PICTOU – Rollie MacDonald has a rookie to drive his 2013 entry in the Maritime Pro Stock Tour. Denver Foran of Edmonton has been trying out MacDonald’s car since arriving earlier this spring to prepare for the tour’s opening race on Sunday at Scotia SpeedWorld. “I can’t wait for the first race,” Foran said Thursday while working on MacDonald’s car. The Pro Stock Tour is really professional, the way it’s [...]

A young fellow who’s showing interest in journalism recently asked how many columns I’ve written in my newspaper career. I couldn’t give him an answer because I simply don’t know. However, because I’ve been indexing my columns in recent years, I was able to tell him that, since June 1996, I’m approaching my 1,686th offering. That includes my last years at The Chronicle Herald, six years writing for the New [...]

NEW GLASGOW – Two members of North Nova Education Centre’s male track and field team won medals at the 2013 Nike High School Grand Prix track meet last weekend in Toronto. Allister Mason and Ryan Washburn won gold medals, while Peter MacIntosh took home a silver medal. Mason won the 110-metre hurdles in 16.3 seconds while Washburn won his 800-metre race in 2:08:40. They also earned medals in their 400-metre [...]

STELLARTON – Athletes from Northumberland Regional High School turned in good results last Thursday during the first day of the district high school track and field meet at Pioneer Coal Field. Grade 8 student Tatum McLean placed first in junior high girls shot put with a heave of 9.91 metres, while Paige MacDonald from Thorburn Consolidated was second with a 7.44 distance. McLean is considered one of the promising local [...]

STELLARTON – The Stellarton Albions are hoping continuity among a host of contemporary players will produce a successful baseball season. The Bantam AA Albions are getting ready for the 2013 season that includes membership in Baseball Nova Scotia’s Bluenose League. “We’re going to be strong,” coach Kent Mason said. “We’re a big hitting team and we’re good defensively and have strong starting pitching. A lot of the players have been [...]

SCOTSBURN – Dave MacLennan hopes he can achieve a qualifying time at this year’s Blue Nose Marathon for the 2014 BAA Marathon in Boston. MacLennan will be 50 when the Boston date arrives, which will place him in a different category and required a slower qualifying time. The Blue Nose run will start at 8 a.m. on May 19. Its route includes crossing the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, parts of [...]

NEW GLASGOW – The North Nova Scotia Gryphons have fired the first salvo in its effort to claim a new rugby trophy being contested by male high school teams this spring. The host Gryphons defeated the Northumberland Nighthawks 59-0 on April 30 in both their male and female matches, with the male teams contesting the trophy for the first time after it was formally introduced before their game. The trophy [...]

NEW GLASGOW – Three members of the boys’ track and field team from North Nova Education Centre in New Glasgow that will represent Nova Scotia in the 2013 Nike High School Grand Prix invitational track and field meet this week in Toronto say they’re looking forward to the event. Sam Cameron, Ryan Washburn and Spencer MacDonald will be among athletes from across Canada taking part in the meet from Thursday [...]

STELLARTON – A highly respected Canadian national team member has returned to Pictou County to share his vast knowledge and passion for volleyball. Rod Walsh impressed upon more than two dozen coaches and young players of varying ages on the need to work long and hard to acquire the skills and take them to the top level possible for them during a volleyball clinic at the G.R. Saunders Elementary School [...]

Years ago, baseball movies at local theatres were a dime a dozen. There seemed to always be a new one coming, and I’d go to them all. The first one I recall seeing was Pride of the Yankees at the old Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow. It made quite an impression on me, probably the foremost reason I became a New York Yankees fan, a status I held until the [...]

TRENTON – It is a busy time for Albion boxers. Members of the Albion club are looking forward to upcoming cards and have already taken part in previous ones. One card is coming up on May 11, while two members of the club boxed last Saturday in Middleton and prior to that two boxers travelled to St. John’s, N.L. during the club’s annual trip to The Rock. Heavyweight Keegan Hughes [...]

TRENTON – It will be Debbie MacDonald Day when runners gather for the 49th annual Joe Earle Memorial Day Road Races in Trenton. MacDonald has been a long-standing distance runner in the area and is in training for some of the races that will take place on May 20. The race program starts at 9:30 a.m. with the Baxter MacArthur men’s open mile race, followed 10 minutes later by the [...]

NEW GLASGOW – A new trophy will be contested by local high school boys’ rugby teams. The Pictou County Senior Rugby Club has dedicated funds for a trophy to be awarded to the top male high school rugby team. Currently, that group included the North Nova Gryphons and the Northumberland Nighthawks. Pictou Academy has fielded teams in the past and will be included in the trophy hunt whenever it offers [...]

NEW GLASGOW – Awards were presented during the Pictou County Female Hockey Association’s fourth annual closing banquet on April 16 at North Nova Education Centre. During the evening, awards were presented to players from each of the six Pictou County Subway Selects teams for most valuable player for offence, most valuable player for defence, and coaches’ choice. The coaches’ choice award was given in recognition of a player who demonstrated [...]

ALMA – The Northumberland Nighthawks began their boys’ schedule this week after one more week of training and participation in a tournament at Saint Mary’s University. Coach John Rushton said it will be a rebuilding year in a short time, with just two returning players from last year’s roster. “They’re coming,” he said. “The tournament was really good for us . We’re a very young, inexperienced team but we have [...]

NEW GLASGOW – The North Nova Gryphons are off to a good start in both boys’ and girls’ high school rugby. Both teams were scheduled to host against the Cobequid Cougars on Tuesday before visiting the Hants East Tigers on Thursday and rounding out their April schedule next Tuesday by hosting the Northumberland Nighthawks in both boys and girls games. The girls posted two wins last week against the Hants [...]

I spend a lot of time – too much perhaps – on the internet. I check sports and news sources on Twitter several times a day, though I don’t send tweets myself. At least not yet. I visit a number of on-line sports sites regularly. Keeping contact with family and friends, in town and out, means plenty of incoming emails and outgoing replies. And, for sure, I have to keep [...]

LYONS BROOK – Students at West Pictou Consolidated School are experiencing the plus factors while learning the basics of movement and co-ordination. Thanks to instructor Gena Henderson, a Grade 6 teacher, the students are taking part in the Run Jump Throw program being offered to kids. “It’s a great program,” she says. “We use different apparatus and any kid can use it, which is nice.” Run Jump Throw is Athletics [...]

Two athletes and a scholar with Pictou County roots have been cited for their contributions to St. FX. Stellarton native Peggy Gallant, a member of the faculty at St. Francis Xavier University, is among renowned coaches receiving a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award in recognition of their contributions to coaching development and coach education. “I was absolutely surprised,” said Gallant on April 8 during the 2013 athletic awards presentations [...]

The one and only time I met and talked to sports broadcasting icon Johnny Esaw was during a beautiful and memorable afternoon in 1976. We were in Montreal to cover the Summer Olympics and, the day before the opening ceremonies, some 200 members of the international media were invited aboard H.M. Yacht Britannia for a reception given by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. When I stepped [...]

PICTOU – Craig Aucoin and Lloyd McLean are poised to enter Saskachewan during their virtual Cross Canada Bicycle Tour as they keep training for the real event. The pair pedal in the lobby each Sunday morning at the Pictou County Wellness Centre, although their session was moved to Saturday last weekend due to the Walk For Reese on Sunday. Aucoin and McLean started a virtual tour last August and have [...]

NEW GLASGOW – The North Nova Gryphons have begun their high school rugby schedules with hopes of recapturing provincial banners. Both the male and female sides have turned over a number of players but hope their rosters can gel in time to compete for top honours. “It’s all about how fast we can pick it up and play as a unit,” said Joe MacDonald, the male team’s head coach. “We [...]

Peter MacKay is certainly accustomed to seeing his name and photo in newspapers, more often than not on the front pages. As one of the most powerful and highest-profiled ministers in Prime Minister Harper’s federal cabinet, he makes headlines on a regular basis. It’s all part of the political game. But Canada’s present defence minister has probably never been prouder of media coverage than he was last week, even though [...]

PICTOU – If golf enthusiasts are keen to meet the sport’s royalty, it might as well be The King. That’s what Jim and Mona MacDonald did during a recent trip to Florida, where Jim took a picture of Mona getting two caps autographed by golfing great Arnold Palmer, known for being as much the King of Golf as Elvis Presley was the King of Rock and Roll. The meeting occurred [...]

Pictou County’s three players on the host Subway Northern Storm feel fortunate to have hosted the Atlantic AAA Midget Female Hockey Championship. Taylor Perry, Hilary Taylor and Jordan Archibald were members of the Storm who got to the bronze medal match on Sunday before bowing 4-1 to the Capital District Cyclones from P.E.I. Metro Boston Pizza won the championship with a 2-1 victory over the Moncton Rocket. “It was good [...]