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Highland Games
Springbok Legends went Scottish!
Perfect Highland weather welcomed more than 3,500 visitors to this year’s Highland Games Festival at Fort Nottingham where the eLan Rugby Legends took on the Intrepid Notties Farmers on Saturday 29 March.
The day was filled with fun, an outing that the whole family enjoyed, be it on the field taking part in the events or watching the kids chase around after a rugby ball, smiles were had all - competitor and spectator alike.
From the distance running (“The Kilted Mile”), the former Springbok rugby players and the bubbly intrepid farmers took to the age-old show of strength, Tug–o–war, where both sides had three opportunities to pull the other team across the line. The event can be easily underestimated with strength, balance and tenacity being required for the successful team.
The competitors moved onto the next event, where a very deceptive boulder awaited. The boulder weighed in at 72kg and needed to be carried on a 20m length of “track”. The competitor had to lap as many times as they could in a two minute time constraint. The event being aptly named as Walk the Weight had all competitors digging deep to complete as many laps as possible in the allocated time.
The Shot putt event followed the trend of boulders at the Highland Games. The public were asked to guess the weight of the boulder that both the eLan Rugby Legends and the Intrepid Notties Farmers had to fling as far as they could.
The Glaswegian born, former Scottish, Sharks and Springbok hooker, John Allan displayed a fine example of how to ‘putt’ the boulder by hurling it over his head and gained a fair distance with his attempt. For this he was rewarded with cheers from the crowd and witty comments from team mates.
The much anticipated Toss the Caber event is more complicated than the average person might realise. In true Scottish games tradition, distance actually has nothing to do with being victorious. The caber once tossed has to flip over once for the competitor to have a qualified throw. Then to add to the challenges, it has to land in a 180 degree radius parallel from the release line to gain from one to a perfect three points per throw. If the caber does not rotate 180degrees and then land at a specific angle, then you will score a dismal zero result. The competitor will have three chances to attempt a perfect three. Allan again came up trumps getting in touch with his Scottish roots and scoring a 7 out of 9, a fantastic feat for a first attempt.
Results for the “heavy” athletics were:
Civilian Kilted Mile: Individual
First: Dieter Kriese eLan Rugby Legends
Second: Bruce Mennie Intrepid Notties Farmers
Third: John Slade eLan Rugby Legends
Civilian Shot Putt: Three throws combined
First: John Larter 20.7 Intrepid Notties Farmers
Second: Adrian Garvey 20.6 eLan Rugby Legends
Third: Gerhard Harding 20 eLan Rugby Legends
Civilian Tug – o – War: Team event
First: eLan Rugby Legends
Second: Intrepid Notties Farmers
Civilian Tossing the Caber: Three throws combined
First: John Allan 7 eLan Rugby Legends
Second: Sven Turner 5 Intrepid Notties Farmers
Third: Kevin Moran 5 Intrepid Notties Farmers
Civilian Walk the Weight: Over 20m
First: Andile Njeembezi 198m eLan Rugby Legends
Second: Justin Bishop 102.2m Intrepid Notties Farmers
Third: John Slade 100m eLan African Rugby Legends
Overall Team Results
eLan Rugby Legends 128,984 points
Intrepid Notties Farmers 94,635 points
It would not have been a Highland Games without the distinctive sounds of the marching Scottish bands that entertained and enthralled crowds with favourite tunes being relished by the colourful bagpipes from the different Caledonian bands.
A procession of vintage tractors were also a highlight, with many dear old ladies chugging along slowly around the field being displayed in all their glory. One of the grand pieces was referred to as the ‘Porsche’ of all tractors.
Impressive Celtic and Scottish dancing was interspersed with Zulu dancing to keep the crowds entertained during bands and athletics. The wonderful Fort Nottingham Museum welcomed new and old guests to have a look around. Market stalls kept the browsers busy while children were entertained with jumping castles and balloons.
A delight of traditional events was on offer, including piping in the haggis ceremony. Heavy athletics which are associated with Highland Games worldwide took place on a lush green field with a magnificent view. The kilted mile started off proceedings with a marked track meandering along typical Midlands hills, the competitors were sparse on kilts but over flowing with enthusiasm.
The Fort Nottingham Highland Games is an annual event and next year the eLan Rugby Legends look forward to being a part of more events, who knows, maybe the Legends will don an eLan Rugby Legends kilt of their own?