Report by Charles Gray
Photos by Bernard Cotton and others

The event, this year, took place on a day of mixed weather. The early starters, which included Ayr and French Rotarians, suffered pretty poor conditions.

Ayr Rotary - Rob Keating, Alex Thomson, John Laughland, Muir Austin

This is no doubt the reason for the Rotarians lowly position on the score sheet. By the time everyone completed their round, however, the sun was shining and the beer tent became a hive of activity.

French team from Bagneres

Apart from the serious business of scoring we tried an addition to the subsidiary attractions of longest drive and nearest the hole at a par 3. At the 14^th for £5 you could pit your skills against the course. Land your ball on the green and you double your money. The amount raised is testament to the difficulty of the hole since most people playing are clearly of a very high standard!!!

We had 28 teams participating this year, one more than in 2011. In difficult times we are indebted to those who continue to support us and those additional teams who joined us for the first time. We hope that we can look forward to their support in years to come.

Winners - Frazer McIntyre's team

The winning team on this occasion was that of Fraser McIntyre with a magnificent winning score of 131(Best 2 net scores at each hole) which was a significant improvement on 2011. No disrespect to last year’s winners! We also had prizes for Best International Team and The Team Most in Need of Assistance which tended to lighten the otherwise serious tone of the event.

In the evening over two hundred people enjoyed an excellent dinner dance at the Princess Royal Suite, adjacent to the racecourse. Music was supplied by the Bakerloo Line, a light hearted address was given by Dr Kevin Jones from Bolton and additional funds were raised through a well supported raffle and an auction. The overall proceeds from the day amounted to £13000. This will go to help many local charities but in particular the South Ayrshire Young Carers Service who provide excellent support for young carers who may be looking after or supporting someone in their family even from a very young age.

Willing helpers - Mike and Gus

We look forward to continuing with this event in years to come and with the support of all those who contributed in various forms we hope to maintain our contribution to local charities.

Report by Paul Williams

From Monday 8^th May until Friday 18^th May 1300 Primary School children will be attending the series of presentations from the emergency services to acquaint hem with the hazards that surround them in their daily lives.
Not only Fire, Coastguard  and Ambulance work, but also, health matters, internet dangers and the harm that might happen if they should play near to the railway lines. It is an excellent event and everyone benefits.

Report by Paul Williams

Five local primary schools came to Alloway Primary School to take part in this exciting quiz. There were quick teams and thoughtful teams; hard questions and easy ones. Some teams were confident and others wary! This aside, the essence of the event was that all the participating children should have fun, and they did. The winning school was Cairn Primary School from Maybole and they go forward to the regional finals in Glasgow in May.

The final day of the round robin games saw Ayr playing a great match against Barron County from Winsconsin, beating them 5 – 4.   Barron County only lost one other game and easily qualified. This game was televised live and the Ayr boys could be seen playing a great tactical last end to win.

Unfortunately this took too much out them, and they went down heavily to Kingston, Ontario in the final game. Kingston also qualified for the semis and meant Ayr finished fifth, just missing out in a place.

A tremendous effort from Ayr, who were the highest up Scottish rink.

Ayr Results (Click to enlarge)

Live results

These are the official citations from the Maryland General Assembly, with the originals kept in our Club’s archives. Click the images to read the detail

A tremendous amount of work has been completed this winter / spring, much of it flattening out areas of the path for safety reasons.

Eroded new steps needing repair

The most recent work was repairing steps near Turnberry, which had suffered erosion.

Storm drift

Nothing is simple and a huge amount of storm drift had blocked the way to the work area. Paul and Jimmy spent a few hours clearing this before barrowing the 8 loads of turfs required to complete the steps.

Paul's last barrowload

Paul was never cut out for this life!

Willie Watters and Gus Iannotti helped Jimmy to build the first Turnberry steps in October 2011, and Paul Williams and Harry Peters made up the  team recenty that extended and turfed them to prevent further erosion

Happy Jimmy - good job done!

Jimmy Begg organises a good squad and needs more volunteers.

Any wishing to become involved (you do not need to be a rotarian) contact Jimmy on 01292 269195. It is great fun and a very enjoyable way to help the local community.

Top coach, Kirsty Letton receives a bouquet

The Ayr squad of Euan Lawrence (skip), Neil Beattie, Geoff Barber, Ronnie Wilson and Alistair Tyre set off on 31 March, Washington bound, in a bid to win the Rotary World Curling Championships. They have been practicing hard all season under the watchful eye of coach Kirsty Letton, herself a world renowned curler.

We are here to win, not to drink red wine, Alistair

Many hours of work have prepared these five experienced curlers to take on the best in the world. However they did let their hair down a little at a send-off dinner in the Chestnuts Hotel. Euan gave a rousing speech, reinforcing the message that Kirsty had been delivering throughout the year.

Some of the girls are accompanying them to Washington

On s sunny Saturday morning, in the space of three hours, five Rotary Clubs and their bands of loyal helpers again did something – Massive! Members of Ayr, Alloway, Prestwick, Troon and Girvan Rotary Clubs were joined by Scouts from St Columba’s Ayr, Prestwick, and Troon Groups, Troon youth club, and many members of the public for their Sixth Annual Beach Clean. 2012 – Post Beach Clean Press Release

This band of volunteers from the Ayr Club worked on the beaches and coves to the north of Dunure.

The rubish bags are supplied by South Ayrshire Council, and local farmers then uplift them with their tractors and deliver them to a central point for collection by the Council.

A great example of the community all working together to the benefit of the general public.

Wallace Allan, Euan Lawrence, Corrie Lawrence, Neil Beattie, Archie McGregor and Charlie Steele hard at work on a beautiful spring morning.

St Columba's Scouts at Bracken Bay

Team Ayr (2) were outright winners of the Rotary League this year being undefeated throughout the season.
Runner up was the Composite Rink skipped by Jim Wilson, Cumnock which included our own Charlie Steele.

Rams Head

Our Rams Head team of Euan Lawrence, Neil Beattie, Geoff Barber, Alistair Tyre and Ronnie Wilson played in the final Round Robin matches at Perth Ice Rink on Monday and Tuesday 12th & 13th March.  The team came up against very stiff opposition from Leith and Forfar but managed to hold their own against Perth.  Forfar beat Leith in the Final and Ayr beat Perth for third place after a very closely fought match.  Well done lads and good luck for your visit to the Rotary World Championships in Washington next month.

Report by Muir Austin

Six members of the Ayr Rotary Club attended a lunch to celebrate the Glasgow Club’s centennial year in the recently refurbished Central Station Hotel on Monday 12 March.

Some 300 Rotarians, representing 59 clubs, from all over Scotland, together with invited guests, attended.

The Lord Provost of Glasgow, Councillor Bob Winter, welcomed Rotarians and guests to the City of Glasgow and congratulated the Rotary Club of Glasgow on its longevity and service to the people of Glasgow over 100 years. The Lord Provost will host a civic dinner in the City Chambers, in honour of the Glasgow Club later in the week.

Following lunch the President of the Glasgow Club, Donald MacDougall, proposed the Loyal Toast. The Club had sent loyal greetings to the Queen on the occasion of their centenary. President Donald read out a letter of appreciation from Her Majesty offering congratulations on the Club’s 100^th anniversary.

The principal address, the Toast to the Rotary Club of Glasgow, was given by the President of Rotary International, Kalyan Banjeree.  President Kaylan reminded the company that Rotary as a world wide organisation can achieve great deeds, such as the almost completed campaign carried out by Rotary in conjunction with the World Health Organisation to eradicate polio from the world. President Kalyan’s own country, India, is about to be declared polio-free, leaving only 3 countries in the world with the disease, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The President congratulated the Glasgow Club on its many years of service to the local Glasgow community and to the international community. He accepted from Glasgow Club President Donald a cheque for $10,000 for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.

Ray Burnham, President of RIBI, presented an engraved glass plaque to President Donald, to commemorate the occasion.

District Governor, Roberta Gaitan, presented greetings from District 1230.

The lunch ended with the toast – Rotary, the World Over.

(In association with Keep Scotland Beautiful, National Spring Clean)

The Rotary Clubs of Girvan, Alloway, Ayr, Prestwick, and Troon are once again holding their very popular Annual Spring Clean – in conjunction with South Ayrshire Council, who have asked Rotary to coordinate the Beach Clean aspect of their Keep Scotland Beautiful campaign. The nineteen miles of beaches to be cleaned include Girvan, Dipple, Turnberry, north Croy Bay, Dunure to Heads of Ayr, Heads of Ayr to River Doon, River Doon to Blackburn Car Park, Newton to Bentfield Point, Bentfield Point to Pow Burn, and Pow Burn to Barassie.

This winter’s terrible storms have cast up a huge amount of debris on our shores, and we are well aware of many members of our local communities who are appalled at the amount of litter at present spoiling their beaches. We would invite and encourage as many people as possible to please come forward and join us in this annual massive environmental clean-up.

Already we are making a great impact. On our regular beaches there has been a significant drop in rubbish compared with previous years. In 2007 we collected over 850 bags of rubbish. In 2011 from the same areas we collected 512 bags – a massive reduction of 40% in the litter found on Ayrshire beaches over the past five years.

In addition, a further 205 bags were lifted from several new beaches along the Dipple shore north of Girvan, which were cleaned for the second time.

Each year we have been greatly encouraged by offers of support from Scouts, Boys Brigade, youth clubs, schools, college students, OIR, walkers, friends and neighbours. We now have a large number of “regulars” who turn up every year, and also a generous group of farmers and caravan park owners who kindly volunteer to cart bags of rubbish from remote beaches to pick-up points for collection by the Council.

We will be delighted to welcome anyone interested in spending a few hours of gentle fresh-air exercise, fun and enjoyment, cleaning up the lovely coastline along the route of the Ayrshire Coastal Path. Please come along and join us at 9 am on Saturday 24 March, equipped with gardening gloves (or Marigolds!) warm clothing and stout footwear. South Ayrshire Council can supply a limited number of litter tongs and gloves – and an unlimited supply of black bin bags. The Council will also uplift all the litter we collect.

All persons wishing to assist should report to their nearest Assembly Point.

We would be delighted if some of those with cars – and a spirit of adventure – might care to volunteer to join groups in clean-ups at Dunure, Croy, or Dipple beaches – where they can visit and experience some interesting parts of the Coastal Path route.

We need your help. Please join us on the 24th.

The Assembly Points are:

• Troon Rotary; assembling at the toilets on North Beach at 9.00am
• Prestwick Rotary; assembling at the old Swimming Pool at 9.00am
• Ayr Rotary; assembling at Blackburn Car Park at 9.00am
• Alloway Rotary; assembling at Beach Car Park at Longhill Point at 9.00am
• Girvan Rotary; assembling at Ainsley Car Park at 10.00am

For further information please contact: Jimmy Begg . Tel: 01292 269195