Aberdeen City Archives - Page 47 of 206

Peacock Visual Arts Presents ‘Drawing In Response’

Aberdeen City, Information No Responses »

Mar 242016

With thanks to John Morrison.

Peacock Visual Arts is delighted to present Drawing in Response.

Drawing in Response is the result of the Bethany Arts Project, led by Bethany Christian Trust, in partnership with Gray’s School of Art and Peacock Visual Arts.

Bethany Arts Project is an ambitious new art project working with local homeless and vulnerable people to help build confidence and learn new skills by participating in a series of printmaking and photography workshops.

Facilitated by Bethany’s Arts Coordinator, Caitlyn Main, and with the help of Gray’s School of Art students Aiden Milligan and David Brown, participants worked with Peacock’s printmakers to create exciting new work of their own.

The aim of the Bethany Arts Project is to enable homeless and vulnerable people to work with artists in a way that harnesses their experience, enthusiasm, and creativity, as well as increase their own self-esteem.

Bethany Arts Project seeks to challenge perceptions of homelessness and social exclusion and encourage more mutual respect and understanding across the city.

Date: 1-16 April 2016
Opening: Thursday 31st March 2016, All welcome
Location: Peacock Visual Arts

Next Of Kin Exhibition Shares Memories Of WW1- 02.04.16

Aberdeen City, History, Information No Responses »

Mar 242016

With thanks to Martyn Smith, Marketing & Events Organiser, Grampian Transport Museum

Next of Kin, an exhibition created by National Museums Scotland, opens on 2nd April at the Grampian Transport Museum.

It presents a picture of Scotland during the First World War through treasured objects from official and private sources, passed to close relatives and down through generations.

The exhibition was previously shown at the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle, and Grampian Transport Museum will be the fifth of nine touring venues around Scotland.

It is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Scottish Government. Each of the host venues will be adding material from their own collections to tell local stories which reflect the themes of the exhibition.

Next of Kin will tell the stories of those directly involved in the Great War, including Colonel Frank Fleming. Colonel Fleming was taken prisoner, and his experiences will now be brought to life with a number of personal effects, including his officer’s pass to leave the prisoner of war camp for recreational purposes. Colonel Fleming’s cell wall calendar will also be displayed – prisoners were denied all information including what the date was, so he kept his own record.

Canadian Lieutenant James Humphrey’s story will also be told for the first time; Lieutenant Humphrey was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and was wounded in action. While recovering in hospital he met his future wife when invited by her parents to their home for Christmas. The Next of Kin exhibition will include items belonging to Humphreys, including his wounded man’s kit label. Invalided out and very nearly losing his right arm, he was sent back to a London hospital – just one of tens of thousands of injured soldiers.

The exhibition will be supported with further displays including a Foster Wellington traction engine, affectionately known as Olive, which was originally commissioned by the War Department. The museum’s 1914 Sentinel Steam Waggon, used by local carrier Alexander Runcie, was new at the outbreak of war and helped to provide a much needed morale boost.

Runcie utilised the Sentinel to provide excursions for local groups of children.

A horse-drawn Aberdeen tram will also be decorated in the period style, harking back to the days when such vehicles were used as recruitment vehicles.

Goliath, a 10hp McLaren Traction engine, will also be on display for the season, having been used to pull heavy guns on the Western Front. Goliath would go on to become a Showman’s Road Locomotive, before being preserved by an enthusiast from Aberdeenshire.

Grampian Transport Museum Curator Mike Ward said:

“The First World War had a profound influence on Aberdeenshire. The depopulation of the Cabrach was partly due to the rush of young men to volunteer in 1914, thinking it would be a great adventure together and that they would be home by Christmas. The war memorials testify to the losses suffered by local families, in some cases three sons from one family.

“This is a sensitive subject and the museum is keen to take a look at what happened in our locality on the home front. There are many very sad stories but also some of great relief as ‘missing in action’ became ‘taken prisoner’.”

Stuart Allan of National Museums Scotland said:

“The First World War separated millions of people worldwide from their families and homes. The impact of the conflict was felt by families and communities in every part of Scotland as individuals served in the war in different ways. For those who experienced the conflict, keeping objects was a way of remembering this extraordinary period in their lives, or coping with the absence and loss of their loved ones.

“We look forward to touring the exhibition and bringing these stories from the National collection to people across the country and we particularly look forward to the stories which our partners will tell alongside ours.”

The material on loan from National Museums Scotland looks in detail at eight individual stories which both typify and illustrate the wider themes and impact of the War on servicemen and women and their families back home in Scotland. Objects include postcards and letters, photographs, medals and memorial plaques.

Examples include;

Two autograph books in which Nurse Florence Mellor collected drawings, watercolours, verses, jokes and messages from the wounded soldiers in her care at Craiglockhart War Hospital.
The pocket New Testament which Private James Scouller was carrying the day he died at Cambrai in 1917, returned to his family by a German soldier on the eve of the Second World War.
Drawings and postcards by Henry (Harry) Hubbard, an architectural draughtsman in Glasgow who contracted illnesses so severe that he ended up spending 16 months in hospital.
The last letter home from George Buchanan, Seaforth Highlanders, a railway plate-layer from Bathgate who was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Loos, along with his memorial plaque and service medals.
The shell fragment which wounded Private William Dick. He kept the fragment after it was removed from his leg, but later died from the wound.

As the exhibition tours, the host venues will develop additional content using their own objects and stories related to their respective local areas. The results of these additional contributions will be captured and preserved in the exhibition displays and a digital app interactive.

Learning activities exploring the exhibition themes will take place at each venue. School and community groups will be able to interact with a bespoke handling collection made up of original and replica objects. There will also be an associated training programme to develop new skills among the participating organisations.

The tour starts in Dumfries and then the exhibition travels to Rozelle House Galleries (Ayr), Hawick Museum, Low Parks Museum (Hamilton), Grampian Transport Museum (Alford), Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the Black Watch Castle and Museum and Orkney Museum.

The full list of partner organisations and touring venues can be found here: http://www.nms.ac.uk/nextofkin

Explaining the importance of the HLF support, the Head of HLF in Scotland, Lucy Casot said:

“The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching and shaping every corner of the UK and beyond. The Heritage Lottery Fund has invested more than £60million in projects – large and small – that are marking this global Centenary.

“With our grants, we are enabling communities like those involved in the Next of Kin exhibition to explore the continuing legacy of this conflict and help local young people in particular to broaden their understanding of how it has shaped our modern world.”

Next Of Kin Exhibition
2nd April 2016
Grampian Transport Museum, Alford.

Range Of Events Planned For Roof Garden

Aberdeen City, Information No Responses »

Mar 242016

With thanks to Jessica Murphy, Senior Account Executive, Citrus:Mix.

The sound of jazz will emanate from a city centre roof garden this weekend as an exciting programme of events gets underway.

Bon Accord & St Nicholas will host a number of performances for Jazz On The Green – part of the Aberdeen Jazz Festival running from March 16 to 20 – at the greenspace near the St Nicholas centre.

A range of jazz acts will perform in the bandstand in the roof garden on Sunday March 20, uniting the city centre in a celebration of jazz, blues, funk, soul, R & B, swing, bop, vocals and big band, with free admission for all.

Work on improved seating, lighting, flower provision and a brand new children’s play area was completed last year to breathe new life into the greenspace – and it is hoped it will become a popular destination within the city centre.

Plans are in place for an Easter Egg hunt within the roof garden and events will continue throughout spring and summer.

Craig Stevenson, manager of Bon Accord & St Nicholas, said:

“We are delighted to be playing a part in the Aberdeen Jazz Festival, which is always a fantastic and lively event. This will be a great chance for the public to come along to the enhanced roof garden and see how it has been transformed in the past year. The bandstand within the roof garden is a great performance area and event space and I am sure the talented jazz performers will draw the crowds in.

“A lot of hard work went into transforming the area and we want it to be a space for the people of Aberdeen to enjoy. We are looking forward to finalising a wide range of exciting events throughout spring and summer and welcoming people to the garden throughout the months to come.”

Bon Accord & St Nicholas are at the heart of Aberdeen city centre’s retail sector, offering 840,000 sq ft of prime space and home to around 100 stores. Scotland’s largest Next, Aberdeen’s only Topshop and Topman standalone store as well as the City’s largest New Look and River Island are among the key retailers.

The centres, which attract an average of 275,000 visitors a week, are owned by BMO Real Estate Partners and managed by specialist retail agency Savills. For further information on the centres visit www.bonaccordandstnicholas.com

Picture Credit: “Inside the Bon Accord centre – geograph.org.uk – 1241608” by Stanley Howe. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons

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Lulu At HMT 21.03.16 – Dod Morrison Reviews

Aberdeen City, Featured, Opinion No Responses »

Mar 222016

Review and photographs by Dod Morrison.

Most 67 years olds would be sitting at home, retired or pondering retirement. But Lulu? She is in the middle of a 35 date tour.

Billed as ‘An Evening With Lulu’, the iconic artist performs her hits and the songs that have influenced her career.

In 2015 she released her first self penned album ‘Making Life Rhyme’ and did her first tour in 10 years, she had so much fun and she decided to do it again 2016

It is a 2 hour set that many of the bands nowadays half her age couldn’t do.

Throughout the evening we are told stories and reminded that she has worked with some of the best out there including the late David Bowie and she does her rendition of ‘The Man Who Sold The World’.

We are told when she was going to write some songs and was wondering how to go about it.

She realised she lived with one of the best song writers around, Maurice Gibb.

We are told a story about the Bee Gees meeting up during one of their band splits and how they all met in a room for the first time in ages, and penned a song there and then.

Another story of the evening is her affection for Sydney Poitier and about her, at 19 years old, being cast for her film debut ‘To Sir With Love’.

She tells how, at that time, the film couldn’t be made in America, and singing the title track which went to number one in the US pop charts for 5 weeks in 1967.

She then announces:

“We will sing it now and I have updated it a bit”

The crowd love it.

During the evening she brings on the Military Wife’s Choir and they perform a rendition ‘Cry’ which brings a standing ovation from the crowd.

The last song is looming and Lulu says:

“I know what you want me to play and I know what you want me to sing, so let’s do it”

….and that now famous “weeeellllll” is shouted out and ‘Shout’ is played.

The military wife’s choir appear down the middle of the aisle to get people up and dancing but they need no encouragement and all are dancing and singing away.

Her voice throughout is immense , still great.

Lemon Tree To Show ‘International Waters’ – Tues Apr 5

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Mar 222016

Fire Exit presents ‘International Waters’, in co-production with Tron Theatre. With thanks to Liz Smith.

The social fabric has finally torn. Airports are closed, roads are blocked. Now even the 1% need to seek asylum. Four obscenely rich members of the elite pay through the nose to join an exclusive party on the last ship leaving London.

They stay alive using the only things they know – money, sex and madness. But the ship is sailing in the wrong direction.

They realise they don’t know each other. They don’t know the Captain. They don’t know what the hell is going on.

Like a perverse Aesop’s fable for the apocalypse, the twisting plot explores how progress can sometimes turn out to be a trap.

In this case it involves elegant glamour, brutal food poisoning, cyborg finance, Mack The Knife and a delicious bull testicle meringue.

The room keeps inexplicably shaking with an ear-splitting mechanical growl. Is this exile, extradition, extraordinary rendition? Are other passengers hidden on board? What’s their dangerous cargo? There’s a rumour it’s animals. Pairs of animals.

An aging pop crooner, a hapless trophy wife, a foul-mouthed photojournalist and a neurotic civil servant all know much more about the outside world than they’re letting on…

International Waters comes from multi-award-winning writer and director David Leddy, who has been called ‘Scotland’s leading theatrical innovator’ (Times) a ‘maverick’ (Guardian), a ‘genius’ (Scotsman), an ‘iconoclast’ (List) and an ‘institution’ (Independent).

The show features a stellar team of award-winning designers and actors. The four actors are: Selina Boyack (Nominated Best Actress TMA Awards, The Stage Awards and CATS Awards); Claire Dargo (Nominated Best Actress at The Stage Acting Excellence Awards, Sub Rosa, The Duchess of Malfi); Lesley Hart (March of Women, The Events, Dear Scotland); Robin Laing (Band of Brothers, Filth, Mary Stuart).

Set and costume by Becky Minto (Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, Prague Quadrennial 2015 World Stage Design Exhibition); lighting by Nich Smith (Lighting Design Awards Best Public Building 2008, Cryptic, Long Live the Little Knife, Sub Rosa); sound by Danny Krass (Swallow, Huff, Who Cares); Production Manager Niall Black (Complicite, Royal Court, NTS).

Fire Exit presents, in co-production with Tron Theatre,

INTERNATIONAL WATERS.

Tues 5th April, 7.30pm.
The Lemon Tree,
5 W N Street,
Aberdeen,
AB24 5AT

Tickets: £13.20 inc bf | Students £5
http://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/events/international-waters

McNasty’s Quizzers Raise Funds To Help Kids’ Charity

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Mar 172016

With thanks to Ian McLaren, PR account manager, Innes Associates

The customers of an Aberdeen bar have shown their generosity by raising thousands of pounds for an Aberdeen children’s charity.

Regulars at McNasty’s on Summer Street raised £4,000 during 2015 for north-east charity Cash for Kids, which will use the money to fulfil applications for grant funding.

The fundraising initiative was spearheaded by the owners of McNasty’s, Stephen and Linda Taylor, who were keen for the pub to support a charity, with a regular quiz night forming the core of the effort.

Cash for Kids was chosen as the nominated charity last year after everyone involved in organising the quiz heard about the work that the charity does to improve the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children living in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

The landlords enlisted regulars Barry Cooke and Iain Sluyter to run the fortnightly quiz in the city centre bar. Six years on, setting each quiz is a challenge the duo still relish. Around 15 teams of five take part in each quiz, all keen to test their knowledge on subjects including sport, current affairs, history and general knowledge.

Alongside the fortnightly quiz, the bar has organised a number of fundraising initiatives, including raffles, race nights, and band nights. Bar manager Claire-Louise Duff, assisted by other staff members, organises the raffles which feature donations from local businesses including Apache North Sea, while local Ronnie Falconer hosts the race nights. All of the bands that take to the stage on band nights do so free of charge.

After raising £4,000 in 2015 for Cash for Kids, the pub is continuing to raise money for the charity in the coming year, with the quiz continuing to form an important part of this. Quiz dates are advertised on the McNasty’s website www.mcnastys.co.uk and Facebook page.

Quiz organiser Barry Cooke said:

“Over the past six years the quiz has grown in popularity, enabling us to raise thousands of pounds for charity. When we heard about the work Cash for Kids does and some of the appeals that it runs we wanted to lend our support.

“The response from the regulars at McNasty’s has been fantastic. Everyone involved in the fundraising is really pleased with the amount that was raised last year and knows it will be put to good use helping children across the north-east. Our fundraising for 2016 is already off to a great start.”

Cash for Kids supports sick, disabled and disadvantaged children and young people under the age of 18 living in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. It will use the donation to help fulfil applications in its next round of quarterly grant funding. The charity provides grants four times a year to support young individuals and their families, improving their quality of life.

Funding is also granted to community groups to aid the delivery of various projects that benefit local children. This has included grants to community run playgroups, breakfast clubs, sports clubs and skate parks. Applications for grants must include supporting information and be submitted by the end of January, May, June and September each year.

Cash for Kids charity manager Michelle Ferguson said:

“The management and customers at McNasty’s have done a brilliant job in raising £4,000 over the past year. Everyone has put in a huge effort to fundraise for Cash for Kids over the past year and we can’t thank them enough. The donation will enable us to make important and positive differences to the lives of the children that we support.

“Having taken part in some of the quiz nights I know how much fun Barry and Ian make them. The questions test your general knowledge, but it is a great opportunity to learn some new facts, have a good night out, whilst raising money for charity.”

Cash for Kids is Northsound Radio’s listeners’ charity. It makes grants to individuals, families, children’s groups, organisations and projects throughout the Northsound transmission area. All money is raised locally and spent locally to benefit local disabled and disadvantaged children and young people under 18. More information on Cash for Kids can be found at www.northsound1.com/cashforkids, or telephone 01224 337010.

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£2million Refurbishment For Loch St Car Park

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Mar 172016

With thanks to Phil Moar, Account Manager, Citrus:Mix.

One of Aberdeen’s most popular city centre
car parks is to undergo a £2million
refurbishment.

Bon Accord & St Nicholas’ Loch St car park, which on average welcomes over one million users a year, has been earmarked for a number of innovative improvements that are set to enhance the parking experience for those visiting the centre.

A fresh parking surface, brighter energy efficient LED lighting as well as the grouping of both disabled and parent and children spaces to the same location on each level are all part of the plans.

Funded by centre owner BMO Real Estate and managed by specialist retail agency Savills, work on the car park is expected to be completed by the end of October.

Craig Stevenson, centre manager at Bon Accord & St Nicholas, said:

“We’re delighted to be working with both BMO Real Estate and Savills to enhance the car park experience for our loyal customers in what is a significant refurbishment project for the centre.

“We want customers to get their visit to Bon Accord & St Nicholas off to the best possible start and we appreciate the role that a bright, modern and accessible car park plays in an individual’s shopping experience.

“Work will only be carried out on one level at a time in an effort to avoid disruption for those coming and going from the facility; we look forward to welcoming visitors to the enhanced parking provision in the coming months.”

Throughout the programme of work, the car park will be open until 8pm instead of 11pm. On a Thursday only, it will be open until 10pm. The neighbouring Harriet St car park is unaffected by the works.

Bon Accord & St Nicholas are at the heart of Aberdeen city centre’s retail sector, offering 840,000 sq ft of prime space and home to around 100 stores.

Scotland’s largest Next, Aberdeen’s only Topshop and Topman standalone store as well as the City’s largest New Look and River Island are among the key retailers, as well as H&M and New Look. Bon Accord also boasts a boutique store line up with retailers including Jigsaw, Hobbs, Phase Eight and Jo Malone.

The centres, which attract an average of 275,000 visitors a week, are owned by BMO Real Estate Partners and managed by specialist retail agency Savills. For further on the centres visit www.bonaccordandstnicholas.com.

Picture Credit: “Inside the Bon Accord centre – geograph.org.uk – 1241608” by Stanley Howe. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons

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Langstane Announces Completion Of £1.6m Contract

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Mar 172016

With thanks to Beverly Tricker, Tricker PR.

Langstane, Scotland’s largest independent office products company, yesterday announced completion of the highest value contract in its seven decade history – a £1.6m deal to supply office and patient furniture to the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

The firm provided and installed 20,000 individual pieces in total at three buildings within the hospital complex; the children’s hospital, the teaching and learning centre and the administration block.

Langstane has been supplying office furniture to the NHS in Scotland for nine years, but this competitively tendered contract is the largest single contract which the firm has delivered under their framework agreement.

“Langstane is known as a provider of quality office furniture,” says managing director Colin Campbell,

“so, the move to also provide patient care furniture such as chairs, over bed tables and patient lockers was a natural product extension for us. As a trusted NHS provider, we were able to use our established track record in delivering office furniture on time and within budget for them and to diversify our product range to satisfy this comprehensive contract requirement.

“We have worked on many major office furniture contracts such as the provision of all furniture for the Prime Four Business Park offices at Kingswells on the outskirts of Aberdeen, but this Glasgow-based contract is the largest one which we have ever undertaken and shows that with our divisions across Scotland, Langstane can provide ‘any time, anywhere and any quantity’.”

The furniture supplied to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital included high back wing back arm chairs, over bed tables, patient lockers, coffee tables, desks, stacking chairs with writing tablets, wall mounted storage and sofas.

The Langstane team was involved from the planning stages of the project, consulting with the client and contractors and providing suggested layouts. This was followed by product sample days where staff and client focus groups could share their thoughts on the planned furniture pieces and the layouts.

The simultaneous construction of the three buildings which were to be furnished provided logistical challenges. Langstane devised a complex delivery schedule which included direct site delivery from manufacturers in one hour slots to allow the Langstane team and the sub contractors to unload and position each drop to allow the build process to take place on site.

“The provision of patient care furniture has diversified our Langstane product range,” adds Colin,

“but such diversification is not new to Langstane. Our business has been built on a process of continually asking our clients what else we can do for them from the post-wars days when my father and uncles began providing pencils and pens to their customers when they delivered their print orders.

Our four divisions of office supplies, office furniture, printing and promotional products can deliver a comprehensive range of everything an office needs and now we can deliver the same complete package to the patient care sector from new hospital complexes like the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to individual GPs surgeries and care homes.”

Langstane is Scotland’s largest independent office products company and is one of the largest in the UK. Langstane, established in 1947 in Aberdeen remains a family business and has further branches in Dundee, Livingstone and Inverurie. Langstane employs over 137 staff and has a turnover of £17.5m. More about the company can be found at www.langstane.co.uk.

Flare Path At HMT – Duncan Harley Reviews

Aberdeen City, Featured, Opinion No Responses »

Mar 172016

Duncan Harley Reviews Flare Path at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen.

Of every 100 airmen who joined Bomber Command during the Second World War, 45 were killed and a further fourteen badly wounded or taken prisoner of war. As the war progressed the odds improved, but when this play was first staged in the war-time London of 1942, the chances of surviving a tour of duty in the primitive heavy bombers of the time were firmly stacked against the young aircrews.

Terence Rattigan wrote Flare Path while serving as an air-gunner in Coastal Command, which at the very least enabled him to insert a degree of authenticity into the script.

Early performances were frequented by the good and the great including RAF Air Marshals keen to advise the playwright on how to improve things. When Churchill saw the play he famously remarked that it was a masterpiece of understatement.

Bizarrely, Keith Newman, Rattigan’s psychiatrist, felt compelled to attend the first 250 performances before publishing an impenetrable book entitled ‘250 Times I Saw a Play’. He was later confined in a psychiatric hospital having subjected one of the male leads to a barrage of love letters.

Few original 1940s RAF flyers survive into the 21st century and Rattigan himself died in 1977. However, now revived as a national tour, Flare Path still has the power both to shock and to entertain a modern audience.

The action takes place in 1940s Lincolnshire. The setting is the residents’ lounge of the austere but adequate Falcon Hotel. Overhead, bombers take off, land and explode in flames.

Audrey Palmer’s portrayal of hotelier Mrs Oakes captures the mood of the time perfectly. The prickly proprietor provides an austerely correct foil to the chummy aircrew who, in the main, ignore rank and privilege even to the point of directly addressing their commanding officer as Gloria.

Amidst a love tangle which threatens to break apart Teddy’s marriage to Patricia, the motley bunch of airmen look forward to some well earned time off-duty.

Enter stage left Squadron Leader ‘Gloria’ Swanson, Graham Seed, with some difficult news.

Take off for Germany is at 2240 hours and it won’t exactly be a piece of cake. The wives are left to worry and wait. There is a war on, after all.

It’s not all doom and gloom however. There are comedy turns: the best of which must be William Reay’s portrayal of Polish Flying Officer Count Skriczevinsky’s reunion with Countess Doris, played by the bubbly Claire Andreadis. Following an air crash into the English Channel, he returns blackened but triumphant from his dip in the drink, to deliver a comedy routine worthy of Eric Morecambe.

Wellingtons and Wimpys, passion and loyalty and above all a sense of duty are central themes of this play and by the final curtain the audience will have received some insight into the psychological effects of waging total war from the air.

The dialogue may be dated, and many of the accents typically posh British, but the essential message of Rattigan’s play still reaches out to modern audiences; and that, surely, is the whole point of a revival.

Directed by Justin Audibert with Sound Design by Dominic Bilkey, Flare Path plays at HMT Aberdeen until Saturday 19th March.

Tickets from Aberdeen Performing Arts Tel: 01224- 641122

RGU Win Fifth Consecutive Boat Race

Aberdeen City, Featured, Sport No Responses »

Mar 172016

With thanks to Eoin Smith, Senior Account Executive, Tricker PR.

Picture issued for free use by tricker pr on behalf of aberdeen asset management 2016 aberdeen boat race between robert gordon university (black/white) and aberdeen university (blue/yellow) on the river dee .... Pictured: Lord Provost George Adam with RGU after winning the 2016 race photo: Ross Johnston/Newsline Media.

Lord Provost George Adam with RGU after winning the 2016 race photo: Ross Johnston/Newsline Media.

Robert Gordon University has won the Aberdeen Asset Management Universities’ Boat Race, which took place on Saturday March 12, in record time. They won the closest ever race with a time of seven minutes and 38.6 seconds, beating rivals from the University of Aberdeen for the fifth consecutive year by just a quarter of a length. The University of Aberdeen was the runner up with a time of seven minutes and 40.1 seconds.

Both crews broke the previous course record of seven minutes and 42.2 seconds set by Robert Gordon University in 2014.

Hordes of spectators turned up to watch the teams take to the River Dee as the rivalry between the universities reached its peak.

Erin Wyness, president of Robert Gordon University Boat Club, says,

“For this to be RGU’s fifth win in a row feels awesome, as we were all so determined to retain the title. I’m so proud of the crew.

“We would like to thank Aberdeen Asset Management for their continued support of the Universities’ Boat Race as without them it wouldn’t be possible. Also, a big thanks to Ian and the University of Aberdeen crew, who always put up a great challenge.”

Ian Walker, president of the University of Aberdeen Boat Club, says,

“Well done to Erin and the rest of Robert Gordon University Boat Club, they all put on a brilliant display on the water and worked very well together as a team.

“Even though we didn’t win, I’m still so pleased with our performance on the river as I know my team put their all into the race. The atmosphere throughout the day has been unreal and we all feel so honoured to be involved in such a memorable sporting event in Aberdeen.”

The alumni boat race was won by Robert Gordon University by one and a quarter lengths in a time of two minutes and 14.5 seconds. The universities’ second crew boat race was won by the University of Aberdeen in a time of seven minutes and 48.1 seconds.

The Evening Express competed against last year’s winners Original 106fm in the first heat of the media challenge, followed by the BBC challenging STV in the second heat. Original 106fm and the BBC went on to row against each other in the final, with the BBC winning the 2016 media challenge boat race with a time of one minute and 14 seconds. They raced 300m in coxed ‘tub’ pairs.

Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, says,

“I would like to offer the winning crew from Robert Gordon University huge congratulations on their fifth consecutive boat race win. I would also like to praise the efforts of the Aberdeen University Boat Club which also performed exceptionally well today.

“Both teams should be extremely proud of themselves and all the hard work they’ve put in to training for this year’s boat race. It is always rewarding to watch talented, young rowers push themselves year after year to achieve such incredible results. Aberdeen Asset Management is proud to continue supporting young talent as well as Scotland’s longest running boat race.”

Follow the Aberdeen Asset Management Universities’ Boat Race on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AAMBoatRace, on Twitter @2016boatrace or on Instagram @aamboatrace

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