ALEXANDRIA BURNS CLUB
St Andrews Night Celebration 25th November 2016
The Vale of Leven Bowling was once again the venue for our annual celebration of Scotland and our patron saint, St Andrew. This was attended by around 80 members and guests.
Club President, Bryan Weir, got the evening started by introducing the top table - a good cast of characters, all weel kent faces and all members of our club. After the Selkirk Grace the assembly enjoyed an excellent dinner provided by Robert Mills and his team at Venue Catering.
The Top Table with Jim O'Hare, Gary Weir, Chairman Bryan Weir,
Walter Sneddon, Ian Walls, John McDonald
Gary Weir
After dinner and a short interval Gary Weir delivered the Toast To Scotland, which included comments about what it meant to be Scottish and the affection that most Scots have for their homeland. Gary has been a club member now for many years and his toast was knowledgeable, humourous and entertaining.
John 'Rock' McDonald
John 'Rock' McDonald was next to perform. John is one half of the original McDonald Brothers. Brother Willie could not be with us on this occasion. John sang and played a popular choice of Scottish themed songs, which the company clearly enjoyed.
Our next artist should have been Willie Kelly. Unfortunately Willie was ill and unable to appear. The Chairman asked the company to join him in wishing Willie a full recovery. Willie's late withdrawal left a space, which was filled by Ian Walls, We are grateful to Ian for filling in and his Comedy, Craic and Clatter went down very well on the evening. He will certainly be asked to return.
Closing the second part of the evening we had our regular musical entertainer Jim O'Hare, with his magical moothie giving us a few rousing tunes.
Ian Walls
Jim O'Hare
To conclude this part of the programme we had Bob Wyllie with his regular and popular reading from the floor. As per tradition, Bob had searched out a couple of his usual gems on the Internet.
Bob Wyllie
After an Interval Walter Snedden was next up with his toast to Oor Toon. Walter is another long time member whose special interest is poetry.This was the theme of his toast, with readings from locally well known poets, Katherine Drain, Hugh Caldwell and also our recently deceased honorary member, Duncan McLean. Walter's reading of Duncan's "Wail o' the Vale" was well received by the members.
Walter Snedden
We then had John McDonald, and Jim O'Hare performing their second slots before the assembled company joined in singing Loch Lomond and the Lovely Valley. A very successful evening concluded with Auld Lang Syne.
Tommy Gilmour took a selection of images during the evening. We thank Tommy for these, which have been posted below. Our thanks are also due to our new secretary, Vince Dolan for his work in preparing and processing the invitations.
Click these images to view larger versions in a new window.
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