We welcome Edinburgh Accies to Mansfield Park this afternoon. Their President Simon Burns, Vice President Ewan Alexander and Secretary John Wright have come to be good friends of the Club and it is good to catch up with them again. The Accies sit in fourth place in the Premiership table and Shawn and the boys will have to be at their best if we are to strengthen our hold on top place.
Congratulations to Lee Armstrong who today plays his 200th game for the Club. He has made a big impact on his return to the green jersey this season. Well done also to Stuart Graham who reached a similar milestone at Poynder Park last week and to Kirk Ford who that day became a Club centurion.
By the time you read this after this morning’s finals the 2023 Keown Trophy and Chrystie’s Quaich winners will be known. How many of those youngsters who played today will go on to play in the famous green? Well done to our Development Officer Graham Hogg for all his hard work to bring these tournaments to a successful conclusion. Any boy or girl who played today is entitled to get a parent in with them free for this afternoon’s game.
As you look along this afternoon to the dead ball area in front of the clubrooms you will be pinching yourself. Was there really a marquee with room for almost 600 people there last Friday night? No, you’re not dreaming, there was. Our Celebratory Dinner had been years in the planning and. I extend my grateful thanks for the colossal effort put in by the Dinner sub-committee over many months and by the maintenance crew, Committee and members in the week beforehand. What this teamwork produced was a marvellous setting for what turned out to be a night which everyone privileged to attend will never forget for it was a truly special occasion. The positive feedback has been nothing short of overwhelming.
Debbie and her team produced a meal of the highest quality and her bevy of young waitresses served it efficiently and expeditiously. Lyndsey and her bar staff kept everybody well-watered. Rory Lawson chaired the evening superbly. Our Captain Shawn more than held his own with Colin Deans and Tony Stanger in the Q and A. Returning to his native town Henry Beeby presided over a very successful auction, Andy Irvine delivered a heart-felt toast to Hawick RFC, All Black legend Sean Fitzpatrick delighted the audience with his rugby memories, making it obvious to all the esteem in which he held Bill McLaren and Hawick’s Official Song-Singer Michael Aitken provided his customary first class entertainment. For many, however, it was the two golden oldies who stole the show – the laird o Howahill, Henry Douglas, who had sung at the hundredth anniversary Dinner fifty years ago when he joined Michael to sing his famous “bottle of beer” song and Hawick’s oldest living internationalist, ninety-two-year-old Norman Davidson, the first baby born in the Haig Maternity Home, who sent a truly inspiring video message from his home in Auckland.
In my welcome in the Dinner brochure I wrote that I was sure, to use an old Hawick expression that the Dinner would be “a long heard tell o” event and this will surely be the case.
The Hawick boys we will watch this afternoon were all there, 40 players in all, and many of them will be at the 200th anniversary Dinner when who would bet against Henry being there to sing again!
Back to this afternoon, let’s all enjoy another great Mansfield Park event.
