Osiligi Warriors of Kenya visit Biggar Primary School

Submit news to Isobel Foster on 01899 220840 or email [email protected]

probus club –The first meeting of the 2011/12 session of the Biggar Probus Club will take place in Biggar Municipal Hall on Tuesday, October 4, when the speaker will be Joe Ferguson, who will be talking on microgeneration. The club meets at 10am for a 10.30am start, coffee and biscuits being served prior to the meeting. The club is open to retired professional and business men and new members can be assured of a very warm welcome. There is a varied and attractive programme of speakers for the new session and members, old and new, can look forward to interesting meetings.

Cancer Research – The local committee of Cancer Research UK wishes to thank everyone who came along and supported the Autumn Fair on Saturday. The final total raised was the fantastic sum of £1611.59. Special thanks go to everyone who donated raffle prizes and items for the sales tables, also to their army of helpers who helped make the event such a success.

ROTARY CLUB – At the meeting of Biggar Rotary Club at Tinto Hotel, Symington on Tuesday September 20, Senior Vice President George Mathew welcomed members and introduced Tim Chad, the speaker for the evening. Tim had chosen consumer law as his theme. As manager of the discount store, Argos at Bathgate he has frequent opportunity to engage in the application of the regulations governing buying and selling and customers’ rights. He referred humorously to the fact that everyone claimed to know his or her rights and observed that it was, of course, an area where there were few black or white answers. He took members through the topic of statutory rights and explained that any item sold must be of satisfactory quality and be exactly as described in any accompanying literature. It must also be fit for purpose. He stated that the expectations that we might have for the performance of any item should reflect the price paid and that more expensive items should reasonably last longer. He pointed out that there were no guarantees in law and that when any guarantee attached to an item expired, the liability fell to the retailer to deal with customers’ complaints. If an article ceased to function, the retailer was obliged to restore the position before the breakdown although the customer might have to pay for the parts. He explained that in his business, if an article was returned after some time, an offer reflecting the depreciation in value might be made as a gesture of goodwill. For example, in the case of a television which had cost £500 at the time of purchase, £250 might be offered toward the purchase of a replacement. He talked about the importance of paying attention to the ‘small print’ of special offers and pointed out that the price of an article could be raised for 28 days then cut to claim a ‘half price’ sale figure. Things therefore were not always what they seemed and the customer required to be vigilant. When returning any item, proof of purchase was essential. This could be the receipt, evidence of a bank or credit card payment or a witness statement. He spoke about companies’ return policies and explained that although there was no strict requirement for a company to take things back, this was generally done on the basis of maintaining good customer relations. Alec Taylor, on behalf of the club members attending, thanked Tim for a very informative and amusing insight into the complex world of consumer law.

GUIDE DOGS – The annual coffee morning will be held on Saturday, October 1, from 10am until noon in the Gillespie Centre. Donations of tombola prizes and baking will be gratefully accepted and should be handed in to the centre before 10am on the morning. This year is the 25th anniversary of the local branch and a good turnout would be appreciated. Everybody is welcome.

LITTLE CINEMA – The Corn Exchange is the venue for the screening of 2010 movie True Grit on Sunday and Monday, October 30 and 31. This is part of an exciting new season of six films being screened there between October and March. Tickets priced £6 may be obtained from the Biggar Little Festival box office in the Gillespie Centre or from Bryden’s Newsagents in the High Street. Memberships priced £30 for the season of six films are still available for the first screening of each film and can be obtained by phoning 01899 220418. Memberships for the second screening of each film are fully subscribed but tickets for either screening for non-members will be available from Bryden’s a month before each film.

Lace Class – Biggar Bobbin Lace Class is having an open morning in the Municipal Hall from 10am to noon on Thursday, October 6. Anyone who is interested in learning more about this fascinating craft is invited to go along and watch or try it for themselves. There will be no charge and all will be made most welcome.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL – The recent meeting of Biggar Community Council took place as members met with members of the Rural Development Trust in the Corn Exchange. The opinion of the experts who spoke was that the High Street should be ripped apart and started again, but it seemed their previous experience was with small market towns in England not a town with a trunk road running through it. There is a further meeting scheduled for October 4 in Corn Exchange at 7.30pm. In Councillor Hamish Stewart’s report he mentioned that the council will start to look at its own budgets after the Scottish Government budget proposals. Proposals for winter maintenance will be publicised on October 5. Salt stock should be 50 per cent higher at start of Winter than last year. Double yellow lines may not be the answer for Park Place due to the fact that there are so seldom traffic wardens in the town, especially not in the evenings when the problem is worst. At a recent meeting re the windfarm grants, Biggar Youth Project were allocated £4996. The community council members discussed the state of the two unfinished building sites at each end of the town as it was not a good advert for Biggar to visitors coming in to the town.

CORN EXCHANGE – There are a series of events being held at the Corn Exchange throughout the month of October. As well as a series of events during the Biggar Little Festival there is a comedy evening brought to the town by the Ha Ha Club and features some of the most exciting comedians in the country. The show on Saturday, October 1, begins at 8pm. Tickets cost £12 and are available by logging onto www.wegottickets.com/event/127549 or by calling 07593 284963. On October 2 the Osiligi Warriors’ return to Biggar at 7.30pm. The Osiligi Warriors were founded by their chairman Tajeu Minnisa (Richard) in 2007. The purpose of the troupe is to benefit their community and the families in their village of Kisamis, situated approximately 30 miles southwest of Nairobi. Money is raised by a series of UK tours during which the troupe will perform their tribal song and dance and spread the word about their culture. Tickets for this fantastic show are £6 (£5 concessions) available from Atkinson Pryce Bookshop, Bryden’s Newsagents or the Art Gallery at the Corn Exchange. On Wednesday, October 12, the Rowan Tree Theatre Company presents Sins of the Father, by Tom Murray and directed by John Carnegie. This is a tense, passionate, edge-of-the-seat drama. Tickets cost £7 (£5 under 18s, unemployed and disabled) and are available from Border Events, at the Corn Exchange or on the door.

bowling club – The ladies have played two competitions recently and the results were as follows: Nita Young Trophy - M Brotherstone, H Masterton and J Campbell; Friendship Trophy - C McAllister and S Sands. Tuesday gents winners were M Cowan and J Yuille. Thursday winners were R Hutchison and D Barrie. The weekly whists start on Monday, October 3 at 7.30pm and the ladies section are holding a whist drive on Thursday, October 6, at 7.30pm. All are welcome at these events.

youth project – The quiz night scheduled for this Friday evening had to be cancelled. Another one will be arranged in a couple of months or so. Due to limited funding they are still having to restrict their opening hours to 10.30am to 2.30pm on a Monday to Thursday, nearly a 50 per cent reduction on their previous hours. The youth cafe on a Tuesday night and CAB Outreach on a Friday morning will continue as normal. The youth project has applied to the Royal Bank of Scotland Communityforce Awards and stand a chance of winning £6000. However, the project needs your votes! Should it be successful the project would use the money to develop the popular lunchtime cafe for young people offering a range of healthy snacks and drinks in a safe environment. You can vote by visiting the RBS Communityforce website at www.communityforce.rbs.co.uk where it will indicate the projects in your area and tell you more about the youth project. Unfortunately at the time of going to press, the RBS website is undergoing maintenance and their specific link cannot be tested; however the number for the project is project 899. Votes can be cast any time during the next four weeks so the link will be included in Biggar News next week and on the website at www.theoldauctionring.org.uk.

tattie pail – The Fleming Arms Tattie Pail competition was won by Richard Amos with a weight of 7lbs 8oz. The runner-up was Kerr Whitefield with a weight of 6lbs 5oz. The charity auction that followed the weigh-in raised a magnificent total of £1000 which will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support. Many thanks to all those who donated items for the auction and to those taking part your generosity is greatly appreciated.

kirk – At the morning service on Sunday, September 25, the reading was taken from 1 Thessalonians Chapter 3 verse 11 to Chapter 4 verse 12. In his series of sermons What Is The Church? the Rev David Easton preached on the theme People Who Please God And Who Love One Another. Next Sunday, October 2, the morning service at 11am will include the Dedication of the Guild. There will be an evening service in St Mary’s Hall at 7pm. Tickets for the harvest lunch on October 9 are available in the Gillespie Centre and after the morning service. All welcome.

BIGGAR RUGBY – On Sunday the Mini section held their annual award ceremony for the John Hare Awards. These awards are made to those who have made the greatest contribution to their age group and not necessarily the ‘best’ player. The winners were as follows; primary four - Ross Catto, primary five - Douglas Mason, primary six - Sam Greive, primary seven - Alasdair Mason, Mini Player of the Year - Alasdair Mason. Gala Red Triangle were visitors at S1 and S2 level on Sunday with contrasting results. The S1 side maintained their good run of form with a hefty win by 31 points to eight. Tries from Rowan Stewart (four), John Bennett (two), Alasdair Mason and Rory McGinn. Rory McGinn (three) and Lewis Currell (two) shared the kicking duties. The S2 side had a much more difficult task with Gala led by an athletic stand-off who scored most of their points. Biggar lost by eight points to three. At under 15 and under 16 level Currie were the visitors. Currie have an A and B side in the under 15 league and having lost out to the B side several weeks ago this was always going to be a really tough game. In fact, despite the added value of four of the under 16 squad who are still age to play under 15 rugby, the visitors ran up a cricket score. The Biggar lads never gave up however and a purple patch of some 10 minutes on the Currie line though not yielding any points had their visitors in trouble. The under 16 Currie side is as weak as the under 15 side is strong and having conceded the fixture due to lack of numbers a training game of 10-a-side ensued. Biggar ran out convincing winners.

nLibberton & Quothquan

Submit items to the Gazette office at 3 High Street, Carluke, ML8 4AL, or email [email protected]

church – Members are reminded that the time of the service in Libberton Church changes to 10.45am on October 3 and on that date the service is joint with Blackmount and Culter in Libberton Church. Rev Jim Cutler preaches his last service before retirement on October 9 and from then on Bill Love will conduct the Sunday service. Rev Una Stewart of Law Church will act as Interim Moderator until further notice.

nAuchengray

Submit items to the Gazette office at 3 High Street, Carluke, ML8 4AL, or email [email protected]

Rural – Due to last minute cancellation of the baking demonstrator (family reasons) Colin kindly came to their rescue and they had a very pleasant evening of music and laughter. Competition winners were: decorated cupcakes - 1 Jane Wilson, 2 Rosemary Frost, 3 Heather Bryden; flowers in a kitchen utensil - 1 Sandra Brewster, 2 Jane Wilson, 3 Rosemary Frost. The next meeting is Thursday, October 13, at 7.30pm in Auchengray Church Hall when Grace will be teaching them to draw. Competitions are a painted stone, an Auchengray picture or photograph. Go along and join them. New members always welcome.