Bobby Cairns: Jim Renwick - Something Light?

With President Scott Elliot again enjoying a life on the ocean wave, Thursday's meeting of the Club was ably chaired by Vice President Mairhi Trickett, who welcomed members and guests to our first meeting of 2018 on home soil.

Principal guest and speaker for the evening was the kenspeckle  character Jim Renwick, one of Hawick's best known and most respected rugby players of yesteryear. Jim's topic for the evening was the Five (now the Six ) Nations Championship, about to kick off again in 2018, a tournament which enthuses the Home Nations every year, and is the envy of the Southern Hemisphere rugby playing nations. We visited, through Jim's eyes and memory,  Cardiff Arms Park where the passionate Welsh could raise their team with enormous vocal support and song - to Dublin, wet and windy, where the Irish could blow hot or cold, but where Jim met one of his greatest heroes in Mike Gibson - to Twickenham where the atmosphere was not so intimidating as Wales or Ireland,  and where in Jim's day the crowd at HQ had not yet discovered their unexplainable dirge "Swing Low." - Paris was also intimidating, with the language barrier and the sight of hens running around the pitch.

Throughout his fascinating talk, Jim regaled the company with many humorous anecdotes about his playing days and those players he had played with and against.  VP Mairhi afforded Jim a well deserved and well received vote of thanks.