A mish-mash of news, whimsy and history lesson

Tim & the gang play ping pong on the 2 tables in The Long Room
 

In another piece of seasonal whimsy, I was talking to a dog-walker on the Drylaw cycle path and he was very interested in the logo on my tree-house. I had "recycled" the tin from the squash court when Bill Marshall had re-floored the squash courts 4 years ago and it was lying in a skip.
In an excellent bit of product placement, if I say so myself, the Stag and "Grange Squash" tin was now on my treehouse, free advertising for the club to the cyclists and walkers on the Davidson Mains to Craigleith cycle path.
   The reason for the interest from the dog-walker was that he worked for The Dalmore whiskey brand and their logo is also a stag, with the following story behind it.
   Note that their stag is a 12-point antlered one whereas ours is 14 points and somewhat less fearsome, in keeping with the MacKenzie history of their logo.

   (As an aside, do not confuse with another distillery: Glenfiddich is anglicised from The Valley of the Deer and they have an 8-point stage logo.) A mature red deer stag can have up to 16 points so the Grange logo is anatomically correct.

For those not familiar with the origin of The Grange Club name and logo, the club originally did reside in the Grange area of Edinburgh, not far from the current Carlton Cricket Club, from 1832-36.
The club outgrew this ground and moved to a field near Grove St after 4 years.
    In 1863 the club became of-no-fixed-abode and then resided at Fettes college grounds from 1864-70. It finally settled in Inverleith Farm(now Portgower Place-Raeburn Place) in 1870 and built a pavilion and pitch for £700. In 1894, the present pavilion was constructed for £1400.
(Summarised from the cricket club's excellent 175-anniversary brochure. Click here.

What is the point of all this? That the 3 founders can have little imagined when they founded the club 180 years ago that the club would eventually see sports such as tennis, squash, hockey, lacrosse, archery, ping-pong, softball, volleyball, touch rugby, soccer and no doubt a few others on it's hallowed turf!
    Hopefully our readers enjoy the somewhat educational trip down memory lane at this time of year when outdoor sporting activities are curtailed.