Views from the Scord 01.08.08

Charity concert
The charity concert at the Scalloway Boating Club on Saturday night raised over £1,000 for cancer charities. To review such a concert is made difficult by the requirement for so many superlatives from such an excellent array of musical talent. Compere John Willum “Popeye” Ward kicked off the evening with a couple of lightsome songs and a joke or two. The first musical surprise of the evening came next with singer Bryan McCaffrey leading a band of talented young musicians, uplifting the crowd with a classic collection of mostly Johnny Cash hits, including an impressive version of Man in Black to much acclaim and applause.

Shereen Smith gave a brave performance despite being let down by the technology of her backing track during her first song and carried on in professional fashion with her next pleasant tune.
Scalloway’s latest upcoming child star Jessica Johnson held the crowd transfixed with a beautiful song confidently and competently performed and followed with a delayed encore later in the evening to even more applause.

Established ensemble Laeverick, featuring the vocal talents of Mhari Pottinger, Jenny Keldie and Rhonda Simpson performed a set of country hits with their entrancing vocal harmonies that appear effortless. The traditional music of a three-piece ensemble featuring Jenny Napier, John-Jeems Inkster and Jem Napier provided set of lively tunes.

Lisa Ward, with acoustic guitar, performed a confident set of three tunes. This versatile songstress is perhaps better known in musical circles for her highly charged vocals in a “metal’ band in Glasgow but a performance such as this provided an outstanding display of her versatility, with three melodic songs, finishing her set with the song made famous as Johnny Cash’s last and most poignant hit, Hurt which may have been a confident departure from the lightsome tone of the evening but was executed with passionate aptitude.

Erin Sandison came to the stage accompanied by expert guitarists Allan Mackay and Donald Anderson, forming a trio that could grace any stage in the world, treating the crowd to a well-groomed set of notable quality. Following Erin, the Pottinger Brothers, Geordie, Gibbie and Stuart, drew the audience back into foot-tapping mode. All in all the evening provided a range of musical treats for all present and a great fund raising effort from the organisers.

SBFS coffee morning
The Shetland Bus Friendship Society is holding Sunday teas in the Scalloway Hall on 17th of August. For this occasion they are inviting people to submit material for a display of humorous photographs to be shown during the afternoon. The subject matter can be anything at all so long as it could not be considered offensive to anyone or in particularly bad taste. Entrants are assured of the safe return of their photos so long as they provide a name and address for them to be returned to. Please send your photographs to Sandra Reynolds, 12 Berry Road, Scalloway, or the Scalloway Public Hall before Wednesday 13th August. Proceeds from the event will go toward ongoing funding efforts by the society for the new Scalloway Museum.

Harbour activity
Anyone within earshot of Scalloway Harbour must have been aware that something big was happening on Friday night as the intense rumble of massive horsepower and irregular metallic grinding and banging continued after midnight. This dramatic symphony was the last visit of the anchor handling tug Normand Master to discharge 1,500 metres of used mooring chain from the Foinaven field west of Shetland. She was assisted in this mammoth task by a large loading shovel and equally big forklift to tow and manoeuvre the huge links to a tidy lay out away from the pier edge.

The chains will remain onshore until they can be inspected and tested for continued use. Upon completing the discharge the Normand Master loaded materials and apparatus and set sail for a smaller scale mooring maintenance operation on the Banff field, east of Aberdeen. This was a second visit to the harbour during the week as she loaded the last chain and anchor for deployment west of Shetland on Tuesday.

Other traffic movements included a busy week for the Ronja Settler, the Fame which called in with more salmon feed, and the 58m Sea Surveyor which called in for a crew change. The Hordafor II loaded salmon silage from the SSF factory at Blacksness. Two more aqualine cages were launched for local sites. One elusive overnight visitor of interest was the new fisheries research vessel Alba Na Mara. This high specification multi-tasking 27m fishing vessel can handle single and twin-rig trawling, pelagic and demersal trawling, scallop dredging, hydrographic sampling, surveying and camera work. Built in Macduff for the Scottish government’s marine directorate, she comes as a replacement for the ageing Clupea.

Fishing report
A better tally in the week to Friday with fish landings through the Scalloway fish market up a bit from the week before. Fishing boats Comrades, Fertile, Radiant Star, Alison Kay, Devotion, Prevail, Ocean Way and Scotia put a total of 1801 boxes through the market. The deep drafted Ocean Way has been seen to become a regular to the port utilising the deeper quayside depth.

Summer playschemes
This second of this year’s summer playschemes came to an end last week. A total of 53 children registered with an average of 35 attending most days, making this even more successful than last year’s playschemes. A high level of parental and volunteer involvement added to this and enabled a series of fantastic excursions for all involved.

Trips took them as far away as Unst, a tour through the West Mainland taking in the burn of Lunklett and Kergord, a visit to Sumburgh Head taking in Bigton and the Levenwick Beach.

They also visited the Burradale wind farm, Clickimin and the Burland Croft Trail in Trondra. The NAFC Marine Centre also provided some stimulating and educational entertainment with their salt water aquarium tanks where bairns can see and handle some of the marine flora and fauna from around our coast. Art and craft activities were provided with Kristi Cumming in attendance. This hectic itinerary kept the organisers and children very busy and favourable weather smiled on most of the trips and activities.

Carina Isbister, one of the organisers, said: “Yet again the bairns made the whole experience an absolute pleasure, with everyone complementing [us] on how well behaved they were and what a good bunch they were to work with.” On behalf of the organisers Carina would like to thank everyone involved: the parents, John the bus driver and all the committee members for all their efforts and especially the bairns for all their “infectious energy and enthusiasm”. The organisers already look forward to next year’s even bigger better playschemes.

Good companions
The Scalloway Good Companions had a grand day out on Tuesday this week with an excursion to the South Mainland. Over 40 senior citizens started out with a meal in the Spiggie Hotel that drew praise from the group. A scenic trip around the Spiggie Loch led them to the Quendale Mill where they toured the mill and enjoyed the gift shop facilities.

Onward to Mainland’s shop at Dunrossness that has become a popular stop on the tours to the South Mainland because of the wide range of goods available. Next they ventured to the Hoswick Visitor Centre where the group enjoyed viewing the exhibition of historical items present there and rounded the day off with afternoon tea in the café, with some taking advantage of the proximity of Laurence Odie’s knitwear shop for some more shopping, before returning to Scalloway.

Gym opening
The new gym facility in Norway House has passed the final hurdles of regulation and approval and is set to stage a grand opening and open weekend starting next Friday. A sneak preview of the facility allows me to tell of a spacious, well equipped weights-orientated gym facility, with the friendly Powergym clientele eager for the opening and new membership. The main area is devoted to weightlifting equipment of many types and a boxing workout area, while one of the light and airy rooms in the seaward side of the building houses exercise bikes and cross training cardiovascular exercise equipment. Organiser Stuart Wadley hopes that anybody with an interest in getting fit, toning up, recovering from injury or keen on body building will stop by next weekend to see the facility and find out more about what club membership and instruction can offer.

<b><i>Mark Burgess</i></b>