Fit's in 'e Groat 'e day?

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John O’ Groat Journal review: May 6, 2011

STAFF at a local hotel got a sneak preview of the meal served to the royals in Buckingham Palace, at the wedding of the century. In a hush-hush operation, last Monday, Mackays Hotel head chef, Andrew Manson, was told to prepare a special lamb dish. But he didn’t know at the time that the same meal would be served to royalty and heads of state at Prince William and Kate’s reception later in the week. Just days before the wedding, Andrew’s boss, hotelier Murray Lamont, got a phone call from Mey Selections making a special request. Chairman of North Highland Initiative David Whiteford’s mysterious call, inviting the hotel to prepare a roast saddle of Mey Selections lamb with seasonal vegetables, ended with Mr Lamont being asked not to disclose and details to anyone bar essential personal.

ALSO on the front page, a tragedy involving two Orcadians who were thrown into the water when their dinghy overturned in Tongue Bay. One of the men managed to scramble ashore but the other man, David Cooper, of Stenness, was found to be dead.

A WICK woman, who returned to running after a break of around 13 years, has raised over £1,600 for Macmillan Cancer Support, by taking part in the Inverness half-marathon. Inspired by her sister, who is battling breast cancer, Joan Henry of Newton Road, achieved a personal best time of one hour, 33 minutes and 40 seconds, despite terrible weather on the day of the run, in March.

INSIDE the paper reports that there was a steady stream of voters in locally for the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat in the Holyrood election. The predicted tight contest didn’t materialise, however, with Rob Gibson staging a runaway victory.

ROYAL watcher, Zena Sinclair, travelled to London for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and it was clearly well worth the long journey. She said it was “lovely” to be part of such an historic event. Zena was among the crowds lined up along Whitehall, opposite Horseguards Parade and managed to get a good view of Kate Middleton as she passed in the royal carriage on her way to Westminster Abbey. Zena said: “I was close enough to see her dress which was absolutely beautiful. The crowds must have been seven or eight deep.” She is already planning her next royal visit..Zara Phillips’ wedding in Edinburgh on July 30.

A WICK community councillor was forced to publicly apologise this week, after he misrepresented the views of the chairwoman to a member of the public. Laurel Bush was made to say sorry at Monday’s meeting of Wick Community Council after chairwoman, Coreen Campbell, stated that “a very disgruntled” young man had been in contact about Mr Bush’s conduct. Mrs Campbell explained that the Thurso man had received an e-mail from Mr Bush after last month’s meeting seeking an apology from Mrs Campbell and that she had received a copy. Mr Bush’s e-mail accused Mrs Campbell of belittling the man’s attempts to collect the minutes of the community council sub group meetings by releasing what he described as confidential medical information.

DEVELOPERS will not be happy until they have covered the whole of Caithness with windfarms. That was the claim made by Castletown and District Community Council, chairman Doug Fraser. He hit out when members were discussing a consultation document produced by Highland Council, entitled Draft Supplementary Guidance for Onshore Wind Energy. It supplements the local development plan and replaces parts of the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy and Planning Guidelines from 2006. Mr Fraser argued that wind turbines should not be placed near people’s homes because of concerns about noise and flicker. He also claimed that windfarms are visually intrusive in the landscape.

A HIGH-FLYING Thurso primary school teacher raised over £1000 for charity by plummeting to earth from a height of 10,000 feet during her first-ever skydive. Miller Academy’s Sharon Thomson raised £1087 for Alzheimer Scotland when she jumped out of a small aeroplane over Strathallan, Perthshire, on April 17.

WICK ACADEMY drew some consolation from a poor season by beating derby rivals, Brora Rangers 3-2 in an exciting match at Dudgeon Park. It also boosted morale and gave them hope of reaching the 13th position in the league table, with their final four games against bottom-half teams. Co-manager Ian Munro said that their target was to take maximum points from the matches.