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In
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In The News - May 2008 |
At the start of the month, there were obituaries for Nicol Ross (27-34) in both the Scotsman and the Telegraph. As a flight lieutenant, Nicky was one of Bomber Command's most experienced heavy bomber pilots. He joined 617 Squadron, made famous by the 'Dam Busters' raid, and took part in many missions on German industrial targets. In 1943, he was awarded the DFC for 'his fine fighting spirit, courage and great devotion to duty'.
There was a strong political thread to Academicals in the news in May. As readers of the News Sheet will already know, a team from the Junior School won the annual Euroquiz competition held in the debating chamber of the Scottish parliament. Patrick Christie, Saul Melvin-Farr, Adair Wood, Alasdair Gillies and Peter Jacobs could also see their names in the Scotsman on the following day.
Gordon Brown's visit to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland prompted a letter to the Scotsman by Ian Lutton (59-72), who thought that our PM did not seem to realise that human survival is linked to the survival of all living things on the planet. He suggested that he should study the ideas of the great Conservative thinker, Edmund Burke.
The previous PM (a Fettesian) was also in the news, or at least his wife was. Following the publication of Cherie Blair's memoirs, there had been calls for her to resign as a judge. To her defence sprang the erstwhile Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer (57-65), quoted in the Scotsman as saying that "it is wrong to suggest writing her memoirs should make the slightest difference to a job she does extremely well."
Alan Robertson (87-97), the chairman of the BMA's junior doctors' committee, has been in print in the Evening News, remarking that the implementation of changes to streamline medical training was 'badly thought out and resulted in chaos'. Alan was also quoted in the Herald, saying that doctors have been lost to Scotland because Scotland and different regions of England were making job offers at different times. This was compounded by regions threatening junior doctors with referral to the BMC if they changed their minds.
To sport and in the Evening News, yet another Edinburgh school, George Watsons, was featured with a piece on Kathryn Bryce, a ten-year-old bowling sensation. We were pleased to see that the paper mentioned that Kathryn began playing cricket in her back garden when she was three, encouraged by her father, James Bryce (62-74), 'a former player for the Edinburgh Academical Cricket Club'.
With the domestic rugby season now over, Accie rugby players are on their travels.
The full Scotland squad, captained by Mike Blair (86-99) are in Argentina for two tests on 6th and 13th June. With him are Phil Godman (90-95) and Dave Callam (87-91). The Scotland 'A' squad are in Canada for the Churchill Cup, also starting this weekend, and include David Blair (90-03). Ross Rennie (91-04) missed out on selection because of injury, and Mark Rennie (88-95), who plays his rugby in France, was not released by his club, Bourgoin.
Congratulations are due to Mike Blair, not just on being made tour captain, but on winning the end of season awards for the Scotland Player of the Year, and the Magners League Player of the Season. He was also the only Scot named in Skysports.com 'team of the tournament' for his play in Six Nations matches.
Paul Loudon (93-06) and Jamie Murray (99-06) are in the Scotland U20 squad for the IRB Junior World Cup, also starting this weekend, in Wales.
Watching the games on TV with mixed feelings will be Donnie Macfadyen (84-97) whose recent retirement from professional rugby was reported widely. He has been very unlucky with injuries over the years but still amassed eleven Scotland caps, captained Scotland 'A' and Scotland U21s, and played well over 100 games for Glasgow.
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