Memorial pool competition raises more than £1200 for Wick RNLI
More than £1200 has been raised for Wick RNLI from the first Ronnie Simpson Memorial Pool Competition.
The all-day singles tournament was held in the Seaforth Highlanders’ Club at the weekend with 26 players taking part.
The total raised for the local lifeboat service amounted to £1218, with roughly half coming from sponsorship and the rest from a well-supported raffle.
Ronnie died in January this year, aged 57. He was head bar steward at the Seaforth club and a keen pool player.
The competition was organised by club chairman Arthur Bruce. He and head bar steward Donna Slater joined members of the Simpson family on Tuesday to present the cheque to Wick RNLI.
It was accepted by Allan Lipp, the lifeboat coxswain, and Ben Ewing, a volunteer crew member. The family members were then given a brief tour of the lifeboat.
Arthur said the competition had been “played in the right spirit”, with a friendly atmosphere throughout.
“Ronnie was always at the pool,” Arthur said. “If he had a weekend off, he would go to whatever competitions were on.
“It was Ronnie that turned the club round. It was going downhill, but he got the job as head bar steward and from them on he fired it on.
“Donna has taken over Ronnie’s job and we’re helping her as best we can.”
Arthur was delighted with the support for the competition through sponsorship and raffle donations.
He said: “We’d like to thank everybody that donated prizes for the raffle, plus the sponsorship. We had sponsorship at £20 a head and we had about £600 in from that, then a bit more than £600 from the raffle.
“All the raffle prizes were donated through local people and businesses.”
Ronnie’s oldest brother David said: “Ronald was a great supporter of the RNLI. The collection that we had at the time of his funeral was over £2000 and that went to the RNLI.
“It’s a great cause.”
The competition was won by Martin Hill, beating Scott Risbridger in the final.