GH950807-000000 GH950807-000000 950807 Nairn repay fans with wonder win 3 2 SPORT 977010689 HIGHLAND LEAGUENAIRN County conjured up a football miracle to match a summer full of financial wonders as the Highland League season kicked off on Saturday. Just weeks after bouncing back from the brink of bankruptcy, they produced a surprise 3-0 win against ambitious Buckie, repaying some of the #55,000 cash raised by fans with a dazzling display away from home. Only the hardest of hearts would have grudged the amateurs a win after managing only three in 30 games last season. County led 1-0 at the break through Davidson, with two goals in four minutes from MacMillan and Sharp sinking Buckie early in the second half. Jubilant chairman Ron Mackenzie later praised his men: ''They proved all the hard work has been worthwhile. It was the perfect way to repay the public. ''I'm very proud that a team of amateurs can turn on a show like that against semi-professionals,'' he added. The Save County campaign is now set to receive another boost in the shape of a #15,000 district council loan. Champions Huntly picked up where they left off with a 3-0 win at home to Forres. Gary Whyte and Craig Yeats (2) were the scorers. Cove Rangers beat Brora 2-1, Fraserburgh thrashed Elgin 6-2, and Clach were unlucky to go down 2-1 to Peterhead. GH950807-000001 GH950807-000001 950807 All aboard on a royal odyssey 3 16 FEATURE 977010690 Gary Buchanan takes a memorable railway journey SINCE its inaugural run in May 1985, the world's most luxurious train has captured the imagination of Scots who know a thing or two about travelling in style and has set new standards in luxury railway travel. Celebrating its tenth anniversary year, the Royal Scotsman, owned and operated by The Great Scottish and Western Railway Company, will be visiting historic British cities and little used scenic railway lines. Two night, three day journeys from Edinburgh take in the dramatic east coast, past Berwick-on-Tweed and Northumbrian vistas stretching to the part-time island of Lindisfarne. The historic town of Alnwick was built to bar the eastern road into England against the Scots. As the train continues south past the Norman cathedral at Durham, standing sentinel over this ancient city, passengers congregate in the elegant surroundings of the observation car. Clinking glasses of single malts provide a fitting tribute to sublime comfort. Morning visits to Fairfax House and the Minster precede the train's departure from York. As the Royal Scotsmen and women settle down for a well-balanced lunch, this ''magic carpet on 72 wheels'' heads southwest towards Cheltenham and Bath. At Frome guests visit Stourhead house and gardens before returning to the train at Cranmore Station on the restored East Somerset Line, where dinner is served in an informal setting. The next day, that apotheosis of the romantic age of railway grandeur, the steam locomotive is fuelled and watered for the journey eastwards towards London. As the wheezing dinosaur gathers speed, passengers reflect on this railway odyssey, not so much a land cruise across Britain, more a journey back in time, glimpsing another, more gracious, era. If arriving in Scotland on board ''the sybaritic special'' is your idea of the golden age of travel, where pace gives way to grace, then the three day northbound return to romance could be just the ticket. Charlecote Park is the first stop before overnighting in Shakespeare country at Henley-in-Arden. A visit to Castle Howard, setting for Brideshead Revisited, is on the itinerary the following day. After lunch en route to Keighley, guests tour the Bronte Parsonage at Haworth. The rugged countryside and wild landscapes that surround this quaint village with its narrow cobbled main street were the inspiration for Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The journey's highlight must surely be travelling on the scenic Settle to Carlisle line in such opulence. Reaching 1350ft at Ais Gill, this is England's highest main line railway summit. A series of viaducts and tunnels are a tribute to Victorian engineering that conquered this wild, spectacular terrain. Stirling is the setting for the formal dinner on the final night. High above, the cragtop castle -- that monument to human contentiousness that outdoes every other castle in Scotland -- reaffirms any doubt in the travellers' minds that they are indeed in the historic and geographical heart of Scotland. While Waverley Station may be the terminus for the journey from London, it is the starting point for the five day tours throughout some of Scotland's best scenery, visiting its grandest mansions. The highland fling aboard The Royal Scotsman visits the century-old West Highland Line, the Spey Valley, Skye and the North East during its spectacular, stately, sojourn in Scotland. Offering the most stylish accommodations to be found within the limits imposed by British railway carriages, the staterooms of the Royal Scotsman are well planned to provide comfort and space. As Robert Louis Stevenson once said, ''I travel for travel's sake, the great affair is to move,'' nowhere could this great Scot's paean to motion be more apt than describing a journey around Britain on board The Royal Scotsman. Information: The Great Scottish and Western Railway Company on 01753 833377. GH950807-000002 GH950807-000002 950807 British Airways profits set to climb CHRIS STONE,CITY EDITOR 3 14 977010691 THE interim reporting season continues this week with a number of leading companies unveiling their wares including British Airways, BOC, and Barclays. British Airways kicks off today with its first quarter figures to June. Profits will be boosted by strong passenger demand across the network with many planes flying at full capacity. The airline says its scheduled traffic in the three months to end-June was up 11.9% on an increase in capacity of 5.5% to produce an average load factor of 73.5%, its highest ever in a first quarter. There has been some deterioration in average fares paid so far this year because much of the growth is coming on long-haul routes where average fares per kilometre flown -- the so-called yield -- are lower than for short-haul. However, unit costs are also lower on long-haul flights and BA says long-haul routes account for most of the group's profit. Analysts are looking for profits of up to #115m against #86m last time. Hot on the heels of Shell's quarterly figures, BP will tommorrow reveal its first quarter profits to end June. Kleinwort Benson analysts reckon the oil giant will report excellent trading for the quarter with net income likely to jump to #520m or more from #335m in the corresponding period last year, helped by a firmer oil price. However, as with Shell, BP is thought likely to warn of weakening oil prices which will affect earnings in the remainder of the year. Barclays also declares its hand tommorrow, continuing the banks' interim reporting season. Securities house UBS has pencilled in pre-tax profits of #1039m for the first six months of the year, almost unchanged from the the first half in 1994 when it made #1036m. The modestly improved profits will be largely due to lower bad debt provisions and UBS reckons there will be no increase in underlying profits. Commercial Union is on course for a major leap in half-year earnings when it reports on Wednesday, according to Hoare Govett. A marked absence of losses from US weather related claims are thought to have helped pre-tax profits soar to #247m from #181m in the first six months of last year. Analysts will also be keen to see the extent of the contribution from its French subsidiary, Groupe Victoire. The half-year dividend payout is thought likely to rise from 10.1p to 10.7p. Royal Insurance follows up on Thursday and analysts' expectations range from #220m to #250m against #191m previously. An interim dividend of 4.6p to 5p is expected, up from 4p. On Wednesday, Standard Chartered is likely to reflect its tight control of costs, falling provisions, and improving levels of income. Pre-tax profits could emerge at #284m for the six months to the end of June against #237m for the same period last year. Strong demand for industrial gases is believed to be the biggest driver of profits in BOC Group's third quarter. UBS is expecting profits to rise by #10m to #100m with gases the best performer, helped by price increases in America. Its healthcare division, although ahead of last year, is still affected by competition. A similar story is true of its distribution operation although its vacuum business is doing well, reckons UBS. The car parts and Westland Helicopter group GKN should report ''excellent'' half-year results on Thursday, according to NatWest. Taxable profits for the six months to the end of June are likely to have raced ahead to #138.5m from #97.3m in the corresponding period last year. Analysts will be looking for evidence that profit margins on the substantial car parts business can reach double digits and that Westland can approach a double figure operating margin. Any suggestion that weak US car sales in the absence of a significant recovery in European car sales will slow the group in the second half would be bad news. The interim dividend could be hiked from 8p to 8.8p. GH950807-000003 GH950807-000003 950807 MP demands inquiry as Hambros decides to sue investors. Equities office faces closure after losses NICOLA REEVES 3 14 ILLUS 977010692 'It seems extraordinary that opening an account with Hambros can result in large overdrafts being created without the knowledge or understanding of those concerned' MP Brian Wilson THE future of the Glasgow-based equities operation of Hambros bank hangs in the balance after the disclosure of losses at its securities clearing business. In the financial year to March, Hambro Clearing lost #3.9m, much of which related to the equity settlement service. The losses stem from dealings with south London financial advisor Financial Management International, (FMI). The financial industry regulators forced FMI to stop trading last January and closed it down in May. FMI is alleged to have arranged for shares to be bought and sold without clients' knowledge or authority. Some clients did not realise they had signed forms enabling Hambros to open overdrafts in their names to fund the share deals. Because many of these overdrafts remain unsettled, Hambros has decided to sue about 50 of the 5000 investors to recover over #1m. Some investors are being asked for more than #25,000. Labour's trade and industry spokesman Mr Brian Wilson has called for an investigation into the heavy losses suffered by the small investors and the actions of Hambros Bank. Mr Wilson said: ''The essential fact is that Hambros' clients were blissfully unaware of the losses being run up on their accounts as a result of the dealings of a company called FMI, who were acting under the authority of the bank.'' He added that, although investors had an obligation to read the small print, they were also entitled to expect reasonable protection from the regulatory system. ''It seems extraordinary that opening an account with Hambros can result in large overdrafts being created without the knowledge or understanding of those concerned,'' he said. As a result of the equity settlement losses, it is thought inevitable that the Glasgow-based equities operation will close and that buyers will be sought for Hambros' derivatives and bonds settlement business. The equity settlement service was withdrawn on May 12. The trading losses will be charged to the profit and loss account for the year ending March 31, 1996, as will associated goodwill previously written off directly to the reserves of around #2.5m. No-one from Hambros bank was available for comment yesterday. GH950807-000004 GH950807-000004 950807 The bomb that saved lives 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010693 YOUR picture with the article headed ''View of a city in despair'' was taken in January 1947, 17 months after the atom bomb exploded on Hiroshima, and shows the city after most of the devastation had been cleared. The roads are visible, the rubble has gone, and the fine steel-framed buildings which were gutted and charred but largely withstood the heat and blast have been repaired and cleaned. Small utility buildings have been erected. What you are seeing is a ''City rising from the ashes''. Far from the people ''looking miserable and walking about'' they had by then laid the foundation of rebuilding their city into the beautiful city of today. And rebuilding their country into an economic superpower. I was among the first Commonwealth troops to land in Japan in January 1946 at Kure, the giant naval base, with Hiroshima nearby in the Commonwealth Zone of occupation. I walked the rubble-cluttered streets of Hiroshima a full 12 months before the photo was taken. I experienced the smell of death hanging over the city, I saw bottles turned into puddles of molten glass, and negatives of humans and animals printed into the road tar by the flash which vaporised them. I saw many people carrying horrible injuries and burns, but I never saw despair. What I did see was resignation and determination. Having fought against the Japanese in Burma I knew their record of barbarism and inhumanity -- their war crimes. In defeat, after reconciling to the shame of it, they showed the other side of their nature. They became gentle and cultured people. The ruthlessness they had shown in war was rapidly channelled into reconstruction and business. Did the bomb have to be dropped? Yes it did. When we docked at Kure we were cheered by many young kamikaze pilots for whom our arrival was a life-saver. Lined up by the hundred on gantries like wine bottles were one-man midget submarines ready to decimate any invasion fleet. The bomb took lives but it saved the many more who would have died on both sides in the slaughter which would have followed an invasion. A Toppin, 1 Moorburn Avenue, Giffnock. GH950807-000005 GH950807-000005 950807 Another epsisode in interest rate saga R E DUNDAS,CHIEF FINANCIAL EDITOR 3 14 977010694 A THIN diet of economic news this week is potentially significant and there will be a further episode in the running dispute on interest rates between Chancellor Kenneth Clarke and Bank of England Governor Eddie George. The minutes of their meeting on July 5 will be published on Wednesday. This was the first of two held last month, neither of which resulted in a rate rise with the Chancellor again rebuffing the Governor's demands. Last week, the Bank of England made it clear it still thought it necessary for rates to increase to bring inflation back to its target of 2.5% or less by the end of the current Parliament. However, the Chancellor is more concerned about the slowdown in economic activity which even the Bank admitted had occurred when it published its quarterly inflation report. Industrial production and its manufacturing component have shown little improvement in recent months after the hectic growth of last year. James Capel's Mr Adam Cole is expecting a bounceback when the June figures are published tomorrow and possibly some upward revision to earlier lacklustre figures. He is forecasting a 0.5% increase in both industrial production and manufacturing output. This would take the year-on-year growth in industrial production up from 1.3% in May to 2.3%. Manufacturing would rise from 1.4% in May to 2.2%. Mr Cole is more bullish than the City consensus and points out the Central Statistical Office said industrial production had made a modest contribution to gross domestic product in the second quarter. GH950807-000006 GH950807-000006 950807 Services to the Northern Isles 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010695 I MUST take issue with a little bit of your leading article on the KPMG ferry report in which you suggest that ''P & O get a bigger subsidy than Cal-Mac for running only four ships against Cal-Mac's 32'' and that people in the Northern Isles want Cal-Mac to run their service (August 3). First, unlike Cal-Mac, P & O has to pay for its own ships without Government support, so there is no subsidy on the expensive capital side with the provision of vessels. As a result the Northern Isles ships such as the St Clair and the St Sunniva are second-hand vessels which have been converted for the job as distinct from the purpose-built Cal-Mac boats which receive subsidy in the construction phase as well as deficit funding. In addition, your remarks do not compare like with like elsewhere. The Northern Isles routes are longer and less sheltered than those sailed by Cal-Mac -- at around 290 miles the 14-hour Aberdeen-Lerwick run is more than twice the length of any Western Isles route and would obviously require bigger ships and subsidies. People here do not necessarily want Cal-Mac to run their services but they are envious of the financial regime under which that company flourishes and wish it could apply here. Meanwhile there are worries about the replacement costs of the boats which provide our road to the south, our freight subsidy has been axed, and ways of minimising passenger subsidy, for what is an extremely expensive journey, are being considered. Robert Fogg, Coubal, Dunrossness, Shetland. GH950807-000007 GH950807-000007 950807 Rules and prohibitions in conduct of war 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010696 THE recent extensive coverage in The Herald of the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will no doubt provoke a wide range of responses from your readers. There is, however, one inescapable fact that must be confronted by all those who attempt to justify the use of the atomic bomb on these cities. There is absolutely no justification for their commonly-held supposition that the opponents of the use of the bomb are an unrepresentative minority of politically partisan pacifists, lefties, etc. In Volume VI of his History of the Second World War, Winston Churchill wrote: ''It would be a mistake to suppose that the fate of Japan was settled by the atomic bomb. Her defeat was certain before the first bomb fell and was brought about by overwhelming maritime power.'' Likewise, Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein wrote in his History of Warfare: ''In my view, it was unnecessary to drop the two atomic bombs on Japan in August, 1945. And I cannot think it was right to do so . . . the dropping of the bombs was a major political blunder and is a prime example of the declining standards of the conduct of modern war.'' General Eisenhower himself said: ''Japan was at that very moment seeking some way to surrender with minimum loss of face. It wasn't necesary to hit them with that awful thing.'' CND is not alone in remaining unyieldingly loyal to the concept that there is no such thing as a just war that does not respect the vital principle of non-combatant immunity. There are rules in war. You may not torture, rape, execute surrendered prisoners of war or wilfully slaughter innocent civilians. These are clearly the convictions of Truman's Chief of Staff, Admiral Leahy, who writes: ''It is my opinion that the use of the barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons . . . ''In being the first to use it, we adopted an ethical standard common to the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in this fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.'' Brian Quail, Joint Secretary, Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 15 Barrland Street, Glasgow. GH950807-000008 GH950807-000008 950807 Japan's bad idea of road tolls 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010697 THE Govermment's proposals to impose toll charges on all motorways fill me with horror. Vehicle users already pay through the nose by means of fuel tax, vehicle excise licence, and an insurance levy, as well as considerable VAT revenue. Scotland additionally has the dubious honour of having a road bridge where a private company benefits from the extortionate toll charges. I hope that the Skye economy does not suffer too much because of the privatised bridge. In Japan it is difficult to drive more than a few miles without being milked at a toll barrier. As well as the inevitable delays which are caused, charges are very steep. There is a simple reason for this. Some years ago the Japanese government thought it was a good idea to pay for their road system by joint ventures with construction companies, allowing the contractor to collect and keep the toll income. The result has been chaotic and extremely unpopular. We should be very wary, for it could easily happen here. John Cruickshank, 191/2 Dundasvale Court, Glasgow. GH950807-000009 GH950807-000009 950807 Getting to airport 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010698 BEING a practical engineer, I am used to a regime which solves the problems within constraints and resources available -- and I am amazed that the only solution to the ''problem'' of getting to Glasgow Airport is purported to be ''build more roads''. I have had work on which involved Johnstone men working in Airdrie and vice versa, and the only times we found a problem was when the journey clashed with an hour or so in the morning or evening which tangled with the time when every vehicle seemed to want to use three of the five lanes over the Kingston Bridge. Presumably the businessmen who find this a problem can plan sufficiently to select a journey time which allows transit through Glasgow in the 10 minutes or less which it takes for almost 90% of the day. The other solution could be even more consistent -- catch one of the two trains per hour from Stirling or Edinburgh into Glasgow Queen Street (40-50 minutes), and walk (four to six minutes) to catch one of the eight trains an hour to Paisley (eight-12 minutes), and catch a bus (every 10 minutes) to the airport. If this seems to have too many changes an equally stress-free journey (on which useful reading can be done) is to get the direct Citylink bus -- even this saves the time taken to park at the airport. Reading recent literature (Chambers of Commerce Directory, I think) no mention is made of the dedicated shuttle bus between Paisley and the airport, or through ticketing available -- so potential customers are bound to be put off using the train. With a little careful husbandry and small investment a through train option to Paisley is not beyond the bounds of possibility, bringing the Edinburgh/Stirling-Paisley time to little over an hour -- consistently -- and we should press for the direct rail link as the ultimate time-saver. The TGWU has bewailed the effects of continual exposure to traffic fumes on professional divers, and HM Government asks us nicely, but rather naively, not to use our cars -- please (August 1). We are lucky in Scotland to have service levels on bus and rail to achieve this, with a little self-discipline, and forethought. So next time you go on to autopilot: stop, put the car keys back in your pocket, and give up 80 square feet of road for four square feet of public transport. Dave Holladay, 95 West Graham Street, Glasgow. GH950807-000010 GH950807-000010 950807 When the Puffins were launched 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010699 ALISON KERR says Penguin Books launched their children's equivalent, Puffins, in the 1950s (July 28). In my bookcase there are two battered old favourites first printed in the Puffin series in November, 1942. My survivors are among the many reprinted Puffins of 1945 brought out no doubt when the wartime paper shortage started to ease. Avid young readers of that time remember saving pocket money for the next eagerly-awaited Puffin to reach the bookshops -- priced one shilling (5p)! June Loomes, 88 Greenlees Road, Cambuslang. GH950807-000011 GH950807-000011 950807 Sunday sailings 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010700 THE new CalMac ferry costing #15.5m has been paid for directly or indirectly by UK taxpayers to ply on a service between Ullapool and Stornoway which is also subsidised by UK taxpayers. If the islanders of Lewis impose restrictions on the operation of the ferry, which reduce its earning capacity, the shortfall should be compensated for by higher fares to and from Lewis, and not by greater subsidies from UK taxpayers. In a growing multi-faith society the susceptibilities of all faiths must be given parity of observance. If ferries do not ply on Sundays to avoid offence to Christians then it follows that they must not ply on any other days that give offence to Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees, and all other worthy religions, cults, and sects. The adage ''Paddle your own canoe'' will take on new meaning. J Paterson, 3 Shore Road, Port Bannatyne, Isle of Bute. GH950807-000012 GH950807-000012 950807 Fish farms on Loch Fyne 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010701 I AM concerned about the number and extent of fish farms in Loch Fyne, already 27, and there is an application to increase the tonnage at three sites. The Crown Estates are represented on The West Highland Sea Trout and Salmon Group and therefore have presumably agreed to the recommendations of the Action Plan for Fish Farming. The key objective C states: ''A presumption must be maintained against the siting of new salmon cages at the mouths of seatrout and salmon rivers.'' Are they carrying out this objective? Fred Lang, Paveyark, Florence Drive, Kilmacolm. GH950807-000013 GH950807-000013 950807 Eligibility rules in rugby 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010702 JOHN BEATTIE has drawn attention to the movement of players from Glasgow rugby clubs to play the better quality of rugby supposedly available at first-division clubs in Edinburgh and the Borders. I had thought that the daft arrangements now being made for club rugby -- the new premier league will be over by the end of November and 40% of the total league programme will be completed in September, not to mention mid-week and Sunday fixtures -- were to accommodate an expanded inter-district tournament with the higher quality of competition that it would provide. There is no need for a player to change club to play district rugby. Indeed the opposite is the case. Who in his right mind would travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh three or four times a week to train and play for a club of convenience when he could play district rugby for Glasgow? The Glasgow rugby authorities could reinforce this argument by adjusting the eligibility rules. If they were to insist that a player could only represent Glasgow if he was a current playing member of a Glasgow club, then the movement of players would be markedly reduced. An incentive would then exist for members of Glasgow clubs which is missing if ''emigrants'' are eligible. When a player who had changed clubs found that he could not play for Glasgow and that the incumbent in his position in the team of his adopted district was likely to retain his place, would be not have second thoughts, even an attack of loyalty to his old club? The current lax rules on district representation were drawn up to provide additional playing strength to the North & Midlands before Stirling County became a power in the land. If Stirling were re-allocated from the Glasgow district to the North & Midlands, where geographically it belongs, the rules could be tightened without significantly affecting the relative strengths of the district sides. There is another point to consider. Glasgow District Council has in the past few years begun to provide very welcome finance to promote Glasgow rugby, particularly at representative and junior levels. Organisation of the visits of the All Blacks and the Springboks in the last two seasons benefited quite significantly from the council's interest and assistance. The district council would surely not be happy to continue support of the Glasgow rugby authorities if the so-called Glasgow representative side contained few if any of the players whom the council is helping to develop. In this era when money so obviously talks, perhaps Glasgow District Council should make its views known in the appropriate quarters. David H Williams, 20 Kersland Drive, Milngavie. GH950807-000014 GH950807-000014 950807 Eating on islands 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010703 CONRAD WILSON is correct to say that the seafood on offer in Tobermory is limited (July 29). He has got it wrong, however, with his general impression that, Sicily excepted, you seldom eat well on islands. There is good news awaiting him if he cares to take a trip to Guernsey where he will encounter an abundance of excellent restaurants serving a great variety of freshly caught seafood. Ian Fleming, 17 Dunsmore Road, Bishopton. GH950807-000015 GH950807-000015 950807 Ploughed 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010704 I DON'T want to be the cause of Andrew Walker flitting (Don't despair about Gaelic, August 2), but, according to Nicola Wood in Chambers Scottish Place Names, Dollar is British for a ''ploughing field''. Duncan Bryson, 109 Martin Avenue, Irvine. GH950807-000016 GH950807-000016 950807 Kingfishers 3 10 CORRESPONDENCE 977010705 I OBSERVED a kingfisher on the River Clyde near Bothwell Castle in 1977. I did not see kingfishers there again until last summer when a pair rested downstream of the 1977 sighting (August 2). I was delighted to observe their return to the same nest site this spring despite the winter's flooding during which the tree above the nest site became festooned with polythene and other effluent. In recent years I have also observed kingfishers in Strathclyde County Park and the Clyde near Covehouse, and suspect that their numbers are increasing. I gather that some members of the Glasgow Natural History Society have seen kingfishers on the Kelvin. Margaret M H Lyth, 26 Gardenside Street, Uddingston. GH950807-000017 GH950807-000017 950807 Counting blessings between two glorious summers JACK WEBSTER 3 10 FEATURE 977010706 AS this unbelievably glorious summer goes shining and sizzling its way towards the record books, what a joy it has been to predict the next few days with such confidence as to plan those outdoor meals in the sure and certain knowledge that all will be well. That was a privilege which once belonged exclusively, it seemed, to Californians and other ungrateful breeds in an ill-divided world who could foretell their weather with certainty and take it all for granted. For whatever reason, however, the gods have decided to give us a break in these northern climes and the scientists are beginning to believe that this might be the pattern for the future. After all, before the great land mass broke up and Britain drifted north, this Scotland of ours used to sit plumb and pretty on the equator. That was a bit before our own day but I reckon it is not too soon that a modicum of justice has been restored. Of course there are those who will continue to moan about global warming and greenhouse effects and seek to scare the wits out of us with bleak forebodings about the ozone layer being ripped apart. In painting a picture of the whole human race being frizzled to a frazzle, they don't tell us that that protective layer is also self-repairing and that life on earth is unlikely to end that way. So let us enjoy our new-found warmth, so well established from June through to August that we even had the luxury this weekend of welcoming the promise of slightly cooler weather. When have you ever heard that before? In comparing this year with any other, we are reminded that, even with longer-term forecasting, a good summer does not announce itself too far in advance. It happens day by day -- and gradually it begins to dawn that this might be the best you have known. Already I am comparing 1995 with the best summer of my own lifetime, which was 1947. Now there was an interesting case. That hottest of all my summers came hard on the heels of the worst winter, which blew upon our Buchan landscape on January 28, 1947, with such ferocity that the snow blocked roads and railways for weeks on end and could still be found along dykesides on the very last day of May. And then it changed as if with the sudden sweep of a miracle. The first day of June came with such a burst of sunshine that we were out in gluttonous pursuit of that heat so craved by our pale and sun-starved bodies. We ran to the Pleasure Park and played football and sweated and rested and played again all day till I finally dropped, exhausted, and lay till the cool evening brought a strange quiver over my young limbs. Next morning I was found to be with pneumonia -- and just as that memorable day of heat was to herald the greatest of twentieth-century summers, I would be confined to bed in a weak and pale condition. Though the lungs had cleared by the end of June, a specialist was now called from Aberdeen to investigate a complication. Professor Craig spoke in quiet, serious tones and said I was ''a very tired boy''. Some damage had come to the heart and I would have to rest for a long time. So they gave me a camp bed on the front green and I viewed that magnificent summer from the shade of a garden shelter, with much time to contemplate a bleak future and bite my lip over the professor's advice to put that dream of journalism well out of sight. But nature is a skeely worker. And I had youth and determination on my side. As those cardiac cracks began to heal, that glorious summer of 1947 proved to be the run-up towards the career of which I had dreamed. Through the good graces of the Turriff Advertiser, I made it after all. With a new-found enthusiasm and zest for living, I was outward bound on this great adventure. And now, 48 years later, when that career is running towards the home straight, I am contemplating those concluding months in the warmth of a summer so reminiscent of 1947. This time, on the way home from the office in Glasgow, I now collect a tub of Netherlee's famous ice cream and a bottle of wine and eat salads in the back garden with neighbours, drooling over the wonder of yet another magnificent night. We even managed to plan an alfresco family birthday party the other evening, in the certain knowledge of perfect weather. As my thoughts strayed once again to 1947, I was counting my blessings in the years between. One of the main consolations is that, despite the passing of time, I am so much fitter at the tail end of my career than I was at the beginning. Bronzed and relaxed these evenings, I have watched the sun creeping down upon the horizon, knowing in my heart that every day has been a bonus and that I am left now with a warm glow of satisfaction which will surely see us through the worst of winter's woes. GH950807-000018 GH950807-000018 950807 Brewers favourite to take over Lloyd clubs NICOLA REEVES 3 14 977010707 THE David Lloyd Leisure group is expected to announce within the next few days that it is being taken over, with brewers Whitbread favourite to buy the business for as much as #180m. Mr David Lloyd, 46, the former Davis Cup tennis player and present captain, stands to make about #16m from his 8.5% stake. Whitbread, which runs a number of health clubs in its Country Clubs resort hotels, also owns the restaurant chain Beefeater, TGI Friday's, Brewer's Fayre, and Pizza Hut. Rank Organisation has also been mentioned as a possible suitor. DLL runs 13 leisure clubs, including one on a 15-acre site at Renfrew, near Glasgow. The cost of developing a full tennis and fitness club is typically around #6m. Sizeable amounts of capital would be needed to develop the business and Whitbread would be better able to access these large sums. Last year, a full contribution from the Renfrew club enabled DLL to report a 35% jump in annual pre-tax profits to #7.6m. Two new clubs are scheduled to open in the current year with a further six sites on the drawing board. City analysts estimate that DLL could make profits of #9m this year with #11.5m pencilled in for 1996. Shares in DLL surged last week when the company disclosed it was in talks which might lead to a bid. They ended the week at 341p compared with a flotation price of 150p in early 1993. GH950807-000019 GH950807-000019 950807 Popular misconception 3 10 LEADER 977010708 IT IS becoming commonplace to say that Health Secretary Mr Stephen Dorrell, newly scrubbed, gowned, and ready for action, is popular because his predecessor was so disliked. This is a delusion, based largely on metropolitan London's local difficulties with an over-provision of city hospitals and Mrs Bottomley's decision that some must be closed. In the bulk of the country Mrs Bottomley was not detested, although it is true that she was regarded with the deepest suspicion as the representative of a Government which had imposed radical changes on the National Health Service, not all of which appear to help either patients or NHS staff. Nor is it possible yet to say if Mr Dorrell is popular. He is personable, which is not the same thing, and during his time as a Treasury minister was regularly called upon to explain Government policies on the economy. The Chancellor's rumpled looks and manner tended to suggest carelessness, especially on television, and some of his recent gaffes have emphasised that judgment. In contrast, Mr Dorrell's baggy-eyed demeanour appeared to be the result of long hours of hard work. If, then, Mr Dorrell is judged to be popular and effective, why should this be so? His brief residence at the National Heritage Department was not in the least effective, indeed his grip on the entire brief appeared tenuous. The clue to his current acceptability could lie in his sensible avoidance of sounding dogmatic. This is a great advantage in any politician who can manage it, especially as so few seem able. Nevertheless Mr Dorrell will be judged on greater things, and it is his potential as a Health Secretary which must be examined. He does not appear willing to recant on Mrs Bottomley's decisions. Certainly the London hospitals earmarked for closure need not expect a reprieve. In a sense he is doomed to working with Mrs Bottomley's agenda for some time, whether or not he approves of it fully, and for this reason we will have difficulty in assessing his worth. A case in point is the announcement this morning of new plans to protect patients from incompetent doctors. It is expected that the proposals will include a requirement that doctors report to their superiors any colleague who appears to be making mistakes in diagnosis or treatment. This sounds harsh initially, but it is a form of self-policing which should safeguard patients while allowing doctors to monitor their own profession. It is not, of course, a Stephen Dorrell initiative. Neither can Mrs Bottomley claim it, although the committee responsible began when she was in office. It is the fruit of work by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kenneth Calman, who is well-remembered in Scotland for his exceptional abilities. Nevertheless, Mr Dorrell has had the sense to give all the credit for the proposals to Dr Calman; Mrs Bottomley might have been less scrupulous. As Mr Dorrell has not done much yet, we must pay attention to what he says. By and large this is encouraging. He deliberately emphasises his commitment to the welfare state and his own belief in the state as a universal provider of health and education. In recent interviews he has spoken strongly of the need for the NHS to provide excellent service on the basis of need rather than ability to pay. This is heartening stuff and Mr Dorrell's presentational skills give him, as we have noted already, an advantage over many politicians who appear to recite policies by rote. However, as this newspaper and others have rarely tired of pointing out that no amount of presentation can substitute effectively for bad policy, there is a clear requirement for Mr Dorrell to go further and to do so quickly. He has an opportunity with the various threats of industrial action within the NHS, and specifically the matter of central funding for nurses' pay. It is not true to say that devolving a percentage of pay to local bodies makes for greater accountability. In contrast, it fragments needlessly a system which already works well and encourages the sort of confusion and potentially debilitating competition which characterises the worst of the current reforms. Mr Dorrell has an opportunity to soften this approach. If he takes it he may be seen as genuinely popular and effective. GH950807-000020 GH950807-000020 950807 Cultural spin-off 3 10 LEADER 977010709 LOVELY girls, said the taxi driver to the vox pop interviewer, but it's a lot of money. His response was probably shared by most people when the battle to save the Three Graces -- the voluptuous group in white marble by the Italian master sculptor Antonia Canova -- from the clutches of the Getty collection in California was at its height. The battle was won and the money -- all #7.6m of it -- was raised. Now we can judge for ourselves whether it was worth it. From Wednesday the Three Graces can be seen in all their unclad glory at the National Gallery of Scotland on the Mound in Edinburgh. It was part of the deal that because more than #1m was contributed by the Scottish institution, whose director Timothy Clifford played a leading part in the successful campaign (plus or minus the odd gaffe about Getty), the group should shuttle hereafter between London and Edinburgh. And since the nation, in one way or another, had forked out this considerable sum to prevent the nubile Graces from emigrating permanently, it's satisfactory that viewing will be free. Roll up for the peep show, gratis. It's easy to be flippant, of course, particularly at the expense of some of the more pompous guardians of our cultural heritage whose natural home base is pseuds' corner. But there is little doubt that Canova's romantic masterpiece will be a hugely popular acquisition, and that it will attract countless people to the National Gallery who, as the saying goes, may not know much about art but know what they like. Subtleties may escape many of us, but the sheer beauty and excellence of the work is as plain to see as the charms of the maidens themselves. This has been a good summer for our national galleries. The arrival of the Graces follows the news that a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has secured the permanent display of the Penrose collection of surrealist paintings and drawings at the Gallery of Modern Art, one of the three major buildings in Edinburgh comprising the national galleries (the Portrait Gallery is the third). Meanwhile preparations are going ahead for the interior redesign and reconstruction of the nineteenth-century Dean Centre -- also in Edinburgh -- to house works by the eminent contemporary sculptor, the Scot Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. With so much cause for congratulation in the capital city, might there be good news to spare for other centres of culture? It's some time since there has been word of progress on the proposal to site a national gallery of Scottish art in Glasgow. Now the preferred site for that project, the post office headquarters in George Square, is officially on the market. Shall we hear shortly that the National Galleries of Scotland is prepared to go ahead, and will the purchase price be found? Does grace extend to Glasgow? GH950807-000021 GH950807-000021 950807 Ideal Homes sale likely as Trafalgar regroups NICOLA REEVES 3 14 977010710 TRAFALGAR House is considering selling its house-building subsidiary, including the Ideal Homes business, in order to improve the financial health of the group. In the six months to March, it lost #48.2m and last week announced that it was no longer interested in bidding for Northern Electric. Its house-building division is thought to be worth around #150m based on analysts' projections of #15m profit this year. Interim results showed a good improvement on the first half of last year, partly due to the running down of the expensive land bank. In January, Ideal Homes won a House-builder of the Year award for the second consecutive year. The business focuses on providing good quality, affordable homes. The Trafalgar disclosure follows hot on the heels of Tarmac, Britain's second biggest house-builder, which announced last week it was considering a trade sale or flotation of McLean Homes in order to concentrate on building materials and services. Other contractors, including Costain, Mowlem, Birse Group, and Lovell, have sold house-building businesses or announced plans to withdraw from private sector housing as the market continues to languish in the doldrums. In June, 16,800 dwelling were started in the UK compared with 19,400 in June 1994. In the last three months, 48,200 dwellings were started, 15% less than one year ago. GH950807-000022 GH950807-000022 950807 Tiers of souvenirs at palace WILLIAM RUSSELL 3 9 FEATURE ILLUS 977010711 William Russell takes the grand tour of Buckingham Palace, which opens again to the public today, and finds there's a new shop on the Mall They're opening the doors at Buckingham Palace, Christopher Robin went down with Alice To view what the tourists are paying to see. 'Looks terribly tacky and vulgar to me,' Sniffed Alice. FOR the third year running the Queen has decided to earn an honest penny by opening her stately home, Buckingham Palace, to the public from today. Between now and October 1 some 400,000 people, 7000 a day -- which is the most the palace state rooms can cope with -- will see the glories of Nash and the rather less glorious alterations made by various members of the House of Windsor to their London residence. Of the 400,000 tickets 200,000 will be available for people who come and queue, the remainder have been issued to the travel trade and group organisers. A ticket costs #8.50 for adults, #6 for over-60s, and #4.50 for under-17s. Last year 420,000 people visited the palace, bringing in #2.9m and the target this year is #3m. The money from the summer opening is used for the restoration of the fire-damaged appartments at Windsor Castle. The tour remains the same. What is new this year are the souvenirs and a greatly enlarged gift shop, the final port of call for the visitors, and a new temporary ticket office sited in Green Park. Visitors are allowed in every 15 minutes in batches and it takes a little over an hour to do the palace. How long the tour finally takes depends on how long the visitors linger at the gift shop. The tour is confined to the state rooms. The Queen has yet to add any of the private apartments to the route, although the eagle-eyed visitor can spot the secret door, concealed behind an enormous gilt mirror and a marble-topped table in the White Drawing Room, one of the last of the state rooms on the tour, through which the royal family materialise on state occasions. It conceals a corridor leading to a room in which they assemble. The truth is that the palace is opulent to say the least, but much of it is hideously over the top and the excessive amount of gilt applied to the gingerbread begins, after the first few rooms, to pall. But as a demonstration of the taste of the Windsors it is unequalled, because every one of them, from George III, who bought it from the Duke of Buckingham in 1762, to the present day has made a contribution to its structure. The tourist enters through the Ambassadors' Entrance and walks alongside the inner quadrangle concealed behind the familiar facade on the Mall. It is a huge gravel courtyard in which the royal carriages assemble, and on to it opens what is known as the Grand Entrance, a kind of miniature Greek temple. The route goes up the grand staircase, designed by Nash in 1828-30, through the Guard Room, notable for a rather fey statue of Prince Albert dressed up as a Roman soldier and a rather grim one of Queen Victoria as a bucolic maiden. Then the rooms proper begin. Although they are colour-coded, the overwhelming impression is of an infinite variety of reds and even more gold. The first is the Green Drawing Room also designed by Nash, whose windows open on to the roof over the grand portico, then comes the Throne Room, a cacophony of crimson, with the thrones on a dais being those used by the Queen and Prince Philip at the Coronation. Then comes the picture gallery which contains some of the royal Canalettos, a Rubens of St George and the Dragon, and Van Dyck's Charles I riding with Monsieur de St Antoine and his Charles I with Henrietta Maria and their two eldest children. At the end is a handsome statue of Mrs Jordon, mistress to William IV, with two of their children, which was presented to the Queen in 1975 by the Earl of Munster. More galleries follow and then comes the State Dining Room, a purple and red room with a splendid ceiling which looks like the set for Ruddigore as the walls are lined with family portraits, all clearly pondering coming to life. Banquets are held here, but not state banquets. They are held in the ballroom built by Queen Victoria which is not on the tour. The banquets held here are intimate affairs. The table groans with some silver gilt tableware, and the walls, where they are not red, are covered by immense gilt-framed mirrors. After that come the Blue Drawing Room, the music room, which houses a rather sad small grand piano and is better known as the place where royal babies are christened rather than where royals make music. Next is the White Drawing Room and the tour once again descends to the ground floor, this time down the Ministers' Staircase built for Queen Victoria in the 1850s. The Marble Hall, the Bow Room, which is directly beneath the music room, and the tour is over -- the visitor passes out through the French windows into the Palace gardens, which have been securely cordoned off. The route then heads past the lavatories on to the royal gift shoppe -- all major credit cards accepted -- housed at the end of a long pathway which flanks the garden wall. Among the goods on sale are a crimson and gold commemorative bone china mug, #12; a lead crystal goblet with a gilt serpent coiled up the stem and round the bowl, #65; a commemorative bone-china plate to match the mug, #20; and a cup and saucer in similar style, #25. The designs are copied from designs Nash used in the staterooms. After-dinner mints, #8; Tudor Rose chocolates, #5; packs of postcards, #2; and a carriage clock in a limited edition, #595; are among other goodies specially selected by the Royal Collection Enterprises. GH950807-000023 GH950807-000023 950807 Stirling and Fifeshire tie themselves up again HUGH MCKINLAY 3 4 SPORT ILLUS 977010712 SCOTTISH COUNTIES: ONE-DAY cricket's most unlikely result -- a tie -- happening even once in a season can be regarded as unusual. But for it to happen twice, and between the same sides, almost defies belief. Unless, of course, you happened to be at the madhouse which went under the guise of Williamfield on Saturday. The song about mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun had nothing on this. The car park was the first hint that all was not normal. It was almost full. A glance out to the not-so-large acres of the Stirling ground saw two matches in progress -- apparently only the second time this has happened, with the Torbrex XI and 2nd Clackmannan sides having an East League encounter. The roars of ''howzat'' was like the old stuck needle of a gramophone. No peaceful, sunny afternoon's sport this week. Now to find the Caley 80/- League match between Stirling County and Fifeshire. Thoughts of Comic Relief came to mind as the home side's players were easily spotted in the field -- wearing dazzling bright red baseball caps, sporting the Ferrari logo, courtesy of vice-chairman John Henderson, who had just returned on Saturday from a holiday in Italy. The caps might have been handy to stave off the searing heat, but they certainly did not speed up Stirling's batting. Fifeshire, with the exception of Wayne Sullivan, who hit a half-century, plodded along until they were all out for 153 in the forty-ninth over. Sullivan's 50 had come off 75 balls, with five 4s. Another 4 and a couple more runs later, he was out for 56. Willie Morton was the pick of the Stirling bowlers with four for 54. Step in Stirling. Professional Kyle Wealleans went for 27, and Jon Taylor for just three short of his half-century. Everything in the garden still seemed to be as rosy as those baseball caps -- until the middle order was posted missing, mainly because of a fine spell of bowling from Keith Graveling and pro Ashok Malhotra. Ker Henderson seemed to have sparked a revival until he, too, was walking back to the pavilion, with 41 under his belt. Stirling required one run off the last ball, but Kenny Wright was run out for 7 -- with Stirling all out for 153. Graveling had excellent figures of six for 49, while Ashok recorded three for 57. There was an amazing match at Lochlands, where Arbroath County took on league leaders Aberdeenshire -- and the outcome has led to one of the tightest battles for the league title for years. Arbroath went in first, and after 50 overs, were 245 for one. Instead of declaring, however, skipper George Salmond decided to take the extra four overs to which his side were entitled, and they raced to a mammoth 292 without further loss. The leaders then decided to shut up shop, and crawl to 100 for two in the remaining 46 overs -- and they even had two points deducted for a slow over rate during the Arbroath innings. For Arbroath, Kevin Ritchie was unbeaten on 163, and Salmond 98 not out. The Smiths -- Mike and Colin -- were 46 not out and 38 respectively. It is becoming tighter at the top, and Ayrshire certainly took advantage to cut the gap in second place when they defeated bottom club Perthshire by four wickets in another high-scoring game at Prestwick. A century by Graham Ferguson, plus 87 from Lal Rajput, took the Perth side to a highly respectable 216 for five, but 84 from Drew Parsons and 58 from David Haggo sent the home team to 217 for six, with Ken McGregor taking a respectable four for 39. Malcolm Howell continued his amazing record for Clackmannan -- and yet again without support from his fellow batsmen. Last week, for example, he was unbeaten on 72, with Clackmannan all out for 99 up at Mannofield. At The Arns on Saturday, he was unbeaten on 96 as the Wee County could muster only 153 for eight against West Lothian. And even bowling figures of four for 53 by Howell could not stop the Linlithgow side from reaching 155 for six, with an unbeaten 46 from Alan Farquharson and a steady 36 from David Fleming. Forfarshire and Strathmore County put on a knife-edge match which ended in a draw at Forthill. Mark Mudie's unbeaten century, helped by 46 from Willie Duthie, helped Strathie to amass 210 for nine. Peter Drinnen with 66 and John Phillips with 35 were just unable to spur their side to victory. They finished on 209 for nine. It was that close. GH950807-000024 GH950807-000024 950807 3i sparks electronics merger ALF YOUNG,ECONMOICS EDITOR 3 14 ILLUS 977010713 TWO Scottish suppliers to the electronics industry have merged in an #18.5m deal inspired by the investment capital group 3i. Eraba, a Livingston based precision engineer employing 120, and Optima Enclosures, whose 200 workers supply casings to the defence, computer, and telecommunications industries from a base in East Lothian, become the Walker Dickson Group. The merged business will be led by Mr Ken Lewandowski, a Scot who was previously UK managing director of Avex Electronics, the American electronic sub-assembly specialist with a plant in East Kilbride. Mr Lewandowski returns from a more senior post with Avex in its home state of Alabama to take charge of Walker Dickson. He said the deal would create a formidable alliance, offering both businesses the opportunity to grow further. Eraba was was founded in 1981 by Mr Jim Jamieson, who becomes production director of the enlarged group. Its focus is precision engineered components for the electronics and telecoms sectors. 3i was an investor in Eraba. Optima dates back from 1961. In 1974, it was acquired by a customer, Scientific Atlanta, but was subject to a management buy-out in 1986, again backed by 3i. Its customer base ranges from IBM and Motorola to Sony and Siemens. The merger involves #7.5m of equity with Bank of Scotland providing the debt facilities. Walter Dickson Group was advised by accountants Rutherford Manson & Dowds and solicitors McGrigor Donald. The rest of the new management team is Mr Steve Dolton, finance director, Mr James Webb, sales director, and Mr Allen Standley, chief executive of Peek as non-executive chairman. GH950807-000025 GH950807-000025 950807 A real test for Wells and Hick ANDY JALIL 3 4 SPORT ILLUS 977010714 THE FIFTH TEST: ENGLAND'S selectors have had to ring the changes again, although it must be said that most of them are because of injuries. And that has brought a surprise or two, with the squad of 13 announced yesterday including Sussex captain Alan Wells who, at 33, has yet to win a Test cap, the left arm seamer Mark Ilott, and off-spinner Richard Illingworth. Although chairman of selectors, Ray Illingworth, and his team would like to have kept to the axiom of not changing a winning side, they have had to juggle players around for the vitally important Fifth Test against West Indies which starts at Trent Bridge on Thursday. The most significant alteration to the team that won the fourth Test by six wickets to level the series 2-2 at Old Trafford has been brought on by the horrific facial injury to Robin Smith, who is out for the remainder of the summer with a depressed fracture of the cheekbone. His replacement probably will be Wells who, not unlike Smith, plays fast bowling better than most of the middle-order batsmen in the country. He also possesses a cool temperament which is an important factor when facing as relentless a pace barrage as seen from the West Indians in this series. Wells, who was overlooked after the third one-day international at Lords -- during which he was able to have only a brief slog -- has been in fine form this season after leading England's A team on a successful winter tour. With five centuries and two half-centuries, he heads the averages for his county, Sussex. Graeme Hick, dropped from the last Test after having beenincluded in the squad, is back again in the 13. The season has not gone well for him, and although it was thought that he had improved his weakness against fast bowling, the old flaws remain. The West Indies has exploited those areas in his batting, and it showed at Edgbaston. For Hick, a thirty-sixth cap would represent a truly final chance. But the same player will still be hoping that he, and not Wells, will be given Smith's No.5 spot in a Test which England captain Mike Atherton yesterday predicted will be ''the deciding encounter'' in the six-match series. Hick has been dropped four times in five summers by England, but the odds on his return could be clinched because of his off-spinning second string, as his so-far fallible batting qualities. Mark Ilott, the replacement for Darren Gough, adds a new angle to the attack. His left arm seamers bring a change to the West Indies batsmen, who will find the ball coming more diagonally and going away from the right-handers. In first-class matches this season, he leads Essex's averages with 55 wickets, which includes a brilliant haul of nine for 19. Veteran off-spinner John Emburey, having been given a one-off Test at Old Trafford where he was economical but did little else, makes way for the return of left-arm orthodox Richard Illingworth, now recovered from the knuckle injury sustained in the Third Test. Old Tafford's debutantes, opening batsmen Nick Knight and all-rounder Mike Watkinson, retain their places. Knight, who appeared calm and composed in the face of hostile bowling during the 155 minutes he spent at the crease -- he also fielded so well -- and Watkinson, after making considerable contribution with the ball and the bat, have earned another chance. With Alec Stewart's injury still keeping him out, wicket keeper Jack Russell remains in the side. But the argument is still doing the rounds that had Stewart been fit, would Russell still have been included? Certainly his performance at Old Trafford, both behind the stumps and particularly with the bat during England's jittery final hour, was most commendable. On the evidence of his performance in the Fourth Test, all-rounder Craig White will breathe a sign of relief at being included in the squad. The selectors would certainly have had names of the experienced David Capel and the young Ronnie Irani in their minds. It could be that both Hick and Wells will be in the final 11, with White and either a seamer or spinner omitted, but England chairman Ray Illingworth was giving nothing away when he announced the Trent Bridge squad yesterday morning. ''I think you can say the top order is fixed,'' said Illingworth. ''But the rest of the side is in the melting pot. While captain Mike Atherton will be concerned a little about his own flagging form in recent weeks, he'll be looking for runs from Graham Thorpe again, and John Crawley. On Trent Bridge's pitch, which is expected to be quicker than Old Trafford, England will be hoping that Angus Fraser and particularly the irrepressible Dominic Cork can repeat their efforts. For the first time in the series, the West Indies are facing injury problems. With Carl Hooper ruled out of the Test, and Jimmy Adams out of the series, opening batsman Stuart Williams and middle order left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul are expected to make their first appearance in this series. England squad: M Atherton, N Knight, J Crawley, G Thorpe, A Wells, C White, R Russell, D Cork, M Watkinson, M Ilott, A Fraser, G Hick, R Illingworth. GH950807-000026 GH950807-000026 950807 Salmond leads Arbroath's victory charge 3 4 SPORT 977010715 SCU TROPHY THE new SCU trophy will spend its first winter lodging in the Arbroath clubhouse after the Lochlands club scored a comfortable victory in the all county championship final against Fifeshire at neutral Boghall in Linlithgow yesterday. Having warmed up on Saturday by carting the bowling of county championship favourites Aberdeenshire all over the park, Arbroath were at it again, and hammered 255 for six off the disappointing Fifeshire attack. Openers John Salmond and Kevin Ritchie plundered 44 runs in 39 minutes before Ritchie was bowled by Aslam Raza. In came Scottish captain George Salmond to produce the innings of the match. If he took his time initially -- 62 balls for his first 50 -- he was in racing gear thereafter. His 100 came up after 90 balls, and with 94 runs hammered in the remaining 14 overs, he was left unbeaten on 127 when the 50 overs were up. In his final match for Arbroath before returning to Pakistan, Mohammad Zahid proved Salmond's most enduring partner, with the pair putting on 129 runs for the fifth wicket in 54 minutes. Fifeshire were disappointing in the field, although Ross Mitchinson can be pleased with his caught and bowled to dismiss John Salmond, and once he had put on the keeper's gloves, Raza made a sharp stumping. Young Benjy McGill then gave Arbroath the best possible start when he clean bowled Mitchinson in the second over with Fife on four. Willie Sullivan joined Raza and the pair saw the score up to 71 when Raza fell victim to a good catch at extra cover by that man, George Salmond. Sullivan was out a run short of his 50, and a century stand for the fourth wicket followed from Fife pro Ashok Malhotra and Ewan Ogilvie. This ensured Fife would produce a respectable reply, but it lacked urgency with the pair failing to pressurise the fielders. Malhotra was first out, caught behind to a top edge, with the score on 200. Ogilvie followed five runs later and with the tail end having a swing the Fife score reached 237 for nine. Arun Trivedi had the best figures of three for 49 while Zahid, one for 20 off eight overs, was the tidiest of the Arbroath attack. SCOTLAND'S preparations for the B clash with Durham County at Stockton today were thrown into disarray at the weekend when four players called off. Out go skipper David Haggo, seamers David Cowan and John Blain, and experienced batsman Gordon McGurk. In come Donald Orr, Mark Mudie, Jim Govan and Stuart Moffat. Coach Jim Love said: ''It's been a nightmare weekend with a mixture of injuries and work commitments denying us so many players. Even some of the guys I originally called-in as replacements couldn't make it. At one time I thought we might not raise a side.'' GH950807-000027 GH950807-000027 950807 No Headline Present 3 4 SPORT 977010716 * ARAVINDA de Silva and Trevor Ward both hit centuries as Kent moved up to second place in the AXA Equity and Law Sunday League yesterday with a 55-run victory over Surrey. Sri Lankan Test star de Silva (124), a centurion in Kent's Benson and Hedges Cup final defeat by Lancashire, teamed up with opener Ward (123) in a county record second-wicket stand of 241 to thrill the Canterbury crowd. De Silva raced to his century with two 6s and fourteen 4s off just 83 deliveries, while Ward's 102-ball ton included three 6s and eleven 4s. Kent's final 40-over total of 301 for seven was always too much for Surrey and, despite skipper Adam Hollioake's defiant 94, Dean Headley's competition-best return of six for 42 saw the visitors bowled out for 246. Pakistani paceman Wasim Akram was Lancashire's hero as the Red Rose county moved up to joint third in the table with Warwickshire following a 22-run victory over fellow title hopefuls Sussex at Old Trafford. Akram took four for 16 from seven overs, including the wicket of Surrey skipper and England hopeful Alan Wells as the visitors were bowled out for 144 in reply to Lancashire's 40-over total of 166 for eight. Out-of-form England skipper Mike Atherton (46) top-scored for the home side, who were grateful for an eighth-wicket stand of 45 between wicketkeeper Warren Hegg and Gary Yates after they had slipped from 90 for one to 121 for eight. GH950807-000028 GH950807-000028 950807 The Music Man, Regents Park, London MICHAEL KENNEDY 1 13 REVIEW 977010717 Theatre THE Open Air Theatre at Regents Park turned out to be the perfect setting for a successful revival of Meredith Willson's 1957 hit The Music Man. Brian Cox stars in his first musical as the eponomous hero. Ian Talbot's riotously successful production gives Cox plenty of scope as ''Professor'' Harold Hill, a musical instrument salesman who normally gets the cash and gets out of town before the good citizens realise that their children haven't learnt to play a note. In River City, Iowa, Hill meets his match: the local piano teacher, Marian (a zesty, touching, beautifully sung performance by Liz Robertson). Her younger brother Winthrop, traumatised from his father's recent death, is persuaded by the music man to enlist in the new band which, miraculously, turns out to be a success. For once Hill stays behind and literally faces the music. The wonderful score and book and lyrics is by Meredith Willson, a former member of Sousa's Band, and it includes at least two showstoppers: the magical ballad, Till There Was You, and the ultimate march, 76 Trombones. The town is peopled with wonderful characters including a formidably funny mayoress, Veronica Clifford, and her stiffly correct husband, John Challis. Four deadly enemies are transformed by Hill's magic oratory into a wondrous barber-shop quartet; among a series of vigorous enjoyable performances from a talented cast I'd pick out the energetic Christopher Staines as a good example. The Music Man is a highly enjoyable summer treat for youngsters of any age. GH950807-000029 GH950807-000029 950807 Trimmed by garden mowers, a unique new golf course. Fairways to heaven for men of Eriskay JACK MCLEAN 3 3 SPORT ILLUS 977010718 Sunny Jim from Para Handy was ever saying, ''It will be good for a baur.'' A baur, a spot of high jinks, a tirravee, merriment, fun. The Western Isles man doesn't take himself too seriously, perhaps because he (and she) has to take life very seriously indeed, for in the landscape where the land is so barren that the only things you can grow are stones, life and the survival of it is very serious indeed. In a climate which can be harsh enough for any penitent, life needs lifting a touch. And in a place so poetic, so sad, so touchingly tragic, so historic, and so tearfully beautiful as Eriskay, you need the high jinks. Thus we have the Eriskay Open golf tournament. Well, we have now, for the very first one was on Saturday there, and a grand Open it was. You can stick your Old Course and your Nick Faldos and Tom Watsons, for the Eriskay Open is for golfers for fun. Truth to tell, Faldo and Watson would love this astonishing little course. Little? I should say. It is a six-hole course, carved out of some of the roughest veldt you will find out of Africa. The boys who thought up the golf course, just over a year ago, mowed and scythed and scratched away, using only garden mowers, not the big, easy, industrial mowers. It must have been a fearsome task and could only have been a labour of extraordinary love. Well, it was. The instigators of the Eriskay Golf Club were Willie Rusk, the Eriskay ferryman, Patrick Forbes and -- he says so himself -- a peripheral influence, the island's parish priest, Father Callum MacLennan. If Willie is the driving force behind the establishment of this little club -- which has 25 members, each paying #25 a year, with #5 for juniors, and eat-your-heart-out Murray Ritchie and all you golf fanatics who mortgage your houses for the yearly golf subs, here is a course which has green fees of six quid for an all-day jaunt -- if Willie was the driving force, and Paddy Forbes, the local postman or whatever else he can work at be it barman or ferry carrier, then perhaps the natural modesty of Father Callum should not overlook the fact that he must have been very instrumental in obtaining the land from the local crofters to get this course made at all. The crofters have been splendid. They gave their land, along the shore, gratis and for nothing. An addition to the island they reckoned, with the proviso that some kind of sense should prevail about the possibility that sheep and cattle, who have enough strife as it is with the terrain and the climate and hardly need getting smacked with golf balls from a long distance -- it is said that the sheep think that ''fore'' means four of their colleagues have been felled by a Maxfly -- with that proviso the crofters gave their land and failtie. What made the course easier is that planning permission in the Western Isles hardly applies. The bureaucracy of the urban areas is a major urban blight, but here in the Outer Hebrides, bureaucracy is mainly confined to sabbatarian idiocy (Eriskay, like South Uist is entirely Catholic but the Island's council is strictly Wee Free and disallows fun or ferry sailings on the Sabbath). But the South Hebrideans are made of fun-loving stuff. No play-park is closed or swings chained up. And a golf course now, and an Eriskay Open. It was Willie Rusk, really, who started it. He and Paddy Forbes and Father Callum who flew the idea over a dram, the way you do. Willie started the club up because he was pissed off at having to trek across to Barra, which has a nine-hole course, for a game. It is not far away, but the ferry stops operating at 9am. The absurd bridge to Skye -- a worthless piece of New Brutalist architecture, which was neither wanted nor needed -- is in sharp contrast to the necessity of a causeway from South Uist to Eriskay. For a distance you could damn-near swim -- it takes 10 minutes by ferry -- a causeway would be cheap and, and it would keep the people, 150 in all today, on the island. But for the time being, the bridge is the golf club, the brainchild of Willie, Paddy, and Father Callum. But to the Eriskay Open. Another notion of the indefatigable Mr Rush. Oddly, Willie and Paddy are both incomers, but not the way you think; not White Settlers, nothing to do with retired army officers and the like, (my own father's island, Mull, is known as the officers' mess); Willie and Paddy came here as little children, adopted by Eriskay people. They have done well and prospered, and so, too, has Eriskay at that. So when Willie thought up the grandiose idea of an Eriskay Open, it stood to reason that it would happen. I don't know how long it took to organise the Scottish Open, but it took Willie and co a week-and-a-half to get Eriskay off the ground. Mind you, he was helped a little by the hand of God in the sense that I myself have never seen better weather anywhere or any time. (Also by the hand of greenkeeper, young Jo-Jo Campbell, the son of mine host, the wonderfully hospitable Morag, who runs the best self-catering place I've ever encountered, had much to do with the superb condition of the greens.) The sky was of a blue which made you think of Elizabeth Taylor's eyes in National Velvet, and the sea was as azure enough to be liquid lapis lazuli. There was a breeze gentle enough for the hand of a virgin lady to dampen your brow. Here, that's enough poetry. The course is very small, as one local put it: ''Och, it's quite a big course for its size,'' a lovely piece of irrevocable Gaelic logic. Just a strip along an incredibly lovely coastline, it is absolutely natural. Jack Nicklaus wouldn't need to change a thing. It even has sand bunkers. Well, it doesn't really. It is sandy beaches and as Eriskay's course is so small, it is not hard to land your ball on them. Think of the sheer romance of having to thrash your golf ball out of a sandy bunker which was the beach on which Bonnie Prince Charlie landed on 23rd of July, 1745. Well it's there, and it's a bunker. The Open kicked off at 10.30 in the morning, with pipers and an entourage of small girls in kilts, and damn-near everybody else on the island. The 13 invited Barra club members started. They did well. But not as well as Paddy Forbes. He won the Eriskay Open competition trophy, a handsome silver cup donated by Grampian Television, who also presented him with two return tickets to Glasgow by Loganair. Grampian filmed this unique wee event and it will go out on Scottish on Monday lunchtime, presented by young Angela NicFhionghuin. There was a lot of sponsorship, too, and Paddy won the other splendid trophy presented by the Grampian Gaelic people, the Media Nan Eilean Trophy. Considering that the band, Schiehallion, from Glasgow in fact, had contributed a bottle of malt for a prize, I thought it only fitting that The Herald stuck a bottle of Glenfiddich in for the Media Trophy. There you are, Paddy, that's a wee dram for me when you come to Glasgow. Another bit of Gaelic logic. Said Paddy to me at the dance at night: ''It'll never be repeated that,'' he said, ''the first name on the trophy. You can't ever repeat that.'' I was having a goldie with Gordon Hunter, a seven-handicap golfer from Milngavie, and fellow fanatic Bob Graham from Glasgow, who later sat in with the band, and local Eriskay resident originally from Port Glasgow, Lawrie Beaton. ''Did you hear that?'' I said. Lawrie acknowledged the absurdity and told Bob to go up there on the stand and repeat Ye Banks of Sicily, and I danced myself. The way I shall dance again when I repeat my visit next year to the banks and beaches of Eriskay. GH950807-000030 GH950807-000030 950807 Charles Chorus/Kelvin Ensemble, Mitchell Hall, Aberdeen MICHAEL TUMELTY 3 13 REVIEW 977010719 Music RICH and multi-faceted though the Aberdeen International Youth Festival is, this year it has added another string to its bow by linking with Aberdeen University in the quincentenary celebrations of that august establishment. On Saturday, one of these linked events brought performers from two even older universities -- Glasgow and the Charles University of Prague -- in an unusual double concert of orchestral and choral music. The Czech university draws its choir from a huge campus of more than 30,000 students. Many of the choir look as though they are staff rather than students, and they have a distinctive performing style. Under director Jaroslav Byrch, they unveiled a raft of music completely unknown in this country: Czech sacred music from across the centuries, extremely lyrical, sonorous, and overtly beautiful. The choir's style is a rather restricted one -- they are good at what they do, but their range of dynamics and colour is limited. They showed no evidence of a beefy sound, and seem to have cultivated a deliberately restrained effect, almost discreet and slender -- a wee bit too fragile when they reached the lush pastures of Verdi. When they did cut loose, in a rollicking Bohemian folk song cycle at the end, they displayed an athleticism and panache that had been missing until that point. The choir was followed by Glasgow University's student-run Kelvin Ensemble who sounded dangerously insecure in Edward McGuire's Symphonies of Trains, a work that despite obvious graphic touches of drive and momentum, is in fact a pretty uncompromising and taxing piece of music. With the dazzlingly articulate and brilliant Angela Whelan (a real future star) as soloist in Hummel's Trumpet Concerto, and with Nigel Boddice conducting, the orchestra was on firmer ground, more assured, more polished. GH950807-000031 GH950807-000031 950807 You did us proud, girls JOANNA MACDONALD 3 3 FEATURE SPORT 977010720 PAVIN, Couples, Montgomerie, Faldo. All these are insantly recognised as some of the world's leading golfers. Even further down the order, Parvenik and Gilford are well-known. They all have become public figures. We feel we know them, their life-styles, their quirks, their superstitions even. But apart from Laura Davies, how many of the leading women players are generally recognised? Therein lies the problem. The women's game has always been dogged by lack of belief, lack of sponsorship, and frequently lack of serious coverage. All this has to change. Many of the best European women were competing at Dalmahoy over the weekend for the Scottish Open title, but few of them are known outside their families. Hopefully, after their stunning performances from the powerful Davies to France's elegant Marie Laure de Lorenzi, attitudes will change. Apart from the skills on display, the relaxed cameraderie and downright friendliness was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the back-biting and carping that sadly has become a feature of so many other sports. Laura Davies, the world No.1, coming straight from a 25-under-par record-breaking win in Ireland the previous week, had ever right to be optimistic. But when things didn't go according to plan in the first two days, she didn't resort to the pouting and posturing that is increasingly creeping in to a number of her male counterparts' game. Instead, she smiled, signed autographs and generally got on with things. Davies is a truly exceptional advert for her sport, not only because of her powerful play, but also because of her fun-loving approach. Soon after her par round on Thursday, she could be found, not on the practice ground like so many others, but indulging in one of her other loves, by following the fortunes of the horses at Pontefract and Bath at the small on-course betting shop. The championships were a joy for spectators. Encouragingly, the crowd was 20% up on last year. The atmosphere was infinitely more civilised than the hurly-burly of the Open. In some respects it is like a step back in time, for although the competition was fierce, the ambience was not. The skills on display were mouth-watering and all this for a winner's cheque of only #11,000. It's the kind of pay-off many caddies on the men's tour can expect to take home. For the spectators, Dalmahoy proved an excellent choice. No grandstands there, and so there was an intimate, almost homely, feel to the event. Who could fail to appreciate yesterday's ding-dong battle between France's Patricia Meunier and the pugnacious Yorkshirewoman, Alison Nicholas? Meunier's 30 for the first nine holes was a display of golf of the highest quality. Even the most chauvinistic of men could not fail to be inpressed. Meunier had the benefit of psychological advice from an aunt, whereas in stark contrast, one Swedish golfer dispensed with the services of a caddie and pulled a trolley around herself. It was more like a midweek bounce game. Can you imagine Greg Norman doing that? The tournament gave Scotland much to be proud of, too. Janice Moodie, the 22-year-old amateur, made an astonishing impact with her seven-under-par final score. And all with grace and courtesy. She follows in the footsteps of amateur Gordon Sherry's display in the Open at St Andrews. Better, really. Because she won the amateur prize. Moodie shows no signs of rushing to turn professional. Instead, she intends to continue her studies at university in America. But when she does turn professional, a bright future beckons. In the past, television coverage of women's golf has been at best sparse. But BBC deserves plaudits for the decision to give so much time to the tournament. The standard of golf will be an inspiration to amateurs all over the country. Just as the tennis courts benefit from Wimbledon, we can expect a rush out to the fairways this week. But progress will really have been made when Joe Public -- and Josephine, too -- can recognise the names of 10 leading women golfers. Who knows? One day Janice Moodie might be one of them. GH950807-000032 GH950807-000032 950807 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13[3/4], Byre Theatre, St Andrews MARK FISHER 3 13 REVIEW 977010721 Theatre IF you're going to put on a crowd-pleaser the least you can do is do it well -- and Ken Alexander's staging of Sue Townsend's comedy of adolescent angst is such a charmingly good-natured production that it instantly dispels any notion that it's only been put on as a cynical ruse to get in the family holiday market. As a play it's not quite the cash-in on the book of the radio series of the souvenir pencil-case that you might expect. Townsend was a reasonably respected fringe playwright before she invented the love-lorn Adrian Mole, and this version, though it is not without excess baggage, does make some attempt at character development and dramatic shape. As much as that, though, it's Townsend's gift for one-liners that helps the play move along, and I suspect it would appear a lot more flimsy if it wasn't for the jolly set of songs by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. It's not that the mundane domestic drama particularly calls out for the musical treatment, but the score does an important job at changing the tone and punctuating the action. It also feeds into the general upbeat mood of the Byre's updated Scots-accented production, performed on a compact cartoon set designed by Rebecca Minto. In the lead role is Billy Boyd who confirms the promise he showed in The Slab Boys last month with a lovable, undemonstrative performance, all innocent looks and awkward poses. He's not the self-righteous martyr of previous Mole incarnations, but that helps redirect the focus of fun on the bed-swapping shenanigans of the grown-ups. Frivolous, forgettable, harmless -- and fun. GH950807-000033 GH950807-000033 950807 Punchy painters in a knock-out show CLARE HENRY 3 13 FEATURE ILLUS 977010722 Clare Henry finds a display of artwork from the past 75 years confirms Glasgow School of Art's reputation for producing dynamic painters whose creations stand the test of time WONDERFUL. Superb. A knock-out. The Continuing Tradition: 75 Years of Painting at GSA 1920-95 is a truly ''must-see'' exhibition; something to revel in and relish; an enjoyable burst of vigour, colour, and oil paint which in these cool, conceptual, minimalist times is as welcome as a long drink in a heat wave. Smiles wreathed happy faces at the packed opening. Good punchy painting is what Glasgow is famous for; seductive oil paint is what the punters like to see; figurative painting is what Glasgow does best. There is irrefutable evidence here, if it were needed, that Glasgow has always produced damn good painters -- both figurative and abstract. Will this powerful show affect the current debate about painting versus conceptualism? Personally, I hope it makes for greater tolerance on both sides. It's high-time conceptualists appreciated the painters. Likewise, painters should realise that the new-wave conceptualists are already an established item on the international circuit, and be proud of them. In the 1990s they are as sought after as Howson, Currie et al in the 1980s. It is not a competition. There is room for all. With something of a coup de theatre, Sandy Moffat, Glasgow School of Art head of painting and exhibition curator, has hung the Mackintosh Museum with a series of humdingers. So, at the top of the stairs, you are greeted by a powerful 1980s figurative triumvirate of Ken Currie, Alison Watt, and Ian McCulloch interspersed with ''old masters'' Armour, Donaldson, Eardley, McCance, and Colquhoun, who show student works of the 1920s and thirties. This indicates the show's range and immediately gives the lie to the oft-quoted ''Glasgow painters are all the same'' syndrome. Vigorous variety is what Glasgow is about. Currie's black angst could not be further from Watt's serene classicism. McCance's fractured futurism is poles apart from Eardley's monumental Italian Beggar and Donaldson's gentle, beautiful symbolist painting which began as a portrait of a friend's wife. Yet Mary Armour's diploma Pit-Head Scene, (a controversial 1925 sally against the customary nymphs and suchlike) does prefigure the social realism of the 1980s. Another impressive early Donaldson, Pattern of Flags 1937, again shows his love of allegory. A powerful still life is wet off the easel. It was painted just before his 79th birthday. Emilio Coia can claim more than 80 energetic years, as his wicked caricature GSA Staff 1928 and his recent Festival drawings demonstrate. Mackintosh Patrick, too, is still busy, vide his immaculate landscapes. Artists sure do lead long, productive lives. The show, of course, has the ideal setting, with paintings gathered together in the studios where all these artists began their careers. Many pictures were actually painted here -- a poignant homecoming. Charles Rennie Mackintosh's famous building has been well spruced up for the occasion. Never have I seen these huge studios look so good. It's a privilege to work there, as many GSA graduates know. The newly-sanded entrance floor and opalescent window drapes (sponsored by Mandors) have definitely enhanced things. Moffat groups the pictures roughly by theme: a room each for landscape, still life, portraits, abstracts, narrative -- but intelligent hanging has juxtaposed like minds to create fascinating cross-fertilisation and links of admiration and friendship spanning 75 years. One's peers and teachers often provide a rich source of food for eyes and minds. Thus the young McCulloch hangs by his hero William Crosbie. Fletcher must have been influenced by William Scott. Knox's third-year student work a la Braque hints at things to come. Paul Klee inspired Adam Crawford, while Goudie, ''a real whiz kid prodigy'' is represented by a 1953 Marriage at Cana displaying his incredible youthful skill. Pure abstraction is rare, (Pollock, Stewart, the young McCulloch; a brand new luminous Robertson) but here is a new discovery. Elsa Vaudrey was born in 1905, trained at GSA from 1924-27 but did not make the breakthrough into abstraction until she was in her sixties. Four lyrical paintings show the same kind of sensitivity as one finds in Barns Graham, Gear, and even Derek Roberts. Portraiture features strongly across the generations. Watt's self-portrait is hung between William Armour's lovely 1926 portrait of Mary, and McCance's 1918 Agnes Parker. Nearby, Jenny Saville, Alison Harper, Rosemary Beaton and Bet Low are among the 18 women represented from a total of 50 artists. Not a bad percentage. We are familiar with Low's Skye landscapes but, another surprise, her 1940s portraits of characters from the Unity Theatre are extraordinary: rugged, and boldly expressionist. ''I think Bet is the star of the show,'' says Moffat. Powerful images of the body by Morrison, Hunter, Saville and McPhail ('McPhail invented this way of painting. Saville picked it up,'' explains Moffat) are complemented by Peter Howson's etched Saracen Heads and Currie's Sick Heads which show the seamy side of Glasgow life. What comes over forcibly is that for 75 years Glasgow artists have deployed a directness of expression, emphasising instinct, independence and imagination, in a painterly language where accessibility and communication are paramount. And surely this is right. Glasgow painting is about communication -- but this doesn't mean it has to be popularist. I'm horrified to learn that Glasgow's year of Visual Arts 1996 is soon to be launched in London with none other than the amateur English artist Beryl Cook, a former boarding-house landlady who paints fat, vulgar characters. ''It will make Glasgow a laughing stock,'' is the general reaction. During the past 150 years dynamic, intelligent painters from GSA have establish Scottish art on the international stage. How do they feel about Beryl Cook? Unhappy. Back in the Mackintosh building I marvel that such a brilliant show could be put together in such a short time. Yes, there are omissions. It should be bigger, more comprehensively historical, with a big fat catalogue -- but GSA's 23% funding cuts made it impossible. Many feel Kelvingrove or the Scottish National Gallery should have masterminded this show, but the in-house, home-grown affair is pretty good. I trust someone will ensure the lottery moguls visit this show, so that they better understand the merit of GSA's lottery application. I have complaints. The labels lack basic information -- no artist's date of birth. Neither is this wonderful show advertised at all. It deserves banners and flags, posters in the underground, AA signs and flyers everywhere -- even in Edinburgh. Rarely can the public visit GSA's studios, yet until September 2 the Mackintosh Building is open to all -- and it's free. Don't miss this chance to see Glasgow School of Art at its best. GH950807-000034 GH950807-000034 950807 Speedy Thom impresses at new-look Parkhead. Collins and Co force best out of Newcastle KEN GALLACHER, CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER 3 2 SPORT ILLUS 977010723 Celtic 1, Newcastle United 1 THE return to Paradise was not the triumphant one Celtic and their legions of fans had hoped for. Nevertheless, it was a day which will live in the memories of the faithful, a day when their Hampden exile ended, when the vision of a brave new world was extended to them by way of the impressive new stand, and when record signing Andreas Thom made his debut. There was also the little matter of the game itself against a Newcastle United side which manager Kevin Keegan hopes will be good enough, after a summer spending spree which put even Rangers in the shade, to take the Premiership title. On that front, the most important after all, Celtic found themselves in command for the first 45 minutes and then seemed strangely subdued in the second half. So much so that Keegan remarked afterwards: ''At the end there was only one team going to win that game -- and that was us.'' Earlier, though, the Tyneside manager had admitted: ''I had to say to my lads at half-time that if they could not do better, then they would be back out on the training ground until we got things right. ''Celtic looked really sharp and inventive, and John Collins was outstanding. But we had to do better and although it was our first major game against good opposition, I was determined to do better. That's why I spoke to the players at half-time. ''That worked, and we saw signs of what Les Ferdinand can do for this club. In fact, once he and David Ginola get an understanding going, then I think we will have to put a Government Health Warning on the pair of them.'' For Celtic, of course, the main matter on hand was the introducion to Parkhead of Andreas Thom, and, also of Pierre van Hooydonk, who spent his previous matches for the club performing at Hampden. After his first outing at the new-look stadium the giant Dutchman grinned: ''It is something special for me to be here at last. The other players had told me about the atmosphere and it was every bit as impressive as they said. ''Honestly, the noise was incredible. And this is with just one new stand. It is going to be an important weapon for us in the league games we are getting ready to face. But we know we have to be more consistent if we are to take the title. ''I enjoyed playing with Andreas Thom and, given time, we will get a good understanding going. He showed today what he can provide for the team. His pace won us the penalty and once he settles he will be really important. It's a nice thought for me to team up with him.'' Thom himself admitted afterwards: ''I felt some cramp in my leg and had to go off. Obviously, I was a little nervous but the supporters were so good to me. All I want to do is help bring the club success and it does not matter whether I score the goals or not, as long as I can make a contribution.'' It was that way against Newcastle, when Thom's pace carried him beyond defender Darren Peacock, who then had to haul down the German internationalist with a despairing late tackle. John Collins, magnificent once more, scored with the penalty kick to give Celtic their half-time lead. In the second half, Ginola took revenge on the fans who had jeered him throughout the match, because he had chosen to go to Newcastle instead of Celtic, by setting up the equaliser for Les Ferdinand. And before the end Ferdinand almost grabbed the winner with a solo run from almost the halfway line which demonstrated why Keegan had paid more than #6m to buy him from Queen's Park Rangers. CELTIC -- Marshall, Boyd, McKinlay, McNally, Mowbray, Grant, Vata, O'Donnell, van Hooydonk, Thom, Collins. Substitutes -- Walker, Donnelly. Not used: Bonner, Falconer. NEWCASTLE UNITED -- Srnicek, Hottiger, Beresford, Peacock, Fox, Howey, Lee, Beardsley, Ferdinand, Ginola, Sellers. Substitutes -- Clark, Harper, Watson, Elliot, Kitson, Gillespie. Referee -- H Dallas (Bonkle). GH950807-000035 GH950807-000035 950807 A cool performance in the Scottish hot seat STUART TROTTER 3 9 PROFILE 977010724 Stuart Trotter assesses the achievements of Ian Lang during his five years of holding the fort at the Scottish Office AS Michael Forsyth sweeps through the Scottish Office and, in due course, Scotland, with the enthusiasm of a new broom, the more orthodox five-year reign of his predecessor may temporarily seem overshadowed. Ian Lang was not a politician who set out to dazzle but, in fact, Forsyth is now trying to repeat in 1997 the act that Lang and Major pulled off to the general amazement in 1992 -- actually improving the Tory position in Scotland. Instead of the expected near wipe-out, the Conservatives won two more seats and inched their share of the vote up from 24% in 1987 to 25.7%. It may not have been quite as marvellous a recovery as a staggered media reported at the time but that it was done at all owed a lot to Lang being one of those who influenced John Major to make defence of the Union a rather unlikely key theme of his UK campaign. Leading the tiny band of Scottish Tories -- between nine and 11 during his time in office -- he was following in the lengthening tradition of running a minority government in Scotland. His role in the first Major leadership campaign seemed bound to be rewarded yet he has said he was surprised to be given the Scottish Office. Indeed, he has served longer there than any post-war Minister, starting as the Scottish Whip in the 1980s and working his way through the ministerial ranks. Economic performance in Scotland was looking healthy enough, relative to the rest of UK, as Lang changed jobs, and during his time Scottish unemployment fell below the national average and just after he left came in below that in England's South-east. He could claim to have played his part, seeing Scottish Enterprise into operation when he was Industry Minister as well as the development of Locate in Scotland. In America, Japan, and Europe he did his bit drumming up extra trade for Scotland. Almost #500m was found to make the transition to the single business rate with England that Scottish business had long demanded, and the Scottish Enterprise capped interest rate scheme for small businesses has also been well received. In education, among the reforms proposed by the Howie Committee he attached great importance to the need to set targets for vocational education. Health threw up more problems. The Fyfe-Peterken affair was, if nothing else, a public relations disaster; HCI went sour and the handling of developments at the Stonehaven Hospital, where he had to watch a less-than-marvellous presentation by Grampian Health Board, proved that in the area of health especially one piece of bad publicity can obscure a lot of progress. All mainland hospitals in Scotland are now trusts. GP fund-holding is expanding and, as Ministers always emphasise, NHS treatment remains free at the point of use. There was speculation that some of the original proposals for local government reform originated elsewhere. The Opposition reckon the Tories got the blame for gerrymandering and will take the blame, in due course, for higher bills as a result of the change. The Conservatives argue that unitary authorities will prove popular and in the long term cheaper, although there will, no doubt, be some years of tedious debate about that. If Eastwood and Stirling do seem to be created with Tory interests in mind at least Clackmannan was allowed to get into the act and many on the Labour side are not ungrateful for the disappearance of Monklands. One of Lang's toughest battles was resisting the privatisation of Scotland's water. Many of his Cabinet colleagues thought that, give or take South West Water, privatisation had worked pretty well in England and did not see why Scotland should be any different. Lang, on this as on issues like forestry and continuing high subsidies to the isles, argued that Scotland was different. Though the Opposition claim that Conservative-appointed quangos running water boards is little better than privatisation, some quietly admit that keeping the boards in public ownership was an achievement. Perhaps Lang's dislike for over-the-top gestures has helped him with Cabinet colleagues. They know he is not a man to cry after the decision has been taken and that has helped. Despite a spat with the media, who decided that Rosyth had been closed as a major naval base while he said it hadn't, a lot of quiet, determined committee work ensured that Scotland's defence establishment came out of the defence review less badly hurt than it could have been. Keeping Scotland's above-average share of UK spending is not an annual foregone conclusion. English Tories are casting increasingly envious and critical eyes on it. English reporters who read in their cuttings the ubiquitous reference to Lang's membership of the Cambridge Footlights group sometimes wondered aloud to Scottish colleagues why he seemed so bland. Clearly the brains and the wit were there but being kept in almost continuous reserve. However, those who have heard an after-dinner speech know about the wit. During the public debates with the other Scottish party leaders he showed style as well as grasp batting on a distinctly unfriendly wicket. Given the platform of the Tory party conference he delivered a speech perfectly tailored to the occasion that made many representatives keen to know more about this personable Minister in charge of a faraway country of which they knew little. A key player in the second Major leadership campaign, not just his loyalty but his class was rewarded. He now ranks seventh in the Cabinet pecking order. Ironically, sitting as he does for highly marginal Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, his future career may depend on how successful Michael Forsyth is in restoring Conservative fortunes in Scotland. GH950807-000036 GH950807-000036 950807 Strife in Argyll's little Eden KEITH SINCLAIR 3 9 FEATURE ILLUS 977010725 A magnificent garden gifted to the nation is at the centre of a bitter battle between the brothers who donated it and the National Trust for Scotland, Keith Sinclair discovers WHEN two brothers gifted their beautiful rhododendron garden in Argyll to the nation in March 1992 -- largely because age was hindering their ability to maintain it -- they could scarcely have anticipated the bitter dispute over its management that was to follow. Edmund and Harry Wright, who bought the 21-acre Arduaine Garden, near Oban, 24 years ago and transformed it into a garden of national renown, say they would never have donated it to the National Trust for Scotland if they had known the heartache it would cause them. Everything in the garden, which is situated on a promontory bounded by Loch Melfort and the Sound of Jura and climatically favoured by the Gulf Stream, is not coming up roses, according to the brothers. They claim the garden is being mismanaged, with plants dying through lack of care, and have asked the NTS to replace its Arduaine Garden local advisory committee with a new, more powerful local management committee. Edmund, who is 68, and Harry, 78 -- formerly Essex nurserymen who now live in their own house overlooking Arduaine Garden -- claim the NTS has, during the past three years, breached a number of conditions the brothers laid down at the time of the donation. The brothers say the garden is being mismanaged and plants such as the rare Rhododendron Semibarbatum flower, which thrived when the brothers managed the garden, are being allowed to disappear. ''The garden was in perfect condition when we gave it to the trust,'' says Edmund, ''but it has been neglected in a way we could never have imagined, with plants not being properly pruned or kept apart. ''If one had sold it one has no rights whatsoever to say what they should do and you accept that. But you give it to them on the understanding that they are going to observe your wishes and the conditions drawn up by a solicitor.'' The brothers are worried that the reputation of what is one of Argyll's biggest tourist attractions -- 20,700 people visited it last year -- is being harmed, and a large sign erected in their garden in May 1993, which makes their feelings plain in full view of visitors, still stands as a symbol of their fury. The solution to the problem would, they claim, be the transfer of head gardener Mr Maurice Wilkins, who previously worked at Ross Priory on Loch Lomondside, to another trust post and the appointment of a new head gardener. The trust rejects the brothers' criticism and says Arduaine is, and will continue to be, maintained ''to the highest possible standard'' with existing staff. Many local people dismiss the issue as a minor dispute. As one observer said at the weekend: ''The garden is in a perfectly good state; it's just that some of the trust's ideas are not the same as the brothers'.'' John Basford, chairman of the advisory committee, who was head gardener at the trust's Brodick Castle for 34 years, is generally happy with Arduaine, which he says is still a beautiful garden. ''A horticulturist might notice some problems in the garden but from the visitors' point of view it's fine. There are things that want doing from a horticultural point of view, but I'm sure they will get done.'' An end to the dispute appeared to be in sight on July 11 when trust chairman Hamish Leslie Melville wrote to Edmund stating that the trust agreed with his suggestion that the local advisory committee, of which the Wrights are members, should be replaced. Mr Leslie Melville said the advisory committee was being disbanded and confirmed that he would ensure work laid down by the proposed management committee was ''adhered to by Maurice Wilkins''. Sir Ilay Campbell, a member of the advisory committee who runs Crarae Gardens on the shores of Loch Fyne, agreed to accept the chairmanship of the proposed committee. Mr Leslie Melville also said he hoped the Wrights would be able to participate in the committee, but added that he expected the large sign and two smaller ones would be removed from the brothers' garden. However, talks between the Wrights and a delegation led by Mr Leslie Melville broke down a week ago after Edmund said he did not want the committee to be responsible to the trust's Central Scottish Gardens Committee and that they would be unwilling to work with the head gardener. This prompted the trust, which maintains the brothers have no legal right to a say in how the garden is run and could not accept their demands, to take the unusual step of issuing a public statement. The trust said attempts to improve relations with the Wrights had met with a complete lack of success, adding: ''It has been decided with regret that the management of the garden must continue as at present, but clearly and sadly without the goodwill, support, or co-operation of the Wright brothers.'' It said the Wrights had demonstrated an ''unjustified animosity'' towards Mr Wilkins from the outset, adding that the brothers' condition for supporting the trust was that he must be removed. This was unacceptable in view of the ''overwhelming public acclaim of the garden'' and the support of its present management by both the trust's Scottish Gardens Committee and the rest of the local advisory committee apart from the Wrights. The trust regretted that such a hostile situation should exist with a property donor, but reaffirmed it had a duty ''to run its properties in the manner it thinks most beneficial for their long-term good and for the benefit of the nation''. The Wrights were angered by the trust's statement, claiming it was taking this stance because the brothers did not have the means to take legal action, but later made a conciliatory move when Edmund wrote to Mr Leslie Melville saying they would participate in a new management committee because their involvement was necessary if the garden was to be ''rescued''. The one proviso was that the head gardener be moved to another trust property should he fail to carry out the management committee's instructions. The trust, clearly having lost patience with the Wrights, reiterated at the weekend that its