ESOC Burns Supper Social - January 2025
The annual ESOC Burns Supper took place in and around the gentrified area of Morningside this year on a pleasant Tuesday evening. It was dry, cool but still which was very welcome after the previous weeks storm Eowyn. There was evidence a plenty on the local streets of the storms presence; many branches and twigs on the pavements, the odd tree lying down and many a property fence having taken a tumble if you had chance to nosy into people’s gardens. However, club members were really in attendance to cast their glances at the local postbox population rather than gardens.
A 45 minute score course format was devised by Kevin H, with the controls (postboxes) furthest away garnering the most points. Controls 1-9 being worth 10 points, 10-19 worth 20 points and 20-24 worth 40 points. Naturally returning back late and therefore risking missing the supper would be met with draconian penalties. The area covered such areas as the Astley Ainslie hospital, Bruntsfield Links, up to the canal on the North side and Merchiston. Kevin advised prior to the start that getting the lot would be optimistic as an efficient route would entail 11km or so. Your reporter therefore pared back his expectations rapidly!
Around 18 members pounded the streets with varying degrees of success, however Kevin and Alison provided lots of super prizes with Richard O taking the overall victory with 330 points. It was remarkably close at the top with Terry J and Mark R tied second just 10 points behind Richard. The leading lady was Emma A on 310 points followed home by Carolyn D who was justifiably delighted with her run of 290 points and joyously noted she was getting to grips with urban-o! Amongst the juniors victory went to Alexis G with a fabulous score of 270 from Ursula M on 210 points. All of the above were able to choose from a super selection of sweeties (see the pic), quite rightly Terry J made off with a Terry’s chocolate orange!
Moving indoors to our hosts, Janice and Brian, the smells of Haggis, Neaps and Tatties greeted us, along with a number of helpers and members who had the super smart idea of attending primarily for the eats part of the evening. As has become the custom, Peter C addressed the haggis reciting Rabbie Burns with knife in hand (ably assisted by his sidekick - the other Mark) once it had been musically paraded to the table thanks to violinist Carolyn D. We had the Monday night ladies runners to thank for the riches on display, and it was truly a fantastic sight and scrumptious. Not only did members avail themselves of multiple visits to the main course (okay, okay – yes that was me!) but were also treated to a feast of desserts including delights such as Cranachan, Lemon meringue pie, trifle, cup cakes with an o-theme (you could only take one if you were able to correctly identify the map symbol on the cake – very novel!) and cheese and biscuits.
Much chat was had between visits to the food table, recounting the earlier course or catching up with friends. During the evening we learned that the ESOC Burns Supper had quite some history; members were asked to estimate how many suppers they believed they had attended. Whilst many in attendance had at least 10 suppers under their belts, it was Ian P who reckoned he was in the thirties, but topping the lot was Dave K who estimated this was around his fortieth – not a bad attendance rate at all as we move into the clubs 60th year. Probably a higher attendance rate than he had at school as some wags suggested!
A massive heartfelt thank you to all those mentioned above and in attendance who contributed in various ways, both big and small to a fun evening.
Other entries categorised under: Social