Dear Exiled Teri
I hope you and your families are safe and well, and coping in these unprecedented times.
Most of you will no doubt of heard that Hawick Common Riding Committee SCIO have once again had to make the difficult decision to cancel this years’ Common Riding. Following guidance received form Scottish Borders Council and the Safety Advisory Group, which stated that the rest of the year is likely to continue in restriction tiers and that we would only be permitted to hold any events if we were in tier zero or one. The likelihood of this is very slim and with that in mind, the wisest and safest option was to not elect a Cornet for 2021. But rest assured the Common will be marked this year, when it is safe to do so.
This now means the Committee and the other Common Riding Clubs and Associations in the town can concentrate their efforts in producing another Virtual Common Riding. I am sure you will all agree last years online events helped fill a bit of the void many of us felt in May and June.
This year we want to make it bigger and better and we would like any old Common Riding footage or images you think might interest others. But that is not all this year we we would like exiled Teries to be part of this year’s planned concert, which will be streamed on what would have been the Exiles Reception night. We would like you to film short messages home, maybe saying who you are, where you are now, how long you have been away, your connection to Hawick and when you were last home or failing that even a short clip of you and your family waving. The details of how to do this can be found here.
If you would like to be kept in the loop about all that is going on please keep an eye on the website and Facebook page for news on what is happening.
I will send out a more detailed timetable to all exiles in May.
Lesley Fraser, Secretary, Hawick Common Riding Committee SCIO