Bagpipes were skirled*, haggis were stabbed and wee drams were downed for a lively Burns Night at Hennerton Golf Club at Crazies Hill.
Addressing the haggis (and stabbing it) was club member Allan Dishington, a Scot, living in exile in Woodley. He’s an old hand at the job – each year he makes the address at six or seven different Burns Nights.
The Hennerton event was last Saturday, a week before the official celebration day, Robert Burns’ birthday on January 25.
“When people hear you can make the address you keep getting asked,” said Mr Dishington.
“I’ve already done four Burns Nights this year. I do it at Masonic lodges and also Round Tables.
“When I went to live in Australia my mum told me I should learn by heart the Burns’ poem used in the address if I was going to do Burns Nights there. So that’s what I did.
“I act it out quite a lot so people understand what it is all about. The idea is for everyone to have some fun.”
The poetry, with its Scottish dialect, can be a mystery to English ears.
Wild haggis are fictional creatures of Scottish folk lore. Mr Dishington’s Greek colleague had sent a photo of a hairy “haggis” from an internet search to her sister in Greece, before finding out it was all a hoax.
Real haggis is made of sheep’s offal, oatmeal, seasoning and spices. Also on Hennerton’s menu was cock-a-leekie soup and cranachan raspberry dessert.
Pipe Major Dixie Ingram of Crowthorne and formerly Aberdeen, piped the two club captains, Elaine Elliman and Gary Kulpa in to the meal.
And, as is traditional, he also piped in the haggis carried
by Clubhouse manager Paul Deaney and later led singing of Scottish songs.
*Skirl: make the sound of the bagpipes, to shriek, Chambers English Dictionary.
