SO, did Richard Walker, the editor of the Sunday Herald newspaper, get his tickets to see singer-songwriter, actor, etc, Justin Timberlake, in concert?
Chances are, no, despite him warning – from the floor – words to the effect that he’d hunt down anyone who got them instead.
He was talking, of course, from the vantage point of welcoming guests to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Press Ball, held on Saturday evening.
Walker is chair of the Glasgow and West of Scotland branch of the Journalists’ Charity, the beneficiary of the evening’s fun and frolics, which – as usual – was a glittering affair.
And the tickets had been put up for auction.
But, as MC – Bill Leckie, of The Scottish Sun – cranked up the bidding, the price began to stall. It was against Walker, at £400.
Leckie urged Walker just one last time. “Go on, that’s just 50p per reader,” he quipped.
But Walker declined to raise his hand, insoding making no visible sign that the winner’s life was in mortal danger.
* * *
MATHEMATICS. If, say, 300 people attend a Press Ball, then everyone is facing an one-in-three hundred chance that it’s their ticket that will be picked, to win return flights to Los Angeles. Yes?
So, what are the odds that Evening Times journalist, Matty Sutton, then wins for a second time in a row, her raffle ticket – this time for return flights to London – being the next one to be plucked from the tombola drum?
In that case, she proved to be an 300×300, one-in-90,000 girl.
* * *
AS ever, grateful to Ken Smith’s Diary, in The Herald newspaper, for this gag, featuring a newspaper billboard, that reads: ‘West Kilbride Burns Spotlight’. It prompts Herald reader, George Crowther, observing, wryly: “In any other village, they’d just switch it on.”
* * *
NICE headline gracing the back of The Scotsman newspaper at the beginning of last week, following Scotland’s narrow 21-20 win over Italy in the Six Nations rugby tournament, thanks to a last-gasp drop kick by Duncan Weir. It’s a play on a song by The Proclaimers: ‘Weir on our way from misery to happiness’.
* * *
THE ‘apostrophe police’ will have been no doubt shocked to the core a week ago after at least two sports reports got themselves into something of a twist.
There was, first, a report about the curler, Eve Muirhead, that contained this line: “David Murdoch, Muirhead’s compatriot and captain of the men’s curling side who took silver in Russia, is happy to let the debate run it’s course.”
And then, second, in a piece about Scotland rugby hooker, Scott Lawson, that read: “I think it’s about figuring him (the referee) out. I think he (referee, Steve Walsh) got a perception straight away and, its not my place to say, we took Moray off and brought Geoff on. Once the ref gets an opinion of someone its very hard to change so I think it was no reflection on Moray.”
* * *
RECEIVED wisdom has it that the media must shoulder much of the blame when it chooses not to cover a sport to any great extent.
So, imagine how keen The Herald’s senior sports writer, Kevin Ferrie, will have been to pen the following words, after interviewing the chair of Scottish Ice Hockey, David Hand: “Meanwhile, where many in minority sports blame broadcasters and the Press for a lack of attention compared with mainstream rivals, Hand is also commendably quick to accept ice hockey should be looking at its own failings in that regard. ‘I think the clubs under-cover it. I don’t think they send a message out to help you guys. I’m not going to blame the media,’ he says.”
* * *
ANYTHING tickling your tastebuds? Email in the strictest confidence, here.
