EGGAR’S School hosted Alton’s annual Burns Night supper to celebrate the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns.

And, according to the organisers, “it seems to have made everyone concerned proud and happy”.

For the first time since the event’s early days, back in the early 1990s, the food was prepared and served entirely by volunteers in aid of this year’s chosen cause, which was Alton’s Bushy Leaze Children’s & Families’ Centre.

The menu, prepared under the direction of qualified chef and parent-governor Jill Worth, was given the thumbs up by 100 happy eaters, with the team of waitresses under Maitre D and Bushy Leaze parent Darren Chapple, receiving a huge ovation as they were formally thanked.

And the £700 raised was a record for the event.

Alison Tubman, chairman for the evening, welcomed Ann Blackman, senior co-ordinator for the Bushy Leaze team, who thanked the committee and outlined the current range of the centre’s scope and activities. She told guests that money raised would be used to fund a live willow tunnel in the new outdoor play space – made available by Anstey School – for young children, including those with special needs.

The traditional programme was launched by the Selkirk Grace, composed in its present form by Robert Burns himself, and beautifully spoken in the dialect by Wendy Massey.

Barely had the dishes for the first course been cleared when the skirl of the bagpipes was heard as the event’s regular piper, John Todd, headed the party accompanying the haggis, borne on its ‘groaning trencher’ by chef Jill Worth, escorted by Scott Couper and Fiona Sinclair.

Burns’ celebrated comic poem Address tae the Haggis was colourfully performed by Luath Grant Ferguson, who wishes it to be known that the “very large whisky” he downed during the address was in fact cold, but delicious, Lapsang Souchong tea. On a more serious note, he dedicated his performance to the memory of a young uncle he never knew, Captain Ian Grant Ferguson, of the 13th Battalion, Royal Scots, killed in action 100 years ago this year, aged 18.

Guests were told that Alton hosted the Royal Scots from 1914-16 and that Alton has probably never known a Hogmanay quite like that of December 31, 1914, when 1,500 Royal Scots entertained Altonians to the sound of the pipes in the huge cellar of Crowley’s Brewery.

Young Lieutenant Grant Ferguson would almost certainly have visited, or passed through, Alton on his way to final training as a machine gunner and leaving for Flanders where, with so many officers killed around him, he found himself promoted in the field and, very briefly until his death, as the youngest captain in the Army.

After the focal point in the traditional Burns’ supper, the toast to the poet’s ‘immortal memory’, the floor was cleared for the second main business of the night – the dancing. But first came a fine performance of two of Burns’ most famous songs by sopranos Barbara Rayner and Susie Dean, accompanied on the guitar by Luath Grant Ferguson.

The first, John Anderson My Jo, expresses tender love lasting to the end of a long marriage. The second, Charlie, He’s My Darling’, unashamedly tells of a fictional amorous encounter between Bonnie Prince Charlie and a young female admirer. Barbara and Susie’s enthusiastic interpretation was rewarded by the unrestrained roar of the audience as it joined in.

Live music for a selection of Scottish country dances was provided by the regular band led by experienced accordionist John Tubman. From a well danced, stately Gay Gordons through to a somewhat frenzied Strip the Willow (by way of a Dashing White Sergeant and a wild Flying Scotsman) this year’s supper guests were deemed to be more adept than many had been in previous years.

The raffle and Scottish-themed quiz added to an evening of fun from north of the border, and warm thanks were given to the supper’s regular sound technician, Mick Neeve, and to the Eggar’s staff for their kind help and support.