Day: April 28, 2011

HELPFUL HENRY KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY!

Drylaw man Henry MacDonald received Drylaw Telford Community Council’s annual award for good citizenship last night (Wednesday 27 April). Sixty-eight year old Henry was following in his father’s footsteps – dad Harry was the first recipient of the award which was established in 2000!

Drylaw Telford Community Council introduced the annual award for good citizenship following the death of local campaigner, activist and enthusiastic community councillor Tam Tierney in 1999. Since the launch of the award there have been dozens of nominations and eleven recipients, but father and son Harry and Henry are the first members of the same family to receive the award.

Drylaw Telford Community Council hosted a reception at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre last night and Henry was joined by friends and family (including identical twin brother George and dad Harry), church members and community councillors at the celebration. Guests included Tam Tierney’s widow Cath and their son Thomas, and all four Inverleith councillors – Lesley Hinds, Stuart McIvor, Tim McKay and Iain Whyte – also attended.

Councillor Tim McKay, convener of Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership, presented Henry with a plaque and said: “Henry was cited by six nominees for his work as a volunteer with Drylaw Church. His helpfulness clearly shines through, and Henry is obviously following in a family tradition! I am delighted to present this well-deserved award on behalf of the community council”.

Drylaw Parish Church minister Pat Watson added: “Since I arrived at Drylaw over five years ago Henry has just been so helpful. As well as welcoming guests to the church and preparing lunches Henry is always helping out – you can be sure that if anything is left lying around for too long our Henry will dispose of it! People dropping in will also be offered a cup of tea and a bacon roll, too, so as well as being warmly welcomed they will be well-fed too! Henry really makes a valuable contribution to church life just as Harry did. Harry kept the church grounds looking beautiful until just a couple of years ago and Henry is keeping up the good work – if Henry is able to do even half the work his dad did over the years Drylaw church will be well served for years to come. Many congratulations”.

It’s been quite a year for the local McDonald clan – as well as Henry’s award, mum and dad Harry and Nan celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last month.

While he was delighted to receive the award, Henry won’t be resting on his laurels – on Sunday he’ll be putting his best foot forward when he takes part in an annual sponsored walk over the Forth Road Bridge for the Christian Aid charity. It’s an event Henry’s supported for many years and he took the opportunity to add quite a few names to his sponsor sheet at the Drylaw event!

Dave Pickering

Funding For Community Groups

The Scottish Community Foundation is searching for groups who want their voices heard by decision makers. The body is looking for motivated community members to explore a local issue, and can make available £5000 in Big Lottery funding per group.

Grant director Nick Addington said: “You may want to help your community have its say on how local assets and resources are used, or how services are delivered.”

To find out more visit www.scottishcf.org/ocof by June 6

Telford Secures Safety Award For A Second Time

Telford College has scooped a top award for health and safety the second year in a row. The city college has won a Gold Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Occupational Health and Safety Award.

Health and safety manager Alan Crawford said: “We are delighted to have achieved the award for the second year running. We endeavour to ensure risks are avoided and this is a great recognition of our efforts in making sure thatTelford is a safe environment for staff and students.”

Spartans Hat-Trick Of Titles

Spartans were crowned Central taxis Premier Division Champions earlier this month for the third consecutive year. The Ainslie Park men traveled to Rosewell, the home of Whitehill Welfare and clinched the title thanks to a Ross Archibald goal. Co-manager Sam Lynch said “We deserved the title over the course of the year and I am delighted with the win. The boys are ecstatic, the atmosphere in the changing room is superb. We won’t get carried away however, we are still in the later stages of a few cups and we will now concentrate on them.” Lynch added “I thanked the players for their superb efforts over the season and congratulated them. Tonight is my seventh league title at Spartans and I’ve enjoyed every one.”

Spartans faced the same opposition a week earlier and were defeated 2-1, their first league defeat of the season and this delayed them being crowned Champions. One week later and they were held by Whitehill until the dying stages of the game when they were awarded a penalty late in the game and team Captain Ross Archibald stepped up to fire the ball home.

Goal here Archibald said “That is the most important goal I have scored this year as it gave us the vital three points that means we have the title. It’s been a long time coming for us. I think over the season we have been the most consistent team in the league, although maybe not always the best team. We have played good football and when we didn’t play well we ground out results.”

The Spartans squad celebrate after picking up the trophy

Club chairman, Craig Graham has nothing but praise for the team and what they have achieved. He said: “From the start of the season the number one objective was to win the league. It became clear that we were going to win the league and the players have done exceptionally well especially considering there were a number of close games that could have gone either way but the players used resilience and skill to prevent any losses.”

“The thing with winning the league two years in a row is that you become the team to beat and as a result the opponents often bring their best game, which didn’t make it easy for us. We are quite fortunate that we have a number of players who have been with us for five or six seasons and their experience was a huge benefit to the team. If they lost an early goal they didn’t panic and were able to work to get it back.”

Craig admits that there may be a temptation to relax after the league triumph but the team is still in contention for four cups he said: “There’s always that danger the team loose their edge but it’s a big game at the weekend. The focus now is to win all four cups in addition to the league which has never been done at this level before.”

The other half of the management team, Mike Lawson was on holiday on the night the league was won and on his return he said “Our first aim this season was to retain our league title and that we have done with a good bit to spare. At Spartans we know that on their day any given side can beat any other in our league and apart from ourselves the table shows that. Our squad of players is very similar to any in the top half of the league but it’s our consistency of performance which puts us above the rest.  Our boys manage to play near the top of their game week in, week out and that shows in the league table.”

Lawson continued “For what they have achieved so far this season I congratulate each and every one of them. The new boys have fitted in well, the experienced players have helped those developing and the younger influx have kept everyone on their toes. It’s hard to pick any individual player out but I would say it is fitting that our “on fire” captain stepped up to score the goal which secured the league title.”

Picture: Craig Graham