The Second Scottish Criterium Series race was held at Hawick on Sunday 3rd August. Sponsored by ScottishPower Renewables, the race attracted a large field for the three categories of riders.

The Youth race was the first one off at 1.00pm and was of 30 minutes duration.The Fourth Cat, Juniors and Ladies race was at 2.00pm and the final race was for the Elite, 1st, 2nd and 3rd category riders.

The rain was heavy during the first two races but dried off for the third race. Gordon Murdoch was the winner of the Elite event. Photos of the event can be seen here.

The Scottish National Cycling Road Race Championships was held on Saturday 2nd August in the roads around Hawick, in the Scottish Borders. The event was sponsored by Sports Active, an Irish cycling and walking holidays company. The event was over 82 miles and produced a steady stream of attacks throughout the duration of the race.

Evan Oliphant was the eventual winner of the race, with Gary Hand (Pedal Power) and John Kermode (Dundee Thistle) in third spot.

More information on this can be seen here. Photos of the event can be seen here.

New Southcroft Park, home of Junior Football team, Rutherglen Glencairn was offically opened to the public on 19th July, 2008. To commemorate the opening of the park, Glens played senior team Clyde. The game was well attended, helped by the sunny weather and ended in a 1-1 draw.

The park and facilities were excellent and many of the fans attending would be returning for future games.

Images from the game can be seen here.

The West of Scotland Kart Club meeting of 6th April was in doubt up until 11.00am as snow covered the track. However the sun came out and the snow soon melted,
allowing the meeting to go ahead.

This meeting was round 2 of the Club Championship and also the second round of the NKRA Junior/Senior Classes.

Some pictures of the meeting can be seen here.

The Scottish Power Renewables Sup6r Six Series Round 2 - Tour of the Lowthers took place on Saturday 5th April. The race was over the roads at Leadhills and Abington.

First up was the 32 mile race for veterans, women and lower category riders over the tough course at Leadhills. Steve Jolley, riding for the Onimpex team came home ahead of Colin May (Edinburgh RC) and junior rider Dougie Young (Stirling BC).

The second race was held in more difficult conditions than the first as there were some hail showers throughout the race. These were short-lived but made the conditiuons difficult for the riders. This was won by Arthur Doyle of DooleysCcycles racing team, with Phillip Brown of Velo Ecosse second and Micky Mallen of GS Metro third.

Arthur Doyle has a black band stitched into his jersey with the name of the late cyclist Jason MacIntyre on it. MacIntyre was killed in January this year while out training on his bike. As he crossed the line Doyle pointed to the skies in memory of Jason.
Photos of the event can be seen here.

Russ Downing (Pinarello RT) was overall winner of the 2008 Girvan Cycle Race by a mere 4 seconds from Rob Partridge. The race was stages over the Easter weekend in very chilly conditions, but the sun shone throughout the race.

The final stage of the race 72 mile stage had to be re-routed over lower ground due to snow and ice lying on the descent from the summit at Nick o' the Balloch.The 'killer' climbs of Glenalla and Nick o'the Balloch had to be dropped with only the 1st Cat climb of Hadyard Hill being retained from the original route. It was still a hard route and extremely cold at the top of Hadyard Hill.

Despite the cold, the riders enjoyed themselves at this well organised and run event. Next year is the 40th race and there will be some extra events laid on for this special edition of the race.

Our photographs can be seen on the official Girvan Cycle Race website which can be accessed here and on the British Cycling website. YouTube video here.

This was one of the few Junior football matched played on Saturday 23rd February due to the heavy rain which had fallen in days leading up to the game. Meadow are leading the Premier Division with Bellshill in a mid table position.

Meadow opened the scoring when Gareth Turner scored but Bellshill retaliated with goals from Marc Murray and Allan Watson. Meadow were down to 10 men midway through the second half when Paul Hilland was sent off for a challenge on Bryan Felvus. They, however kept pressing for the equaliser but Bellshill defended well to take all three points from the game.

Pictures from the game here. YouTube video here.

The first kart racing meeting at Summerlee, Larkhall was held on Sunday 03.02.08. The day was overcast and cold, but this did not deter the racers.

The results of the event can be seen here. More information about the track at Larkhall can be see in the West of Scotland Kart Club website at http://www.wskc.co.uk/.

YouTube video can be seen here.

Sporting Views have now got their own YouTube video channel. The videos can be viewed by clicking on the 'YouTube' link on the left menu.

A few videos have been loaded onto the channel including the Girvan Three Day Cycle Race, The Drummond Trophy 2007, the Scotland women's national football team and a review of karting action images from Summerlee, Larkhall in 2007.

The external link to the YouTube channel is:
http://uk.youtube.com/speedybiker12

The penultimate meeting of the West of Scotland Kart Club took place on Sunday 4th November. This meeting was a club meeting and was as usual well supported. Although overcast, the rain stayed off and there were no major incidents on the track. There were a few minor crashes, but fortunately nobody was injured.

The track will be closed for essential maintenance and improvements during the weekend of 10th and 11th November. No practice sessions will be held during this weekend.

Pictures of the event can be seen here.