CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

Martin Harris

Tel. 07720 823364

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

David Martin

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Brian Murray

Graham Pirie

MEMBERS PAGE

To access the MEMBERS page enter your password in the box above

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Wednesday

11th March 2026

10.00am

'Reflections on 50 years in Para Sports'

Presenter - Richard Brickley OBE MBE

Club News

Secretary email: macblack.author@gmail.com

On 25th February in Castlehill Hall our Chairman, John Parker, welcomed our speaker, Colin Moore. Colin is one of our own members and has been with the club since 2008 - his talk is entitled 'The Real Sherlock Holmes'.

Chairman John Parker also welcomed two new members. Charles Bradbury, who joins us after a distinguished career in Chemistry and running his own Fife based business for many years; and Bob Black who is a Geologist with extensive experience in mining engineering both internationally and in the North Sea followed by involvement in Fife College. We also welcomed our guests from Cupar Ladies Probus Club.

Would you like to join us?

New members will be very welcome, so, if you know of someone who is retired and looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings, please encourage them to make contact with our Secretary or, to pop-in to one of our meetings. 

Our next meeting will be on 11th March. The speaker will be Richard Brickley OBE MBE - awarded for services to disability sports, and his talk will be 'Reflections on 50 years in Para Sports'.

The Real Sherlock Holmes

Today’s Speaker was our own Colin Moore who told the fascinating story of the great Detective and his origins. As a past President of the Edinburgh Sherlock Holmes Society Colin was a fount of anecdotes on Dr Conan Doyles fictional Detective. We learned that the traditional image of Holmes, the deerstalker hat, the meerschaum pipe and the magnifying glass were all characteristics of Dr Joseph Bell the eccentric yet brilliant Edinburgh Medical man who was Conan Doyle’s tutor at Edinburgh Medical School and the inspiration for Holmes. Such is this enduring image of Sherlock that even today many Americans think Holmes was a real live detective. Doyle took the Edinburgh of the 1880’s as the initial location of his stories, but the prospect of greater sales meant that London and 221b Baker Street soon became most famous address in crime fiction. In addition, the famous duo of Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson became the model for many later crime fighting pairs such as the Lone Ranger and Tonto and Batman and Robin. The success of the original Holmes stories in The Strand magazine was such that at one point The Strand was selling two hundred thousand copies a week.  By 1893 Conan Doyle wanted to move away from writing crime stories and write more classical works so he tried to kill off his Sherlock Holmes creation by narrating the famous struggle with Professor Moriaty at the Reichenbach Falls but such was the public outcry from fans that Holmes was later resurrected with a further 13 stories.  Such was their reputation that Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell were even consulted by Scotland Yard in the infamous Jack the Ripper murders. Today the Holmes legend lives on in the Scotland Yard ‘Home Office Large Major Enquiry System’ a modern computerised reincarnation of the great Detective. Altogether Colin gave us a superb presentation which can hardly be done justice in the modest space available for this summary.

Jim Lawrence