A huge crowd descended on the Fife village of Ceres on Saturday for the 705th Ceres Highland Games.
The sun shone on the Bow Butts as hundreds of people turned up for the oldest free games in Scotland.
And with no other Highland Games taking place in the country, there was a large entry in all competitions and an international flavour to this year’s events, with entrants from the USA, Canada, Australia, Poland, France and the Czech Republic competing.
The event started, as ever, with the parade through the village ahead of the Reverend Jim Campbell, this year’s chieftain, formally opening the games at 1pm.
Visitors were treated to a full programme of track and field, Highland dancing, wrestling, solo piping, tug of war and children’s races.
A spokesperson for the organisers said: “What a great day – so many athletes, too many visitors to count, the food market was so popular and just such a good day all round.
“Everyone involved from all our lovely visitors to our fantastic traders and the huge number of absolutely fabulous volunteers who made this possible.”
The heavy event competitions were the highlight for many, with Vlad Tulacek from the Czech Republic and Lucasz Wenta, of East Kilbride, battling it out for top spots in most of those.
However, Grangemouth’s Kyle Randalls edged the pair of them out in the 56lb weight for distance event.
Prior to the main programme, the children’s fun races attracted good numbers as did the overseas visitors races which were won by a gentleman from Omagh in Ireland and a lady from Sweden.
The top prize of the day is the £200 which goes to the winner of the 90 metres sprint handicap and it was won by Borderer Robbie Elliot, from Hawick, who edged out Central AC duo Keiran Halliday and Callum Letham.
Elliot’s only previous win on the Games circuit was also in Norh East Fife when he won the 90 metres at last years St Andrews Highland Games.
There was a father and son finish to the 800 metres handicap and it was the son who prevailed with last year’s Scottish Highland Games Association Athlete of the Year Ewen Bradley, from Inverness, taking the win ahead of his dad Donald.
There was also a rare occurrence in the cycle events with all four races being won by different riders.
Paul Gallacher, from Kirkcaldy, made his seasonal debut a winning one by claiming victory in the 800 metres handicap.
Just when it looked Ceres Games would be completed without a cycling mishap, however, a late afternoon shower put paid to that thought.
The track had turned greasy and on the second elimination lap of the Deil tak the Hindmost, three riders hit the deck as they came round the Beer Tent Bend,
With Charles Fletcher, Flora Gillies and Craig Hamilton all out of the race, Paul Anderson from Perth handled conditions best to take the win.
For all the results, visit www.shga.co.uk.
