Cousins’ 70 Years Of Service

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Cousins’ 70 Years Of Service: Two cousins have celebrated 70 years of service to the same golf club.

Bobby Hay retired earlier this month after 45 years with Gullane Golf Club, while cousin Paul Hay toasted 25 years of long service.

Bobby, who was irrigation and drainage technician, and Paul, who is head greenkeeper at Gullane No. 1, were invited to a special presentation at the main clubhouse of the club, which is closing in on its 140th anniversary.

Bobby, 65, was presented with a camera and voucher, while Paul received a green jacket and voucher for The Bonnie Badger restaurant in Gullane.

Bobby thanked the golf club committee for their gifts and revealed what made the job so enjoyable.

He said: “It was the people I worked with and being outside.

“Previous to that, I worked in a bakehouse for five years. I was breathing in flour dust and at Gullane I did not have to work Friday nights!”

The Gullane resident, who recalls course visits by stars such as Sir Sean Connery, Harold Sakata – who played Oddjob in Goldfinger – and Sir Bruce Forsyth, has plenty of hobbies to enjoy in his retirement.

He said: “I don’t know yet [what I’m going to do with my spare time]. I am that busy with that many things I want to do.

“I look over the course and it is a funny feeling knowing I am not there now after 40-odd years.

“I do archery, wood carving, wood turning, photography and I look after the archery range at Archerfield.”

Gullane Golf Club has attracted plenty of international golfing stars in recent years – holding the Scottish Open twice in the last four years, with Brandon Stone winning last year and Rickie Fowler lifting the top prize in 2015, as well as the Ladies Scottish Open last year, with Ariya Jutanugarn crowned champion.

Bobby described the club as “the most superior course in the Central Belt of Scotland”.

Meanwhile Paul, 42, explained why, despite not considering himself a golfer, he loved his job.

He said: “One, it is local, and two, every day is different.

“There have never been two days that are the same. We have got a good team and it has been good to work for Gullane Golf Club so far. It does not feel like 25 years for sure!”

Paul, who lives in the village, said changes in machinery, staffing levels and the number of visitors to the golf club meant the job had changed since he started.

He added: “We’ve got to make sure the course is looking tip-top.

“There is an added pressure – if the course is not looking at its best, it is going to be picked up on.

“You definitely have to make sure everything is looking its best at all times and present it every day as if it is [for] a competition.”

Ward councillor Jeremy Findlay, who lives in the village, works as a tour operations manager for a golf tour company and is a member of the golf club, congratulated the duo on the achievement.

He said: “The golfing fraternity and golf club members really appreciate all the effort and time that they have put in over the years and I’m sure the many thousands of visitors to the club also appreciate their great work.”

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Dog Handler Rescued By Tractor

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Dog Handler Rescued By Tractor: When Mary Grant dislocated and broke her ankle at work, paramedics were struggling to find a way to get her safely to the ambulance. Mary, a senior dog handler at KDW Doggie Day Care in Kelty, Fife, was teaching puppy agility at the centre when the accident occurred on May 16th.

There are twenty-five acres where the dogs can run and exercise and she was stranded in a hilly area a big distance from the car park. Quickly on the scene the paramedics attended Mary and had her strapped onto the wheeled stretcher. The question was, how to get it across three undulating fields to the waiting ambulance?

“Even though she was obviously in a lot of discomfort, she still saw the funny side when she laid eyes on the makeshift rescue vehicle. No air ambulance for her I’m afraid.” Said Debbie Clarke, KDW’s owner.

Instead, they hitched up the centre’s own Countax 4×4 garden tractor to the trolley and carefully towed her out. Mary is due an operation and will be in hospital for a short while. She says she’ll remember the day, not for the accident but for being rescued by a garden tractor.

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Bayer To Appeal Glyphosate Ruling

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Bayer To Appeal Glyphosate Ruling: Bayer shares continued to fall on Tuesday after a California jury on Monday awarded more than $2 billion in damages to a couple who alleged that the company’s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup caused their cancers.

The third successive loss by Bayer in US courts and highest award to date by a jury after finding glyphosate to be carcinogenic highlights the legal risks and mounting cost to the company of the burgeoning litigation it faces over its widely-used herbicide.

Bayer To Appeal Glyphosate Ruling

Bayer, which acquired Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion last year, denies the allegations, saying decades of studies and regulatory approvals have shown glyphosate and Roundup to be safe for human use.

But the company faces more than 13,400 similar US lawsuits and shareholders have rebuked Bayer’s top management over its handling of the Monsanto acquisition and the litigation it inherited. Adverse jury verdicts have wiped more than 40% from Bayer’s market value since August.

Bayer on Tuesday said the litigation will take some time to conclude as no case has been subject to appellate review to assess key legal rulings in the trials. The company has vowed to appeal or already has appealed the verdicts.

The following is a summary of upcoming dates in the US glyphosate litigation:

– The first Roundup jury verdict, a $289 million award in San Francisco state court last August, later reduced to $78 million, is currently on appeal before California’s Court of Appeals, First Appellate District. Bayer in late April asked the appeals court to throw out the judgment, saying there was “no evidence” glyphosate could cause cancer.

Plaintiffs and Bayer will file additional briefs over the next few months and oral arguments in the case are unlikely before the second half of 2019, with a decision likely in the fourth quarter at the earliest.

– Bayer is still waiting for US District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, who oversaw the first federal Roundup trial, to enter final judgment of an $80 million verdict in March. Following that formal legal step, the company has 28 days to ask the judge in post-trial motions to reverse the verdict or order a new trial.

The case before Chhabria was unique for its structure, limiting the amount of evidence the plaintiff could present in a first trial phase. Bayer had hoped the trial structure would focus jurors on the strong scientific evidence showing Roundup to be safe rather than on company actions or behavior. The jury decision against Bayer upended that strategy.

– Bayer said it will appeal Monday’s $2 billion jury verdict in Alameda County state court in Oakland, California. In a first step, the company is expected to ask Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith, who oversaw the trial, to reverse the verdict or order a new trial.

Smith is likely to reduce the massive award as rulings by the US Supreme Court limit the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages to 9:1. The jury awarded a total of $2 billion in punitive damages and $55 million in compensatory damages.

– The next glyphosate trial is scheduled in Missouri state court on Aug. 19, the first such trial outside of California. The trial, involving a single plaintiff, will take place in St. Louis County, where Monsanto’s former headquarters and research facilities are located.

– Another federal trial could take place before US District Judge Chhabria in August or September. Chhabria currently oversees some 900 federal cases consolidated before him. The trial would mark the second bellwether, or test trial, to help determine the range of damages and define settlement options for federal cases.

Chhabria in April ordered Bayer to pursue mediation with the plaintiffs and said he will determine which cases should be dismissed or sent to other courts for further proceedings. He scheduled a status conference for May 22.

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Vandals Hit Ellesmere Port GC

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Vandals Hit Ellesmere Port GC: Police have taken to social media to reveal the damage caused by vandals at a recently re-opened golf club.

Ellesmere Port Golf Club, also known as Hooton Golf Club, relaunched last month with the Ian Woosnam Golf Academy.

The site, which closed suddenly last October after operators Mack Golf ceased trading, is owned by Cheshire West and Chester Council  (CWaC) and the Academy, set up by the former Ryder Cup  captain and US Masters winner, has run the business from the start of April.

But Ellesmere Port police officers have taken to Twitter to show the damage caused by motorcyclists who have rode their vehicles on the course, which they estimate to be worth ‘hundreds of pounds’.

Officers are currently working to try and identify those responsible for causing the damage.

The post read: “Bikers have caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage at the recently re-opened Ellesmere Port Golf Club, not the sort of driving we’d expect to see here!

“Officers are following leads to identify the riders.”

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Award For Gillingham Groundsman

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Award For Gillingham Groundsman: Gillingham groundsman John Plummer was awarded the Elliott Scally Cup at the club’s awards evening last Sunday.

The cup goes to someone at the club who deserves special recognition.

Plummer was given the daunting task of dealing with a new hybrid pitch early on in the season after the old one was written off.

The Gills invested big money in laying a new surface, which is partly made of plastic, paying around £500,000 for the works which included new drainage and irrigation.

Chairman Paul Scally spoke of the groundsman’s dedication to the job during the awards night, quipping that he “spends most of his life on that pitch”.

“It was a challenge,” said Plummer. “The old pitch was okay, but the new one will now hopefully settle down and improve.”

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