Alastair Cranston
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| Birth name | Alastair Gerald Cranston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 11 December 1949 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Hawick, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Alastair Cranston is a Scottish National Party politician and a councillor on Scottish Borders Council for the Hawick and Denholm ward. He previously was a Scotland international rugby union player.[1]
Political career
[edit]Born in Hawick on 11 December 1949, in the Borders Region, he was recruited by the SNP, after failing to win the Scottish Conservative nomination, to contest the Hawick and Denholm ward for the party in the 2012 Scottish Borders Council election.[2] He polled 381 first preferences, and after transfers, secured the last seat in the ward on the sixth count at the expense of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
After the election the SNP formed a coalition administration with the Lib Dems and with Independents. He is a member of the following committees; Planning and Building Standards, Appeals Panel and Educational Appeals Panel.
Rugby union career
[edit]Amateur career
[edit]Provincial career
[edit]He was capped by South of Scotland District.[3]
International career
[edit]He received two caps for Scotland 'B'; both against France 'B'. One came in 1972, the other came in 1974.
He later received full senior caps with Scotland; for whom he played as a Centre and won 19 caps between 1976 and 1981.[4]
Administrative career
[edit]In 2002, he was appointed Chief Executive of the Borders Reivers rugby union team.[5] His tenure lasted until 2005.[6]
Business career
[edit]Cranston was a farmer. In 1987 he was one of the founders of the Borders Machinery Ring and would subsequently become Manager. The Borders Machinery Ring was based on a concept in Germany where farmers can share farm machinery and training can also be provided. There are now 9 different machinery rings in Scotland with over 7,000 members.[7]
Of Cranston's concept, Chairman Guy Lee of the BMR stated:[8]
BMR was formed thanks to the ingenuity of Melrose farmer and contractor Alastair Cranston. Alastair had been intrigued by a conference presentation on the subject and subsequently travelled to Germany where there were 260 machinery rings in operation at the time. Alastair brought the concept back home to the Borders, where farmers were initially sceptical of the concept, however BMR was established with 23 founder members, and the rest is history!
Since then Cranston was involved in the development of rural recycling and renewable energy initiatives related to linking communities and agriculture.
References
[edit]- ^ "Alastair Gerald Cranston". Espnscrum.com.
- ^ "Cranston teams up with SNP as he kicks off election campaign". Hawick-news.co.uk. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
- ^ a b "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". News.google.com.
- ^ "Alastair Cranston". Espnscrum.com. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
- ^ "Roots in Romania, a famous Borders win over Llanelli and a thwarted night out in Pau - 25 seasons of the Heineken Cup". Scotsman.com.
- ^ "The future should be in your own hands". The Herald. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
- ^ "Borders Machinery Ring". Scottishlandandestates.co.uk.
- ^ "Borders Machinery Ring celebrates 30 years". Thescottishfarmer.co.uk. 19 December 2017.