Our first tour of Scotland was based at Lendrick Muir School in Rumbling Bridge. I taught there for the best (or, in fact, the worst) part of a year. In retrospect, I suppose it was worth it. Lendrick was a great base for a tour. The sports hall for five-a-side football, the snooker room and Kev's huge kitchen were all excellent. The building was large enough to accommodate us comfortably, and the grounds were extensive.
The 1993 party was one of the largest ever assembled for a Mystic tour. Pictured are (back, L to R) Chris Cook, Martin Watts, Rita Thomson, Peter Thomson, Ernie Sharland, Bryan Wendon, Paul Tyler, Jim Thomson, (middle L to R) Jenny Cook, Kevin Barron, Tai-Wai Cheung, Sid Thomson, Neil Hadley, Matthew Loades, Duncan Chave, Windy Miller, Adi Borley, Talia Cooper, Matthew Cook, (front L to R) Naomi Sheffer, Amanda Hall, Sarah Noble, Annie Thomson, Kate Thomson and Sam Cook.
We drove up to Scotland on Monday 26th July, the day after beating Contango in an exciting game. Our first Scottish game was in Bannockburn against Saint Modans. We won another exciting game. Good, tight bowling restricted them to 131 in their 40 overs. Chris Healey's first innings for the Mystics saw us home by one wicket. The next day was our first game at Clackmannan County. What a game it was. Shahid Anwar, coming in with the score at 61 for three, made 104 out of their daunting total of 197. Windy, Chris Healey, Chris Cook and Sid eased us past their score for the loss of only three wickets.
After the Lord Mayor's show... Stirling County rather feebly cancelled the Thursday game; the Dollar game was a one-sided affair, made memorable only by the attempts to break into the pavillion before the game; and at Comrie we were blown away by old Father Oates.
Bryan seemed surprised to receive the player of the tour award, but Annie took her supporter of the tour award in her stride.