Robert Burns

ALEXANDRIA BURNS CLUB
St Andrews Night Celebration 30th November 2018

This year we had a healthy attendance of 86 members and guests at our annual St Andrew's night in the Vale of Leven Bowling Club to enjoy a very entertaining programme. President Ian Embelton was in the chair.

Top table at St Andrews night

Top Table
Shane Ferguson, Frank Kelly, David Carson, President Ian Embelton, Andrew Lockhart and Jim O'Hare

The evening started with an excellent dinner provided by Robert Mills and his team at Venue Caterers. After a short interval the evening commenced with the main toast, the Toast to Scotland, delivered this year by David Carson. David's speech was very entertaining and thought provoking. It was also, perceptive, knowledgable and very much enjoyed by the guests,

David Carson
David Carson

 

Our first entertainer was a new face, a young man called Shane Ferguson. Shane plays guitar with a local rock band called "Simple October". This was his first St Andrew's night and despite having to change to a less famiiar genre for the evening, he sang and played quitar with confidence and no mean ability. I am sure that we will welcome Shane back again at future events. We can mark this down as a discovery.

Shane Ferguson

Shane Ferguson

 

The evening's other main speaker was Andrew Lockhart. Andrew toasted "Oor Toon". Once again it was a very interesting and engrossing toast. Andrew mentioned a personal connection in that his grandfather was once the treasurer of the Vale of Leven Bowling Club.

Andrew Lockhart
Andrew Lockhart

 

Bob Wyllie filled his regular spot with his anecdotal and humourous Scottish poems. Bob sources these modern rhymes for us each year from the Internet and they are always well received by the audience.

Bob Wyllie

 

Another entertainer was a more familiar face, Frank Kelly. Frank is a member of the Alexandria Burns Club committee and he kindly deputised for his father, Willie, who has been ill and not well enough to attend. President Ian asked Frank to pass the best wishes of the Burns club to Willie. He proved to be an able substitute offering some very funny "clatter" as well as singing and playing his guitar.

Frank Kelly

 

The evergreen Jim O'Hare and his harmonica have become popular at our evenings over the last several years. Once again Jim produced the goods, entertaining the audience with some rousing and beautiful tunes including Julie's Waltz, a tune he composed in memory of his late wife.

Jim O'Hare

 

Once again we had an enjoyable evening in the company of good friends. Thanks to all who entertained us and to those who organised the event and helped make it a success. Thanks also to Tommy Gilmour for the photographs and to Alex Brown for looking after the sound equipment.

Audience 1 Audience 2 Audience 3 Audience 4 Audience 4
Audience 4 Audience 1 Audience 2 Audience 3 Audience 4

Click to expand the above images

 

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