The Celtic Games 2010

Even royalty get involved with the 2010 Celtic Games!

Check out our photo gallery below.

Edinburgh

Another year, another Celtic Games!! Excellent!! This was my 3^rd year attending the Celtic Games and by all accounts Edinburgh had a lot to live up to! But without being bias I think the Scotland Committee did us proud.

Arriving at Herriot Watt University Campus, the sun was shining as we were greeted by Scottish Committee members, with faither, Brian Daisley directing us where to go, and our resident photographer armed with his camera to snap pictures of us when we were least expecting it, not good!!! The thought of staying in another Student Accommodation didn't exactly make me want to jump up and down, but I have to say the Student Halls were pretty good. Armed with our competitors T-shirts and our funky wrist bands we dropped off our luggage and got our selves sorted for the first night's entertainment.

Frankenstein's themed pub was a fantastic venue!! Within half an hour of arriving there we were catching up with our old friends from Northern, Southern Ireland and Wales. It was just like we saw them a couple of weeks ago. One thing I'll say about the Celtic Games is the friendship you make when your there is second to none. Swapping stories of past Celtic Games and trying not to remember certain incidents had us all laughing at each other while leaving quite a few red faced!! Food on offer was grand aswell, although our Celtic counterparts weren't too sure of the stovies and haggis once they tried it they knew it was good stuff! Then onto the highlight of the night, Karaoke!! Fair play to everyone who gave it a shot, a lot including myself shouldn't even think about giving up the day job!! With buses running us back to campus everyone managed to get home safe and sound and ready for the next days games.

Friday morning and once again a dry warm day! We gathered in the sports hall to be told of our special guest who would be arriving. HRH The Duchess of Gloucester was attending, not to put any pressure on the competitors to play well or anything!! So the games begun and for myself playing Badminton it was a great morning. The games were played in the spirit of what Celtic Games is about, enjoying yourself, some we're playing the sport for the first time and gave it their best shot, so well done to them.

After lunch afternoon sports began again!! The sun was shining and everyone was enjoying themselves, hoping not to injure themselves so they could continue dancing in to the early hours of the morning at the presentation dinner!

Time to get "dolled" up and head for our presentation dinner. Everyone looked great, esp the guys who had made the effort to wear their kilts, special mention must go to Stevie and his saltire shirt!! Only a few people could carry that off and he did it in style!! After the speeches were made and dinner was served, Francis's own picked band came on to entertain us, a few choice dance moves were being made but all good fun. After the band the cheesy disco was up and running with again a lot of interesting dance moves taking place!! (Stevie and Vinnie fabulous dancing partners!)

In the early hours of the morning goodbyes were said to all the friends we had met over the last 2 days. Email addresses swapped to keep in touch and forward on the embarrassing photos!! And the promise of "See you in Belfast for 2011!!!".

Overall what can I say about the Celtic Games, amazing!!! The time and effort put in by the committee was fantastic, everything going off without any hassle!! Everyone got into the spirit of what Celtic Games is all about, enjoying yourself and meeting new people!

Anne, George, Bob, Francis, Davie, Brian, Derek, Lisa, Ian, Darren, John, Linda and our fabulous first aiders, Pat, Stevie and Vinnie, all I can say is thank you!

Cardiff

Set off to meet at Cardiff Airport for 11.30 am, picked up my two excited mates on the way. This was my first Celtic Games, hosted by Scotland, and being 25th anniversary we had a feeling we were in for something special. We were met by Rocky and Claire, and the rest of Team Wales. A good looking bunch, there were going to be a few hearts broken in Scotland.

Time for a quick beer to settle our nerves, then we were off …Soon we were touching down in Edinburgh in glorious sunshine. A short coach ride later and we were at Heriot Watt University, our home for the next couple of days.

A quick turn around then we were off into the city, we had a couple of hours to see the local sights, then into Frankenstein's to meet with the other nations. A lively night right from the start, we were treated to drinks, Scottish food, dancing and karaoke. New friends were made, a few random shapes thrown on the dance floor and, before we knew it, it was time to head back to the Uni. It wasn't an early night as we had a birthday to celebrate.
To their credit every single member of Team Wales was up ready for the day ahead but 9:30 did seem a bit early to play sport. Off I went to sports centre to play our morning sport. Being a newbie my Volleyball was slow to start but game by game it improved and left with heads held high. News was filtering through of victories for Wales in other sports and morale was high.

Thanks CSSC Scotland for providing free bottled water, we needed it! I was pretty surprised to see police and bodyguards outside the sports centre I soon found out The Duchess of Gloucester, the patron of CSSC, was visiting. She made an effort to talk to a lot of people, and was a very nice lady.

Next up was lunch, and a bit of a rest …I felt good and was definitely up for a crack at my next sport… rounders!? I hadn't played this since primary school! I made my way with the others to the field. All the nations teams were there and we had our photos taken, had to say what a good looking bunch! And so to rounders, we were second to play, so we could suss out the rules. Our fielding was good, but my bowling was awful! Our batting was different class, and blew the opposition away. We were into the final! Then after some ferocious batting, lightning quick sprinting and dogged fielding, we found ourselves rounders champions! Ha. Who'd have thought it! Definitely putting that on the CV!

We had a bit of time to recuperate before getting ready for dinner, then we had a quick team meeting where the winner of the Steve Parker Trophy was announced as Anthony 'Birthday Boy' Hillman with the runner up being Dan 'the Dancing Man' Williams . As we arrived at the function suite we were confronted by a projection screen with photo evidence of our time in Edinburgh so far!

The speeches were good, but it was quite amusing noticing some people in the room struggling with the different accents. Dinner had a bit of a Scottish theme, and then it was time for the band and some interesting dancing.

A great evening ended with some community singing .The rest of the night passed in a bit of a blur! I was rudely awakened by my mate banging on my door, thank god he did I was crashed out, still fully clothed and with not a lot of breakfast time left! 10 minutes later I was showered, changed and piling bacon onto my plate! There were a few bleary eyes, mine among them, but we were all still smiling. The last couple of days had been non stop good times and laughter, no matter what our livers thought of us. Friends had met up, new friends had been made. Rocky and Claire kindly said Team "Wales had been a pleasure to manage". We could return to Wales having done ourselves and our country proud.

A massive thank you to Rocky, Claire, all the sports stars of Team Wales and the whole of CSSC for a truly enjoyable, unforgettable couple of days. Bring on Belfast 2011!