The first day of the Inter-Club League was like the curate's egg - good in parts.
Forecast was for cloud to arrive from the west in mid-afternoon, and tasks were set accordingly. We launched the pundits and two of the intermediates before the sea breeze set in and the wind swung round to north-easterly. So we changed ends. Though this took just 20 minutes, by the time we had done so the cloud had arrived, three hours or so ahead of forecast, putting a stop to the sunshine, warmth and most of the lift. It wasn't long before most of the field had landed back, leaving only Geddes in Z5 tiptoeing about on Deeside. Eventually even he admitted defeat, and he landed at Aboyne and got an aerotow home.
The evening barbecue was very well attended, and much enjoyed, though rain arrived with inexorable inevitability (why does it always rain at barbecues?) just as cooking was about to start, so we got fairly damp collecting our meat rations. Salad an puddings were set up under cover in the hangar, however. Thanks are due to Phil, Mike L, Mike B and especially Trish for masterminding the food and cooking thereof. Also to Andrew A for organising a keg of ale which went down very well indeed.
After Robert and John C had wrestled sufficiently with the scoring system, Craig Allan (Fulmar GC) took the Novice class with (wait for it!) 1.9 km and 9 points. The winning intermediate was Mike Morrison (Cairngorm GC) with an impressive 14.9 km and 71 points, but the laurels went to pundit Geddes Chalmers (Highland GC) whose epic scrape of 102.3 km along Deeside earned him 512 points.
After Day 1 Highland are in the lead with 524 points, but there's everything still to play for. Aboyne has 272 points, Portmoak A 241, Feshie 220, Fulmar 112 and Portmoak B has 2.