As usual, by early evening on Saturday a lot of the temporary infrastructure (tents, marquees, fencing, etc.) had already disappeared and the field itself and surrounds looked pretty litter-free; extraordinary really, when one considers how many people were around the field for most of the afternoon (as noted by the Nairnshire in this week's edition it was very well attended and it was certainly one of the best attended Games in my nine years of living in Nairn). By Sunday lunchtime much of the funfair on the links had already left and the rest was mostly already loaded back onto their trucks and by Monday lunchtime all had gone.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Council employees were on site to dismantle all the other temporary infrastructure (e.g. the tall white flagpoles which surround the field, the stand, the country dancing platform) and all the porta-cabins had been removed. On Tuesday top-soil was brought in to fill the hole left after the sand had been removed from the long-jump pit and I've no doubt that tomorrow or the next day the new soil will be levelled-off and new turf added back, so that in a month or two this annual event will hardly be noticeable. All that will remain, for a few weeks, on the cricket field will be the lane and circuit markings. The logistical effort in putting all the infrastructure in place during the days preceding the Games and then removing it again so efficiently and speedily very shortly afterwards is no doubt considerable and I am full of admiration for those who organise it and those who carry it out.
Now, onto the remaining two brief videos and and a few of the photographs I took during Saturday afternoon. The videos show, respectively, a brief excerpt from one of the competitors in the piping competition followed by the final part of the march of the Isle of Skye Pipe Band, whilst the other shows three of the 'tug-of-war' rounds/sets (I don't know what the correct word is for this sport). The five photographs include three of various parts of the Scottish Country Dancing competition, one of the same solo piper who appeared in the first of the two video-clips and finally one of the Massed Pipe Bands preparing to commence their second circuit of the field during the afternoon. And the sun shone on the event - despite the weather forecast predicting it might be quite different; it's one of those occasions where I'm glad it was wrong! Incidentally I spent most of Sunday afternoon across at Rosemarkie on the Black Ise, where I was attending the annual Garden Party at the nursing home where my mother recently took up residence and was told that they had heavy rain on Saturday, so we in Nairn were very lucky with the weather we had just a relatively few miles away across the Moray Firth.
A piper and the Isle of Skye Pipe Band
Three rounds of the Tug-of-War competition
Nairn Highland Games - Saturday 15 August 2009 Click here to see enlargements of all these photographs, where you will also find detailed descriptions of each photograph.      Click here to see enlargements of all these photographs, where you will also find detailed descriptions of each photograph. |
You can see the first part of my 2009 Games' report here.
What was the undoubted highlight?
ReplyDeleteFor me you mean? Well, I suppose this year it was the fact that the weather bucked the forecast by being fine the whole afternoon and that it was so well attended. It's good to see so many people enjoying themselves.
ReplyDeleteNow the cricket pitch is almost back to normal - indeed there is a junior cricket match going on as I type this; it's a beautiful evening here, after raining 'cats and dogs' in the morning.