The 2003 season got underway at the start of April with a competition sponsored by Irene's Fayre. There was a good attendance on a fine spring afternoon and competition was fierce. Winner of the gents section was Mike Low, with Ann Laing winning the ladies section and Barry Mellis the junior section winner.
The new green keeper started in March and has made significant improvements to the course, eliciting many favourable comments from both visitors and members. John is a keen player himself and joins in the clubs competitions.
In April, Banffshire Plus senior ladies visited Rothes and 39 ladies from a variety of clubs played in glorious weather conditions. Local ladies Maureen Walker and Margaret McDonald featured in the prize list.
Local knowledge is a great asset!
The ladies hosted the Heather Cream Texas Scramble and a number of teams competed in good weather. Winners on the day were Irene Allan, Liz Ballantine (Rothes) and Doreen Cruickshank (Garmouth & Kingston).
The Forblast Open two person scramble was played on 24th May and a sizeable field competed. Gents section winners were Craig Sorley and John Grant 66 (11) 55. Mixed section winners were Mike and Marion Mitchell 68 (13) 55 and the other section was won by Tara French and Neil Borthwick 67 (10) 57. The Gents Aberlour Open was won by local Sandy Reid with a 73 scratch score.
Section 3 winner was Ronnie Anderson (22) 66, Section 2 was won by Ian McDonald (17) 66 and M Stewart, Dufftown won section 1 (6) 68. The Forsyth Texas Scramble was won by Dougie Cruickshank, Derek Bell (Buckpool), Sean McPhee and Jimmy Simpson (Keith).
The Ladies Open in June was won by Morag Cowie (Buckpool) in the Silver section and by Maureen Walker in the Bronze. This years ladies champion is
Irene Allan, with Fiona Webster and Sandra Bruce in second and third place in the scratch section. Handicap champion is Sheena Moyes with Liz Ballantine and Anna McPhee second and third.
In June, our barman Andy celebrated his 70th birthday and was presented with a watch on behalf of the club and a Rothes Golf Club sweater in his favourite maroon colour from the ladies. Most people like to retire and take things easily but Andy goes from strength to strength. He is a popular and well liked character.

Congratulations go to two Rothes ladies who played in the Peugeot LGU Coronation Foursomes and took first place in a field of 100 teams. Irene Allan and Ann Ashcroft now qualify for the final to be played in St Andrews in October.

Sandra Bruce

Work is still progressing well in the play area. The fencing has been done, weed killer has been used on the vegetation, all table and benches are on order, the wetland has been dug and 'terram' has been donated for some of the footpaths.
A meeting has been arranged with the Moray Council Training for Work manager to progress the footpaths and bridges.

The Rothes Clock has recently had a new digital timer installed by the Moray Council. This means that it will no longer be necessary to climb to the top when the twice annual time changes take place. The other necessary repairs will be done through the Moray Council rolling repairs programme.

Thanks to all for the response to the naming of the Rothes Lanes. The majority of suggestion were for the old traditional names with full agreement on most lanes, however, one or two lanes were not so clear cut.
The Rothes Council will be making a decision on the names at the July meeting.

Storytime, like the schools, will shortly be on its summer break.  This is aimed at children aged 3 to the end of Primary 3 and takes place on Wednesday afternoon from 2.45pm to 3.15pm and has been operated by volunteers Janis and Sandra for about 15 years.  Some of the stories recently have been rather 'babyish' for our youngsters, who are nearly all at school now, but our most recent box has books for the older ones in our age range.  We look forward to seeing our friends old and new when the new term starts on 27^th August.  Janis and Sandra wish you all a good summer holiday, but in the meantime, please enjoy the 'Storytime Gallery' on display in the library .

The Rothesian Group would like to congratulate the Knockando and Archiestown communities on the production of their new newsletter. Welcome to the Speyside newspaper network, in the Fleet Street of Moray.