FORTY YEARS AGO Friday April 6, 1984
Sporty kids to be baton bearers
Three teenagers from Lochgilphead High School jumped for joy on Monday as they learned they will carry the Queen’s baton in Mid Argyll ahead of the Commonwealth Games in July.
Megan Yuill, Emily Brown and Ryan McCuaig will be at the heart of the baton relay when it reaches Argyll on July 13.
The youngsters’ sporting achievements, volunteering and leadership skills saw them selected by a panel of experts for the honour.
Emily, 16, a shinty player with Dunadd Ladies, has for the past year been promoting women’s shinty as a volunteer with the club’s primary school age group.
She was also this year selected by her peers at Lochgilphead High School to become one of the school’s young ambassadors and, through her role, has organised a five-a-side football league and helped organise a sports competition to raise awareness of World Aids Day.
Fellow Dunadd ladies’ player Megan was named South Division Two League player of the year at the 2013 Marine Harvest National Shinty Awards, aged just 15.
She was also picked to represent South Scotland in the senior annual north v south shinty game in which she was a stand-out player.
Ryan, meanwhile, is a dedicated sports coach at the primary school badminton club.
“A resounding success” was how Sheila McCallum, festival administrator, summed up the 25th Mid Argyll Music Festival which took place last week.
The festival broke several records with the largest number of competitors, more than 800; a rise in audiences at all sessions; an increased number of venues throughout Mid Argyll were used; and the number of performers who achieved honour certificates was also significantly up on previous years.
The very high standard of solo brass playing was reflected in the record number of 14 honour certificates awarded by adjudicator Bryan Allen, who is currently head of brass at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music.
He described the standard of playing as “remarkably high and exceptional”.
The speech classes proved a marathon for adjudicator Jane Mowat, who listened to more than 200 recitations, but still managed to keep on schedule with her timing of the various classes.
Throughout the week, Ardrishaig was the place to be with various classes held in two halls, the public and the north church hall.
On Wednesday evening there was a capacity audience in the public hall for the Songs from the Shows.
Lochgilphead was a hive of activity on Saturday, with crowds thronging the high school for action songs, choir competitions, as well as chanter and piping classes.
Due to the increasing size of the festival, Lochgilphead Primary School and Whitegates Learning Centre were used for the first time to hear instrumental classes. Festival organisers said this worked well.
The festival closed on Saturday evening with the ever-popular bands competitions, which took place for the second year in the sports centre, the walls of which were recently refurbished with magnificent red curtains to help the overall acoustic and resonance; new portable stage with “risers”, and comfortable seating helped to create a spacious concert hall effect and was pleasing to the eye.
Three junior bands competed in the first call of the evening with Cowal Schools’ Wind Band gaining first place with 93 marks.
The senior class saw Dunoon Grammar snatch victory by one mark from Campbeltown Grammar and the open class, or “Battle of the Giants” as it is jokingly referred to, was won by Campbeltown Brass with 95 marks, followed very closely by Dalriada Community Concert Band with 94 marks.
The evening, which is recognised as the highlight of the festival, attracted an audience of more than 300 with festival chairwoman Jane MacLeod as compère.
Bringing the festival to a close, the adjudicators collectively agreed that the CWS Scottish Co-op Premier Festival Award for the most promising performer in the 2004 festival should go to Chelsea McLean of Campbeltown, who gained first place in four vocal competitions held on various days throughout the week.
All the adjudicators were full of praise and admiration for the work being done in schools and paid tribute to the teachers and parents for supporting the festival.
The festival began as a one-day event with a session in the morning and another in the afternoon. This was followed by a gala concert.
Since then it has expanded and now it is a weeklong event held in the four major communities of Mid Argyll, Lochgilphead, Inveraray, Tarbert and Ardrishaig. Next year sees the Silver Jubilee of the festival and it is hoped to mark this in a special way.
Factory gets go-ahead
The plan to build a new fish processing factory at Tarbert came a step nearer last week, with the granting of planning permission for the scheme in spite of a number of objections from local residents.
A number of objections have been received by Argyll and Bute District Council to the plan, which is for the construction of a factory on the industrial estate off the Campbeltown Road, the site encroaching partly on the former football pitch.
The objections are based generally on two aspects of the factory; the potential effect on