The Annual General Meeting of BASTA takes place on Thursday 21 February 2013 at 7.30pm in the Garth Hotel, Grantown on Spey.  New members and current footsoldiers will be made most welcome!  See you all there!

A successful BASTA annual dinner dance took place at the Garth Hotel Grantown on Spey.  Dinner, Red/Yellow Card, Irish Bingo, Raffle and the music from the brilliant Davie Holt ensured a great night. 

BASTA members were amongst other kiltwalkers at the inaugural Speyside Kiltwalk from Buckie to Aberlour raising loads of money for childrens charities across the country!  From Buckie it was north along the coast to the mouth of the River Spey then west to Aberlour for 26 miles in total including going over Ben Aigan before the sound of the pipes greeted everyone in the park in Aberlour.  Sore feet and joints after this event but smiles of success at completting the walk and raising loads of money for charity!

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

THURSDAY 29 MARCH 2012 AT 7.30PM

CAIRNGORM HOTEL, AVIEMORE

Members are reminded to complete their renewals forms and send to Gunny in Grantown on Spey  (jamesgunn30@hotmail.com)!  Minutes of the recent AGM will appear on the website shortly!

The qualification campaign for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil 2014 was agreed today at a meeting in Brussells!  Here are Scotlands fixtures for 2012/13 which hopefully lead us on the world cup trail!

Sat 8th Sept 2012 - Scotland v Serbia
Tues 11th Sept 2012 - Scotland v Macedonia
Fri 12th Oct 2012 - Wales v Scotland
Tues 16th Oct 2012 - Belgium v Scotland
Fri 22nd Mar 2013 - Scotland v Wales
Tues 26th Mar 2013 - Serbia v Scotland
Fri 7th Jun 2013 - Croatia v Scotland
Fri 6th Sep 2013 - Scotland v Belgium
Tues 10th Sep 2013 - Macedonia v Scotland
Tues 15th Oct 2013 - Scotland v Croatia

The Scotland team had to beat the mighty Spain and hope that Lithuania would do us a favour by taking points off the Czech Republic! So the tartan army marched on Alicante for the final game of the European Championship Qualifying Matches. BASTA had a big contingent in the Spanish city of Alicante for the match with most meeting up in Mulligans Bar in the city prior to the match to enjoy Ted Christopher playing live and having a great party! We all headed to the match and as normal it was glorious failure losing 3-1 to the World Champions Spain on a warm night on the Costa Blanca.

Following the success of the Barclays Scottish Open in the north of Scotland in the summer of 2011 the next major event in the area was the inagural BASTA golf day at Boat of Garten Golf Club on Sunday 2 October 2011!  An eventful day of golf, refreshments and banter followed!  Club member Ali Asher couldn't make it but kindly donated a pro v ashers golf ball to all participants!  The competition as a Stableford and won by Willie Gray with runner up being Lorraine macPherson and third was Tommy McAulay.  The nearest the pin at the 3rd hole was won by David Macleod and at the 9th hole by Jane McAulay.  The longest drive of the day was won by Tommy McAulay who now has to organise next years BASTA golf day!  BASTA supplied all the trophies and prizes!  Also special mention to Ally Mo from Keith who slept in so couldn't play - he wouldn't have won anyway!!  Here's to next year!!

BASTA have featured in the Famous Tartan Army Magazine in its latest edition published for the Spain away game on 11th October!   The article features news on the history of the club and our recent 10th birthday celebrations!  To see the article on BASTA and indeed the whole magazine go to the weblink at

       http://www.calameo.com/read/0003901711e2f14b9d7ec
 

An old friend of a number of BASTA members Sir William Geronimo Wallace (Magoo!!) visited Aviemore tonight and stayed at our headquarters the Cairngorm Hotel.   Magoo is terminally ill and was going on a final Scottish holiday so it was great he chose to visit Aviemore and we turned up to reminise about old times and enjoy some refreshments together!  Many a foreign trip with Scotland we had with Magoo when his health was better and it was great we got the chance to catch up him!  The following morning he visited the memorial bench outside the hotel to BASTA's founder member Pete Stienlie!

A large number of Scotland supporters travelled with BASTA down to Glasgow today to cheer on the team against Lithuania in a must win European Championship Qualification Match.  As usual we had a laugh on the bus journey south before continuing the party atmosphere in the Rutherglen Bowling Club singing along to CD's with classic tartan army tracks!  Thanks to the bowling club for their hospitality and the pies which went down a treat!  With us in fine voice for the match we cheered on the team to a 1-0 win with Barry Bannan, Don Cowie and David Goodwillie amongst the competitive debutant starters in the match!  It was great for Highland members and those from BASTA with links to former Ross County captain Don Cowie to see him play the whole match for this country!  A Steven Naismith goal just after half time had us delighted and still in the frame for a play off spot with away games to Leicheisten and Spain approaching in October.  Come on ye Scots!

An almost full bus of Scotland supporters left the north of Scotland very early to head for Glasgow for the vital match against the Czech Republic.  It really was win or bust!  The bus left early and headed for the usual pre match party slot of the Rutherglen Bowling Club where we had accordinist Amy Henderson and singer Adele playing live to entertain us.  Plus the tartan army CD was blasted a few times and meant we were in full voice for the big match.  Thanks to the bowling club for all the hospitality!  It was onto Hampden for the match against the Czech's with the game sold out some time ago.  The team put on a hard working performance and thanks to a vital Kenny Miller goal we were 1-0 ahead with ten minutes to play.  However we lost a goal, then scored through captain Darren Fletcher to lead 2-1 before a dodgy penalty kick award saw the game end 2-2!  Naturally everyone was disappointed and it makes it very difficult to qualify now having not won the game.  However everyone will support the team who we are sure will work till the end of the campaign to try and reach these finals!

BASTA  ran a bus which picked up members at Tore, Inverness, Grantown on Spey, Aviemore and Perth along the way!  The crack on the bus was great on the way south as we looked forward to the Danes visiting Hampden Park again!  We headed for our home in Glasgow the Rutherglen Bowling Club and enjoyed cheap drink, pies and great entertainment with box player Amy Henderson and CD's full of the tartan army's favourite tunes!  It was great to see some old friends attending our pre match party!  Amy was joined by Torridons singer Matthew Cameron for a few songs which got us in party mood prior to all travelling up to Hampden together!  The team didn't disappoint as a crowd of over 27,000 watched us win 2-1 with first international goals from Charlie Adam and Robert Snodgrass!  It was also great to watch Highland born player Don Cowie come on as a substitute and assist in both Scottish goals!  After the match we trudged through the incessant rain to the bus which safely took us home happy up the A9 after another great BASTA day out!

Thanks to everyone who came and supported us at our 10th Birthday Celebration!  Special thanks to the Cairngorm Hotel, Ashers Bakery, Highland Transport at Carrbridge, Torridon, Andy Chung, Highland Backline PA Services from Dingwall, Tweed, Adele Henderson, Doric Davy, Bubbles the Clown and all the people who came along on the day for making our birthday such a great celebration!  

The day saw a celebration of music, entertainment and crack!  Despite the drizzling rain everyone enjoyed the day.  The stalls were excellent and people enjoyed the darts challenge, human fruit machine, raffles and bottle stalls.  We presented a cheque to Ski Disaiblity as a donation to a local charity and presented our founder member Graham "Tootie" MacPherson with an Honary Life Membership - the first in BASTA's history.  For more information on this day of partying click on "10th Birthday".

A contingent of BASTA members made the flight from Inverness to Belfast and then the train to Dublin for the final Carling Nations Cup matches at the AVIVA Stadium.  The plane and train was good crack and our central hotel was above the busiest nightclub in Dublin meaning we were staying at the centre of the party zone!  However we also had to have a great room party as well.  We cheered the team on but we lost 1-0 to hosts Republic of Ireland who won the inaugral nations cup!  We all made it home - just!

Six BASTA members took part in the second annual Tartan Army Kilt Walk from Hampden Park to Loch Lomond raising funds for the Tartan Army Childrens Charity.  Well done to Lorraine, Spud, Steve, Girders, Daniel, Helmie Don and Mo Frae Fo on completing the 26 mile route and raising loads of money for such a worthy cause!  The troops met Craig Levein the Scotland manager prior to the walk and Spud was amongst other pipers leading the troops as they left the national stadium and headed for the River Clyde and through the city of Glasgow, up the Forth and Clyde canal, under the Erskine Bridge, through historic Dumbarton and onwards to the end at scenic Loch Lomond!  Well done to all participants!

One of the best parties in BASTA's history!  Quite simply our hotel room party in Oslo, Norway prior to our World Cup Qualifying Match will live long in the memory!  A big carry out, a massive hotel room, Spud the Piper, Davy Holt the guitarist and everyone else on backing vocals!  It meant an amazing build up to a vital match and the party will never be forgotten!  After a fantastic day we lost 4-0 - typical!