Some days nothing seems to go right and last Sunday was a perfect example.It was a lovely morning, so I decided to join the Scottish Wildlife Trust on a guided walk round Murder Moss.

This National Nature Reserve is part of the Whitlaw Mosses, which are four marshy areas clustered around Lindean Reservoir near Selkirk, and the opportunity of being shown round by experts was too good a chance to miss.

I decided to get the bus from the foot of my street to Lindean and walk the last mile or so up the hill to the meeting point and beg a lift back to Selkirk afterwards.

After a 15-minute wait at the bus stop, a passing lady stopped to tell me that the bus I was waiting for had been discontinued three weeks ago.

It was such a glorious morning I decided to set out on foot with the outside chance that someone else heading for the walk might stop and give me a lift.

Five miles and an hour and a half later, I arrived at the meeting point, sweating profusely, to discover only a couple of cars in the car park. It was 45 minutes after the rendezvous time, so I presumed that they had all gone ahead in their cars to a parking area nearer Murder Moss.

After a quick slug of energy-enhancing orange juice, I set off to find them on foot.

Foolishly, I didn’t have a map with me and I couldn’t quite remember which of the four mosses in the area was Murder Moss.

You’ve guessed it; I got it wrong, and ended up at the one called Blackpool Moss, which was deserted. Anyway, I had my lunch there and enjoyed the wildlife on offer.

Hares were in adjacent fields, as were lapwings, singing skylarks and buzzards, while in the moss itself I could hear singing sedge and willow warblers, and the calls of water rail and snipe.

By then I was more than two hours behind the party, as I eventually made my way to Murder Moss. I approached quietly and sat on a grassy hillock overlooking the large area of marsh and willow.

From this vantage point I could easily pick out anyone moving around and join them.

As I scanned the area with my binoculars, I saw a heron at an open pool looking for frogs and a roe deer ambled from the trees and began to graze, unaware of my presence. Both of these creatures would not be doing that if there were people about. I had obviously missed them again.

With no hope of a lift back now, I set out across country in a homeward direction.

Absolutely exhausted, I arrived home five hours after setting out, having missed the guided walk but seen lots of wildlife and acquired my first sunburn of the year.

How had I missed the walkers? Simple – on checking the advert again, I discovered that it had taken place the previous day. If that wasn’t bad enough, it was me who put it in the paper! This old age is not to be desired.

Volunteers working to save red squirrels in the Borders are being sponsored to go to the Border Union Show in July.

The Red Squirrel Watch group of four, led by Tweedmouth-based Elizabeth Bamford, hope to raise awareness of the native species and encourage people to control the non-native greys which threaten the reds.

The 68-year-old first fell in love with red squirrels when she watched one from her sitting room about six years ago: “They are just incredible. They are so tiny and so amazing to see,” she said.

She set up a volunteer group in Berwick about five years ago and also helps Red Squirrels in South Scotland (RSSS), setting up information stands at shows, schools, supermarkets, libraries and other places. She recently led Coldstream primary schoolchildren in a morning’s surveying at, looking for signs of squirrels and later building a drey.

She said: “It was excellent. The children were electric running around looking for dreys. And (building one) the whole thinking process was fascinating.”

The Red Squirrel Watch volunteers will be at Harestanes’ family day (see above). And the group are being sponsored by Cheviot Trees and Ford and Etal Estates to attend the Border Union Show on July 26-27 for the first time.

To report sightings, or for more information, visit www.scottishsquirrels.org.uk or call RSSS project officer Karen Ramoo on 01750 23446.

THERE really will be something for everyone at this year’s Tweedlove Bike Festival.

The event, which has been taking place all this week and ends on Sunday, prides itself on making sure anyone can try cycling.

And with two new all-abilities rides, backed by the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership (SEStran), it’s hard to argue with.

The Family Ride event took place on Tuesday, and the Family Fun Day is on Sunday, the last day of the festival.

It features a Mini-Mash-Up balance-bike race for children between two and four years old who can’t yet ride a pedal cycle, and a “Mega Mash Up” for older children.

Both rides are a great opportunity for budding bikers to go head-to-head on a grass track with ramps and obstacles.

The Family Fun Day also includes a Kids Bike & Skills Jam with skills challenges and mini races for all the family. Both events are free of charge.

SEStran chairman Russell Imrie said: “SEStran is proud to sponsor Scotland’s biggest and best cycling festival. There is something for everyone interested in cycling going on during Tweedlove”.

“We want to encourage everyone to give cycling a try, so naturally SEStran is sponsoring the all-abilities events that everyone can participate in.

“The Family Fun Day will be a particularly good chance to introduce even very small children to the joy of cycling.”

Animals. You just gotta love ’em. Or do you? I think yes, if you’re a smallholder. It’s hard to get up at 5am, slog through the snow/mud/rain, open metal fasteners that stick to your fingers in the winter, break ice on water troughs and wrestle with doors that have frozen shut in the night for an animal you don’t love.

OK, I know Ranulph Fiennes has lost a handful or so of finger ends to frostbite during his polar explorations, so I readily admit my trials and tribulations are as nothing compared to his.

I have never had icicles hanging painfully from my beard (although I am admittedly sporting ‘time of life’ hairs in the wrong places on my face, if I am ever as hirsute as Brian Blessed I will take to full-time Balaclava-wearing) or had hypothermia after fighting my way across the chicken run in a snowstorm.

If I’m honest, Gamford does most of the poultry graft, schlepping backwards and forwards with food, water, sawdust and hay in all seasons.

Well, they say being active is the key to a long and healthy life, so we like to keep him busy. Wouldn’t do to let him doze all day in a high-backed chair.

But I think it would be hard to give that kind of all-weather commitment to, say, Llamas. I just don’t get the Llama thing. Or the Alpaca thing.

I never fancied being a llama farmer. Odd enough to type, never mind say. Try it out loud three times – llama farmer, llama farmer, llama farmer.

I know they cost as much as a decent pony, but you can’t ride them. I’ve seen holidays advertised where you pay to go and lead a Llama about – ‘Walking with Llamas’.

Erm, no thanks. If I have the urge to go walking whilst leading something about, I have three dogs. That’s what they’re for. I’m afraid for me, Llamas/Alpacas are like sheep, but with their necks stretched. Weird and deeply unappealing.

Sheep themselves are not attractive to me either. Despite the fact that we’re surrounded by sheep in the Borders, I am afraid I come from a long line of lamb-dodgers.

My family didn’t particularly like lamb and I didn’t eat it growing up, so I’ve never had the urge to keep a sheep or two. Another thing that’s put me off is that they seem to get ill a lot, or just die for no apparent reason.

Plus they seem a bit thick, which is really odd when you look at lambs – inquisitive, playful and friendly then suddenly, wham! Overnight they grow up into big, dull, stupid things.

No, I think I’ll stick to what I know, and what I like. To eat, that is. As a lover of bacon and roast chicken, that’ll be pigs and poultry then. Sorted.

Monday evening with renowned horse behaviourist Richard Maxwell on his only Scottish date this year was a sell-out, drawing to a close another successful Borders Festival of the Horse.

But organisers say they are going to review the event, which was originally conceived to kickstart the local economy in the wake of the devastation of Foot and Mouth Disease in 2001.

Organiser Ann Fraser of the British Horse Society’s Borders committee said: “We’re going to have a review and look at how it will go forward in the future. It may be we have to change, you can’t always go on running things the same and maybe we should be doing something different or targeting something differently.”

The horsewoman came up with the idea for the now 10-day event, explaining: “It was to act as a shop window for the equestrian industry and to put something into the rural economy and tourism, bring people to Scotland’s horse country and show all the different things horses can do, and give people the chance to try their hand at some of the things.”

It ticked those boxes again this year with highlights including ‘tilting’, Richard ‘Max’ Maxwell, a rare chance to see the Duke of Buccleuch’s sporting paintings, a horse logging demonstration and well-attended talks by vets.

“The festival as a whole has gone very well. There have been big turnouts at almost everything and, going round the events, the enthusiasm from people is tremendous and I think the weather has helped,” said Ann: “It’s been a great success”

Max helped three horses and organiser of the evening at Nenthorn, near Kelso, Polly Fraser said: “It was informative and amusing, and I think everybody went away feeling empowered.”

There were several ‘have a go’ tilting demonstrations in the lead-up to Friday night’s formal welcome in Selkirk to the Danish teachers of the sport, when competitors with a lance try to, at a canter, spear a small ring suspended from a gallows.

There were speeches and presentations to the eight Danes before the European riders led locals on horseback to the Haining where they demonstrated the medieval sport and encouraged riders to try their hand.

On Saturday, the festival’s Grand Competition Day at Newtown St Boswells saw a match between the Danes and the Scots, the last chance, this time, to see the riders from Denmark, whose visit was funded by LEADER.

Ann said: “There was a lot of interest. People are thinking it would be good to introduce it to Pony Club because some of the children were very good.”

Viewings of the Duke’s paintings last weekend were sold out. The horse logging demonstration was as popular as ever, with Northumberland’s Danny MacNeil and Traquair-based Rab and Caitlin Erskine and cobs Scout and Angel showing their skills at Abbotsford, near Galashiels.

“It was a great success and the great thing is people were there who wanted logging done, which is what the festival is all about,” said Ann.

Entries were down for the Grand Competition Day which organisers put down to high fuel prices. Other events included guided rides, a rescued donkeys afternoon, a Clydesdales evening, endurance rides, horse stunt troupe shows, cross-country schooling, reiki, radionics, a vaulting show and more.

Work started on a memorial to the late Stuart Ruffell, former leader of the Selkirk-based Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team (TVMRT), earlier this month.

Six volunteers from the team along with members of the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA), of which Stuart was also a member, laid the foundation slab for the semi-circular memorial at Glencoe 
recently, pictured right.

TVMRT’s Dave Wright said: “Glencoe was a special place for Stuart and both organisations agreed to raise funds to build a small memorial here. This would take the form of a small meeting place for others to appreciate the splendour of being out of doors with the majesty of the Buachaille Etive Mòr as a backdrop.”

And he explained volunteers made the circular base of sandstone slabs, which they plan will form the base for a round table and benches: “This will be contained within a wall made from local stone, banked up with earth, and turfed.

“We all thought Stuart would like the idea. “

And commenting on the weekend’s work, Dave said: “This was both a tribute to Stuart Ruffell and a reflection of the camaraderie that exists in the mountain rescue community.

The team also made a start on the wall which volunteers will gradually complete over the summer.

Dave said: “Hopefully, come September, it will be finished and will be a really nice place for folk to sit and enjoy the view. It will be a wind break.”
Stuart’s wife Irene and sons Mark and Steven, both members of the team, helped too – and manned the barbecue in the evening.

TVMRT had raised more than £600 towards the memorial at an information evening in Peebles last November.

TVMRT are all volunteers who help police search for and rescue people, and the charity is funded mostly by fundraising and donations.

SARDA Scotland train dogs and their handlers to search for missing persons and their handlers are experienced mountaineers who are members of mountain rescue teams and trained in casualty care. For more information visit www.tweedvalleymrt.org.uk and www.sarda-scotland.org

Prescription medication was stolen from a house in Drumlanrig Square, Hawick during a break-in between Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening, May 27 and 28.

Electrical items and clothing were also taken, and police have appealed for witnesses.

They have also issued a warning to the public following the theft.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “The medication which was stolen is an anti-depressant and can make the person who consumes it feel sleepy or sedated. However, if used by anyone other than the intended recipient, it can have more dangerous health implications.

“Anyone who comes across this medication is asked to hand it in to their local police station immediately.”

Anyone with information can contact Police Scotland on 101 or alternatively Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

This week I’m enjoying a five-day break from work. Well that’s not entirely true. I’m enjoying five days away from work with the paper, but have found plenty to keep me employed around the house. Living on my own and not inclined to spend my hard-earned wages on a butler or maid, work around the Burgess abode tends to build up.

I was away camping a couple of weekends back which meant a double dose of washing. I was fortunate our summer fell on Saturday, so the washing machine was put into overtime mode and the clothes line filled thrice. And thanks to the sunshine and a light breeze, that left three piles of dried washing gazing up at me from the settee. Sunday’s weather wasn’t so good, so out came the iron.

Strangely, I don’t mind ironing. With a good offering of political chit-chat on the telly or wireless, I can whiz through it without really noticing the time on a Sunday morning. If the telly isn’t that good, I can let my mind wander and put the world to rights. Perhaps some of those rowdy House of Commons debates – Holyrood, I have to say, is a bit more civilised – would be better conducted and more productive if they took place over an ironing board. Just a thought.

So the first few days of my break were spent working on the domestic front. I’ve done a bit of dusting, put a dozen or so books that I’d had out for reference back in their proper places in the bookcase; cleaned the loo and vacuumed the rooms. I looked at cleaning the windows but as I could see through them, decided that no further action was needed in this respect at the moment. So, that’s the chores done. It’s 3.30 on Tuesday afternoon and I now feel ready to enjoy what’s left of my break.

My latest check of the weather forecast reveals a reasonable indication of fine weather for the next few days. So that will probably mean a couple of nights in my trusty tent. It did me proud at Copshaw the other weekend when the heavens truly opened and I remained dry.

I have always enjoyed camping. My tent is just the right size for me, my sleeping bag, a couple of changes of clothes and a torch. And if you make a guddle in a tent it doesn’t take much to make it tidy again. I don’t do proper camp sites. They are too organised for me. I like to go wild. Sadly, the weather over the past couple of years has meant the tent has had fewer airings than I would have liked. So, fingers crossed for this year.

I don’t like David Cameron or his politics. But I had some sympathy for him this week when he was criticised for sticking to his holiday plans despite the horror that was the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby outside his barracks at Woolwich in London. It shocked every decent-minded person in the country.

This was a terror killing. And terror is all about disrupting people’s lives. Putting folk on edge, forcing changes to our daily pattern of lives. Making things awkward. That’s terrorism.

I believe Cameron was right to stick to his holiday plans. So, just this once, I’m happy to give him a break.

Last weekend saw the return of the Borders Barmy Army (BBA) Pantomime Horse Race to Kelso Races in aid of Macmillan cancer and Fire Fighters charities.

The race was won by Chandler Sports, with event sponsors RP Adam and The Kilt Shop in second and third places respectively.

The day raised almost £2,000 to be shared between the two aforementioned charities. The race video can be found on the BBA’s website and Facebook page.

Also on Sunday, BBA members Lee Myers and Rob Sinclair ran the Edinburgh marathon before coming to Kelso Races to meet up with the rest of the team.

BBA members have two more major challenges this year – participating in the Great North Run in their kilts in aid of the Friends of Borders General Hospital and, starting October 25, climbing Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro (19,341ft), in aid of the Fire Fighters charity.

Other fundraisers lined up include a casino night at Galashiels Volunteer Hall on July 26, an abseil off Scottish Borders Council’s flag tower at Newtown St Boswells, golf competition at Monksford House, St Boswells, on August 24 and a ceilidh at Lilliesleaf village hall on June 8.

This coming Saturday sees members running on a treadmill all day in Sainsbury’s, Kelso.

The BBA is looking for local business sponsorship to help cover the costs of the Mount Kilimanjaro effort – it can be contacted at www.bordersbarmyarmy.com

The trilogy ends here. Or so they say. Judging by Part III, The Hangover could become a franchise and continue undiluted until their livers packed up, although in this episode booze is not an issue.

Part II was criticised for being a carbon copy of the original, except in a different location.

Part III begins in Thailand with Mr Chow (Ken Jeong) escaping from prison.

It’s not a what-did-I-do-last-night alcoholic farce, but a gold theft kidnap caper with very few laughs. Chow and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are the movers and shakers, Chow because he’s evil and Alan because he’s stupid.

The film is watchable without being memorable. It’s time Bradley Cooper (Phil) moved on to better things, like Silver Linings Playbook. He cruises here.

A woman is in a serious condition in hospital after being discovered in a wood near Traquair this morning.

She was found at 7.55am and, with concerns for her health, was airlifted to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment.

Police attended but currently it is not known what her injuries are or how long she had been in the wood.

Enquiries into the death of a Hawick woman, 79, in the Burnfoot estate yesterday due to an apparent gas leak are continuing today.

Police attended an address in Fairhurst Drive where the incident took place.

Cause of death for the woman has yet to be established but it is believed that the leak originated from the woman’s cooker.

A spokesman for the Scottish Gas Networks, who sent emergency engineers to contain the leak, said: “Engineers from Scotland Gas Networks were called by the Fire Service to isolate the gas supply at a property in Fairhurst Drive in Hawick yesterday. We arrived on site at 1.39pm. A deceased lady had been found within the property and our thoughts are with her family at this time.

“Our engineers carried out safety checks and local residents were able to return home. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will now be carrying out an investigation, and we will be assisting with our expertise, although it has already been ascertained that our gas network was not involved.”

THE greatest flat race of all is finally upon us and I’ve never been so confident about a horse with stamina issues staying the unique one and a half miles at Epsom Downs since Dancing Brave, and we all know it wasn’t the trip that beat him but a catastrophic jockey error.

Dawn Approach is my favourite horse running on the flat this year, as I watched him walk into the winner’s enclosure on Guineas day at Newmarket I was bursting with pride, having backed him through the winter for that race. It was a special day. Since then I have been constantly asked whether this fine strapping son of a chestnut Derby winner (New Approach) will get the trip at Epsom, the simple answer is yes, I have no doubts whatsoever.

He’s a hot favourite however and the current odds of even money don’t appeal in the slightest as a betting proposition so I may simply watch and savour the race as a spectacle. I have to say that my original Derby horse was Dawn Approach’s stablemate, Trading Leather, He’s still entered but is a doubtful runner as I write, following his third in last Saturday’s Irish 2,000 Guineas. This is a shame as he could have run into a place at a big price.

On the Derby undercard, the ‘Epsom Dash’ is raced mostly downhill over the minimum trip and is historically known as the fastest 5f in the country. As usual, I’m bullish about a horse’s chance, this time it’s a previous winner who has incredibly has been dropped 10lb since he won it last. We all know it’s common knowledge that most horses who attempt to repeat a victory generally do it with more weight rather than less, the handicapper usually see to that. But this time he’s given us a bit of chance and I intend to take full advantage.

Captain Dunne is an 8yo brute of a horse who only knows one way of running and that’s going full tilt from the moment the stalls open. If lady luck kindly gives him a high draw he’s a big player in this at about 12/1. I have to give a shout out to Tax Free in the same race at 33/1. If he can recapture something near his best form he’ll think he’s been let loose off a mark of 88. 

Selections Saturday 1st June

Epsom Derby – Dawn Approach

Epsom ‘Dash’ – Captain Dunne and Tax Free (e/w)

SELKIRK High Street will be shut for two hours next Friday night (June 7) as the 2013 British MTB Marathon Championships and the Selkirk MTB Marathon join forces to celebrate all that is mountain biking.

The two events will run alongside each other the following day when up to 100 elite cross country riders and as many as 400 sportive riders will take on courses around Innerleithen and Selkirk.

The weekend’s cycling festivities will begin on the Friday evening when Selkirk High Street will be transformed into a traffic free street party for all the family to enjoy. There will be a number of cycling events and activities that spectators can not only watch and marvel at but also take part in too.

Organiser Paul McGreal, of Selkirk-based Durty Events, said: “Thanks to huge support from Scottish Borders Council we’re closing Selkirk High Street from 7 until 9pm and filling it with a festival of exciting cycling related goodness: Urban Street Trials races, Roller Racing, and a portable pump track. Part spectator event, part ‘have a go’, part ‘come and enjoy the spectacle with great food and drink’. It will give the marathon riders and supporters a chance to relax, let their hair down and have some fun ahead of the challenge they are going to have to overcome.”

On Saturday June 8 up to 100 elite mountain bike racers from throughout the UK will descend on the Royal Burgh for the 2013 British MTB Marathon Championships.

Joining former Olympians Oli Beckingsale (Endura MTB Racing) and Nick Craig (Scott Syncros Pioneer) on the start line will be The 2012 British MTB Marathon Champion Lee Williams (Gateway Cycles), eight time winner of the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross Rob Jebb (Team Hope Factory Racing) and Scottish cross country mountain bike legend Rab Wardell (Alpine Bikes Racing).

Among those fighting for the women’s title will be the 2012 British Marathon Champion, Jane Nuessli (Fischer-BMC), the 2012 World Endurance Champion, Sally Bigham (Topeak Ergon Racing Team), Amber Southern (WXC World Racing), currently ranked number one in the UK and Rachel Fenton (AW Cycles), who will be determined to go one better after her second place British Marathon Championships performance in 2012.

All of the elite riders will take on an 80 km single lap course that includes a fantastic mix of natural and hand-made singletrack, twin-track forest roads, ancient drove roads and some of the very best man-made trail centre routes at Innerleithen in their bid to claim British honours.

Selkirk MTB competitors have the choice of one of three fully marked courses - 25km, 50km and 80km. These routes that pass through the valleys of the Rivers Tweed, Yarrow and Ettrick will suit families, novices, intermediates, enthusiasts and racing snakes alike.

Course designer, Pete Laing, has been scouting new sections to freshen up the marathon courses. For those taking on the 80km course he is determined to include a few optional timed ‘Enduro’ sections (an uphill, a downhill, and one that’s a bit of both) in order to add a little more spice to those who want to race their mates and have the opportunity to claim the unofficial title of ‘King or Queen of the Hill’.

McGreal added: “We’re really chuffed to be organising the British Championships alongside the popular Selkirk Mountain Bike Marathon.

“We believe we have the best trails the Scottish Borders has to offer. We are determined to provide an achievable challenge for all our riders in fantastic surroundings with a lot of fun thrown in too.”

The British MTB Marathon Championships and the Selkirk MTB Marathon will be staged on Saturday June 8 and the event will be based at Selkirk Rugby Club. There is still plenty of time to enter. Online entry is via www.entrycentral.com and there are also links from.selkirkmtbmarathon.com and http://www.durtyevents.com/.

Entry fees are:

British MTB Marathon Champs - £40

25/50/80km Marathon - £30. Entry on the day (subject to availability) - £35.

12-15 year olds ride for free over the 25km course but must be accompanied by a full price entry adult.

A WOMAN who admitted assaulting her partner has been admonished.

First offender Jane Douglas, of Thornfield Crescent, repeatedly punched Raymond Hislop on the body and struck him on the head at a house in Thornfield Avenue on April 6, as her partner is also in a relationship with another woman.

Procurator fiscal Graham Fraser told the town’s court: “Fortunately no injury appears to have been sustained.

“The two of them have had an argument. She has medical problems and mood swings.

“He is in a relationship with her and another lady, and that has led to problems.”

Her lawyer pointed out the complainer is 6ft 3in and 19 stone.

Sheriff Kevin Drummond told Douglas: “You are 47 years old and a first offender. You got involved in a dispute. Get it fixed.”

A 48-year-old man has been charged with death by dangerous driving after an A697 road collision last year in which Kelso couple Derek and Avril Peoples died.

The man, who is not from the Borders, will appear at Selkirk Sheriff Court next month.

Farmers are being urged to take up the offer of financial help from the £6million weather aid announced earlier this month.

The Scottish Government issued eligibility guidelines last Wednesday and the weather aid scheme opens for applications on Monday.

NFU Scotland president Nigel Miller, one of the industry stakeholders involved in designing the scheme, said: “The criteria are designed to help those who have lost critical numbers of stock or will rear significantly fewer animals this season. It will also assist those who have had to strip out and replant large areas of failed crops.

“Should the scheme be over-subscribed, then we believe it is appropriate that there is targeting towards those businesses most extremely affected by the snowstorms of late March, as well as those farms not currently supported through schemes such as Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS).”

Farmers who have lost 10 or more per cent of breeding ewes or lambs put to the ram/goat, who will have over 20 per cent fewer lambs/kids reared this year, who have had to re-sow 20 per cent of an arable crop, or who have lost five or more per cent of other breeding livestock or who will have more than 10 per cent fewer calves or other livestock reared this year should apply to the scheme.

The weather aid group will meet at the end of July to review the applications and finalise the level of help available for individual farmers, and payments will start from August 1.

The sheep interbreed champion at Monday’s Northumberland County Show is such a big Suffolk it’s difficult to coup her to trim her feet, joked her breeder and exhibitor Alan MacKinnon of Little Swinburn Farm Cottages, Coldstream.

The Berwickshire hobby farmer said he was pleased with the success of the clipped two-crop ewe which went on to take the show’s reserve champion of champions ticket. He said: “I was very surprised, but delighted. We were over the moon with the results.”

He and his partner Laura Caulfield and their children Lauren, 14, and Callum, 10, have 24 ewes on a 15-acre field they rent at Little Swinburn, between Swinton and Coldstream in Berwickshire.

It’s only the fourth year Alan, who has a gardening business, has been showing and only six since he started breeding Suffolks founded from the Flodden flock of East Learmonth, near Cornhill.

The winning homebred ewe, Thistledoo Thelma, was champion Suffolk at the Border Union Show in Kelso last year and she also took the championship at the Border Suffolk Club Show. Her best result at the Highland Show so far is a fifth placing, and she will try her luck again next month.

“I think judges like her size and carcass, she’s got a really wide carcass, she’s huge: we’ve got a job couping her to trim her feet!” said Alan.

Several Borders farmers took top tickets at the show at Bywell Hall, Stocksfield, among them father and son team Gordon and David Gray of Sunnycroft, Lindean, Selkirk, who swept the boards in the Texel lines, winning the breed championship with a ewe, male and female champion and reserve tickets and the best opposite sex to the champion with a tup lamb. Retired farmer, Charles Scott, 82, of Viewfield, East Middle, Hawick, maintained standards set at Ayr Show earlier this month when he once again took the Zwartbles breed championship with the same homebred two-crop ewe. In the Bluefaced Leicesters, David Henderson, New Bungalow, Sunnyside, Ormiston, Hawick, took the reserve male champion, while along the cattle lines, Ron and Robert Wilson of Cowbog, Morebattle, won the Hereford championship with the five-year-old cow Romany 1 Plum and reserve male championship with Romany 1 Jack. Jan Boomars of Stickle Heaton Farm, Cornhill, won the female ‘any other continental beef breed’ championship with the 20-month-old Charolais, Vexour Galina, and the male ticket with 13-month old bull Vexour Harlow. The reserve went to two-year-old Limousin bull Bacardi Gulliver from R & A Crockett, Conker Cottage, Denholm, and Cornhill’s Whittaker Farms took the any other native breed reserve champon and female championship with two-year-old Aberdeen Angus Haughton Laura.

Touchscreen technology piloted within Borders General Hospital has shown it can reduce patients’ average lengths of stay.

Initial results from NHS Borders show that the digital ward in the Medical Assessment Unit has enabled staff to speed up patient turnover.

And the new system is to be rolled out across Scotland following its success at the BGH.

Dr Hamish McRitchie of NHS Borders said: “As associate medical director, I know that from the Medical Assessment Unit we can see what is going on in the whole hospital.

“The Board Round that takes place in the Medical Assessment Unit means every patient in that ward is reviewed by every member of the multidisciplinary team, every day.

“Our system helps to prevent patients staying in hospital longer than they need to and makes sure that our beds are used effectively.

“We don’t want anyone to be in the wrong ward, or in hospital longer than they need to be – and neither do our patients.”

The new digital patient trackers display a virtual map of the hospital ward on a large touchscreen. Patient details can be accessed by touching each patient icon and free beds can be marked and allocated right away.

It means nurses and doctors can act quickly to treat or transfer a person and thus ease the pressure on Accident and Emergency departments.

The introduction of the touchscreens is part of a three- year action plan to transform emergency care services for patients across Scotland.

Scottish Government health secretary Alex Neil added: “We know we are seeing more people than ever before coming to hospital as emergency admissions due to the ageing population.

“The system gives full visibility of what is happening across hospital and cuts down on phone calls and assists with the flow of patients in the hospital, reducing delays.

“I want all boards to have an electronic system in place.”

A CONCERTED effort is ongoing in Lauder to get every resident and business to register their interest in upgrading broadband speed.

The campaign is being led by the community council to ensure the town gets superfast broadband as part of a south of Scotland scheme.

Community councillor Iain Lyle said: “We’ve had various meetings with Scottish Enterprise, who have said that on average just two per cent of premises have registered, but through local activities in Lauder we have got 39 per cent registered.

“The next stage is to keep the impetus going in Lauder, and 50 per cent is now a realistic and achievable target,” he added.

The scheme to bring superfast broadband to 85 per cent of the population in the south of the country is being managed by the South of Scotland Alliance, a partnership between Dumfries and Galloway Council, Scottish Borders Council and Scottish Enterprise.

The towns and villages to get improved broadband speeds, and those to receive it first, will be decided by the level of demand.

A decision based on these factors is to be made this summer, with work on upgrading fibre to the cabinet starting in the autumn.

Throughout the south of Scotland more than 2,000 individuals have registered, of which 264 are in Lauder, and over 700 businesses, 75 in Lauder.

Mr Lyle said this showed the level of demand for improved broadband in the town, but he has urged more residents to register.

He said: “The supplier will prioritise their work to where demand is located. With this in mind we need to continue to tell friends, neighbours and relations within the Lauder area about the sign-up initiative.”

Register at www.surveymonkey.com/s/SOSBroadbandRegistration