Clubs and organisations

Common Weal Perth and Kinross

Common Weal Perth and Kinross next meets at 6:45pm on Wednesday, May 17 at Blend Coffee Lounge, 274 High Street, Perth, for “coffee, cake and conversation” on various aspects of current affairs and politics. All are welcome to come along and take part. You can find out more about Common Weal at www.allofusfirst. org and follow the local Perth & Kinross group either on Facebook or on Twitter at @commonwealpk@ outlook.com.

Perth and District Ramblers

Walk on Saturday, May 13. Elie to Anstruther coastal walk. 7 miles Grade C. Meet at 9am at Asda car park, Perth or 10.15 at centre of Elie. Map ref. 59/NT:493000. Return to Elie by bus after the walk is finished. Further information from Roger Brickell tel. 01764 656114 mob. 07733 317725. The group also holds walks every Wednesday; for details contact Jim Pirie tel. 01738 451314 mob. 07923 457219.

Perth Flower Club

Perth Flower Club’s last meeting before the summer break is in the Grampian Hotel on Monday, May 15 at the usual time of 7.30pm. There is also a tombola. The demonstrator is for the evening is local lady Anne Buchan from Clathybeg, her title is “A Little Bit of This a Little Bit of That. New members and visitors welcome.

Perth Probus Club

Club president Duncan Naysmith welcomed and introduced our speaker Anna Rathband, the filming manager with the National Trust for Scotland, responsible for promoting the Trust’s heritage and property as locations. Prior to this Anna, who was brought up in Perthshire, had been based in Dundee working as the film commissioner for Fife and Tayside, and had also produced short films in her own right. Anna explained that all profits from the use of NTS locations were put back into maintaining the properties. Their financial target for this year was £50000, and last year a profit of £70000 was achieved. There are around four or five enquiries from film and TV companies every day. The overriding criteria however is that the use of the property should not cause damage to either the subjects or their environment. Steven Spielberg had wanted to use St Kilda as a location, but this had been declined as their use would have required multiple helicopter landings on the island, and this would not have been compatible with environmental considerations. Many of the film and TV projects use NTS properties for aesthetic purposes. For example, Pollok House in Glasgow has been used as a backdrop for programmes as diverse as “Outlander” and “Rab C Nesbitt”. The village of Culross in Fife has been used for, amongst others, “Outlander”, “Captain America” and some of the Bollywood movies. Many of the houses in Culross are painted white, but this does not photograph well, so for the purposes of filming, the walls were painted grey, before being returned to white at the conclusion of the project. Very often large film projects pay for decorative and cosmetic improvements which help towards preserving the fabric of the properties. On occasions, however, the decorative work has to be of a temporary nature, and in these cases water soluble paints, which wash off, or latex coatings which peel off are used. Factual programmes have frequently used NTS locations including “Winter Watch”, “Landward” and “Countryfile”. Advertising and photo shoots provide a good income. In particular, Glencoe has been very popular whether for adverts for cars, banks or even children’s clothes. Care is always taken to avoid disturbing wildlife. Quite apart from the direct income to the NTS, there is also a huge knock-on effect to the local The 54th Perthshire Scouts from Auchterarder have marked their centenary by raising money for CHAS.

The Scout pack marked their 100th anniversary with a fun day in Auchterarder Town Hall, with crafts, stalls and games and some tea and cake. A number of former Scouts even came back to the town for the day to join in with the celebrations. The money raised from the day was donated by the Auchterarder Scouts to CHAS Rachel House, and they handed over a cheque of £547 at their meeting last week on Wednesday, May 3.

communities with the rise of film tourism. It is estimated that the use of Glen Etive for “Skyfall” generated £13M in free publicity. “Outlander” is estimated to have generated a boost of up to £50m to the wider Scottish economy, all of which is ongoing with Outlander tours and other initiatives. VisitScotland and the NTS actively produce publicity and maps showing film locations to promote visitors and tourism throughout the country. The vote of thanks was proposed by Ninian Reid. Our next meeting is on May 24 when there will be a talk by the Dewar’s archivist.

Perthshire Writers

On Wednesday, May 17 at 7.30pm the group will be performing “A Pocketful of Perthshire”, a selection of prose and poetry written by members throughout the year, in the Lecture Hall at Perth Museum and Art Gallery. Admission is £5 per ticket, available on the door. The performance will round off the club’s activities for the year. Club meetings will resume on Tuesday, September 5. During the summer break you can continue to keep up with all the club’s news on its Facebook page or its web site www.perthshirewriters.co.uk.

RSAS

Bowls - Staff Association Bowls Triples for Ladies and Gents being held on Friday, May 19 at Grangemouth Club. Perth will be represented. Wellcroft - annual friendly with Wellcroft BC is on Tuesday, May 23, meet at club at 11am. Contact Ian Gray for info - tel 632161. Relive the Day - celebrations of St Johnstone winning the Scottish Cup. Sunday, May 14, members and guests welcome. Dominoes - League Singles - being held on Friday, May 12 at St Johnstone Supporters Club at 7pm.Golf -Tuesday, May 16, second round Bissett & Stewart Cup. Darts - Gents - Monday, May 15, Handicap Cup. Ladies - Tuesday, May 16, Presentation Night. Caley BC - Gents - Saturday, May 13, Club competition - Harry Fraser pairs. Report to Club for 11.30am for start at noon. Wednesday, May 18, Campbell Trophy v West End at 6.45 pm. Ladies - Monday, May 15, V North Inch away at 2pm, two rinks.

St Leonard’s Probus Club

President Bob Leggeat welcomed 25 members and introduced Valerie Wares whose topic was “Macular de-

generation. Despite being a sufferer of this disease of the aged, Valerie shared her experiences with great clarity and a sense of humour. Basically, the central vision deteriorates leaving only peripheral vision which was described in great detail from Valerie’s personal experience. Women tend to suffer from Macular degeneration more so than men. There are two types; 1. Dry degeneration which occurs over a period of years. 2. Wet degeneration which occurs when the blood vessels behind the eye leak and for which there is no cure but injections can stabilise the condition. It is hoped that this disease can be treated more effectively in the future. The vote of thanks was given by Bob McKillop. The next meeting will take place at the Caledonian Bowling Club, Feus Road, on Thursday, May 18 at 10am when Mark Simmons will speak about the Perth Museum history collection.

Scone and District 50+ Group

The next meeting of the Scone and District 50+ Group will take place on Wednesday, May 17 at 2pm in the Robert Douglas Memorial Hall on Abbey Road. Marilyn Netherington from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association will be coming to give a talk about her work. New members are always welcome. www.scone50plus.co.uk

Tay Probus Club

One of our own members, Ernie Bruce, talked to us at our Meeting on May 3 on the subject of the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MASF). A native of Belfast, Ernie apprenticed engineering at Harland &Wolff before embarking on a service career that saw periods in all three branches Navy, Army and Airforce. Following retirement he worked with Air Service Training (AST) at Scone before becoming involved as a volunteer with Mission Aviation Fellowship in 2014. MAF was conceived in 1946 by a group of pilots and engineers who had served together in the desert campaign of World War II and who, through their sorties, had witnessed the poverty and starvation of the peoples of North Africa, particularly in Sudan. Initially organised in the UK as a wing of the Mildmay Movement, MAF-UK operated in Central Africa in 1948 and Sudan in 1950,

subsequently expanding its service to other African countries. Providing aviation, communication and learning technology services to countless Christian and humanitarian agencies, MAF worldwide now covers more than 55 countries and operates a fleet of some 130 light aircraft. From a map of the world indicating the 10°-40° corridor in the Northern Hemisphere, within which more than 70% of the world’s population live, Ernie pointed out the concentration within that area of the very poor countries in which MAF operates. Accessible to remote regions, the crews of pilot and engineer not only fly the planes in and out but whilst on the ground operate as “jack of all trades” within the communities they serve. In illuminating the wonderful work of an organisation of which few of us were aware Ernie’s passion and commitment shone through in his talk. A warm and affectionate vote of thanks was given by Cameron Horne.

WFA Tayside Branch

The next meeting of the Western Front Association Tayside Branch takes place on Saturday, May 13 at 2.30pm. The day sees the return of a very popular speaker Niall Cherry who has visited the branch twice. Niall will describe the Battle for the Messines Ridge in Belgium where, on June 7, 1917, a painstakingly planned attack was launched by troops of General Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army. After a seventeen-day bombardment from 2000 guns a series of huge mines was exploded under the German lines just before the attack - changing the geography as well as the history of the war. With the ridge in British hands the scene was set for the start of the Third Battle of Ypres in late July. Niall Cherry is a historian, author and ex-RAMC soldier with a deep interest in the two world wars. He has published eight books on these conflicts including “Most Unfavourable Ground” on the Battle of Loos. He has visited the Western Front on many occasions. The meeting will be held in the Glasite Hall, King Street, Dundee DD1 2JB (adjacent to St Andrew’s Church) and is open to all with an interest in the First World War not just to WFA members. Further details can be obtained from the branch web pages www.wfatayside.co.uk which also has details of the future programme.