study and care of children born with heart defects.

The Madeleine Steel Charitable Trust was established in memory of a little girl who died from congenital heart disease four years ago.

Her family wanted to do something constructive in her name and began raising funds through a variety of activities. Various ways were considered for putting the money to good use, including donations of special equipment for research, diagnosis, or treatment. However, expert advice was that the greatest benefit would come from helping to train professionals to make optimum use of new technologies as they become available. So an annual Madeleine Steel fellowship has now been instituted.

Administered by the British Paediatric Cardiac Association, it enables someone working in this field to travel to a centre of excellence, in North America, or elsewhere, to gain further experience, learn a new technique, or conduct research that will be of benefit to children with congenital heart disease in the United Kingdom.

The award-holder may be a consultant surgeon, a trainee doctor, a nurse specialist, a radiographer, or any other kind of allied health professional. The first Fellow, appointed this year, is going to America to be trained in a specialised technique that will enable the UK to contribute data to an international study on the outcome of pregnancies in mothers who themselves have suffered from congenital heart disease. The fact that there are now substantial numbers of mothers in this situation is a tribute to advances, over the past few decades, in

Madeleine Louise Steel, universalIy loved as “Maddy” was born on June 5th 2001 in the Simpson Memorial Pavilion in Edinburgh. She was Andrew and Nonny’s first child and was cherished by all her family. Despite suffering a brain haemorrhage within the first twenty-four hours of her life, Maddy fought back, was out of hospital within ten days and developed into a completely normal, feisty and energetic little girl. She loved Mozart, her feet, baths, apple puree, her blanket, Pentopus, and her Mummy and Daddy. At five months old she was rolling over, sitting up on her own, playing vigorously with her favourite toys taking everything feasible to her mouth and entertaining everyone with her lively, vigorous vocalising. She died after heart surgery on November 24th 2001.

the management of childhood heart disease, although it remains a common and serious challenge to modem medicine.

The three gardens, though all very different, were designed by the same young couple, Derwent Dawes and Betsy Vulliamy, who combine expert knowledge of plant biology with artistic flair. One, at 8 Kinnessbum Road, has a Chinese Willow Pattern theme at the front, mainly set out in decorative stones, while the larger rear garden is more traditional, with a pond as the central feature. Mrs Jill Hardie’s garden, 18 Queen’s Terrace, laid out only one year ago, is set on a steep slope, with cascading water connecting the different levels.

Dr Judith Steel’s garden at 3a the Scores, with its Northern end directly on the sea, has an appropriate nautical theme, with boat-shaped raised beds and spectacular views across the Eden estuary.

Although none of the three gardens could be described as large, each demonstrates how different challenges of site, soil and exposure to the elements can be overcome in St Andrews, and local garden enthusiasts cannot fail to pick up ideas for their own plot. In addition to the gardens tour, there will be teas, plant sales, and stalls, offering home baking and greetings cards.

Gardens will be open from 11 am to 5 pm.

Full details are available from Gardens of Scotland www.gardensofscotland.org and entry tickets will be issued on the day at each of the venues.

The Annual Charities Christmas Card Sale will be held in the Town Hall, St Andrews on Saturday 29th October from 9.30 am to 4 pm.

This will be the 28th year of the sale in its present form, originally in the Baptist Church Hall, but since 1981 in the Town Hall, due to the number of charities participating. The sale is mainly for “official” charity Christmas cards – giving people a chance to support different charities, without having to pay postage and packing on the cards. It also enables people to see the cards and not to have to select them from a catalogue. Some of the charities also have a range of wrapping paper, calendars, and small gifts.

In 1978, eleven charities took part, raising a total of £560. Five of the eleven original charities have taken part almost every year. These are: Barnardos, Cancer Research, RNLI, RSSPCC (now Children 1st), and SCF. Several of the volunteers have helped for many years, and four have participated every year since 1978!

The numbers of charities increased rapidly in the early years, with a maximum of 36 represented in 1999. Sixty-five different charities have participated at some time, raising a total of nearly £170,000 over the years. The sales in 2004 exceeded £11,000.

Those charities regularly taking part include, medical, child support, third world, wildlife and conservation, as well as local support groups. Over the years many of

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the charities have changed their names, such as SSMH (Scottish Society for the Mentally Handicapped) to Enable, Scottish Spastics to Capability Scotland. In past years, when space was available, local groups have taken part for a particular fund-raising event; for example, St Andrews Harbour Trust for the pier renovation. The sale also gives smaller charities a chance to sell their cards, without having to organise a sale solely for their cards. A few of the newer charities taking part in recent years have included Maggie’s Centre, Hearing Dogs, Scottish Society for Autism, and Tearfund.

Many seem to regard the meeting as a social occasion with people commenting that they meet people here they have not seen since the last Charities Card Sale!

Although morning coffee has always been on sale, last year (and we hope in future years) tea and biscuits were available during the afternoon as well.

This keeps the table cost to the individual charities to a minimum, as these proceeds go towards offsetting the expensive advertising and Town Hall charges.

For further information contact: Heather Walshaw, 12 Irvine Crescent, St. Andrews. Fife. KY16 8LG

EVENTS

Selected Events Sunday, 4 September – Doors Open Day, normally inaccessible places throughout St Andrews & East Fife. See press for details Sunday, 4 September – 2.00pm Food for free, meet at Guardbridge layby. East Fife Rangers, 01592 424 300 Sunday, 4 September – 2.00pm Garden Walk (free), Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews. Normal entry.

Saturday, 10 September – RAF Leuchars Airshow. Contact Martin Barnett 01334 838 559 Saturday, 10 September – 10.00am Rock Pools, East Sands Leisure Centre, East Fife Rangers, 01592 424 300 Sunday, 11 September – 11.00a.m. to 5.00p.m. Scotland’s Garden Scheme, in support of The Madeleine Steel Charitable Trust (for Paediatric Cardiology). Gardens open at 8 Kinnessburn Road; 18 Queen’s Terrace; 3a The Scores – all in St Andrews. Tickets at each venue. For further details see: www.gardensofscotland.org Sunday, 18 September – 10.00am to 5.00pm Antique & Collectors’ Fair, Town Hall, St Andrews. 90p (50p) accompanied kids, free.

Contact: Mike Frodsham 01334 880 254, Rob Walker 01334 838 217 Saturday, 24 September – Annual Flower Show, Town Hall, St Andrews. Gardeners’ Club, 01334 477 429 Saturday, 24 September onwards – at the St Andrews Museum, Kinburn Park. A new temporary exhibition – from sea slugs to scaly ant-eaters, the exhibition features natural history exhibits and stunning willdlife photography. A colourful and interesting way to find out more about our natural heritage.� Sunday, 2 October – 2.00pm Garden Walk (free), Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews. Normal entry.

Tuesday, 4 October – 7.00pm School III, University Old Quad, North Street, St Andrews. Professor Charles McKean will give the St Andrews Architectural Lecture, The National Museum of Scotland & the Scottish Parliament. What do they say about the Scottish identity? £5 (AHSS members, £3.50) Sunday, 9 October – 4.00pm at St Leonard’s School Auditorium, The Pends, St Andrews. Music Club Concert: The Bridge Duo, Matthew Jones (viola) & Michael Hampton (piano): Mendelssohn Sonata, Prokofiev/Borisovski Romeo and Juliet, Bach Chaconne, Bliss Sonata. £9 (£8 concessions) students £5, kids £1, at the door.

Sunday, 9 October – 2.00pm Fungal Foray, meet Kinshaldy car park. East Fife Rangers, 01592 424 300 Saturday, 15 October – 10.00am to 5.00pm Antique & Collectors’ Fair, Town Hall, St Andrews. 90p (50p) accompanied kids, free.

Contact: Mike Frodsham 01334 880 254, Rob Walker 01334 838 217 Thursday, 20 October – 7.30pm at the Younger Hall, St Andrews, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Hayden, Tchaikovsky, Strauss.

Cellist, Gautier Capuçon. Conductor, Olari Elts. Tickets – £18, £15, £12, £7 (£5 students and unwaged) Saturday, 22 October – morning, Farmers’ Market, St Mary’s Place car park, St Andrews Saturday, 22 October – 2.00pm Fungal Foray, Ladybank Woods, meet at Ladybank Railway Station. East Fife Rangers, 01592 424 300 Saturday, 29th October – 9.30 am to 4 pm. Town Hall, St Andrews.

Annual Charities Christmas Card Sale. Morning coffee, afternoon tea & biscuits.

Advance notice Friday 11 November – 7.30-9.30pm. Port Masterclass, in The Conservatory, The Old Course Hotel, St Andrews. A unique chance to taste different port styles: from white, aged tawny, colheita, LBV to vintage, from famous houses and lesser known single quintas. Price: £25. Contact: Rose Murray Brown: 01334 870 731 www.rosemurraybrown.com

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FEATURES Donald Macgregor turns the pages…

St Andrews Fifty Years Ago – The Street Names Controversy Readers of the local newspapers of 1955 will find much that is different, but also much that is familiar. Cycling without lights, toilets, relocation of public buildings, are among the themes. Readers’ letters are as vituperative, cogent, or silly. In 1955 there are, however, far more detailed reports and far fewer press releases masquerading as news.

In the months leading up to The Open, which was to be won for the second time by 24 year-old Peter Thomson, a street renaming controversy occupied many pages. The Town Council – largely an unelected body, since many of its twelve members were often returned unopposed – decided in January 1955 that 27 smaller streets would be incorporated in, and renumbered as, part of the larger streets; for example St Mary’s Place would become part of Market Street and Playfair Terrace part of North Street. Letters – described

by Cllr J J Cowan as ‘more reminiscent of the Kremlin than the Council Chamber’ – were at once sent out to residents ordering them to renumber their houses within a week or face police procedures; workmen went round replacing street nameplates.

The result was a typical St Andrews stushie. Letters poured in to the Town Council, and in March thirty of the 350 affected ratepayers attended the Council meeting, thus

confounding Hon Treasurer Fraser’s view that ‘St Andrews people did not always take the interest in municipal affairs that they should’. Councillors’ opinions were now divided, and Bailie T T Fordyce said it was ‘the greatest shock of my life’ to find that one of his colleagues who had previously supported the re-naming had now changed his mind. Much discussion and procedural manoeuvring ensued over the next several weeks until the compromise proposed by the Provost, Miss Jessie L Moir, that the old names and numbers should be retained and the names of the larger streets simply added to the address, was passed by 8 votes to 4.

In an editorial after the fuss had died down J K Robertson summed up ‘the seemingly endless saga of the street names’: “The subject itself is a comparatively unimportant one…and scarcely worthy of the time and energies that have been devoted to it. Yet it produced a public ‘demonstration’ unequalled for generations in St Andrews municipal history – a demonstration which, some might hope, betokens an awakening from the electoral apathy that has been a deplorable feature of local municipal affairs for far too long.”

He concluded: “Yet he would be an optimist who …was encouraged to put his faith in a general renaissance of public interest”…Too right! At the elections a month later only one ward was contested. ‘There is nothing new under the sun’ – Ecclesiastes 1,9.

The Howkers Gavin White, “I taught Ecclesiastical History in Glasgow for twenty-two years and it rained for nineteen…”

(The St Andrews’ Citizen of 14 Nov.1903 and 5 Dec.1903 reported on “howking “ to uncover underground passages from the Cathedral to St Leonard’s, and along North Street. They found nothing. The issue of 30 Aug.1884 claimed that workmen laying a drain from Bishop’s Hall around 1870 found a passage, and in 1884 a narrow tunnel was partially excavated. Rumours turned this into something much grander, and the imaginary treasure of the last Prior was added to the legend.)

O let me tell the story, dear sir or dear madam, Of smashing through the surface of St Andrews tar macadam, How they began to dig, or in Scottish, ‘went to howk’, While the citizens looked on, or in Scottish, ‘went to gowk’.

Now, you may believe the cause of all this excavation, Which caused the local residents excessive aggravation, Was concerned with electricity, or gas, or laying cables, But in fact it had to do with ancient fallacies and fables.

They believed there was a treasure of the older dispensation Buried underground, to escape the Reformation.

They believed in secret stairways, winding down to North Sea water, They believed in things that might have been right out of Harry Potter.

They believed in vaulted passageways concealed from all inspection, Like a topsy-turvy pyramid faced in the wrong direction.

They believed in crenellations and in doorways blocked by rocks, To evade the machinations of the minions of John Knox.

So they raised a sum of money and hired men of hardy breed, To dig and howk and howk and dig where legend so decreed.

At first their hopes were high and as their holes went deeper They heaped the soil around the holes and heaped it even heaper, But as the months went by and nothing was discovered, They ran right out of money and the holes were all re-covered.

Now the moral, it is this – if you want to fill your coffers, Don’t go below the streets; go for tourists and for golfers.

12

FEATURES Alexandre Visage tells us why he is . . .

The lost Frenchman of St Andrews Paris, London, Edinburgh, St Andrews. It takes me two flights and three hours in a coach to arrive in this small town in Fife.

My name is Alex, because it is easier for the English and the Scottish (I know it is very important to make the difference properly). I am 21 years old and I am a student from Paris, Sorbonne University.

I wanted to live for my holidays in a quiet and beautiful city. I need to learn your language and I refuse to see more than thirty French people during my two and a half months with you. I am therefore the lost Frenchman of St Andrews. And you cannot imagine how glad I am and how lucky I am to stay here. You must be proud of your city and I think you are because you know exactly why St Andrews is St Andrews. That is what I am trying to discover.

Market Street. I had to find this street when I arrived at the coach station. Now I know it by rote. When you must carry your luggage it seems to be so long. It was my first contact with St Andrews, the first steps in this adventure. I was sweating, but I would not stop. It was the 29th of June, the city was quiet, but Tesco was open as always. This shop is just one of your best friends when you are a student.

42 Market Street – I know I am lucky living here. It is an old house in the cobblestone part of the street. It is quiet. There are no French people except me. Young ladies, you should knock at the door, Andy my flatmate, or I, would welcome you! Andy is just the funniest friend you can have. He knows a lot of things about St Andrews, especially the quiet places to have parties…

From Market Street everything will begin. This should be a new proverb, should it not? Especially when you are working in College Street, which connects with it. It is another cobblestone street, which reminds you that St Andrews traverses the centuries.

If you lift up your eyes you will see a French sign, Le Rustique. The building is old, but the restaurant is new and it is a really good ambassador of France. I am a waiter here and when I do not overturn a coke onto a customer, which may be on account of the ghost in this old building, the place is magic.

The beauty of St Andrews begins with its sky. It is a French point of view, hopefully yours too. During the summer the night is never dark, instead, it is always dawn or dusk. I enjoy your clouds, they are always changing and give to your city a majestic background. I have, however, some questions: does it really rain here, or is it something to say to avoid the tourist surges? Because I have used my umbrella one time in one month!

The Pier and the Castle by night are one of the most magic places. They are so quiet. You seem to be so small among these stones with the sea in front of you. Beauty, humility, and fairytales all make sense. Minutes are unique. That is why after having a drink of champagne in Hyde Park, or l’île de la Cité, we opened one more on the Pier in St Andrews.

I do not know anything at all about golf. I apologize, but I am sure of one thing; you can enjoy St Andrews so much without playing golf. However, I advise those who are like me, to run near the courses on the red way, especially between the Old and the New course. You can see so far away and have a look over all of St Andrews. To come back, run along West Sands. This beach is just amazing and sometimes you can notice some seals if you are lucky.

What must a foreign student do to have fun in St Andrews during a summer? You must go on the beaches: Castle Sands, West Sands. Most of the time there are bonfires after midnight. You can meet a lot of people who just will have fun like you. They come from Scotland, England, and even from the United States of America, Australia, and France… Most of them are so far from their houses and all of them enjoy St Andrews and do not want to go home. We speak to one another. Those who are rash have a swim or go on the secret beach…

If you have more money, you can go in pubs. I agree with the common point of view that British pubs are jolly. It is just difficult the first time to understand all the talking. At the beginning, on account of noise; next, because you must not ask for a half pint – it is forbidden in this country. The problem now is, I cannot find your beverages in France, and especially Pimm’s, which is so good when the sun shines and when you are with your friends.

Thus, I know I cannot discover St. Andrews in one month or in two and a half months. I could run from Market Street to the top of West Sands every day, I could walk in every street to admire the old houses, the old streets, and I could spend so many hours sitting near the sea. I would never fully be a citizen of St Andrews. However I am sure this summer will be one of the best because St Andrews is St Andrews and because people are generous. It is already great.

Tom Gordon dreams of his days at sea...

Dovering by the Fire Sailing roond aboot the world, in an auld tramp steamer, I’ve seen some sichts, but no them a’, an’ finished up a dreamer, Sittin’ in my chair at hame, still traivellin’s my desire, As refuge frae a bletherin’ wife, I dover by the fire.

There’s many a thing I dream aboot as I dover by the fire, The watery streets o’ Venice Toon, San Marco’s muckle spire.

The singing o’ the gondolier, the rattle o’ his oar, How waves aff the gondola, went slurrin’ tae the shore.

I sit an’ while the hoors awa’, suppin’ at my ale, My OId Dutch hates tae see me so, an’ whiles she starts tae rail.

No noble thochts, her dappin’ tongue in me can e’er inspire, So wance again I refuge tak’, in doverin’ by the fire.

The magic o’ a tropic nicht, beneath the starry skies, A hula dancer’s flying hair, an’ dark curvaceous thighs.

As a younger man I’ve seen it, wi’ pulses racin’ higher.

Noo I see it a’ again, while doverin’ by the fire.

I cam’ ashore an’ took up gowf, a strange sport for a sailor, A lot of ither sports I’ve tried, when sailin’ as a whaler!

I’ve never had a hole in one, it’s aye been my desire, But I’d a hole in one last night, when doverin’ by the fire!

Some folks say I’m a dreamer, maybe thay’s the case But I never was ower bashfy tae chase a pretty face, The things their mithers ca’ed me, they said that I’d nae sire, But I ha’e the last lauch on them a’, when doverin’ by the fire.

Rolling doon tae Rio, a deep sea sailor’s phrase, The sichts I saw in Rio, never cease me to amaze.

Curved Copacabana Beach, an’ Sugar Loaf’s lofty spire, l see them a’ afore me noo, as I dover by the fire.

On tramp steamers, fishin’ trawlers, an’ deep sea whalin’ boats, I’ve sailed the seas an’ seen the world, an’ ta’ en a lot o’ knocks.

I’m back i’ auld St. Aundews noo, ‘mid the auld grey city’s spires Content tae sit, wi’ my wee wife, an’ dover by the fire.

Drawn by Tom Gordon

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FEATURES

St Andrew’s Church, Tangier Ronald S. Matheson, ordained as a Minister of the Church of Scotland 50 years ago this September, has travelled extensively in his ministry. Because of its traditional values, he decided in 2001 to become a member of the Eastern Orthodox community, whose St Andrews members meet once a month in St Leonard’s Chapel.

Scots visitors abroad, especially in countries once part of the British Empire, would reasonably expect that a local Church called St Andrews would be Presbyterian. We might even think it odd that St Andrew’s Church in St Andrews, is Episcopal (Anglican).

In fact there are several Anglican churches in parts of Europe and beyond, dedicated to St Andrew, the first-called Apostle. I have served in two of them. In the 1980s I worked on the Costa del Sol in Spain with a small team of people who laboured hard and long to raise money for their own church. At the planning stage, a friend on holiday from Tayport said, “When you have your Church it must be St Andrew’s”. To accomplish this, I pointed out to the Bishop that all 3 Anglican churches on the mainland of Spain – at Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga – were St George’s. The church at Fuengirola is St Andrew’s. It is no jewel, occupying the end of a block of apartments which should have been a supermarket, but it serves its purpose, used daily as church and meeting place.

At the end of my ministry in the Anglican Diocese in Europe, I worked in Tangier, where the Church is also St Andrew’s. This is because the Scottish connection with Tangier was very strong. The first church there existed only during the period 1661 to 1684 when Tangier was an English colony, part of Queen Catherine of Braganza’s dowry. It was dedicated to King Charles I, who is regarded in the Church of England as a saint and martyr. The second church, St Andrew’s, is celebrating its centenary in December this year. The organist, Lance Taylor, a very talented artist, is writing a history of the Church, to be published then.

In the early 19th century, the position of Consul General was held by Edward William Auriol Drummond Hay, a nephew of the ninth Earl of Kinnoul. He was Consul from 1829 to 1845. His son, Sir John Hay Drummond Hay, succeeded him, (1845 to 1886). His grandson, Sir Robert, acted for a time as assistant consul, and was later Consul at Mogador, further south in Morocco. For 30 years the father and son read Morning Prayer on Sundays for the British community, Sir John only stopping when his eyesight began to fail. It was their pioneering work which eventually led to the provision of a permanent Church. There is now a small congregation, which only makes ends meet because of the generous benefactions of Sir John’s son-in-law, John Brooks, and his son, John Hay Brooks. The Brooks Trust income is divided, two thirds to the Church, and one third for the relief of “indigent Moors of the Tangier district”.

The involvement of the Drummond Hay family by no means exhausts the Scottish connection. The Hotel Minza, the best hotel in the city, was founded in 1930 by the Marquess of Bute. In the churchyard, which is a beautiful quiet enclosure within a busy Moroccan market, is the grave of Caid Sir Harry (Aubrey de Vere) MacLean, a son of Dr Andrew MacLean, Laird of Drimnin in Argyll, who from 1816 to 1909 was commander of the Sultan’s army. Notable also was Dr. G.W. Fraser Anderson, from Aberdeen, who worked in Tangier from 1933 until a few years before his death in 1990. He ran a private clinic, and never failed to help, often free of charge, any Moroccans who needed him. Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth millionairess, was his most difficult patient! The

St Andrews Church, interior and exterior (Photos by Ronald Matheson)

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Ronald Matheson (L) and Mostafa Chergui Church is in the capable hands of the caretaker, Mustapha Chergui, a Moroccan and a Muslim, who has lived and worked there for 43 years.

The Sultan, who gave the church land, also granted the unique privilege of ringing the bell. Mustapha does this before each service, and also arranges the flowers, keeps the churchyard in order, erects the crib and Christmas Tree, decorates with palms on Palm Sunday etc. The bell he rings was a gift from a Franciscan chapel at Rabat, the Moroccan capital. The tabernacle for the reservation of the Sacrament was also a Roman Catholic gift. This ecumenical spirit is still very much alive as the Archbishop of Tangier is a good friend of St Andrew’s.

The Church is oddly in the Anglican diocese in Europe, and part of the Church of England since 1980. (It is not the southernmost outpost of the C. of E. That is at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands). St Andrew’s is most beautiful, built in Moroccan style and worth a visit from anyone on holiday in Southern Spain or Morocco. The flag of the Church of England is St George, but most likely you would find St Andrew’s flag flying from the tower in Tangier.

Some visitors from Glenrothes and I both gave Saltire flags. One is flown daily.

The Church also features in a painting by Henri Matisse, executed in 1912 whilst he was staying at the nearby Grand Hôtel de Ville; St Andrew’s was the view from his window. The painting is now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

FEATURES

The family Le Maitre in St Andrews Jean le Maitre celebrates her connections with our town Since the early 1900s there have been Le Maitres in St Andrews. In those days, Alfred Le Maitre was headmaster and owner of St Salvator’s School, housed in what is now the Scores Hotel on the Scores. He was born and bred in London and after university became a classics teacher at a school in Rottingdean before moving to St Andrews. There were eventually five Le Maitre children, four of whom were twins and only one of whom was a boy!

In the longer holidays, the school was let out to save a bit of money and the family moved round the corner into 9 Golf Place, which was rented for the boys when they were sick in term-time. This wasn’t an altogether popular move in the eyes of the Le Maitre offspring, since it meant that space was considerably restricted in comparison to their termtime home. If you look at the present Scores Hotel and then walk around the corner to look at 9 Golf Place, you can see the difference for yourself.

St Salvators gradually came to a halt, not least because Alfred was approaching retirement by then and his children had become adults with their own lives away from St Andrews.

Betty, twin of Laura, did remain with her parents until she, too, eventually went away to become a nun.

All the other four children became classicists, the girls becoming teachers and Alfred, the only son, joining the Civil Service. Ella, the eldest girl, twin of Alfred, eventually

became headmistress of Roedean School in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Laura became second headmistress of a school in Surrey, where she taught Latin and Greek (and the present Mrs. Le Maitre!). Barbara, the youngest, taught classics before marrying and moving to Durban, in South Africa.

And there the Le Maitre link with St Andrews might have ceased.

Except that now there is a new generation living in the town. Alfred’s son, Giles, produced three daughters, who in time came to be pupils at St Leonards, making a grand total of 7 Miss Le Maitres having attended the school between about 1912 and 1994. Perhaps the memory of many Le Maitre family holidays in 9 Golf Place (which the family now owned) strengthened Giles’ resolve to one day come to live here himself. By the time that he did, in 1987, Laura had retired to 9 Golf Place.

She could scarcely conceal her delight at this decision, having hitherto been an excellent great-aunt to the new raft of Le Maitre girls, who boarded up the road at St Leonards School.

Nowadays the 3 younger Le Maitre girls have, as their great-aunts did before them, left home to pursue their own lives. But Giles and Jean Le Maitre remain to carry on this long lineage as best they can, rather proud of their 18th century Huguenot forebears, and their long association with this historic town.

Lillias Scott Forbes longs for

A Glint O’ Fife Ower the fair face O’ Fife Wanless I gang Weel teachit by the culture books Whit’s richt or wrang:

wanless – aimlessly

The Fisher Kirk at St. Monans The Study at Culross An wha was nabbed at Magus Muir An whaur’s the Mercat Cross?

whaur’s – where’s

O’ crow-stepped gables I’ve my fill An neep fields by the sea Oh, certes Fife’s a sonsy lass Wi a gleamoch in her ee!

neep fields – fields of turnips sonsy – comely gleamoch in her ee – glint in her eye

But Fifer bodies winna bide On history’s hallowed groun They’re biggin ower the abandoned banes A super-mercat toun.

‘Tis a’ clap-trap and Soudron tongue An preachin preservation The aft’rins – fient a glint o’ Fife Nor glimmer o’ the nation!

biggin – building Soudron – southern aft’rins – remainder

fient – not even one

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FEATURES

Ask the Curator Lesley-Anne Lettice at the St Andrews Museum will do her best to find answers.

Q. I recently saw a map of old St Andrews dated 1820 and was interested to see that there appear to have been no buildings on the Scores at this time. Can you tell me when this area of the town was first developed?

A. The development of the Scores was the last major building scheme to take place within the traditional limits of St Andrews. The ‘Scores Walk’ was laid out in the early 1800s and could be described as a ‘fashionable promenade’. The first building to appear on the Scores was the Tontine Baths in 1810. The baths were tucked into the cliffs to the west of the Castle.

Hot and cold saltwater baths and secluded sea bathing were available. The baths continued to operate well into the 20th century and were used for a time by St Leonard’s School.

The Swallow Tavern (now the ‘Whaum’) appeared in 1830 and Gillespie Terrace was developed 1849-54.

Clifton Bank (now St Katherine’s Lodge), was purposebuilt as a private school in 1865. Edgecliffe – twin villas designed by local architect, George Rae – was erected 1864-66. This was quickly followed by Seaton House (later St Salvator’s School, now The Scores Hotel), Scores Park (University House), Rockview and Northcliff, matching villas built for Dr Adamson and Dr Bell. The largest house on the Scores, Castlecliffe, appeared in 1869. More building followed, including St Katherine’s West, The Castle House, and The Swallowgate, all now owned by the University. Towards the end of the 19th century came Lindisfarne (The Russell Hotel) and Tayview and Kinellar (now Craigmount Nursing Home).

Ladies Pool, Tontine Baths; photo courtesy St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum

Q. Can you tell me what the blocked openings at ground level along the harbour side of the Cathedral wall are? Also, what does the carving of the vase of flowers signify?

A. The general consensus is that these openings were probably booths designed to accommodate various commercial enterprises. In the ‘golden age’ of St Andrews, when the city was the religious centre of Scotland, the harbour was visited by great ships from as far afield as the Baltic, France, and the Low Countries. The great 15-day ‘Senzie Fair’ was held in the Cathedral or Priory precinct every year. The harbour developed, and also declined, in concert with the fortunes of the Cathedral.

The flowers in the vase carved on the wall near the Kirkhill are lilies representating the Virgin Mary. There are a number of carved stones in the wall, including the arms of the Hepburn family – Prior John Hepburn heightened and strengthened the original walls in the early 1500s. Another interesting carving is that of a woman’s face near what is known as Patrick Hepburn’s tower, where the walls mount a grassy slope behind the inner harbour.

Q. What is the round tower remnant near the Castle on the Scores? Could it be part of one of the original 9 gateways, or ports, into the medieval city?

Q. The mast outside the R & A Clubhouse in Golf Place is believed to come from the 19th century clipper, The Cutty Sark. What is the evidence for this?

A. I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find an answer to these two questions. Can anyone throw light on them?

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FEATURES

Competition . . . GREAT SCOT! . . . Competition A series devised by Ian Seeley to test your knowledge of St Andrews!

The St Andrews Preservation Trust is kindly offering a 1st and 2nd prize of books + a Multimedia CD-ROM of St Andrews.

Please send solutions by very latest 30 September to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd. PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9YZ. And don’t forget your name and address. Winning entries will be published in the Nov/Dec issue.

DOWN

ACROSS 1.(& 22) Local name for St Rule’s belfry 6,5

15. Lord Harry _____ Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Fife 5

6. See 24 Across

17. Murray’ s Bridge 6

8. Local surname; tends the flock 4

19. Fishermens’ ____ low, terraced dwellings 4

9. Full orchestra 5

22. See 1 Across 5

10. Lang____ long strips of land behind town houses 4

23. Inscription above Christ’s head on the Cross 1,1,1,1

11. Style of ecclesiastical masonry arch 6

24.(& 6) Popular St. Andrews pre- and post-War lido ____ Rock Swimming ____ 4,4

13. The monks of Greyfriars followed the rule of St. Francis of ______ 6

The Three B’s Bedding Bits & Bobs 47-49 Kinnessburn Road, St Andrews, KY16 8AD Phone 01334 470700

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Wools include, Plumé 3ply & 4ply, double knitting, Chunky, & Aran

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Dance wear now in stock – shoes and outfits Also in store, a large range of fancy goods + rolls, sandwiches, and juice

16. School founded by Dr. Andrew Bell ______ College 6 18

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7. Eccentric Dean of Guild, author of ‘St Andrews Ghost Stories’, W.T ________ 8

18. Strange, frightening 5

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6. Scots for ‘poor’ 4

14. Name (obs.) for the wild boar as seen on the city’s coat of arms (Fr.) 8

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5. St. Andrews, the grey ____ 4

12. Beach/esplanade entertainers 8

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Photocopying 5p per sheet A good selection of haberdashery, including a range of craft materials for card-making.

3. Jamie ________ local winner of the Open three times in succession 1877-1879, 8 4. Filming rent-a-crowd 7

25. See 2 Down 6

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2.(& 25 Across) Old name for road running south opposite Town Church 5,6

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20. Fill to brimming, cram (Scots) 4 21. Most students must for examinations 4

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Miller S. Carolyn and Audrey Miller of Miller’s, 27 Church St, started out in business over 23 years ago. “We have always had a real passion for travelling and endeavoured to combine earning a living with life on the road.”

After graduating we bought an old van and marquee and started to sell ladies’ clothes at all the large outdoor shows throughout Britain and Europe. The garments that we always sold first were our own hand-produced knits and these proved to be the winner.

Five years ago whilst exhibiting at the Golf Open in St Andrews we discovered the empty shop in Church St. We immediately seized upon the opportunity to have a permanent base in Scotland, having already had a shop of 10 years in the picturesque North Yorkshire town of Helmsley.

We have evolved to selling other European ranges of ladies’ clothes alongside our own knitwear, which is still proudly hand-produced by our own small team of knitters.

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����������������������������������������������� ����������������� The Church St. Shop is very friendly and our customers know they will always find something highly original and just that little bit different.

Therefore we felt that the distinctive feel and grace of St Andrews was the ideal location in Scotland for our small family business.

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SHOPS & SERVICES Kate Fewster relates the story of

Invalid Services “Die, my dear Doctor?

That’s the last thing I mean to do.”

Twenty-odd years ago my sister did so. She did not express her intentions in quite such robust terms, but she emphatically did not wish to be carted off to die in hospital.

Well, she was, in this at least, fortunate.

She had a sister, me, who was a nurse and, as I was able to get leave from my own hospital to attend her, she had her wish. But dying at home was not the norm in those days, and it was assumed the patient would be in hospital.

I worked in a hospital at that time and heartily shared my sister’s disinclination to dying in one. The general impression was that death on the ward, except to the extent that it affected bed allocation, was a nonevent and treated as such. But it is not a nonevent to the one dying.

Thus it was that Invalid Services, from its inception, had a major commitment to providing terminal care at home..

We had, of course, our early troubles.

We were, however, punctilious from day one to operate as if we were a fully-fledged medical service with all the formalities of checking references and qualifications with the statutory bodies, of interviews carried out by appropriately qualified and experienced nurses and, above all, having the live voice of a nurse able to deal with problems and emergencies, twenty-four hours on the telephone.

There was also, and I can sympathise while not agreeing with this, some hostility towards the Independent Sector as such. This sprang from a fear of two-tier medicine developing. “One law for the rich and “’alf a dozen for the poor”, as the taxi driver said to the policeman. The resulting incidents were sometimes sad, sometimes ludicrous.

Things are quite different now and Invalid Services, together with many similar outfits nationwide, work in partnership and mutual respect with both social and medical statutory services.

During those early days I travelled to London frequently to attend the Nursing Agencies Managers’ Forum of the Royal College of Nursing from which we received invaluable advice and support. They also ran, highly subsidised for members, a wealth of day courses, many in Edinburgh, by means of which we were able to up-date our nursing skills For practice changes in many areas, notably in the matter of moving and handling techniques which have reduced the disgracefully high rate of back injuries among nurses and carers. It also has changed,

very largely due to the great influence of the late Cecily Saunders, in the management of terminal illness. Her brainchild, the Hospice Movement, has itself moved on, developing and refining its thinking and practise so that nowadays it is more usual for admissions to a hospice to be short-term, with patients returning to their own homes once the expertise of the hospice has devised a regime of palliative care that works for them.

Another body which has influenced the development of Invalid Services and its sister agencies is The United Kingdom Home Carers Association, of which I was proud to be founder member. This organisation offers support, guidance and monitoring to agencies who are not in the business of providing trained nurses, but who retain an invaluable body of carers, as do the Social Services, who make it possible for people to remain independently in their own homes with the provision of appropriate help under the heading of “activities of daily living”.

Finally, while on the subject of National Bodies, I cannot pass on without mentioning the United Kingdom Carers and The Princess Royal Trust, who represent the interests of, and fight for justice for, the millions (literally) of carers who work unpaid looking after friends and relatives at home. It is a privilege and an honour when we in Invalid Services are able to give a little respite and support to any of this unsung band of heroes and heroines.

In retirement I now myself reap the benefits of Invalid Services’ availability in maintaining a disabled husband at home.

I can even leave him (and the cat and the house plants) in their tender care while

We were, however, punctilious from day one to operate as if we were a fully-fledged medical service

On the business side, also, Invalid Services has evolved and developed

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I go off to visit grandchildren.

On the business side, also, Invalid Services has evolved and developed. The little group round my kitchen table in those early years would hardly recognise the professionally organised, efficiently running set-up which now occupies a whole house in Alfred Place.

It is run by a founder member of that naïve little group, now a mature and impressive business woman, without whom the enterprise would long ago have foundered.

In 1984 we originally set up as a co-operative with the help of the Scottish Cooperative Movement in Glasgow, using as a model a co-operative of owner-drivers of taxis. Only what we were offering for hire were our nursing skills, not taxis. We were given an initial grant of £2,000 per annum. And by dint of eating a lot of home-made bread and soup round the said kitchen table, we survived the first year, though I think my colleagues may have become a little tired of my cock-a-Ieekie.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the co-operative structure ceased to work well as the business grew larger. We were incredibly fortunate in the calibre of people we were able to recruit, but many of them did not want membership and the liability that that involved and we changed the status of the organisation to that of a more conventional Limited Company.

Since that time the proliferation of rules and regulations to do with employment and the consequent expenses and legal expertise required have left me faint and very happy to see a younger and far more competent hand at the helm. It remains deeply gratifying to see the basic caring ethos undiminished, while the professionalism and levelheadedness increase in proportion to the ongoing demands of the twenty-first century.

INVALID SERVICES Ltd. 01334 472834 / 01382 770303

Providing overnight assistance to Clients at home Throughout Fife & Tayside Licensed by the Care Commission

SHOPS & SERVICES

Travelling hopefully!

The holiday season may be over for this year, but our travel agents never sleep. Have you ever wondered what the initials DP & L at 4 Logie’s Lane in St Andrews stand for? Thanks to Graeme Somner’s History of the Company (the World Ship Society, Kendal, 1995) the mystery is now revealed!

On 3rd July 1826 the Dundee & Perth Union Shipping Company amalgamated with the Dundee & Perth Shipping Company, becoming the Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company. Thus was born DP&L, for “the conveyance of goods and passengers between the Tay and London, Glasgow and Liverpool.”

Sailings were on Tuesdays and Fridays in order “to avoid sailing on the Lord’s Day.” Going south to London took 5 days 171⁄2 hours; the return took 6 days 12 hours. The ship’s Master was paid £50 per annum + 71⁄2% commission on “passage money received + allowances of 10/6 (ten shillings and sixpence) per round voyage for expenses”. He also received 5% of the “net profit of the ship.”

Industrialisation brought competition from the railways, as well as faster ships. The first steam ship was purchased in 1830, the Sir William Wallace, a wooden paddle tug, which also took passengers to and from Perth for 2/each. The Dundee/London route soon acquired a steam ship too, but it was laid up in winter in favour of sailing ships. When Queen Victoria visited Dundee in 1844, the Royal Yacht was piloted by DP&L’s steam paddle ship, the Perth.

Holidays already made their mark. 66 passengers could book a cruise to Hamburg in 1845. First-class cost £4 4s, second-class £3 3s. On the return trip 126 head of cattle were picked up, as well as 14 sheep. According to records, no-one complained!

By 1854, the first screw-driven steamer appeared. After the Crimean War, trade was undertaken with St Petersburg. Machinery and cured fish went out in exchange for flax, tallow, caviar, cranberries, grain, and ham.

Then came trade with the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea Coast, and the Black Sea Coast. In 1886, 360 passengers embarked for London during the Dundee holiday week.

One of the Company’s outstanding employees was Captain William Speedy, who served from 1840, when he was just 16, to 1900, when he

was 76 years old. For 6 years he had been seaman, then mate for 11 years, retiring after 43 years as Master. He had “commanded all but one of the eleven ships usually employed on the Thames service.” He died a little before his 77th birthday in 1901.

During the Great War, Dundee City Council acquired the Company’s site to build the Caird Hall, so DP&L moved to 5 Shore Terrace. Its fleet increased from 5 ships in 1914, to 9 in 1926, together with a network of services. Along with manufactured goods the ships were carrying D. C. Thompson’s magazines, Keiller’s jams, Valentine’s cards, Guardbridge paper, seed potatoes, and whisky. Local sailings between Leith and Kirkcaldy carried linoleum. In Leith, they called the ship bringing in Danish dairy products “the bacon and egg boat”.

“Motor ships” laid 2 telephone cables across the Tay in 1935. Cork was brought from Portugal for the linoleum works in Kirkcaldy and Preston. There were cruises to London in 1938 for 122/6 (first class) with accommodation on board, and “free motor conveyance” to the West End. Up to the Second World War, DP&L held an unrivalled safety record, not losing a single passenger since steamers were introduced 105 years before, though there had been 3 sinkings, and the loss of one Master in an accident. Only one ship was lost during the War, but afterwards the “coastal liner trade was in disarray.”

Conditions changed out of all recognition. There were no more regular sailings between Leith and Kirkcaldy, Dundee and Perth. Intense competition grew from both road and rail. So, after 50 years, “the deepsea tramp market” returned, with sugar from Jamaica, esparto grass from Tripoli, Russia, and the Mediterranean, and iron-ore from North Africa.

Acquisitions came and went and in 1954, for the first time, a ship was built abroad, in Holland. A popular twice-weekly run to London took 34 hours, comparable to road and rail times, but this stopped in 1961, superseded by a rail service 3 times a week. The Dundee (VIII), the last ship to be built and owned by the Company, was sold in 1967.

Various regroupings followed in the ‘70s before the Company “once again became part of the local business community” in Dundee, with new interests “in property, freight-forwarding, ships’ agency, travel agencies, industrial supplies, and personnel.” Together “with a proven record of adaptability, and its strong links with the sea through its ships’ agency business, it looks forward with optimism to completing its double century in the year 2026”. The History relates that, at one time, there was a local saying that “the three best-known men in Dundee, were the Lord Provost, the Chief Constable, and the skipper of the Perth.”

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SHOPS & SERVICES Kathleen Thain introduces the work of the

Samaritans The vision of Samaritans is for a society in which fewer people take their own lives and where people are able to speak about their feelings and are able to acknowledge and respect the feelings of others.

Samaritans believe in the importance of having the opportunity to explore difficult feelings; that being listened to, in confidence, and being accepted without prejudice, can alleviate despair and suicidal feelings and that everyone has the right to make fundamental decisions about their own life, including the decision to die by suicide. They are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the nature of the crisis.

Nationally, Samaritans receive over four and a half million calls a year; that is a call every seven seconds. In Scotland last year there were 887 suicides and 7,000 people were treated in hospital following episodes of nonfatal self harm.

You don’t have to be suicidal to call Samaritans. Samaritans try to encourage people to get in contact with them early in the spiral-down effect of depression, to talk about feelings.

Unemployment, drugs, alcohol, changing social conditions, such as blurring of gender roles, increasing family break up and career uncertainty all lead to low self-esteem. Young men still feel pressure to cope with problems on their own and feel that people will see them as weak if they ask for help. Samaritans listen with compassion and without judgement, and for someone in distress this can make the difference between choosing life and choosing death.

Samaritans have a Disaster team, which means they are ready at any time to send out volunteers to help at disasters like Lockerbie or Dunblane. These helplines are always manned by Samaritans. They have a Publicity and Recruitment Team, a Talks team to inform and raise awareness of the Samaritan services in schools and other organisations. They also talk face-to-face with callers in their office in Dundee.

Samaritans has a Prison team attending inductions of prisoners at Castle Huntley, Noranside and Perth, to raise awareness of their services. Samaritans has a Listening service in prisons. They select, train and support prisoners to listen to their fellow

inmates. There is no clear pattern to prison suicides. It can be someone well into their sentence making a snap decision because they can’t take any more, or someone who is about to be released and can’t face life on the outside.

They might be coming off drug or alcohol addiction.

Samaritans has a Festival Branch which has a presence at all the big rock festivals, such as T- In the Park, or Glastonbury.

Locally, the Dundee Samaritans helped to set up the Night Line Service at St. Andrews University and trained volunteers to run it.

Recently Samaritans were contacted by the Manager of the Tay Road Bridge to discuss with the bridge staff how they might deal with anyone attempting suicide.

Dundee Samaritans have just completed a course for second and third year medical students at Ninewells Hospital. Samaritans hope it will be a way of enlightening professional people with a key role in society how to recognise the signs in someone who is suicidal, and help them choose life instead.

Samaritan volunteers are carefully selected and trained in the same techniques as professional counsellors. Listening is what Samaritans do best. It’s an active skill which helps connect with the person you are talking to. Being a good listener is about caring enough to take time out, and being there for another person.

The secrets of effective listening are: • Showing empathy and being understanding by putting yourself in another person’s situation and sharing their feelings.

• Being comfortable with silence in everyday conversation. Instead of talking, waiting patiently and giving the other person time and space to explain how they feel.

• Being sensitive and caring.

Sometimes it takes a lot of courage for someone to share how they feel, so it’s important that you don’t judge them, but just accept them as they are.

Listening volunteers form most of the service, but there are many other volunteering opportunities with Samaritans. Volunteers also provide publicity and fundraising for Samaritan branches and ensure that administrative and maintenance tasks are carried out to support their work further.

If you, or someone you know, needs confidential emotional support, please get in touch with Samaritans.

Telephone: 08457 90 90 90 or: Dundee 832555 Correspondence: Chris, PO Box 90 90 Stirling, FK8 2SA E-Mail: Jo@samaritans.org or you can go into your local branch to meet with a Samaritan volunteer face to face.

Volunteering with Samaritans will ensure that they continue to provide this valuable service in a changing society that is calling out to be heard.

Bouquiniste Bill and Ann Anderson, who have the Bouquiniste Bookshop at 31 Market Street, have been selling books and old postcards in St Andrews for nearly thirty years.

Bill, Ann, and young Bill have been particularly pleased this summer that many former customers, now living elsewhere in Britain and abroad, have taken the time while visiting the town to come and see them at their shop.

The Andersons wish those who are leaving shortly, all the very best, and say, “Haste ye back!”

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SHOPS & SERVICES Lynora Kennedy explains

Manual Lymph Drainage – MLD The lymphatic system is often ignored and abused, which is a crime when you realise that it is your own secret weapon to unleash improved health and vitality, clear skin and an unpolluted body.

Around 50% of the population suffers from an impaired and weakened lymph system, bringing with it a list of seemingly unrelated complaints, from recurring coughs and colds, digestive disorders, acne, puffy eyes and migraines to name but a few.

Your body has five main channels of elimination – the skin, lungs, kidneys, bowel and lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is your body’s metabolic waste-disposal system. It contains lymph fluid which carries anti-bodies that fight infection and removes toxins from the body’s tissues, including the by-products of fatigue and stress, dead cells, fatty molecules, bacteria, viruses and other cell debris. The lymph fluid transports these to the various lymph nodes, where they are filtered out and destroyed.

MLD helps to boost the functions of the lymph system. It can improve the circulation of the lymph, encouraging fluid drainage from cells and the elimination of waste. It improves the production and distribution of antibodies and lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) boosting immunity from disease and stimulating the lymphatic systems filtering process – assisting removal of toxins and bacteria from the body. It also works on the autonomic nervous system, helping to calm and slow the sympathetic nerves (which enable activity) and stimulate the parasympathetic nerves (which enable relaxation), encouraging relaxation and the reduction of stress.

MLD works directly with the lymphatic system. Dr Emil Vodder, who believed that the lymph nourishes and regenerates all body tissue, developed the technique in the 1930’s. The technique consists of a soft

and painless movement of the skin, which is extraordinarily gentle yet powerfully effective. No oils or mechanical devices are used during this therapy.

MLD can help anyone, and is especially beneficial for the following: • Elimination of toxins • Fluid retention (puffy ankles, legs, eyes, bloating) • Pre and post surgical procedures (including cosmetic surgery) • Glandular fever and ME • Hormonal imbalances • Sinusitis, catarrh, tonsillitis (especially in children) • Digestive disorders, constipation • General relaxation • Primary and Secondary Lymphoedema • Truncal oedema following mastectomy Lynora Kennedy has been a massage therapist since 1979 and a full time Manual Lymph Drainage practitioner and Lymphoedema Therapist for 8 years. She has trained in the Vodder method of MLD, and is a member of MLDUK, an organisation that requires her to update her training on a biennial basis. Her main focus is the treatment and care of lymphoedema, which occurs either as a result of cancer treatment or trauma, or as a congenital condition, and offers a full lymphoedema management service, including intensive courses of Combined Decongestive Therapy, which involves daily MLD and bandaging.

Lynora is available once a week at a clinic in St Andrews, and the rest of the week she is based in Glenrothes.

For further information, call her on 0794 128 8019, or after 6pm on 01592 840699.

Email: lynora.kennedy@btinternet.com More details about MLD and a list of UK therapists can be found on www.mlduk.org.uk

HYPNOTHERAPY can help with issues such as

Consultations in: The Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa. The Natural Therapy Clinic, St Andrews.

STOP SMOKING USUALLY IN 1 SESSION

For further information, contact Connie on: 0777 618 3695 www.connieweir.com Connie Weir BA(hons) Psy. DHyp

Peter Govan, BSc(Hons), MBCO

G OVA N O P TO M E T R I S TS 83 South Street, St Andrews 01334 474558 Mon-Fri 9.00-5.30 and Sat 9.00-5.00

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter

has his gastronomic antennae twitching . . .

1. A magical change has once again taken place – this time in College Street, (where Brambles used to be). On 24th May this year, Pierre and Valentine Couturier, opened their genuine French Restaurant, Le Rustique.

What was once a rather cramped coffee shop has been transformed into a spacious, welcoming eating place of great charm and with a distinctly French ambiance.

Pierre and Valentine are both passionate about food, food of quality, and value for money.

They stress that everything they prepare is fresh, neither pre-made, nor frozen, nor canned. They choose the best local produce, “made as simple as possible” to bring out the natural flavours of the ingredients. “It’s traditional food, granny’s cooking, what we enjoy at home,” says Valentine. Reporter learned something of the difficulties the young couple had to overcome – from finding the right premises, to having to explain to their first customers that, no, they are not just a coffee shop! Born in Bordeaux, both Pierre and Valentine trained in catering in France.

Both were determined to open a truly French restaurant in the Scotland that so captivated them from their first visit. The menu is a delight in itself.

Written in both French and English it tells you that Le Rustique is “Open all day for coffee & pastries”. Lunch is served from noon to 6.00pm (yes, 1200-1800). Salads of all kinds are listed, such as Salade de magret de canard (salad of duck breast) for £7.

Or you can have a Croque Monsieur (hot sandwich made with white bread, ham, crème fraîche, & cheese) for £5.95.

The day’s specials are posted on the blackboard. Dinner is from 6.00 – 10.00pm. Each course has a choice of four dishes. Reporter’s eye was

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drawn to one starter, Foie Gras Poêlè aux Raisins, Brioche Dorée (fresh seared Foie Gras with grapes, toasted brioche) for £9.50. A main course, Tomates en Surprise, Galettes de Pomme de Terre (surprise tomatoes, rösti potatoes) for £8.50 suggests a wry sense of humour, and Pêches Pochées au Vin Rouge, Crème de Cassis (peaches poached in red wine & blueberry cream) at £5 had him licking his lips!

A comprehensive wine list complements the food. Forget the hassle at the airport, France is here!

2. Being an out-door person himself, owner of a bicycle, Reporter thought he’d drop in at Spokes, 37 South Street, St Andrews (01334 477 835) to chat to Craig Grieve.

When he was 15, Craig started road racing for Scotland as a junior in the under-19 group. “It was great, I would never change that.

I’d hardly been away from home before that and I got to go all over Europe,” Craig told Reporter. However, cycle racing was not to become a career, and Craig went to Fife College where he obtained a Higher National Diploma in leisure management. As a student, he worked in a bike shop in Leven to “earn a bit of money”. Later, married to Caroline, who had expertise in business and accounting, “we put our heads together and decided to open a shop.”

Spokes was born. Successful from the start, and the only shop of its kind in St Andrews, the premises became cramped. John Grant joined as a partner and 4 years ago the shop moved to its present location. John Grant is a former Scottish grass-track champion in the Highland Games and an expert mountain biker, riding all over Scotland. Last October Craig, Caroline, and John opened a

second shop in Dundee, and between them they now have 7 “indigenous” employees.

“Everyone in the shops is a cycling enthusiast,” Craig said, proudly. Reporter wanted some tips for maintaining his bike. “The chain and the cogs need to be oiled regularly with a light cycle oil,” advised Craig, “Better a dirty frame and a clean chain and cogs, then the bike will run ten times better.”

Reporter asked about prices.

An adult mountain bike ranges from £99 upwards. Craig also stocks Trek bikes which retail at up to £6000. “We sell quite a lot,” he assured Reporter, “It’s the same bike Lance Armstrong rode when he won the Tour de France for the seventh time this year. I’ve got one!” Accessories and spares also figure large in the shop. “We sell everything to do with bikes, and we do repairs as well. Bike hire is quite a mainstay of business through the summer.” Craig mentioned that Caroline had a Degree in Psychology from St Andrews and Dundee Universities. Reporter wanted to know if their their son was a cycling enthusiast too; “he plays football,” said Craig, with a smile.

3. Roving Reporter poked his nose round the door of another unique business in St Andrews, Angels, 36 South Street (01334 477 399).

Owned by John and Kerry, it is actually three years since it opened. John waved Reporter to a seat. He said that, coming from Glasgow, he ”wanted to liven up St Andrews.” He is in the business of beautifying the body, by tattooing, by piercing.

People here once had to

travel to find such a service; as one client put it, he had always wanted a tattoo, but couldn’t be bothered travelling, so now John has come to town to make it easier. The walls of the studio are lined with designs from all over the world. There are books of designs with photographs of how they look on the flesh, so to speak. Cabinets show enticing jewellery. John wants to encourage people to be themselves, and to stop others from being judgemental, “we’re not monsters. We’re encouraging people to stop judging people on how they look.” Like his surroundings, Reporter found John laidback, informal, and easygoing with a friendly manner, and a very professional approach. Reporter wanted to know if tattooing is painful.

It’s a matter of grinning and bearing, “we use the most modern methods,” said John.

He and his staff are trained in first aid and sterilisation techniques, but don’t expect any problems. The needles, inks, and jewellery are used only once. “The most we’ve got to worry about is people passing out, or sometimes being sick.” Reporter was curious to know who wants to be tattooed, and was surprised to learn of the wide age range of the customers; the oldest woman was 67, and John tattooed 3 generations of her family. Men in their 80s, 18year-olds, all come. There are ex-naval, ex-army men, who want to “brighten up” existing tattoos. How long does the tattooing take? Anything from 5 minutes to 10 hours! John uses stencils, but a lot of the time he draws straight on to the skin. Reporter wondered if he ever made any mistakes, and if so how could he undo them? “I don’t make mistakes,” said John at once, “In this job you can’t make mistakes.” But what if a client has a change of heart? Designs can sometimes be lasered off, but short of skin grafts, they’re permanent.

Piercings, on the other hand, can heal over. The jewellery for those are made of titanium, gold, platinum, or the very expensive, very pure miobium, all non-allergenic. Reporter felt he had been introduced in the nicest possible way into another world!

SHOPS & SERVICES

4. An Aladdin’s Cave of a different kind has just opened at 68 Market Street. If you’re looking for new ideas for your house, your loved ones, and yourself, go to Lucci.

Reporter found himself taking in a whole range of goodies to delight the eye. Margot, the owner, said that “the shop will be doing both commercial and retail interior design.” A freelance design consultant will be working for them.There is a wonderfully eclectic mix: gorgeous furniture from Thailand, soft furnishings, antiques from China, original sculpture, designer silk pyjamas and underwear, jewellery, gifts of all kinds just asking you to buy them.

“I’d like to bring in a nice combination of gifts and designer clothing,” Margot explained, “and I particularly like some of the natural furnishing fabrics”, with

labels such as Fired Earth, Mulberry, Panaz, Andrew Martin. Reporter’s eyes were drawn to striking silk ties designed by local artist, Jane Keith, in Balmerino (JKDesigns). Margot aims to encourage outstanding young local artists to sell through the shop. One of them recently won the Goldsmith Company’s Award for a necklace that is in the shop, priced £400, the top of the range. For the other jewellery prices range in the main from £2.60 to £70. Reporter was dazzled!

5. Caroline Makein contacted Reporter to tell him about her Family History Research business, Fife Rootsearch, based here in St Andrews.

There is, of course, a great deal of interest in finding out who our ancestors were and where they came from.

Descendants of Scotland’s former emigrants frequently return looking for their origins.

Caroline told Reporter that, apart from local clients, she has helped people from as far afield as Finland and New Zealand. Caroline said, “I have been interested in Family History Research for over 25 years, firstly as a hobby, but for the past three years I have been in business working for clients all over the world, helping them trace their family trees.” She further explained that she is “a member of the Scottish Genealogy Society, Fife Family History Society

and Tay Valley Family History Society (I am Editor of their journal),” As part of Caroline’s dissertation for the Certificate in Scottish Family History Studies at Stirling University, she researched the life of the Scottish architect George Rae (designer of the R&A Clubhouse in 1854) who lived at 59 South Street, St Andrews, “which also happened to be the house where I grew up.” Reporter is intrigued and suggests you look up Caroline’s website: www.scottishfamilyroot search.co.uk

Pizzas? Ask Giuseppe!

Bellfield Organic Nursery Strathmiglo, Fife, KY14 7RH A family-run grower of Certified Organic vegetables (Organic Certification UK3), we offer a box scheme straight from our fields to you. We also have organic fruit, bread, eggs, milk.

Please contact us: Tel: 01337 860764 www.bellfield-organics.com

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OUT & ABOUT: SPORT

A Home From Home When the world’s biggest tournament for club golfers was looking for a place to call home the organisers didn’t have to look far.

Now in its seventh year, the International Pairs has developed into a global phenomenon.

Originally a regional competition in the south of England, it now encompasses 34 countries around the world including Australia, Argentina, and Israel. But while this expansion took place, tournament founder Ross Honey was acutely aware that the competition needed to have a spiritual home as an international focal point. Honey explained: “With the International Pairs concept taking off as it did, we felt that it was a natural move to find somewhere that the competition could call home – and if you’re looking for a home for golf you can’t look much further than St Andrews and for us St Andrews Bay was the obvious choice.

“The first grand final in Scotland was hosted at the home of golf and at St Andrews Bay and it was a magnificent occasion.”

Since the agreement was reached, the relationship between the two has blossomed and grown. The luxurious St Andrews Bay Golf Resort and Spa now proudly displays the International Pairs trophies for the world champions, as well as the national champions for the UK, England, Scotland and Wales. The bond between the tournament and resort was strengthened further recently with the announcement that the resort will be the venue for the UK final until 2010.

Graeme Dawson, the International Pairs director of business development, said: “The relationship between the International Pairs and Scotland has been mutually beneficial – and will continue to be so. This deal enables us to introduce thousands of new players to the game’s roots and show them what the region has to offer. We always get a fantastic welcome when we come here and look forward to coming back every time.”

To find out how to register for the 2005 International Pairs call the competition hotline on 08700 330 633; fax (023) 9282 6000 or visit: www.internationalpairs.com

Phillip Riddle – Visit Scotland (left), Ross Honey.

Good Putters Don’t Suffer From Allodoxaphobia Says Sandy Cameron – Clubgolf Coach and Specialist in Golf Psychology I have a golfing friend who, although he is otherwise intelligent, keeps buying putters. He has 34 in his garage. Like many other mid-handicap golfers, he is constantly being seduced by the marketing psycho-babble of the golf equipment salesmen. Just look at the range of instruments used for this part of the game; it is bewildering: from bellies to broom handles to mallets to chesties to branding irons to Ken Green’s twenty-two inch baby’s toy!! The plain truth is that if you think that you putt well with whatever you use, then you do.

Which brings us to the role of the mind in this most simple of all golf strokes; it is boss. The trouble about the mind, however, is that under pressure it becomes vulnerable to all kinds of thoughts and emotions which interfere with a good stroke. To illustrate; I recall being faced with a 3 or 4 foot putt to take my team through to the final of the St Andrews City Fours competition. As a casual player, I had never been faced with such a daunting situation before, and like many happy hackers, putting had never been much of a problem – they either went in, or they didn’t, and at the end of the day it didn’t matter too much. This was different. All of a sudden I was faced with seven sets of expectant eyes boring into me and three of them almost tangibly wanting me to succeed. All went deathly quiet. My knees turned to jelly and I felt the power draining from my arm; my hands started to shake and the line to the hole started to snake and shimmer like a metal road on a hot summer’s day. With great effort, I managed to draw the putter back and swung feebly at the ball. It glanced sickeningly at a tangent from the hole, missing the cup by at least a foot. Had the Swilcan Burn been deep enough I would have plunged in and ended it all, there and then. Instead I had to endure the patently insincere commiserations of my team-mates – all bar one who, too angry to conceal his disappointment, said, ‘Ya foozling eejit. That’s the worst putt I’ve ever seen!’ Ah well, as the bard said, ‘An honest man is the noblest work of God’. At that traumatic moment I learned why the short putt is paradoxically the easiest and the most difficult shot in golf.

My never-to-be-forgotten experience on that fateful evening is similar to the ‘fail-safe shutdown’. The brain senses that the heart won’t cope with the shock of failure, so it shuts up shop a moment before disaster strikes!

This phenomenon can vary from total paralysis to the well-known and greatly feared ‘yips’. The problem with average players (i.e. usual score between 85 and 100) is that when they reach this ‘pressure threshold’

24

they start doing things differently; e.g. they take too much time over the stroke, they ‘milk’ the putter grip, they allow irrelevant and negative thoughts to intrude (the pros call this ‘monkey mind’ ), their stroke speeds up and becomes jerky. The trouble is that they are doing things in an unfamiliar time sequence, so there is no memory for the sub-conscious to fall back on. One remedy to what is also known as ‘choking’ lies in what the pros do to counter the problem; a rigid and unalterable routine called a PSR. They do the same thing, time after time, in the same sequence and at the same pace (Tom Watson’s took exactly 13 seconds, no more and no less). In this way, the body and the mind know when it is time to ‘pull the trigger’.

Of course, club golfers choke for more than one reason, but most agree that the major cause is worrying what other people will think if they fail, making them self-conscious and setting off their nervous systems (we all know what happens when our wife criticises our driving !). There is even a word for the fear of others’ opinions – ALLODOXAPHOBIA. Phil Lee, a Canadian psychiatrist who specialises in golfers’ problems, maintains that people come to the course with the unconscious fear that they will be the subject of unspoken ridicule (unlike my honest friend). How often, he points out, have you heard these expressions on the first tee: ‘I’ve not played for months’ – ‘My back has been bad recently’ – ‘You don’t want me for a partner’ – ‘I hope there is no money riding on this game’ Lee, however, says that people judge others on a complex set of criteria, which does not include putting ability. His answer to choking over a putt is to say to yourself ‘It really doesn’t matter if I miss. I still have a job, and a family, and a good set of buddies who will have forgotten the episode midway through the first round in the 19 hole’, especially if you have bought it. He says you must train yourself to hit it without fear and accept that, as in life, some go in and some do not.

There is a famous story about a lady called Joyce Wethered who had a 5-footer to clinch the Ladies Championship on the 17th at St Andrews in the days when it was adjacent to the railway. As she was in the act of putting, a train went thundering by. Unperturbed, she made the putt.

Afterwards a spectator asked her if the train had not put her off her stroke. ‘’ What train?” she replied. I rest my case.

OUT & ABOUT: SPORT Committee member Stewart Dillon was born on the West Coast next door to tennis courts. He now works hard to make tennis available to everybody, especially the Free Tennis Event in April, which is set up to encourage people of any age or ability to pick up a racket and play tennis. Here he traces the ups and downs of the

St Andrews Tennis Club In 1920, St Andrews Town Council acquired 56 juniors and 4 students playing Kinburn House and grounds, off Double Dykes on nine blaes courts with handRoad, for £10,000 and opened the grounds as a painted lines. A kitchen was built at public park. An eighteen hole putting green was the clubhouse and fitted out by the laid out, as well as a tennis pavilion and nine Town Council. blaes (hard) courts, followed by the bowling The high maintenance cost green, which was created in 1936. of the courts forced the District In August 1921 the Town Council organised Council to resurface courts 1 – 5 an Open Lawn Tennis Tournament. There in 1981 with polymeric all-weather were 355 entries for the Championship, which courts. The Council also erected included handicap events. floodlights around courts 1 – 3 Then in August 1923 Kinburn was for football training during the winter. Court host to the first ever Scottish Hard Courts time was shared: tennis was played April to Championships. This event proved so September, and football October to March. In successful that the Scottish Lawn Tennis the end it was the Tennis Club that benefited Association (LTA) decided to hold them in the most and membership leapt from 74 in St.Andrews for the following 4 years. In fact, 53 1980 to 144 in 1981. The nets on courts 4 & 5 tournaments were were then left up held at Kinburn from through the winter The Club has had many Scottish 1923 -1981, with the making it an all-year only break during champions at singles and doubles activity from 1982 the war. onwards. Following and several Internationalists.

A Tennis Club the demise of was formed at the Hard Courts Kinburn in the early 1920s. The Town Council Championships, the Club received the keys to issued season tickets from then on. Kinburn the Referee’s Box and then gained the use of was well-used by both St.Andrews University the attendant’s kiosk in 1987. and Madras College. After the war, Susan Inglis The Council offered the Club a threeadvertised for members and the Club was reyear lease in 1987 to run the Kinburn facility. formed in 1947. It disbanded in the 1960s, so The Club did not feel able to take on the from the mid-1960s until 1971 the only tennis responsibility and so it was left to a small group players at Kinburn were the season ticket of experienced members (James Murray, holders.

David Eglinton, Fergus Muir, David Robertson, In 1971 a meeting took place in the Town Ian Christie and Graham Neilson) to form the Hall for the purpose of trying to form a tennis Kinburn Lawn Tennis Association. The group club for members of the general public in St then persuaded the Council to repaint the Andrews. The prime movers were Patrick clubhouse, replace much of the stop netting Hogg (Director of Tourist Information), Hugh and carry out essential maintenance to the MacFarlane (Vice-President of Midland courts. This group was so successful that the Counties Lawn Tennis association) and St Andrews Lawn Tennis Club did not hesitate Hugh’s wife, Mary. The combined experience to take on a new twenty-one year lease and enthusiasm of Paddy Hogg and the commencing 1st May 1990.

MacFarlanes led to the creation of The In 1989 the Club was threatened by plans St Andrews Lawn Tennis Club. Its first season lodged by Wm Low to build a supermarket was in 1972 with a membership of 31 seniors, and car park on the Kinburn ground and move

Stewart and daughter Suzanne the Club to a new facility at Petherum Bridge.

The Committee and members responded immediately and submitted a petition containing 5,642 signatures opposing the plans. ‘The park is an oasis in the centre of town’. The plans were finally withdrawn in June 1990.

Since then, the Club has expanded, with assistance from Leckie & Leckie, Callum Walker Kitchens, David Eglinton, Café in the Park, LTA, The National Lottery, Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Hamada Trust, Murray Donald & Caithness, and Fife Council.

Mike Aitken was appointed as the Club’s first professional full-time coach in 1991.

Junior and Senior coaching proved so popular that Richard Kilty was taken on as assistant coach in 1996. Gareth Rennie then took over the assistant’s job in 1999 followed by Skip Martinez in 2002. Mike and Skip are at present working full-time to keep up with the demand for private and group coaching. Membership has since increased to 300 members and for the first time ever, there are now more junior members than seniors.

The Club has had many Scottish champions at singles and doubles and several Internationalists.

Club facilities have been upgraded so that members and visitors can play tennis all year round. In 1997 courts 4,5,6,&7 were resurfaced with all-weather Tennitop Ace. In 1999 Courts 1, 2 & 3 were resurfaced with artificial grass and in 2001 the old football floodlights were replaced with County standard floodlights. The old lights were then moved to courts 4 & 5 to provide more floodlit courts.

In 2002 the Fife council took over the old abandoned blaes courts 8 & 9. A car park was created out of court 9 and in 2003 the Club opened up three mini courts for children in the old court 8 area.

For information Courts 1,2 & 3 are for members only.

Courts 4,5,6 & 7 and mini courts 8,9 & 10 are shared by members and paying visitors.

Cost for visitors One Senior – £2.00 for 60 minutes One Junior (16 and under) – £1.00 for 60 minutes One court mini tennis – 50p for 30 minutes Tickets can be bought from: – The Tourist Information Centre in Market St. – The ‘Café in the Park’ inside the museum, next to the tennis courts.

– The Clubhouse, when the above outlets are closed and a member is available to sell tickets.

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OUT & ABOUT

The Hidden Gardens in St Andrews Much enjoyed by Irene Smith It is not often these days, apart from when watching the television set, or seeing a specific film, that you feel you have travelled back through time to a bygone age to experience peace and tranquillity. But that was how it felt on Sunday 26th June in the afternoon when participating in a tour of the hidden gardens organised by St. Andrews Preservation Trust, in St Andrews. The weather was as perfect as you recall in past happy memories, a beautifully warm mid-summer’s day in June. As John Clare wrote, in the book Victorian Cottages, “ Summer is in flower and nature’s hum Is never silent round her bounteous bloom, Insects as small as dust, have never done With glittering dance, and gleaning in the sun.”

Ladies that Sunday wore straw bonnets/hats trimmed with the odd floating ribbon. The men appeared quite debonair in their summer attire.

Even the few children playing croquet on one venue’s lawn seemed timeless.

Many of the hidden gardens lurking along the inner route, unseen and unknown by casual acquaintance with the town, held a profusion of cottage garden plants, perfume and colour.

Framed by banks and hedges intertwined with honeysuckle, clematis and climbing roses, the perfect opening rosebud was seen alongside a fully- blown cluster of blooms. It brought to mind Robbie Bums’ famous lines, “ My love is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June.”

Turning another corner or two you could bump into gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes heralded by their distinctive perfume, as with the herbal plants. There was a feast for the senses for people living in a disabled world of some kind, for example the world of deafness, the world of decreased mobility, the world of learning difficulties. Their enforced constraints in one field of living were relieved and supported by the heightened stimulation of their other senses, responding to the beautiful environment.

Further enjoyment was fostered by the light-hearted companionship between folk who shared the common interest and met yet again in another enchanting vista. The spotting of

gauze-like “PINK” butterflies suspended in a chain of crystal-like beads, swinging from a tree’s branch, caught not only the children’s eyes, but also some adults who had previously glimpsed the pink pig “ornament” on a patio!.

A metallic “cock-a-doodle do” strategically placed on a hedge completed the image we might expect in a “cottage garden.” The rooster appeared in many early paintings including “An English Cottage Garden” by William Stephen Coleman (1829 – 1904), in a private collection.

The expected historical note from St. Andrews came in the form of a large miller’s grinding stone. It was lying carelessly at ground level adorned not with corn, but by small colourful flowers. Inherited by the owners with the house and garden, the stone’s history is unknown (unless anyone can supply a clue?)

The event was enjoyed by young and old.

Familiar resident figures mingled with overseas visitors; but bygone ambience goes hand in hand with the modern approach through

education and fun. Education was introduced by students and the microscope, where at one of the venues, examples of insect and natural life could be seen and discovered by the children themselves. Fun, by a magician at another venue.

This is an annual event, which this year was organized by Daphne Matthews. Marlene Matthews of the Trust informed me that it is the main fund-raising activity each year. The money raised helps to cover the costs of keeping and running the Museum itself, entry to which is free, and all of the Trust’s costs in their work and projects helping to preserve the historicity and nature of the town.

The Trust holds receptions and exhibitions in the summer at their Preservation Trust Museum at 12 North Street. A tiny cottage, but the flagship for the Trust. They are already planning new surprises for next year and I shall be one of the first in the queue in 2006, for the very reasonably priced tickets .

Ideas for walks? Alistair Lawson (Field Officer – ScotWays) suggests intriguing places to explore

Flowery Language !

Fife is in the happy position of having more public rights of way than any other local authority area in the country, and some of these have particularly arresting names.

In the triangle between Kinglassie, Leslie, and Glenrothes is a spot called “Flowers of May”, actually the name of an agricultural holding on the southern slope of the equally attractively-named Goatmilk Hills, which extend west from the Newcastle district of Glenrothes. The term is a fairly common one referring, in particular, to the flowers of the hawthorn and these certainly occur hereabouts. It seems likely, however, that the name was chosen by some earlier occupant of the holding as being simply an attractive one, none of the more readily-available written references offering any more specific explanation.

In the same area is “Bloodyfoots”, also rendered as “Bloodyfoot Track” and “Cadgergait” on certain earlier Ordnance Survey maps.

This path is known to have been in use at least since 1599. Various explanations have been offered for the name, including the suggestion that monks making their way from Culross to Falkland would bind their bare feet with strips of cloth which would become blood-soaked and,

26

possibly, washed in the River Leven (map reference 233 009) where an ancient stone bridge, the “Cadgergait”, permitted pedestrians to cross the Leven and continue by Strathendry Avenue, the old drove road across the Lomond Hills, and on towards Falkland. Whether the prolific growth of gorse contributed to the bloody feet, we cannot now be sure. Most likely, however, since nearby Leslie was believed to be the headquarters of the itinerant pedlars, packmen or cadgers, who met on the celebrated Green for recreation, it was perhaps they who sustained the bloody feet in crossing the moorland to the south of the River Leven and southwest of Leslie . Their role, in their time, was not only that of delivering and collecting goods, but also the spread of news between isolated communities. Being independent traders, they could choose their own routes and, as in the case of Bloodyfoots or Cadgergait, these became permanent. It is just possible, with the narrowness of the path down the Den Burn (map reference 233 008) to the River Leven, that it was their pack ponies which sustained the bloody feet.

Readers wishing to visit these delights will need Ordnance Survey 1: 50000 maps 58 and 59 (the area straddles the two, unfortunately). Enjoy!

OUT & ABOUT

Reprographics Unit For all your printing requirements and much much more Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews WOODLAND & WATERGARDENS HERBACEOUS & SCREE ALPINES & RHODODENDRONS GLORIOUS GLASSHOUSE COLLECTIONS OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND CONDUCTED WALKS

First Sunday each month, 2 pm September & October

LECTURE PROGRAMME

Starts October First Tuesday each month, 7.30 pm Chemistry Dept., North Haugh University of St Andrews FREE – ALL WELCOME

All types of printing and design work undertaken, from simple b/w membership cards to full colour brochures Please contact us for a free estimate • • • • • • • •

TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY. Canongate, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8RT Tel: 01334 476452 www.st-andrews-botanic.org

Dissertations Theses Soft Binding Colour and B/W Printing and Copying Large Format Poster Printing Laminating Encapsulating Mounting New address from 3rd October St Katharine’s West, 16 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AX Telephone: (01334) 463020 Email: amm@st-andrews.ac.uk

www.st-andrews.ac.uk/reprographic/latestrepro.html

Solving Sash Window Problems in St Andrews Sliding sash windows are found in many of the older properties in St Andrews and they are an important part of the local heritage. However, people who live in these beautiful properties are only too aware of the problems with sliding sash windows. They are difficult to open and close, the sashes rattle in the wind, and they let in cold draughts as well as dust and noise.

No wonder home owners are sometimes tempted to change their sash windows!

But this is not a good idea. Removing the original windows will ruin the character of traditional property and planning restrictions protect certain areas of St Andrews from such unsuitable alterations. Sash windows can be an asset and research shows that well preserved original features enhance the value of your property.

Fortunately, there is a reliable solution to sash window problems. Ventrolla is the UK market leader in sash window renovation services. Since 1986 when they won a Design Council Award for their patented method of upgrading old sash windows to modern performance standards, they have renovated many thousands of windows throughout Britain.

Ventrolla installation vans are now becoming a familiar sight in and around St Andrews. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews called upon Ventrolla’s expertise to renovate the sash windows in their clubhouse which stands in a prominent and very exposed location. Ventrolla were also involved in a major project at St Leonard’s Field for Robertson Residential. The luxury flats needed high performance windows but traditional appearance had to be maintained.

However, it is not only commercial clients who call on Ventrolla to solve their window problems. Many private clients who simply wanted to improve their sash windows whilst retaining the unique character of their homes have used the Ventrolla service (including the editor of this magazine – thank you once again for your custom Flora!).

Ventrolla carry out a free, no-obligation survey and provide a report on the condition of the sash windows. The customer receives a written quotation detailing the work needed to repair and up-grade the windows. The cost depends on the size and condition of the windows but customers are often pleasantly surprised to find that renovation is significantly cheaper than replacement.

To find out more about this unique service contact Ventrolla and let them solve your sash window problems.

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Summer Pier (Photograph by Richard Cormack)