Seems my big plan was not that cunning

My thanks to Glenluce reader James McClung for his letter last week which revealed that my recent column’s “cunning plan” for by- elections wasn’t . . . er . . . so cunning after all!

Truth be told, that having already penned my piece, it was during a conversation later with an ex- councillor that I became blushingly aware my interpretation of the Single Transferable Vote system was at odds with reality. It fact, it was utter tosh.

Stop the presses? Too late! So I sat back and waited for the inevitable gleeful backlash from a long queue of people who would take great delight in doing so.

That honour eventually fell to Mr McClung who, I am pleased to say, corrected my error with the kind of wit and style I’d have been pleased to pen myself!

It just goes to show we call all make mistakes . . . and James McClung is no exception.

His letter claims that I “was a sports journalist ( and a good one at that)”.

I must have been a very good one considering my “sports writing” ended around the same time as my acne – in the Somerset Park press box circa 1978.

How I whittled away the remaining 40 years of my career can be partly found in the humble book I wrote after retirement from full time journalism.

I would be pleased to send James a copy - with my compliments!