stravaiging around Scotland » sport

Scottish Olympians parade through Edinburgh

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:03:52 +0000

Scotland’s Olympic medal-winners were in Edinburgh today, having lunch at the Castle before travelling down the Royal Mile in an open-top double decker bus.

more photos in the gallery

World Rugby Sevens

admin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:03:16 +0000

Yesterday and today it was the Edinburgh Sevens rugby tournament – the final of the IRB Sevens World Series. We gave yesterday a miss due to the bad weather, but braved the light drizzle today. Scotland had done well in Saturday’s games, beating Australia, narrowly losing to South Africa and drawing with Argentina. Russia had done less well, suffering a comprehensive defeat to New Zealand, but drawing with England and beating Portugal. Today Russia were beaten by Argentina in the quarter-final of the Bowl competition, and dropped into the Shield competition where they beat Kenya in the semi-final, but then went on to lose to Portugal in the final. Scotland faced New Zealand in the quarter-final of the Cup, were beaten, and dropped down into the Plate competition, beating Fiji in a tough semi-final match. In the plate final we were beaten by South Africa. The Cup final – the true final – saw New Zealand beat England.

white-water rafting

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:03:12 +0000

After dropping Yana off at the airport in Glasgow this morning, I drove up to Aberfeldy to meet up with my mum, dad, brother and sister. It’s my mum’s birthday today, and as a present we took her to Splash White Water Rafting. After getting changed into wetsuits, helmets and lifejackets, we were bussed up the River Tay from Aberfeldy then given a safety briefing.

We started off on a slow-moving section of the Tay, getting used to being in the rafts. To get comfortable with being on the water the instructor made us stand up on the edge of the raft. I slipped, fell into the boat, and knocked everyone over, and my dad off the back of the raft and into the water! With dad back on board, we continued down the river, and did some more tricks, including everyone moving to the back of the raft and pulling the front up with a rope to balance. The currents started to get stronger, and we were now being pulled down the river. Small sections of rapids had to be negotiated, but nothing too difficult. Then as we approached Grandtully things became much more interesting! The earlier sections had been good fun, but this last section was fantastic! It’s just a shame it seemed to be over so quickly.

Scotland vs Ireland

admin — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:03:57 +0000

I always look forward to this time of year because of the 6 Nations rugby tournament. My dad had managed to get tickets for the Scotland against Ireland game, so he, myself, my sister and one of her friends headed to Murrayfield after an early lunch today. Kick-off was at 1:30pm, but before that there were various entertainments including pipe bands. The atmosphere was fantastic, and as we got closer to kick-off it just built and built. We were high up in the South stand, in what seemed to be a mainly Irish section, and the view down over the pitch was brilliant. When Scotland got a penalty in front of the Irish posts Chris Paterson stepped up to take the kick and we had a perfect view. When the action moved to the other end of the pitch things were a little more difficult to see, but it was still a good vantage point – much better than down by the pitchside as we had been for the Barbarians match last year. The game was much closer than many had predicted, finishing 18-19 for a win and Triple Crown to Ireland. Feeling slightly dejected after the loss, but still buoyed by the amazing atmosphere, we all poured out of Murrayfield and up Roseburn Street on the way back into town, sharing banter along the way as we took over the streets and the traffic ground to a halt.