ESAWC - Newsletter Sept

 ESAWC – Newsletter Sept 2013 To ALL members of ESAWC, It occurred to me some time ago that although as a club we exist locally to members who are in the area, we do not keep in touch enough with other members who geographically are much further away. Indeed when the club was founded and I am still happy to say I was a part of that, we had a lot of support and encouragement from friends south of the border who I personally feel played as big a part. This allowed the club to grow and mature whilst some pressure was off for membership – I’m sure it’s quite clear the difficulty we have in persuading a potential Scottish member to put his hand in his pocket for a membership fee when he does not need to at the moment before shooting the shoreline. In other respects we are lucky to have this law. I’d like to take the opportunity to personally thank these members from the south and hope that their continued support of the club will keep it strong. The club has gone through some changes over the past couple of years and I feel we should be in touch with our membership more regularly by means of a news-­‐letter – this allows members to see events that they may not have attended and also keep communication channels open and informative, communication should be a two way mechanism and I welcome any member to make contact with committee regarding anything that they would like the club to be involved in or made aware of. Contact details for committee can be found on the website www.esawc.co.uk To look back over the last year (2012 – 2013) the club has had some well attended events in the form of fishing outings and gundog day, we also have clay shoots which help keep members “eyes in” for the season coming and all of these allow for a social side to the club. Ø
Cameron Wylie our events officer (and now also the treasurer) has organised some big fishing days for members who are keen to wet a line in the close of the shooting season. Cammy has become a keen fisher from a Kayak too. Ø
Our gundog day was run by Ally Kennedy, Ally had asked a B panel retriever judge to look after us on the day and the event was again kindly sponsored by Sporting Saint www.sportingsaint.co.uk the ground was testing and included a water retrieve which the dogs welcomed on such a good hot day. There was also a scurry which added a bit of a fun element to the day. The winner Barry Cargill receiving the trophy from myself, well done Barry. Ø We had a team entered in the BASC interclub back in May, captained by Jim Allan-­‐the team done us very proud and we thank members who gave up their time to participate. It was a great day for ESAWC. Results are on the club website. Ø
A clay shoot and big bore shoot brought members together last year too; we were welcomed by Adam Drummond, our club president, onto Kilspindie for another session of clay busting and the chance to bring out the “big guns” for a shot. This is always an interesting day and larger bored guns are a real attraction – Thanks to the guys who brought them and for allowing others to have a go. Ø
The club also had a stand at Scone game fair, unfortunately, the fair was cancelled after the first day due to the typical Scottish weather but some of the costs for this were recovered and the club is in debt to Kevin at Tidepool, www.tidepool.co.uk for all his assistance and planning prior to the event. This brings us to 2013, I’d like to let you know of some of the events we have had and also things that the committee and I are excited about as we bring the club forward and get involved in project work that will give the club some good PR. Following on from the AGM this year and in agreement with membership (present at the AGM) to secure the lease for another season, Cammy is working hard on our behalf to ensure that we can bring some sport to members who may not have other opportunities for inland flighting – the lease has been popular in the past but may have dwindled slightly last year and this is something that we will keep an eye on as the season goes on. Colin Shedden of BASC Scotland attended the AGM and gave a very informative discussion on goose numbers throughout Scotland and the effects of shooting as well as other topics the office is working, there was a period for questions and answers which members took every advantage of and Colin welcomed. Ø
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Whilst mentioning the lease, a reminder to members that the lease is available and if you are interested in inland flighting & decoying please get in touch with Cammy to organise a visit or two – we have competitive rates to help it pay for itself and Cammy is only too delighted to take your booking. The lease will be available until it is no longer viable to the club so please try to make use of it and enjoy the sport it can provide. It is there for members use. The location is near Balerno just south of Edinburgh close to threipmuir reservoir where the geese roost. There was a team entered to the BASC interclub again this year but it proved not to be as successful for ESAWC as the previous year, however there were a few of our team members recognised as individuals in the days event. Clay and big bore shoot Club member Tam Swan organised a day at the clays this year at a venue set up for the public, we visited Cluny clays in Fife www.clunyclays.co.uk This proved to be a popular event attended by a good number of members and all seemed to enjoy the day – again the highlight was bringing out the big bores. We thank Tam Swan for taking the time to organise this day on our behalf and also Mark Robson for negotiating a good deal from Cluny. Thanks also to Eddy Buchan at Cluny. Ø
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At the moment the club has no gundog officer in this position so we decided to leave out a dog day this year and concentrate more on the next clay shoot. If there are any members who would like to fill this committee position then please get in touch and make us aware of this – it would be good to have someone on board. Scone was a much better weekend this year as the gods were shining on us; we had a lot of interest from potential members and our “guess the amount of cartridges in the box” competition done well. Mark Robson and Jim Allan gave up a lot of their weekend to man the stand and I thank them and Bill McIntosh who also took time in the stand. Photograph courtesy of Linda Mellor photography http://www.lindamellorphotography.co.uk Ø
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We had our second clay shoot (25 Aug) again by very kind permission of Adam Drummond our president. This was at Kilspindie and it proved to be quite testing since the shots were taken from a “wildfowling position” There was a lot of leg pulling and banter which made the day enjoyable and the BBQ was lit again at lunch time. This time a chronograph and a pattern plate were available for those who load their own shells or who wish to try their chokes. I’d like to thank Tam Swan and Mark Robson for organising the day, Eddy Buchan at Cluny for a good deal on clays and John Edwards, Jim Allan and Keith Brown for bringing along traps and chronograph. Ø
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For the future. We are working towards an exciting project that should see the club take on some conservation work. We have put in a costing for material for duck nests along a local river which will see us take a role with the local countryside ranger and another body. Although it is very early we are comfortable with plans being put in place today and hope that it evolves into much more – I’d like to discuss this more in detail in the following newsletter when plans are more firmly in place, I wanted to give you a flavour of what we have done thus far. One of our committee members has taken the lead on this project and will update us as things develop but it looks very positive right now. We have been contacted recently by the RSPB, they were looking to gather data on a variety of topics such as how many wildfowl we shoot in a season, how many of us there are in the club, how many other clubs existed who shoot the area and how much we spend financially as individuals on our sport. We passed this onto BASC Scotland and Colin and his team are corresponding with the RSPB. I would say however that the data they are trying to collect is impossible to get accurate and we cannot assist them at this time. I’m unaware of anyone who would want to tell the RSPB how much they spend on shooting in a year in any case!! A development on the river Tay has been started funded by lottery money, the project will build footpaths along the banks and though it had been planned for some time an article was published on the STV news, as a club we were disappointed to find no mention of wildfowling taking place as a sport on the river and we wrote to the trust manager quoted in the article. He was very approachable and acknowledged that wildfowlers were using the river and added us to the stakeholders list which will allow us to be approached by the development officer when he is recruited to the position. To end, I’d like to thank on behalf of the entire committee our exiting secretary David De Gernier who stepped down at the AGM. David worked tirelessly for the club from the beginning and carried a lot of the responsibility for the day to day running of the club on his shoulders, there were never any complaints from David and we could rely on him to get on with it – he will be, and is being, sorely missed by the rest of us on committee. If there are any potential secretaries amongst you who would consider giving some time to the club please come forward – We broke the role into two parts and we have a membership secretary in Mark Robson who is doing a grand job. I’d also like to thank the committee that give up their own free time for meetings and organisation of events, there are never complaints and we all work together well, without them the club would not function as a club and would only exist. So with the season now upon us I’ll leave each and every one of you with a note of thanks for your continued support of the club and hope you have another safe and happy season wherever you are in the world. Straight shooting. Adam Mair ESAWC – Chairman.