100 Pipers
Pipe Band Championships.
Levengrove Park.
Dumbarton.

 
Saturday 22nd May 2010 saw the return of the popular pipe bands championship held in Levengrove Park which house’s the Ancient Burial ground of King Robert the Bruce in ruins of the old St Serf’s church.
 
This is a fitting tribute to our great hero King
                      “Robert the Bruce”.

Strathleven Artizans procured a pitch at this year games.
We were situated on the perimeter of the grade 1 arena overlooking the Clyde and Dumbarton castle,
It was a great spot we were joined by the St Margaret’s hospice and the Argyle and Southern Highlanders veterans.

It was an early start having to be in the park for 8.00am but most of us arrived bang on time with 2 exceptions blaming their alarm clock etc but better late than never, mind you they were only half an hour late, “a King’s prerogative” I dare say (LOL). 

We set up our gazebo with a foggy backdrop over looking the river Clyde covered with a blanket of early morning mist which led to some cracking photo opportunities with Dumbarton Castle appearing through the mist as it cleared. It was a stunning sight it was as the mist burned off in the early morning heat.
The weather through out the day was fantastic the longer the day went the hotter it got by mid afternoon the mercury was hitting the 80’s.
With a good turnout of Bowmen we had our stall and gazebo up and organised in quick time, by half past 8 we had our first visitors to our stall, I believe the couple came from the land of Oz they were soon clued up on the history of King Robert the Bruce and had no idea that part of him was buried in the very park that they stood in they soon made their way over to St Serf’s to pay homage.

With the park getting more busier by the minute some of the guys then dressed up in our medieval gear and had the first of several walks round the arena to promote the new Robert the Bruce Heritage centre at Renton station.
Our medieval Knights received a warm welcome from all the folk they encountered on their travels round the park, many people stopping us and asking to have their photos taken with us as you can imagine it took us ages to go round the arena.
Meanwhile back at our stall Susan and Duncan along with Harriet were doing a grand job telling folk about the local history relating to KRB and the Dumbarton area.
At our stall we had some merchandise on sale and we had a profitable day which will help our funds, a big thank you to all who made donations or purchased some of our artefacts etc.

Around lunch time heads started to turn as 4 beautiful young ladies headed our way it turns out they are contestants for Miss Scotland making their way to the toilets to get changed into their promotional outfits for photos etc for the Scottish Sun news paper.
As they opened the doors to the portaloo’s all their faces dropped with horror at the thought of changing in the small loos with yours truly being a Knight and gentleman saw this and offered the use of our van to get changed in which they jumped at, this led to having some photos taken with the girls who were all stunning and had a good laugh with us, it made my day LOL  !!!.

Meanwhile back at the ranch……………
We had one of our Great Seals on display and this was the grand prize in our raffle which was won by Mrs Muriel Barlow from Dumbarton so congratulations to Muriel we hope it brings you many years of pleasure  and enjoyment.

 By mid afternoon our stall was very busy and it was all hands on deck promoting KRB and the new Heritage Centre as we were right next to the grade 1 arena we saw and heard all the top pipe bands as they headed off for their shot at glory the standard of piping was superb the winners were Field Marshall Montgomery from Northern Ireland well done to all the bands (all 140 of them) of all grades and all the other Pipe majors etc an excellent day all round.
A Big thanks goes to West Dunbartonshire council for letting us have a pitch at the games, it was very much appreciated.

A Big thank you to all the Artizans/Bowmen who gave their time to help organise and run the stall on this scorching hot day,…………thanks goes to Harriet & Chris Pollock, Paul & Susan Hunter, Jim & Lynn Tannock, Duncan Thomson also to thanks to Archie Thomson Senor, Dave & Christine Murdoch for their support and also to wee Lucas.

It was a long day but a very enjoyable one and we look forward to taking part again next year…………………!!!

Yours………..Jim Tannock.
Strathleven Artizans