The Annual Luncheon of the Scottish Section of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain was held yesterday in the Banqueting Hall of Glasgow City Chambers to mark the 125^th Anniversary of the national Guild. Guests including many MSPs, councillors and members of local fairs and Games Committees were welcomed by retiring Chairman Alex James Colquhoun to the resplendent surroundings of Glasgow’s magnificent municipal building.

Games Life President Campbell, Lyon, Treasurer John Glencross and Secretary, Craig Dunbar were able to attend and were joined at the table by members of Guild, representatives of Kirkcaldy Links Market and the two Secretaries of the Scottish Section Jane Rodgers (now 34 years in the job) and Jacqui Parker who had, as ever, put the whole event together with calmness and efficiency.

Speeches were delivered from MSPs and Guild President, David Wallis, all of whom agreed that the current licensing system is Scotland was erratic and unfair and in desperate need of reform. The hope was expressed across party lines that something would need to be done to remove fairs from the strictures of the licensing regime or at the very least to try to bring a cohesive approach to licensing which is applied in as many different ways as there are local authorities in the country.

The meal was first class and the day a great opportunity to catch with many friends, old and new, within and from outside the Guild. Games Secretary, Craig Dunbar, made a special presentation to Alex James, on behalf of the Guild to mark the 125^th Anniversary and stated that he hoped that whoever was taking over from Alex James at the AGM on the Sunday would work as tirelessly as he had to continue the progress made in recent years. Image is of Craig Dunbar making the presentation to Alex James.