WELCOME DANNY GILLAN
STFC are delighted to announce the signing of goalkeeper Danny Gillan, who joins The Jags on a two-year deal from treble-winning Brora Rangers ahead of the 2025/26 season.
The 20-year-old is a familiar face to manager Ryan Esson, with the pair having spent several years together at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Now reunited at Strathspey, Danny brings quality, leadership, and presence between the posts.
Manager Ryan Esson said “I know Danny really well from our time at Inverness. He’s a top professional and a great character, and he’ll bring experience and consistency to our squad. I’m very pleased to bring him in.”
ANOTHER VERY SUCCESSFUL, BUT EXCEPTIONALLY HOT GOLF DAY
As ever it was a great success.
At 8.20am the first of thirty-nine teams teed off on Saturday at Grantown Golf Club in a team scramble event with the final team heading out at 2.40.
Our thanks must firstly go to the greenkeeping staff for their immaculate presentation of the golf course.
The weather for this year’s event was hot…very, very hot… in fact so hot that your correspondent and his team after teeing off at 2.30 in the afternoon could only suffer eight holes and my admiration goes out to all the other teams that completed their eighteen holes…did I say it was hot…32°C, only six days have seen a similar temperature in Scotland since 1961, when I was six years old!!!
Working in all that heat our thanks must also go to Nacho and his team who looked after the catering and bar duties tremendously in what must have been extreme conditions both in the club house and at the “Half-Way House”.
With a score of 48.1 the winners of the Team Event were Dean Harvie, Sam Smit, Michell Drummond and Scott Laing and the Ladies event was won by Maggie Lawson, Debbie Grant, Debbie Kinnaird and Nicola Torrance.
Unfortunately Dean and Maggie were unable to stay until the prize-giving hence they are not in the photos, although Dean is pictured below with son Freddie, as winner of the Half Time Raffle prize at the Dufftown game.
We must also thank the following individuals and businesses whose support and sponsorship made the day possible.
Firstly our thanks go to Mackellar Engineering and 4M Earthing Solutions in sponsoring the event and the following individuals and companies for their generosity with hole sponsorships –
MKM BUILDING SUPPLIES, AVIEMORE (2X HOLES)
MORGANTI BAR, NAIRN
ROSS & SIMPSON CARPETS & VINYL, KEITH
PLANT & FIXINGS, INVERNESS
SCOTT CLARK, GRANTOWN
EMAC JOINERY, FORRES
PLANT & FIXINGS, INVERNESS
McINNES ELECTRICAL, AVIEMORE
CARNVALE KIT BUILDERS, EDINBURGH
SPEYSIDE HOTEL, GRANTOWN
JOHN PATERSON ELECTRICAL, GRANTOWN
AW LAING, GRANTOWN
CASK CONSTRUCTION, GRANTOWN
MAC JOINERY HIGHLAND LTD, INVERNESS
KINETIC RENEWABLES/HORTON HOMES
McCULLOCH PLUMBING & HEATING, GRANTOWN
WJ SELLARS BUILDERS, GRANTOWN
GRANTOWN GARAGE
FORSYTH’S, ROTHES
As ever, thanks go to Donly McLeod and STFC commercial director Laura Mackie for organising and running the competition, and we were very pleased that Grantown Golf Club Captain Fraser Mackellar helped throughout the day helping our own Charlie Sinclair registering teams and finding out their meal requests and checking score cards.
Thanks also go to committee stalwarts Mags Clark who ran a fantastic and successful raffle on the day, and Rob Clark and Graeme Stuart were also selling Lottery tickets – thanks also go to the other committee members who helped in preparations and help on the day.
Last, but not least, we would like to thank everyone who participated in any way and hope you thoroughly enjoyed yourselves and are, hopefully, already looking forward to next years’ event.
MATCH v DUFFTOWN FC – TUESDAY 8 JULY
As we continue our build up to the season (KO 26 July) we hosted Dufftown FC in a friendly on Tuesday night (8th), and it turned out to be an official 1-0 win …but unofficially it was 2-0. More later!
Dufftown put up a very good defensive display which made it difficult for the Jags to break through, and although we had a lot of possession, chances were very few and far between and it took an excellent drive late in the first half for us to go into the break one up.
Cheered on by our “gang of twelve and a drummer” (although it sounds as though there are a lot more drummers!!) there were many Jags’ changes just after the hour mark, but still the resilient Dufftown refused to be overrun and survived until Aaron Dorran, with probably the last kick of the game, cleverly shot back across goal from a good old fashioned inside right position, and the ball, beat the keeper and scraped in at the right hand post, but a larger hole in the net than is the customary net size one, and probably as a result of a visiting rabbit or two over the close season, caused the ball to end up against the advertising hoarding making the referee assume, not that he had any reason to not assume, that the ball had passed the outside of the post – and, as you can imagine the said hole was fixed more or less directly just after full time whistle!!
AARON DORAN’S TESTIMONIAL
We thought this was a great photo taken at Caledonian Stadium, Inverness of Aaron and his children being honoured by the players of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Ross County at the start of proceedings.
A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE
Today, Wednesday 16 July, we took delivery of a toilet block which will be attached to The Mackellar Suite – thanks go to Josh Horton of Horton Homes who made the deal with Wernick’s of Nairn – and our thanks go to them too, especially their delivery man Joe, who had a bit of a job placing the unit on site. Now, hospitality guests and customers will not need to brave the elements having to make their way to our toilet black when nature calls.
LOTTERY NOW £12,000……
As ever we close with details of our fundraising Club Lottery and the jackpot is now a phantasmogorigal £12,000…….that’s a monthly £1,000 spending spree for the next year if you want…..or put it it away for a rainy day – anyway it’s a great prize to win – click here if you want to play…
LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES
After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes.
There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly.
The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. The 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
- The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
- If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
- Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
- THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
- The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
- All winners will be notified.