Edinburgh - World's First City of Literature

A long campaign by Edinburgh to be named the world's first "City of Literature" by UNESCO was crowned with success this week when it was announced that they had been awarded the title. Edinburgh's award will be the first of a number of literary capitals to be recognised worldwide. Backers of the campaign included authors Muriel Spark, Ian Rankin and JK Rowling. In addition to modern writers, Edinburgh was able to highlight its long tradition of being home to great authors such as Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson who have made their mark on world literature and the annual International Book Festival, which has grown to a sizeable event. The monument to Sir Walter Scott in Princes Street Gardens, below Edinburgh Castle, seen in the illustration here, no doubt helped too. In a city which already hosts the largest arts festival in the world, the accolade may not cause more than a ripple, but it has been estimated that it could add to the capital's tourism industry and attract new, large-scale literary events.

First Minister Speaks Out in China

This week First Minister Jack McConnell flew to Beijing and Shanghai in China to meet with senior members of the Chinese government, to discuss joint areas of interest, including education, trade and tourism. During the meetings, Mr McConnell expressed his support for a tourist agreement between China and Britain, which will allow Chinese tourists to travel to the United Kingdom for leisure. But he was also forthright in expressing his views on human rights when he met with Mr Zhang Yesui, the Foreign Affairs Minister responsible for relationships with Europe. He told Mr Yesui that the Scottish people shared the UK government's concerns about human rights in China. The First Minister also announced government funding to support an exchange programme between Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens and the Yuman province in south-west China. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has just recognised the Botanic Gardens' Lijiang field station in Yuman as the UK's first joint science laboratory with China. 20 Chinese universities and colleges offer their students Higher National Diplomas in partnership with the Scottish Qualifications Authority. And Scottish companies are to get extra government support to help them seize opportunities offered by China's growing economy with Scottish Development International (SDI), the international business development agency, doubling its Chinese operation from four to eight staff.

Holyrood Opens Its Doors

After the formal opening of the new Scottish Parliament building last Saturday, it was business as usual on Monday - as the cranes and the workmen returned to put the "finishing touches" to the striking building. The Members of the Scottish Parliament moved in at the beginning of September and the building opened to the public shortly afterwards. Since then, 33,000 people have visited the public areas to see for themselves what all the fuss was about and recently visitor numbers have risen to 2,000 a day. While opinions on the architectural merits were mixed, the majority were impressed, particularly by the debating chamber with its soaring wooden "hammer-beam" roof and the garden lobby area. The rolling grassland area which leads from the building into the adjacent Holyrood Park is nearing completion but it will be some weeks before work is finally completed - the picture above was taken on Thursday of this week.

US Bands Headline Edinburgh's Hogmanay

Organisers of Edinburgh's Hogmanay street party have confirmed that New York bands Blondie and the Scissor Sisters will front the Concert in the Gardens at the Royal Bank Street Party on 31 December. The aim is to add an international appeal to the Hogmanay party. The 8,500 tickets available for the Concert in the Gardens go on sale this Saturday, priced from £30.

Squiggly Building Wins Contest

The titanium-clad Glasgow Science Centre and Glasgow Tower on the south bank of the river Clyde in Glasgow are distinctive, modern buildings. But they are likely to be put into the shade when a new Museum of Transport is built on the opposite bank. The existing Transport Museum, in part of the Kelvin Hall, is already one of Scotland's top tourist attractions and has a large collection of vehicles and models from the past. This week, Glasgow City Council announced that Zaha Hadid, the exciting Iraq-born architect, has been selected to design the new £50 million museum building where the Clyde meets the river Kelvin, next to the massive Glasgow Harbour development. The new building will also look silvery on the roof, with a spectacular, gravity-defying S-shaped design which ripples like sand after it has been subjected to the tide. The design of the iconic building will not only have links to the river but also to the great ship-building industry which once lined the riverbanks. But Glaswegians, who quickly dubbed the Clyde Auditorium the "Armadillo" because of its shape, are bound to call this new masterpiece the "Squiggly Building".

Edinburgh Gets Closer to Twin

Edinburgh is to forge closer trade and cultural links with its twin City of Dunedin in New Zealand. The NZ city has formed a new "Edinburgh Sister City Management Committee" and is urging its Scottish namesake to do the same. The two cities were formally twinned in 1974 but Dunedin City Council feel that relations have drifted, with fewer trade and social links than had been formed with its other sister cities. Edinburgh's Lord Provost (roughly the mayor) is enthusiastic about strengthening the links and says that over the years there has been a positive exchange of ideas on subjects of mutual interest including the arts, culture, tourism and business. Dunedin - the Celtic name for Edinburgh - was settled in 1848 by members of the Presbyterian Free Church of Scotland and its suburbs and street names owe much to Scotland. Of the names of Dunedin's 52 suburbs, 31 (59.6%) can be found in Scotland or are connected with Scotland in other ways, such as family names. See Scottish Placenames - Dunedin for an updated background to that city's suburban place names.

Glasgow Landmark for Sale

The St Enoch Shopping Centre, with its distinctive glass pyramid roof, has been put up for sale by its owners Deka Immobilien - the property company has been rocked recently by scandal and sacked its real estate CEO last month. A liquidity crisis has meant that it is having to sell a number of properties on its portfolio. St Enoch was the first of the "mega" shopping malls in Glasgow, providing 700,000 square feet of retail space and is the largest glass-covered enclosed area in Europe. The shops are on two floors - while car parking is in seven floors.

Scotland Says "Bonjour"

A major drive to attract more French visitors to Scotland has produced a record response according to results published this week. VisitScotland's French Spring campaign this year has doubled the number of people - to 80,000 - asking for information about a holiday in Scotland. Responses were measured by the number of information pack requests and visitors to VisitScotland's French website. Commenting on the figures, Tourism Minister Patricia Ferguson (currently in Marseilles where she is taking part in a series of events celebrating Entente Cordiale) said "France is one of our most significant tourism markets, but there is further potential for growth. Historical alliances and close cultural links coupled with improving transport links provide opportunities to exploit this lucrative market, and raise Scotland's profile as a must-visit destination." In 2002, France was the third overseas market in terms of total trips, behind USA (390,000) and Germany (134,000) with 124,000 French trips to Scotland.

Seaplane Service from River Clyde?

The company operating the UK's first charter and pleasure seaplane service (from Loch Lomond) has launched an ambitious plan to start a scheduled seaplane service from the river Clyde in Glasgow to Arran, Bute and Highland destinations. Loch Lomond Seaplanes has been awarded a £15,000 Tourism Innovation Development Award from Scottish Enterprise to help progress the proposal. A three hour car journey to Lochgilphead in Argyll can be completed by seaplane in 15 minutes and it needs no runway other than the water for landing and take-off. The Clyde has a long association with seaplanes - nearly 300 massive Sunderland flying boats were built at Dumbarton during the war. For more on Loch Lomond Seaplanes, see Places to Visit - Loch Lomond Seaplanes.

Passenger Numbers Taking Off

Helped by new direct links to Canada, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Glasgow passenger numbers grew by 8.4% in September - to 883,000 compared to last year. In Edinburgh, passenger numbers rose by 6.6% to 732,300. But that was only the second time in five years that Glasgow passenger numbers grew faster than in the capital. Edinburgh’s underlying growth rate is faster, its rolling annual total increasing by 7 per cent to nearly 7.9 million passengers, while Glasgow’s is up by 4.3 per cent to 8.4 million.

Budget Flights to Liverpool

The low-cost airline Flybe has announced that it is to start daily flights between Glasgow and Liverpool next March with prices starting at only £19 for a one-way ticket. Flybe is Europe's third-largest low-cost airline and one of Glasgow Airport's biggest users, offering 610,000 seats from the airport. The airline operates from Glasgow to destinations such as Belfast, Jersey in the Channel Island, New York, Perpignan and Toulouse in France and Salzburg in Austria.

Floating Plan to Take Wood Off Roads

Currently, there are 150,000 lorry journeys a year taking four million tonnes of timber to over 100 mills in the Highlands of Scotland. They are often using narrow public roads and passing through small villages and the volume will increase over the next few years as the annual timber production doubles as a result of trees planted in the 1980s and now due for harvesting. The Scottish Executive has also published plans which aim to increase the present 16.6% of Scotland's land area covered by trees to 25% by the middle of the century. So ministers are looking at ways to use both the railways and the sea to reduce the amount of timber transported by road. A new £13 million fund has been set up develop new piers and railheads as well as construct new forest roads specifically for the forestry industry. In 2001, barges were used to harvest timber from a forest on the island of Raasay and a loading bay at Kinbrace in Sutherland allowed trees to be loaded onto trains for transportation to the south overnight. But it is unlikely that rivers will be used to transport trees to sawmills further downstream - as was once the case on the rivers Spey and Clyde.

Glasgow Fort Opens the Doors

The latest shopping park in Glasgow opened its doors in Easterhouse this week. 23 stores opened at Glasgow Fort and another 50 shops will open by Christmas. The park will eventually offer 400,000sq ft of shopping as a major part of the regeneration of the city's east end residential area. The £200 million development is aimed at adding to Glasgow's status as the best shopping location outside of London. It is estimated that 10 million shoppers will flock to Glasgow Fort every year from all over the central Scotland belt. Situated beside the main motorway linking to Edinburgh, it should attract bargain hunters from the capital as well as local Glaswegians.

Bank Sponsors Nutcracker

Bank of Scotland has agreed a sponsorship deal with Scottish Ballet to support the company's festive season for the fifth successive year, to the tune of £100,000. The company's production of "The Nutcracker" opens on 11 December at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, before touring to Edinburgh, Inverness and Belfast. Bank of Scotland have been providing sponsorship to Scottish Ballet since 1985

HMS Glasgow Visits Her Home City

The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Glasgow sailed up the river Clyde this week to berth at Yorkhill in the heart of her home city, probably for the last time before she is decommissioned next January. School pupils and others looking for a career in the Royal Navy or the Royal Marines will be attending a jobs fair in the ship this week. HMS Glasgow was launched in 1976 and is a veteran of the Falklands and East Timor conflicts. Since her last visit in September 2003, the ship has travelled about 28,000 miles and visited 14 countries. It is being replaced by a Type-45 destroyer built by BAE Naval Ships at Govan. The ship is also to be open to the public on Sunday afternoon.

World's Fastest Knitter

Hazel Tindall from Shetland took the title of the world's fastest knitter this week after she knitted 255 stitches in three minutes, far ahead of her nearest rival, Londoner Olga Pobedeskaya, who managed "only" 214 stitches. Hazel is a mother of two and works as a school administrator. She started knitting at the age of four as it was a family tradition. About 100 competitors took part in the World Speed Knitting Championships in London. The Scotsman newspaper described Hazel as a "purly queen".

Fungus Forays and Czech Pipers in Aberfoyle

The Aberfoyle Mushroom Festival, which runs from 21 to 24 October, is to have a Bohemian flavour this year with a Budvar-Budweiser Beerfest, Pavla's Puppet Theatre and cookery demonstrations - given by the chief executive of Czech Airlines. Nestled in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, Aberfoyle is also playing host to the Sumava Bagpipe Band, which includes the Czech version of the pipes as well as clarinets and fiddles. It seems that Scotland is very popular with the Czechs and that the largest Highland Games in Europe outside of Scotland is in the Czech Republic. Aberfoyle is a major centre for mushrooms and during the festival there will be "fungus forays" into the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park. There will be experts on hand to identify edible and poisonous varieties.

Scots Left Tongue-Tied

Robert Burns is acknowledged as Scotland's national poet but a survey of 1,000 Scots has shown that nearly 70% were unable to recite a complete verse from Auld Lang Syne, A Man's a Man for A'That or Tam O'Shanter. Men did slightly better than women in the survey which was commissioned by Halls, the manufacturer of haggis. Burns is no longer taught as part of the national curriculum in schools. While most Scots can stumble out a few lines of such Burns poetry as "To a Mouse" or "To a Haggis", it says more about the lack of interest in poetry than Burns in particular, that so few can manage a complete verse without the aid of a crib sheet.

Dr Donald Duck Driven Quackers

80 years ago, when Mr and Mrs Duck from Mallaig decided to call their baby son Donald, they were not to know that they would be saddling him with a name which, ten years later, was to make Walt Disney - and the name - so famous. Now a retired family doctor, Dr Donald Duck is to be part of a TV programme (along with namesakes of Winston Churchill, David Beckham and Genghis Khan) which looks at how their lives have been affected by having such well known names. In Dr Duck's case, he says he's had a lot of fun with it and would never think of changing it. When introduced to people, the reaction is often "Aye, and I'm Mickey Mouse" and his name occasionally gave his patients a problem. When they went to hospital and told the staff that their doctor was Donald Duck, they were in danger of being referred to the psychiatry department. He also had a brush with Walt Disney lawyers when he helped his father paint some toys for an exhibition which then had a sign beside them saying "Painted by Donald Duck." He had to produce his birth certificate before the lawyers would go away.

Weather in Scotland This Week

Sunshine was again in very short supply this week with aberdeen once again coming out best with nearly four hours of sun on Monday. Elsewhere, there were a few breaks in the cloud but at least there was not too much rain, apart from Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday, there was also fog to contend with in the Clyde valley which then drifted over other parts of the central Scotland belt. Glasgow had a chilly maximum temperature of 10C (50F) on Sunday but recovered to 15C (59F) by Wednesday only to see the thermometer struggle to reach 11C (52F) on Thursday as a result of that fog.

When deciding on this week's illustrations of current flowers in Scotland, I could have selected pictures of begonias or a perfect pink rose, both of which were photographed in central Scotland this week. There was even a brave Peacock butterfly feeding on some tall Michaelmas Daisies. But instead, the graphics all reflect the fact that autumn/fall has very much arrived. The Lunaria on the left is also called the "Moon Plant" because of the silver seed pods which form late in the season. On this occasion, the sun was shining from behind the pods, making them particularly bright.

In the illustrations below, the picture of the bright red acer also shows its winged seeds very well. Next is a cornus with its strange demented strawberry-looking fruits which are inedible. Finally, the Houttuynia (often referred to as "Hootenanny" in Scotland, is a bit of a cheat. Although it has leaves with autumn colours, it carries these throughout the summer, though they do become more intense as winter approaches. All the isllustrations were taken at Finlaystone Country Park on Friday, during one of the rare sunny spells this week.

Back to the Future with Endeavour

Shipyard workers on the river Clyde in Glasgow, working on the latest warships for the Royal Navy, were surprised to see a blast from the past as a large sailing ship made her way serenely up the river. The vessel was an exact replica of HMS Endeavour, the ship which carried Captain Cook on his journey round the world, during which he stopped off at such mysterious places as Australia and New Zealand in 1769. The ship, which now acts as a training centre, berthed at the Glasgow Science Centre for a week.

3,500-Year-Old Artefacts Found on Building Site

A 300-acre site at Mid Ross on the banks of Loch Lomond is being developed at a cost of £45 million to allow the creation of a new golf course and luxury chalet apartments. The work has unearthed two Bronze Age cremation sites, three Iron Age settlements and an early Christian burial ground. These have produced a collection of cremation pots, corn-drying kilns and jewellery, including a shale bracelet and a distinctive rare single glass bead with applied enamel spiral decoration. The site is also highly significant because it's the best example of Bronze Age activity on Loch Lomond-side to be uncovered so far. A team of 15 archaeologists have been working feverishly on the site to carry out their work so that the building project is not held back more than necessary. Even so, it has cost the developer half-a-million pounds but, looking on the bright side, they say that it will produce some good names for the new golf course holes!

Kibble Palace Moving to Yorkshire

The Kibble Palace in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens was moved there in 1873 after it had been donated by John Kibble, a wealthy merchant. The iron-framed glasshouse was dismantled and moved to the Botanic Gardens at his own expense from his mansion beside Loch Long. Now the Victorian structure, which is visited by 400,000 people a year, is being dismantled again and this time is moving to Yorkshire. But it will then be repaired and returned to the Botanic Gardens as part of a major conservation and upgrading of the building. The glasshouse will reopen in 2006 with better access and use of the internal space.

Next Week in History

• October 17 1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross during which King David II was captured by the English.
• October 17 1850 - James "Paraffin" Young obtained a patent for the extraction of paraffin from shale, starting the chemical industry in West Lothian.
• October 17 1995 - Bridge to the Isle of Skye opened.
• October 18 1958 - Denis Law became the youngest footballer to play for Scotland when he took part in the match against Cardiff when he was 18 years and 7 months old.
• October 19 1687 - First sedan chairs available for public hire introduced to Edinburgh.
• October 20 1971 - Explosion at Clarkston Toll shopping centre, killing 12.
• October 21 1983 - The Queen officially opened the Burrell Collection in Glasgow's Pollok Country Park. The museum's collection had been donated to the city nearly 40 years earlier by the shipping magnate Sir William Burrell.
• October 22 1861 - Foundation stones of main Post Office and National Museum of Scotland laid by Prince Albert in his last public engagement before his death.
• October 22 1877 - A firedamp explosion at Blantyre Colliery killed 207 miners.
• October 23 1295 - Treaty between King John Balliol of Scotland and King Philippe IV of France which promised mutual help against the English - the start of the "Auld Alliance".
• October 23 1707 - First meeting of the Parliament of Great Britain.
• October 23 1773 - Birth of Francis Jeffrey, first editor of the "Edinburgh Review".
• October 23 1921 - Death of John Boyd Dunlop who re-invented the pneumatic tyre from the design of Robert W Thomson.
• October 23 1940 - Poet and dramatist Tom McGrath born in Rutherglen.

Saint Andrew's Day Parade in Edinburgh

Unlike Scottish communities in many other parts of the world, St Andrew's Day has never been celebrated to any extent in Scotland. There may be a few BBC Scotland cultural TV programmes and there are a few celebratory dinners, but as far as the man in the street is concerned, Scotland's patron saint's day passes by almost unnoticed. Indeed, surveys have shown that many Scots don't even know that November 30 is St Andrew's Day. Perhaps as a result of the devolved parliament and a greater awareness of Scottish culture, however, that situation is changing. Following a low-kay event last year, a St Andrew's Day parade is again being held in Edinburgh. This will march across Waverley Bridge, along Princes Street and Lothian Road to finish at Festival Square. There, historian David R Ross and others will give a few short speeches. The only problem is that as 30 November is a normal working day (there is no public holiday) the event is having to be held on the previous Saturday!

From Madonna to the Mod

Nearly four years ago Jennifer Port from Golspie played her clarsach (a type of harp) and impressed Madonna and Guy Ritchie at their wedding in Skibo Castle near Dornoch. This week, she impressed the judges at the Royal National Mod with her playing and as a result she won four medals. She is hoping that this success at the celebration of Gaelic culture will provide an impetus for her career as a professional player.

The Legend of Lochinvar

The poem by Sir Walter Scott about Lord Lochinvar, a young Scottish Borders knight, who returns from war to find his sweetheart’s father is about to marry her off to someone else, is to be made into a new film starring the James Bond movie star Pierce Brosnan. Lochinvar stages a romantic cross-Border raid, arriving at the wedding and carrying off the bride - sounds like a suitable project for 007. Of course, as is the way in the movie industry, finance has still to be put together, but the Irish DreamTime film company are working hard on the project. Although some of the scenes for the movie will be shot in the Scottish Borders, the company is looking at Morocco for most of the filming. Even so, the Scottish Borders tourist agency is hopeful that it will have an impact similar to "Braveheart" which still prompts people to come to Scotland.
If you want to read Scott's original poem about Lochinvar you can find it here.

Enchanted Forest

Each evening, from 22nd October to 7th November, the woodland area known as The Hermitage, just north of Dunkeld, will be transformed by a spectacular presentation of light and sound on the theme of Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Visitors will first encounter the element of 'Air', which will draw them into the forest through a mysterious haze accompanied by the eerie sound of wind chimes and the rustling of colourful kites and flags hanging from the trees. At the climax of this element, coloured light washes will be projected onto large sails in a clearing in the forest and musical accompaniments will compliment the mood. Star attractions this year will include a wall of fire rising out of the river, a guaranteed twinkling night sky and a spectacularly lit waterfall.The organisers actually hope that the 'Water' element will be a cue for the occasional autumn shower as the mixture of rain droplets being lit up by thousands of lights is truly spectacular.

Big Big World Festival

2004 marks the tenth anniversary of South Africa becoming a democracy and this year's Big Big World festival in Glasgow starting on 20th October is devoting its opening to three musicians who helped to inspire South Africans and give them optimism for the future. First of all, there is singer Miriam Makeba who has been an inspiration since her rise to prominence in the early 1960s. Then guitarist Louis Mhlanga, who played a crucial role in many South African bands and Pops Mohamed, a multi-instrumentalist who has travelled from the townships to genuine world musician status. Big Big World's aim has always been to promote the best music from the widest variety of sources and this year's line up promises an eclectic mix including Cuban pianist Omar Sosa; French jazz flautist Magic Malik; double bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons, also from France; Franco-Balkan duo Julien Lourau and Bojan Z, appearing in Scotland together for the first time; and Iceland's latest pop sensations Ske show why they're been tipped to follow in Bjork's globe-trotting footsteps. The Big World festival runs from 20-31 October in Glasgow.

Bank of Scotland Premierleague Results - 16 October 2004

Celtic 3 Heart of Midlothian 0
Dundee 3 Kilmarnock 1
Hibernian 2 Dundee United
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 Aberdeen 3
Livingston 2 Dunfermline 0
Motherwell play Rangers on Sunday.

Scottish First Division Results - 16 October 2004

Airdrie United 4 Partick Thistle 2
Clyde 2 Raith Rovers 0
Hamilton 0 Falkirk 1
Queen of the South 0 St Johnstone 1
St Mirren 3 Ross County 2

BT Scotland Rugby Division 1 Results - 16 October 2004

Heriots 53 Melrose 32
Boroughmuir 21 Glasgow Hawks 32
Gala 15 Aberdeen 18
Hawick 28 Currie 9
Biggar 20 Ayr 28
Glasgow Hutchesons' 18 Watsonians 27

League Tables

Celtic has 25 points at the top of the SPL with Rangers 8 points behind, but with a game in hand. Aberdeen is running in third place, currently one point behind Rangers. Inverness is trailing at the foot of the SPL with only 4 points with Dundee United and Dunfermline just two points more.
In the First Division, Falkirk with 23 points, is only ahead of Clyde on goal average, with St Mirren third, with two points less. At the foot of the First Division, Raith Rovers has a solitary point, 8 points behind second-bottom Hamilton.
In the BT Scotland Rugby Division 1, Glasgow Hawks are out in front with 35 points with Heriots in second place, 4 points behind with Melrose a further 4 points adrift. At the foot of this league, Gala has only won 8 points while Aberdeen is just two points ahead of them.

Scotland Lose "Must Win" Game

Scotland's dismal campaign to qualify for the next football (soccer) World Cup reached new depths this week as the team drew 1-1 with Moldova. Moldova? Most of us had to reach for the atlas to find out that this was a former USSR republic, between the Ukraine and Romania. As one commentator, put it, even though they don't have street lighting in the Moldovan capital, they put the lights out on Scotland's fading hopes. Moldova are ranked 113th in the FIFA rankings so although Scotland's football team has sunk down to 68th in the world, there were some hopes before the game that the Scots might get three points from this match. But Moldova scored first and although Scotland equalised soon after, the fire seemed to go out of the Scotland side in the second half. Indeed, they were lucky to come away with one point. Scotland have now won two points from a possible nine and sit just above Moldova in their World Cup Qualifying Group, with four teams above them. Scotland's next match is on March 26, 2005 against the Group leaders Italy, currently sitting 7 points ahead of Scotland.

Who's Voting for Vogts?

Scotland football manager Berti Vogts has been dogged by calls for his resignation on many occasions over the last 33 months since he was appointed ,as the Scotland team stumbled from one embarrassing defeat to another. Since he was appointed in January 2002, the Scotland team has won just 8 out of 31 international matches - and the wins have been against such teams as Iceland, Canada, Faroe Islands, Estonia, Trinidad and Tobago. Losses have included 6-0 by Holland and 4-0 at the hands of Wales. The betting shops are starting to do a steady trade on who will be the next manager - Gordon Strachan who played for Aberdeen, Manchester United and Leeds as well as Scotland during his successful career, is front runner at William Hill at 5/4, while former Rangers manager Walter Smith is second favourite at 6/1. Berti Vogts' assistant, Tommy Burns is also in the frame, also at 6/1. There have even been enquiries about odds for Terry Butcher, the Motherwell manager, but appointing an Englishman as manager of the Scotland football team might cause a bit of a stir...

London Olympic Bid Needs Scottish Support

The International Olympic Committee is set to conduct a Mori poll after November to help judge the level of national support to host the Games in Britain for the first time since 1948. However, the organisation spear-heading the bid by London to stage the games in 2012 are concerned that there is a lack of support in Scotland which will have an adverse effect on the overall poll results. There is a feeling in some quarters that Olympic Games in London will be of little benefit to Scotland and indeed could absorb finance and other support which might have come to Scotland instead. So the chairman of sportscotland, the organisation which channels finance to sport in the country, has been induced to announce " we wish to make it quite clear that sportscotland and, I believe Scottish sport as a whole, is fully behind London’s bid to bring the Olympic Games to the UK in 2012. A successful British Olympic bid would be a tremendous boost for British sport and the athletes from all home countries, and we will do everything possible to support London 2012 in the final stages of the bid process." A number of high-profile Scottish Olympians such as Liz McColgan, Yvonne Murray, Allan Wells and Alison Curbishley are acting as ambassadors for London’s bid.

Rangers Plan Leisure Centre

Rangers Football Club have lodged a planning application for a £150m sports and leisure campus next to their Ibrox stadium. The proposed 20-acre development includes a community and leisure facility, a hotel, a new Rangers megastore, ticket centre, café and private flats as well as a full-size roof-top football pitch, a casino, shops, restaurants and bars. The complex is being developed by leading US resort operator Las Vegas Sands, and will also feature a fitness suite.

Local Hero Wins Dunhill Links Championship

29-year-old Stephen Gallacher beat all the favourites to win the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews last weekend. Gallacher won his first European Tour title and a cheque for £450,000. He is the nephew of former Ryder Cup team captain Bernard Gallacher and he had to hold his nerve at the end to win a play-off against Graeme McDowell (who had equaled the course record of 62 in the first round). He is now in the top 15 in the European Order of Merit - and wants to stay there. Top golfers such as Ernie Els and Vijay Singh (currently top of the world rankings) were further down the field. Fred Couples, the former Masters champion, and Craig Heatley, a businessman from New Zealand, who has won the Pebble Beach Pro-am on the US Tour, won the team competition.