Victory for Environment or Nimbies?

Only a few weeks ago, Scottish Water was under fire for not dealing adequately with a scare over cryptosporidium (a bug which causes stomach upsets that can be serious for vulnerable people but who should be boiling all their water anyway) in Glasgow's water supply. Now the company is playing the role of "white knight" as it wages a public relations battle over its plans to build a £100 million water filtration plant at Mugdock reservoir near Glasgow. The local East Dunbartonshire Council ignored the positive recommendation of their planning officials, the local community council and the local civic amenity trust and rejected the planning application this week by 9 votes to 6. They said the decision was based on environmental grounds, noting that Mugdock was a popular beauty spot and that other sites had not been properly considered. Within 24 hours, a media frenzy broke out with the "Friends of Mugdock" being accused of being nimbies (Not In My Back Yard) and threatening the health of 700,000 Glaswegians. European Union legislation requires Scottish Water to have water filtration in place by 2005 - and the Glasgow supply is the only one in the UK which does not have it - due to the water authorities dragging their feet on the issue in the past. On the other hand, despite the lack of filtration, Glasgow has about half the Scottish average for reported cases of the cryptosporidium bug. The matter is now likely to be referred to Ross Finnie, the Minister for the Environment in the Scottish Executive. If Scottish Water are forced to opt for an alternative site, they will be unable to meet the 2005 deadline.

NHS 24 Goes Live

A new 24-hour telephone advice service for patients was launched in Aberdeen this week, offering guidance and health information by qualified National Health Service (NHS) nurses. It will also provide better links between doctors' out-of-hours services, pharmacists and accident and emergency services. It will also give an improved and more appropriate response to 999 Emergency Service callers who do not require the immediate dispatch of an ambulance. The NHS 24 centre based in Aberdeen employs around 60 nurses and currently provides advice to patients in Grampian. This will rolled out later to Highlands, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. By the end of the year the new round-the-clock service will also be available in other major centres of population such as Glasgow.

Opponents of Hospital Plan are "Neanderthals"

The argument between the supporters and the opponents of the £700 million plan to modernise hospitals in Glasgow became a slanging match this week as Sam Galbraith, a former Health Minister (who at one time was an eminent neuro-surgeon) described opponents of the proposals as "Neanderthals" who were holding up progress towards creating quality care in Glasgow's hospitals. But those who are arguing against the plan are concerned that the proposals will cut the number of Accident and Emergency units from five to two in an area serving nearly a million people. Under the plan (which has now been approved by the Scottish Executive) those who live in the northern suburbs and who need accident and emergency services, will now have to travel six miles, including the bottle-neck of the Clyde Tunnel, to reach the Southern General Hospital, south of the river.

Section of West Coat Main Railway line to Close for Four Months

A 40-mile section of the main railway line between London and Glasgow will close for four months next year to allow Railtrack to speed up improvements to the route. The upgrades will allow the new high-speed tilting trains operated by Virgin Rail to operate at higher speeds. The Strategic Rail Authority says that while the closures will mean local trains near Stoke-on-Trent being replaced by buses, main-line services will be diverted to other lines, minimising delays. In 2004, there will be another four-month closure on another section of the line. It is estimated that the new plan will save Railtrack up to £2 billion and will allow the upgrade to be completed in late 2004 instead of 2006.

Scotrail Passenger Numbers Falling

The number of people travelling on the rail network in Strathclyde, which accounts for about half of Scotrail's business, fell by 11.1% in July compared to a year ago, despite many services getting back to normal after the industrial action by drivers in the early part of the year. Punctuality and reliability are major problems - only 83.6% of the trains on the flagship route between Edinburgh and Glasgow arrived within ten minutes of schedule in the month to 17 August. Exceptionally bad weather has been a contributory factor but punctuality has been a major headache all year. There was an encouraging sign on the Edinburgh/Glasgow service which has achieved 95% punctuality in the first full week of the return to a 15-minute frequency. Scotrail is launching an advertising campaign and introducing bargain fares in an effort to win back customers who have moved to alternative forms of transport. Two years ago, Scotrail had the best punctuality record of all the major rail companies in Britain.

Scottish Booking and Information Hotline Goes Live

Scotland's new National Booking and Information Hotline has been set up to provide a service to both national and international visitors. Initially, it will only available by telephone (0845 2255 121) or e-mail via info@visitscotland.com but eventually providing an on-line Web facility, the new service from VisitScotland will have the ability to book accommodation throughout Scotland and provide brochures and tourist information.

Glasgow Airport Flies High

The ongoing struggle between Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports to win government support for expansion to became the designated hub for international air travel in Scotland, took a new twist this week with a report from the respected Fraser of Allander Institute which estimated that Glasgow Airport is currently worth £700 million a year to the Scottish economy and supports 15,000 jobs. Edinburgh Airport, on the other hand, is worth £300 million and supports 7,000 jobs. Last year, Glasgow handled 7.3 million passengers and Edinburgh 6.2 million but Edinburgh has been growing at a faster rate, in part due to the number of low-cost air services from the capital's airport.

Island Hopping Costs Less

British Airways slashed the cost of flying to the Western Isles and Shetland with a new fare structure which means that, for example, flying from Glasgow to Sumburgh in Shetland will cost £109 instead of £410. Previously, there was also a special fare of only £160, but only if the journey included a Saturday stopover and was booked in advance. It is hoped that the new fares will encourage more people to visit the islands as well as being of benefit to those living there. But residents of Orkney - served by Loganair, a British Airways franchise - believe that they are missing out on the new fares.

Professional Patisserie Beats Greek

The proliferation of vocational subjects in the new National Qualifications for school pupils, which are replacing the old Highers, Standard Grades and Certificate of Sixth Year Studies, has meant that some pupils are taking exams in such subjects as scheduled air travel, fish rearing and beauty care. While the numbers sitting these exams are still small, there were 1,930 who sat professional patisserie while only eight sat the long-established classical Greek exam.

Visitors Roll Up for Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel - the world's only rotating boat lift which raises and lowers vessels between the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal - opened in June this year. British Waterways had estimated that 250,000 people would come to see the engineering marvel i the first year but visitor numbers have exceeded expectations and already 200,000 have done so. The structure is due to close for two weeks at the end of September for routine maintenance. Even though it will not be operating, it will still of course be highly visible to any visitors.

Decline in Oil and Gas Engineering Orders

More than half of the companies operating in the oil and gas sectors of the engineering industry have reported a slump in orders in the last quarter. There had been an increase in orders in the previous quarter but there are now fears that as many as 20 oil rigs will be mothballed by the end of the year because of a slowdown in drilling. The decline is being attributed to the tax increases announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his budget in the spring. This slapped an extra 10% onto North Sea oil and gas profits, action which has been greeted with alarm by the oil companies. A vociferous campaign against the extra tax has been mounted and the Government has recently agreed to meet representatives of the industry to discuss their concerns.

Dead Duck

A company which planned to provide tours down the river Clyde using converted Second World War landing craft has gone out of business. Glasgow Duck Tours had hoped to provide combined land and water tours using DUKW high-speed amphibious craft but poor summer weather and unreliability has resulted in the company going into voluntary liquidation. They were also hampered by having only one slipway at Braehead to gain access to the river.

Scottish Master Fails to Sell

A painting "Still Life with Coffee Pot" by the Scottish colourist Samuel Peploe, failed to reach its reserve price of £350,000-£450,000 at an auction by Sotheby's of Scottish paintings at Gleneagles. The painting was being sold by Lord Irvine of Lairg who is the Lord Chancellor, the most senior legal post in Tony Blair's government. However, a painting of a Highland landscape "The Halt" by John Frederick Herring, being auctioned by another seller, reached £470,000, equalling the world record price for a painting sold in Scotland.

Automobile Club Sells Margaret Thatcher

When the Royal Scottish Automobile Club (RSAC) in Glasgow's Blythswood Square sold off all its furniture, fixtures and fittings it included all its valuable paintings - including one of Margaret Thatcher sitting beside two small boys who had taken part in a "Glasgow's Miles Better" competition. The exclusive RSAC closed last month after years of declining membership. But Glasgow City Council and Historic Scotland have prevented the club from removing features considered to be an integral part of the listed building - including a large chandelier hanging over the main entrance. The building is expected to be turned into flats or a hotel.

"Majority" Vote in Favour of Road Tolls

12,000 people in Edinburgh took part in the consultation exercise on the introduction of a £2 charge on all motorists coming into Edinburgh. The result was that 51% voted in favour of the congestion charges. 250,000 leaflets were distributed to people living in Edinburgh, Lothian, Fife and the Borders, asking recipients to vote on a range of options. Results from the poll of those living outside the city are not yet known but are said to be not much different from the Edinburgh poll.

Quality Control for Edinburgh Buskers

Particularly in the tourist season, the centre of Edinburgh has many people playing the bagpipes in the street in the hope of earning money from passers-by. Sometimes the quality of playing leaves much to be desired and now there are moves to introduce tests for buskers to ensure that they come up to a minimum standard of playing. Some of the players are in favour of the initiative, believing that it is those who play badly who create a prejudice against all pipers. Businesses overlooking the most popular pitches sometimes complain to the police about the "noise". But questions have already been raised about who would judge the standards and police it - maybe the City of Edinburgh Police Pipe Band?

Rise Expected in Whisky Sales to India

Scotch whisky companies are gearing up for a major increase in sales in India after the government there recently announced a cut in the level of duty on imports. The highest rate of duty on the most expensive brands was over 700% and this has now ben reduced to just over 400%. While this still makes Scotch expensive compared to local products, the Scottish whisky producers are predicting a 25% annual growth rate as a result of the comparatively lower levels of duty.

Harris Tweed Future Under Threat

The owner of the company which accounts for 97% of the Harris Tweed produced in the Hebrides, has put business up for sale "for personal reasons." Derick Murray has been in the industry for 40 years and was the main player involved in the introduction of the double-width looms in the mid-1990s. The production of Harris Tweed involves 70 staff in mills in Stornoway and Shawbost and another 200 home-based weavers. The sale raises the prospect of ownership of most of the Harris Tweed production leaving the Hebrides for the first time. However, an Act of Parliament requires that all Harris Tweed is physically made in the Outer Hebrides. See Do You Know? - Harris Tweed for more on tweed and its history.

Fish Supper for Royals

When the Duke and Duchess of Wessex recently found themselves at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh without the services of a chef, they didn't try to book a table at a smart restaurant - even the royals would have difficulties at the height of the Edinburgh Festival. Instead, they sent a chauffeur up the Royal Mile to find a take-away fish restaurant and got two "fish suppers" - deep fried fish and chips (French fries in some parts of the world). It seems unlikely, however, that they ordered any deep-fried Mars Bars, a local Scottish "delicacy".. A palace official confirmed the story - but declined to identify the establishment which got the unexpected royal patronage. Pity the Duke and Duchess hadn't been in north Fife where the Anstruther Fish Bar has won the title of "Best in Scotland" for the last two years - a title which I can confirm is well justified!

Where Have All the Sharks Gone?

The Scottish Wildlife Trust has reported that there has been a dramatic drop in the number of basking sharks off the Western Isles. In previous years, there have been up to 500 of the three tonne gentle giants which can grow to over 30 feet long. But this year a survey found only one. The second-largest fish in the sea was hunted almost to extinction until about ten years ago - the oil from its liver is used as an engine lubricant and in the manufacture of skin creams. 50 years ago the author Gavin Maxwell wrote of seeing basking sharks in shoals "packed as tight as sardines". Although the basking shark has several rows of sharp teeth, it feeds by filtering out plankton through its enormous gills. There is no obvious reason for the decline - there is plenty of plankton in Scottish waters and they normally live for up to 50 years.

Warm Weather Brings Out the Wasps

Wasp exterminators have been overwhelmed during August as millions of wasps made their presence felt as they try to pack a whole summer's feeding into one month. After months of very wet weather, the higher temperatures and long spells of sunshine have resulted in wasps hunting for food - and picnics and outdoor eating establishments such as beer gardens and barbecues are as attractive as flowers to hungry wasps.

Christmas Comes Early to Aberdeen

We are all used to retailers starting to decorate their stores well in advance of Christmas, but guests at the Aberdeen Jarvis Hotel blinked recently when they found that there was a six-foot high pine tree in the foyer, complete with decorations and flashing lights. The hotel manager explained that they had just launched their Christmas brochure and decided to put up the tree to help to promote it. Some guests, including a couple of newly-weds, have had their photos taken beside the Christmas tree at a time when other hotels are advertising their end-of-summer specials.

Weather in Scotland This Week

Temperatures have hovered around 20/21C (68/70F) in many places in Scotland for much of the week with Aberdeen reaching 23C (73F) on Wednesday. There has been a fair amount of sunshine, especially at the start of the week when Glasgow had 13.2 hours of sun on Monday. On Friday, however, a weather front passed over the country bringing heavy rain (over 0.75 inches of rain in Glasgow and Edinburgh that day) and temperatures dipped to 14C (57F) in Aberdeen. The outlook for Sunday and the early part of the week is for more sunshine though temperatures will not be as high as in recent weeks.

This week's illustration of current flowers in Scotland is of a dahlia in the "Hercules Garden" at Blair Castle, north of Pitlochry, in the heart of Perthshire. The photo was taken in brilliant sunshine earlier this week.

Dundee to Honour McGonagall

William Topaz McGonagall always believed that he was a great poet - and that the world just did not appreciate him. A resident of Dundee for much of his life, he had to suffer the taunts of Dundonians both in the street and in the theatres where he read his poetry. While many still regard him as the "worst poet in the world" there has been a growing appreciation of his work in recent years, partly because his poems are so consistently bad that they are amusing, partly because of an appreciation of the man and his dedication to his "art" - despite the ridicule during his lifetime. Dundee City Council is organising a festival to celebrate the eccentric Victorian poet, including a world premiere of McGonagall's three-act play and a musical about his life. Now an appeal is to be launched in Dundee on September 29 - the 100th anniversary of his death. It is hoped that money can be raised for a statue of McGonagall can be erected overlooking his beloved "Silv'ry Tay" the setting of his best known work "The Tay Bridge Disaster" which begins with the immortal lines:

"Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time."

Skye's Jurassic Footprints

16 footprints, made by a species of Jurassic dinosaur 165 million years ago, are being excavated on a beach of the Isle of Skye by a team of fossil experts from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The footprints were spotted on a block of sandstone by a local woman out walking her dog. Cathie Booth is interested in fossils but it needed an expert paleontologist to confirm the find. Plaster casts are now being made of the prints. Originals of these will be kept at Skye's Staffin Museum and copies will be held by the Hunterian and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The precise species is not yet known but it may be a large meat-eating Megalosaurus which walked on two legs and was related to Tyrannosaurus Rex.

HMS Dasher's Secrets

During 1943, HMS Dasher, a banana boat hastily converted into an aircraft carrier, blew up in mysterious circumstances in the Firth of Clyde off Ardrossan in Ayrshire with the loss of 379 sailors. The tragedy was classified as secret until 1972 and there are still many unanswered questions. Two books have already been published on the aircraft carrier and now a new book has been published by John and Noreen Steele which suggests that there is a connection between HMS Dasher and the wartime plan to deceive the Germans into believing that Sicily was not to be the location of the Allied invasion of Italy. That project (which was made into a film entitled "The Man Who Never Was") involved disguising a dead body as an allied courier, complete with bogus documents about an invasion far from Sicily, and allowing the body to fall into enemy hands on a Spanish beach. In 1996, the UK government released papers saying that the body used was that of a Welsh tramp who had killed himself drinking rat poison. But the Steeles point out that the operation was hurriedly implemented immediately after the sinking of HMS Dasher - and that there is a discrepancy between the number of bodies recovered from the ship and the number buried by the War Graves Commission. Rather than the body of a tramp (which would not have been convincing to the Germans) it is suggested that it was the body of one of the sailors from the ship now lying at the bottom in the Firth of Clyde.

Memorial to Pipers of World War I

During the course of World War I, 1,000 British Army pipers lost their lives, many on the front line as they raised the spirits of their comrades by playing rousing tunes in the thick of the battles. On many occasions it was the piper who led the attack across no-man's-land towards the enemy lines. In the first two years of the war, the Gordon Highlanders lost nearly 30 pipers and many more were wounded. Now, 84 years after the guns fell silent, and as a result of the efforts of French and British veterans, a memorial has been created in the region of the Somme battlefields.

This Week in History

• September 1 714 - Death of St Giles, patron saint of Edinburgh (and Elgin).
• September 1 1644 - Battle of Tippermuir, in which Marquis of Montrose defeated Covenanters .
• September 1 1719 - Marriage ceremony of Prince James Francis Edward Stewart (the Old Pretender) and Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska. The Polish Princess had been kidnapped on her way to the original wedding, escaped and had married James by proxy earlier in 1719.
• September 1 1971 - Sole remaining gas street lamp in Glasgow was lit for the last time, bringing to an end the age of the "leeries", the lamplighters which started in 1718 with oil lamps.
• September 3 1571 - Earl of Lennox, Regent of Scotland, murdered. Earl of Mar appointed Regent but he died in October 1572.
• September 3 1650 - Cromwell defeated Scots at Battle of Dunbar.
• September 4 1241 - King Alexander III born at Roxburgh.
• September 4 1962 - Last tramcar run in Glasgow (to Auchenshuggle).
• September 4 1964 - Forth Road Bridge opened. At 6,156 feet long it was the longest in Europe at that time.
• September 5 1750 - Poet Robert Fergusson born in Edinburgh.
• September 7 1715 - Earl of Mar raises the Jacobite standard in the Highlands.
• September 7 1842 - Queen Victoria's first visit to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Fringe Breaks Records

This year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe sold more than 900,000 tickets for the first time - nearly 80,000 more than last year. The value of tickets for its 1,491shows topped £7 million, the highest sales in its 56-year history. The fastest selling tickets were for "The Guys" a play performed by Tim Robinson and Susan Sarandon which sold out within hours of going on sale. The Edinburgh International Book Festival also announced record ticket sales with a 40% increase, with over a third of the events selling out.

Quietest Music Festival Ever?

Those living within earshot of Glasgow Green were no doubt delighted, but this year's "Gig on the Green" was described by one fan as the "quietest music festival ever". The weather was perfect as some 20,000 fans turned up over the weekend, well down on last years' numbers when 50,000 saw Eminem and Marilyn Manson. This year, the low numbers were blamed on the fact that there were no really big names in the line-up.

Glasgow Show to Branch Out?

If the warm weather and sunshine didn't help to bring in the crowds at the "Gig on the Green" (see item above) it certainly helped the Glasgow Show in Victoria Park to attract a crowd of 25,000 to the flowers, plant sales, model boats and funfair. This is only the second year for the event and the organisers are now considering moving it to a larger venue and including a major equestrian event to bring in even larger crowds. Next year, Glasgow is hosting the World Federation of Rose Growers and Breeders - the city has had a large international rose trial at Tollcross Park for many years - see Two Dozen Roses for a selection of these.

Football First

Billy Connolly kept his fans waiting at the Lonach Gathering in Aberdeenshire last Saturday - because he was watching Celtic playing Partick Thistle on television. The number of people attending the Lonach Highland Games has increased in recent years as a result of Billy's patronage - there was a record crowd of 14,000 at the event this year. Billy bought Candacraig Estate, close by, about five years ago, after falling in love with the Braemar area while making the film "Mrs Brown". Asked about his recent 60th birthday party and long list of celebrity guests, he laughed and replied "Aw, it was br-r-r-illiant - every party is a brilliant party. It isn't even my birthday yet, so I'm like the Queen - I get two birthdays." On Thursday, Billy was in Glasgow performing at the Clyde Auditorium in the first of two sell-out shows in aid of the victims of the floods in Glasgow in July, many of whom were uninsured.

Giant Screen Theatre Conference

Glasgow Science Centre will host a prestigious gathering of the international large format cinema industry next year, bringing an estimated 750 delegates to Glasgow in September 2003 to see new IMAX films and discuss developments in the big screen world. The Giant Screen Theater Association, represents member theatres in 33 countries. Its conference and trade show is recognised as the leading annual gathering for the industry and is an opportunity for large format cinema representatives from around the world to view new films and share knowledge. Since opening the IMAX Theatre at GSC in October 2001 over 300,000 visitors have seen IMAX films there. It was the first IMAX Theatre in Scotland.

21st Festival of Traditional Music and Song

Next weekend Kirriemuir is celebrating its 21st annual festival of traditional music and song - and lots more. There is a ceilidh on Friday, 6 September in the welcoming Airlie Arms, a pub which is typical of the warm hospitality to be found in Angus. A concert will then be held at the Masonic Hall to accommodate all the toe-tapping that is sure to follow. There will also be storytelling competitions on Saturday and small bands, fiddlers and singers will also be battling it out to impress the judges and win one of the coveted trophies. The winners will go on to entertain the crowds later that evening when they lead a session of lively traditional music at the prize winners' concert. The ceilidhs continue at the Airlie Arms on Saturday and there is a grand Farewell Ceilidh on Sunday night.

Orkney Examines All Things Scientific

The Orkney Science Festival, from Friday 30 August to Friday 6 September, will be taking an unconventional look at science with a programme packed full of talks on areas such as sheep that eat seaweed, ancient stones aligned with the moon, climate change, asteroids and dinosaurs. The growing number of innovative companies investigating the potential for renewable energy makes Orkney the perfect location for a festival dedicated to new ideas. The festival also reflects on the strong Norse tradition of engineering and the way in which an ancient crop domesticated by islanders in the Iron Age can now be used to power wind turbines and produce beer. For more details on the Science Festival visit www.orknet.co.uk/scifest

Sunday and Mid-Week Football Results

Dundee United 1 Motherwell 1
Livingston 0 Kilmarnock 1
Rangers 2 Aberdeen 0
Queen's Park 3 Brechin City 4 (Bell's Cup, Semi-Finals)
St Mirren 3 Queen of the South 5 (Bell's Cup, Semi-Finals)

Bank of Scotland Premierleague Results - 31 August 2002

Dundee United 0 Dundee 0
Hearts 1 Kilmarnock 1
Motherwell 0 Hibernian 2
Aberdeen v Partick Thistle, Celtic v Livingston and Dunfermline v Rangers are all being played on Sunday.

Scottish First Division Results - 31 August 2002

Ayr United 1 Arbroath 0
Falkirk 3 Queen of the South 0
Ross County 1 Clyde 1
St Johnstone 2 Alloa 0
St Mirren 0 Inverness 4

BT Scotland Premiership Rugby Division 1 Results - 31 August 2002

Aberdeen 25 Boroughmuir 38
Currie 10 Heriot's FP 51
Glasgow Hawks 42 Jed-Forest 11
Peebles 12 Melrose 17
Stirling County 22 Hawick 16

League Tables

In the Scottish Premier League, Celtic have 12 points from 4 games, followed by Rangers with 10 points (also from 4 games) and Hearts with 9 points from 5 games. At the foot of the SPL, Dundee United, Hibernian and Partick Thistle all have 3 points from 5 games.
In the First Division, Falkirk are on top with 15 points from 5 games, followed by St Johnstone (13 points from 5 games) and Ayr United (9 points from 5 games).

Celtic Crash Out of Champions League

Celtic failed to qualify for the Champions League after losing 2-0 against Swiss club Basel. Although Celtic had won the first leg in Glasgow 3-1, making the aggregate 3-3, the "away goal" by Basel was sufficient to get them through. The loss is not just in pride but in the cash which would have been earned by Celtic in the later stages, estimated to be £10-15 million. The defeat also means that although there will be two Scottish teams allowed to enter the Champions League next year, that will drop to one in the following seasons. Celtic will now participate in the less prestigious UEFA Cup. They will play FK Suduva in Lithuania.

Saved by the Whistle

Livingston are through the first qualifying round of the UEFA Cup after a dramatic finish to their game against Vaduz of Liechtenstein. Livingston had drawn 1-1 away from home in the first leg and had held their opponents to a 0-0 draw right to the end. Then just as the referee blew the final whistle, Vaduz put the ball high in the net. Many thought that Livingston had lost in dramatic fashion but because the whistle had sounded, the "goal" was disallowed. So Livingston go through to the next round on the "away goal" rule. They will face tough opposition in Austrian club Sturm Graz who defeated Rangers in the same competition two seasons ago.

Aberdeen Repulse Onslaught

Aberdeen had won 1-0 at home in the first leg of their UEFA Cup qualifying match and had to defend mightily against Moldava's Nistru Otaci. The Moldavan side kept the Aberdonians in their own penalty box for the last 15 minutes of the game and, although they came within inches on more than one occasion, failed to score. Aberdeen's hopes in the next stage of the UEFA Cup were improved this week by the signing of Nicolas Fabiano from Paris Saint-Germain. The club now face Hertha Berlin in the next round.

Rangers Travelling to Czech Republic

Rangers, already through to the first round of the UEFA Cup, will meet FK Viktoria Zizkov of the Czech Republic in the first round proper of the tournament. Their home and away matches will be played on September 17 and October 3.

Flo to Sunderland

Rangers striker Tore Andre Flo completed a £6.75 million transfer to English Premier League side Sunderland this week, ending months of speculation about his future. Less than two years ago, Rangers paid a Scottish record transfer fee of £12 million for the player who has made 61 appearances for the Ibrox club and scored 38 times. The transfer will allow manager Alex McLeish some room for manoeuvre in the transfer market - and will reduce the club's wage bill by £35,000 a week.

Profitable Jags

Newly promoted Partick Thistle may be still finding their feet in the Scottish Premier Division but in one important respect they are miles ahead of the opposition. Unlike their loss-making opposition (Rangers lost £13 million last year, Celtic has cut its debt to "only" £16.5 million) Partick Thistle made a handsome profit last year of £1 million. None of the other SPL clubs made a profit in 2001/2002. Five years ago Thistle nearly went bankrupt but last year a good run in Scottish Cup and winning the First Division helped the club to make the largest profit in relation to its fan base of any club in Britain. The Jags have the lowest wage bill of all the clubs in the Scottish Premier Division and their finances were also helped last year by the sale of some land.

It's Tough to the Top of Ben Nevis

The Ben Nevis Race is an annual competition in which athletes run to the summit of Great Britain's highest peak and back down again. On September 7, four hundred runners are expected to compete in the 10 mile race. The route runs from Claggan Park and the winner is the first to run up to the summit (4,406 feet) and back down to the finishing line. No one has yet beaten the record time of 1 hour, 25minutes 34 seconds, which has remained unbeaten since 1984. But organisers are hoping the race this year might just change that.

Australian Wins Scottish PGA

Adam Scott won the Scottish PGA at the Jack Nicklaus designed PGA Centenary course at Gleneagles last weekend with a 26-under-par total of 262 and a ten stroke margin. It was the lowest winning total against par on the European Tour this season. His final round of 63 had two eagles and a birdie on the last three holes. It was the Australian's second win on the European Tour this season as he took the first prize of £166,660.

Braemar Gathering Rounds Off Season

The Highland Games season culminates with the Braemar Gathering on Saturday, September 7. One of the highest profile gatherings of the season, the Braemar Gathering is said to go back nine centuries to the days of King Malcolm Canmore and has enjoyed royal patronage since Queen Victoria fell in love with the area in 1850. The Games are traditionally attended by members of the Royal Family who visit from nearby Balmoral. The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Prince William are expected at this year's event. Caber-tossing, hammer-throwing and stone-putting are just some of the typical 'heavy' events you will find at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park, in the beautiful setting of the Grampian Highlands. A tug o' war will put competitors' strength to the test and there will also be track events including the long jump, sprinting and a race up the heather-clad hill of Morrone. Highland dancers and pipe bands from America, Canada and Australia will provide further spectacle. For more information, visit www.braemargathering.org