The Edinburgh Blog

Booking for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was closed for in person and telephone sales yesterday and today, as their staff struggle to cope with the latest fiasco. This time it’s the inability of the Fringe Festival’s new ticketing system to print and post tickets. Just a few weeks ago the Edinburgh Festival Fringe were unable to sell any tickets: their new software system just didn’t work. If this weren’t embarrassing enough news reports of would be festival goers being charged multiple times for ticket orders have also hit the press.

The Edinburgh Blog like thousands of other ticket buyers received an e-mail from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I expected a grovelling apology and an admittance of how they and they alone were responsible for this shambles. How wrong I was. The e-mail did not contain a single mention of the word “sorry” or “apologise”. Instead it took an upbeat tone and tried to gloss over the issue with “the Fringe will go ahead as planned and that it will be as big and brilliant as ever” and “The Fringe is an extremely popular festival so there may be some queues as there is every year”. The author was right about The Fringe being an extremely popular festival. But for how long!? With the international competition sharpening their knives Edinburgh has no right to be complacent and no right to treat its customers like this.

Perhaps the most surprisingly ridiculous quote (as reported by the Scotsman) came from Pivotal Integration, the company behind this year’s new software system: “Unfortunately software is software and it’s prone to glitches”. Surely in the 21st century it’s not unreasonable to expect a software system to at least work? If it’s well designed, well written and well tested they normally stand half a chance.

Gone are the true Fringe days of the festival. It’s now a multi-million pound, global event with venues attracting big names in showbusiness and venues charging steep ticket prices. The least festival goers should expect is some professionalism on the organiser’s part. A fiasco like this only adds momentum to the breakaway venues behind this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Festival; The Assembly Rooms dispatched my tickets many weeks ago.

It’s only right the Edinburgh Festival Fringe team stay on board and guide the Fringe through August. Afterwards they would be wise to consider their future: are these really the amateur producers the Fringe needs?

Khushi’s Indian restaurant is something of an Edinburgh institution. The owners of Khushi’s are proud of their history; their website and menu describes their rise from a small Indian restaurant in 1947 to their current status of probably Edinburgh’s largest Indian restaurant. A plethora of seating options on ground and upper levels mean Khushi’s now have the capacity to cover for literally hundreds of diners. Most people in Edinburgh, especially past and presents University students, will associate Khushi’s with a no corkage Bring Your Own Booze policy. This is a feature our group took full advantage of last Thursday, when we arrived an hour before our booking with a few carrier bags fresh from the off license. Khushi’s were happy to look after our alcohol while we enjoyed drinks in The Villager nearby, but unfortunately didn’t store our alcohol in the refrigerator. Luckily Khushi’s policy where excess alcohol must be left at reception was unnecessary for our group!

The team behind Khushi’s have done a fair, yet antiquated job with the design of their Victoria Street restaurant. The lower level hosts a small reception, customer toilets and dining tables. We were directed upstairs and passed the transparent screen to the kitchen. It was interesting to see the chefs plying their trade in such cramped surroundings. Space isn’t a problem in Khushi’s dining room and this allows tables to have a good distance between them. This is very welcome, especially given the loud groups Khushi’s entertain.

It wasn’t long before complementary poppadoms were delivered to our table, although we had to pay extra for the condiments tray. Infact we had to pay £1.25 per condiment, so the poppadoms actually cost near on a fiver. Crafty Khushi’s! The waiters soon started opening our bottles of beer and wine. As the night progressed our rate of bottle consumption was quicker than than our waiting staff could (or maybe would) handle, so it was fortuitous we had a keyring bottle opener. Khushi’s menu is larger than I remember from their Potterow days, a fact our waiter seemed oblivious to when trying to rush our choices.

The quantity of fish in my Lahori Fish Tikka (£4.95) starter was on one hand generous, on another repetitive. The fish was nice and white but although a solid starter it was far from inspiring. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their traditional starters, which would have been as home on the menu in 1947 as they are today.

My main course was the major disappointment of the evening. I asked our waiter if Khushi’s kitchen could rustle up a chicken bhuna. The waiter stated Khushi’s original curry was just the ticket. Despite a huge quantity of lamb I could have created a more imaginative sauce if given a few ingredients and a 5 minute Google on Indian cooking. Khushi’s original curry was blander than a spoonful of boiled rice. My handy advice would be to trust only the written word and not those of your waiter. Thankfully my fellow diners’ choices fared better, with ratings hovering around 7.5/10.

Full marks to the chef in charge of the nan breads; our selection of garlic, plain and keema nans were all excellent. Price wise I think Khushi’s Indian food has a little premium, to make up for no corkage on their BYOB policy. On the whole though their prices are reasonable. An out of date menu is available on Khushi’s multimedia heavy website.

Service started off very friendly, but later on in the evening it became abrupt; possibly the staff were growing tired clearing away our empty glass bottles! After receiving the bill we were told in no uncertain terms to pay at the reception on our way out.

There are certainly curry houses in Edinburgh which offer better quality, better service and more inventive Indian cooking. To only eat Indian food at Khushi’s, like some people I know, would be an awful shame.

Overall Khushi’s provide reliable food in a large environment which is easily able to cater for the masses. Khushi’s have a robust business model and have developed an efficient conveyor belt for curries. For a curry with a reasonably large group of friends Khushi’s is the de facto choice.

Khushi’s is located at 9 Victoria Street, Edinburgh.
Telephone: 0131 220 0057

The Cramond Inn has a great location in the idyllic Cramond village, which is within easy cycle or drive of Edinburgh city centre. With the Firth of Forth, Cramond Island and a cycle track on its doorstep the Cramond Inn’s location is without fault. The interior, despite a few signs of wear and tear, is welcoming and traditional. Great value and great tasting Samuel Smith’s beer on draught, make the Cramond Inn a very good pub for drink. So where’s the problem?! Well, the service on our visit wasn’t as friendly as you’d expect from a village pub like the Cramond Inn. Though the service is tolerable, the pub food of the Cramond Inn was less so. Despite the romantic images of cosy pub food the Cramond Inn conjured in my mind, the reality was fairly poor pub food at prices which demand far higher standards.

The A4 menu of the Cramond Inn has all the usual suspects such as steak pie, scampi and chips, haddock and chips, bangers and mash. We visited the Cramond Inn on a Monday afternoon, after a stroll across the water to Cramond Island. Food is ordered at the bar and it wasn’t long before my initial choice of steak and ale pie (£8.95) had to be changed, due to it “not being ready”. After a quick perusal of the menu I settled on home made lasagne and chips (£8.50). My dining partner chose a starter of home made fishcakes (£4.95) and a small main course of haggis, neeps and tatties (£6). The full sized haggis portion costs £8.95, but usefully the Cramond Inn offer a smaller portion (on other dishes as well) for £2.95 less.

Soon the food was delivered to our table. The fishcakes contained far too much potato, but more worryingly they tasted like something out of an Indian takeaway. This wasn’t a taste the menu advertised and certainly wasn’t welcome. The haggis, neeps and tatties were submerged in a ‘whiskey and spring onion’ sauce. This dish tasted better than it looked, but it certainly won’t be enough to get the Cramond Inn on any culinary map. My lasagne was so tasteless it’s impossible to describe. However there was no mistaking its gooey consistency. The chips were decent, but a whole pack of chewing gum later all I could taste was the plentiful red onion from the side salad.

On a previous visit to the Cramond Inn we tried their homemade banoffee pie (£3.95), which was decent. Unfortunately this gave me unwarranted confidence in the Cramond Inn’s other food offerings. The great location, great draught beers and generally good village pub feel made the Cramond Inn’s food all the more disappointing.

A visit to Cramond should be essential for all residents of Edinburgh. When there, by all means enjoy a few drinks at the Cramond Inn. I particularly enjoyed the Sam Smith’s Pure Brewed lager at £2.52 a pint. Based on our experience the food, unfortunately, isn’t worth the added expense. High quality service and the friendly factor also seemed sadly lacking.

The Cramond Inn is located at Cramond Village Edinburgh EH4 6NU.
Telephone: 0131 336 2035

Explosions, car stunts, human canons and monster trucks. What a night out! That was my thinking before last Wednesday’s trip to Musselburgh’s Goose Green firework field (by the racecourse) to see Scott May’s Daredevil stunt show. This was the second night of Scott May’s Daredevil stunt show after the previous evening at Ingliston Showground. We parked on Millhill as the side street (Balcarres road) up to Goose Green firework field was packed with cars. There was a small queue at the mobile ticket van, where we were disappointed to see a half price ticket queue. We payed the full fee of £10 per adult; children under 16 cost £5.

As you’d expect there were a lot of children at Scott May’s Daredevil stunt show, although some weren’t the best behaved. The show was stopped at one point while some children were asked to descend from a van’s roof which they had climbed to get a better view. I estimate that 2000 people were at the show, helped by the good weather. The show was supposed to start at 7.30pm but was delayed around 20 minutes.

Scott May’s Daredevil stunt show started with a parade of the show’s stars (all male apart from one female) around the periphery of Goose Green firework field. It wasn’t long before a car jumped a ramp and smashed into another car. A small pyrotechnic added drama to the impact. A series of bike jumps, leaps through fire and driving on two wheels followed. All stunts were narrated with varying humour. Sumpy the Clown, driving miniature vehicles, raised more laughs with the young children than the adults, who soon found him slightly irritating.

The most impressive stunt was Scott May himself who wooed the crowd with ‘Precision Parking’. After the interval some members of the crowd, who had won the raffle, rode around the field in the back of the Slaine monster truck. It wasn’t long before all the heavy motorised vehicles were speeding over the cars Scott has sourced from a local scrap merchant. My favourite was Thundertrax, although the larger ‘Bandit’ monster truck was a good finale.

A hot dog / burger van and merchandise store, which seemed to be do a brisk trade in t-shirts and replica vehicles, was also at the show.

Overall I enjoyed Scott May’s Daredevil stunt show, although the lack of continuity between stunts meant it never peaked into the truly explosive and adrenaline pumping action show I was expecting. Instead it had some excellent individual stunts and other stunts which were less exciting. The stunt show is not something I would go and watch each year, but is worth seeing at least once. Also children will be thrilled by the more explosive / larger stunts.

Further photos from Scott May’s Daredevil Stunt Show, Musselburgh, Edinburgh are available.

The OWL and LION Gallery, on Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, is currently hosting a charming wee exhibition entitled ‘Artist Books’. The exhibition aims to ‘Explore The Art Of The Book’ and its showing coincides with 500 years of printing in Scotland. The OWL and LION Gallery is a small, yet delightful, gallery. It was genuinely fascinating to see the imagination and effort which had gone into some of the hugely creative books/book derivations on show. Many of the pieces in the exhibition are available to purchase.

A few pieces particularly caught my eye including a glass book, ‘Where to Buy Art’ (£56). Knight’s Prayer was the richest and most impressive parchment scroll I have ever seen. Some three dimensional exhibits along the walls were also impressive.

Artist Books is an exhibition which draws you in the more you examine the huge array of close proximity pieces on display. The window display at The OWL and LION Gallery is intriguing and should be enough to draw you inside if you’re walking along The Grassmarket. Artist Books is an exhibition well worth a visit.

The Artist Books exhibition launched on the 19th June and ends 11th July. The OWL and LION Gallery is located at 15 Grassmarket, Edinburgh, EH1 2HS

Rumour has it that the Polish church in Randolph Place’s Tudor House couldn’t accommodate Edinburgh’s booming Polish population, so they moved out. The adjacent La P’tite Folie seized the opportunity and, post deconsecration, duly converted the church into a wine bar called Le Di-Vin. The towering wine bottle storage bins behind Le Di-Vin’s long bar and the numerous fridges show how seriously Le Di-Vin take their wine. This is further demonstrated by the wine menu of biblical proportions; Le Di-Vin offer around 60 glasses of wine by the glass and more by the bottle.

We ascended the staircase to Le Di-Vin’s mezzanine level, where the monotonous painted walls are in need of artwork. Le Di-Vin offer table service, although our high altitude location meant the service wasn’t as attentive as it should have been. Le Di-Vin has made great use of natural materials to produce an interior which is sympathetic to the building’s past, but whose future is geared to fine wine drinking.

An abundance of seats whether at the long bar, around the periphery or in the open space, mean Le Di-Vin is equally suitable for a quick glass of wine with your partner or several bottles of wine with friends and family. Thankfully background music was played at a level which contributes to the enjoyment of your visit. It was noted that a few comfortable leather sofas, surely necessary for a long evening in most wine bars, would be welcome additions. That said I’d still award Le Di-Vin high marks for the good wine bar design they have brought to Edinburgh’s West End.

The wines we drank at Le Di-Vin were:

Pinot Grigio Ramato (Rose) Giovanni Puiatti 06/07: A vibrant coloured rose with a defining raspberry flavour. Very palatable. £4.95 for 175ml.

Bergerac, Chateau des Eyssards 06: Fantastically fresh and fruity taste from the Sauvignon, which benefits from the weight of the Semillion. £5.25 for 250ml.

Mezzacorona, Castel Firmian 07: A great non-obtrusive Pinot Grigio with a clean and crisp flavour. Probably my favourite glass of the afternoon. £6.00 for 250ml.

We also had a glass of the Australian sparkling wine (£4.95, but name unfortunately forgotten). This was a good less dry alternative to Le Di-Vin’s Prosecco and, judging by the sound of the cork popping from below, was fresh out the fridge.

Obviously better value is given if drinking wine by the bottle at Le Di-Vin. Their wine selection really is impressive enough and interesting enough to keep both the casual wine drinker and wine aficionado coming back for more. The adjoining La P’tite Folie will obviously look to benefit from increased trade as wine drinkers look for good French food after a few glasses of wine. However Le Di-Vin itself offers a small menu which is entirely appropriate for the dazzling array of wine on offer. A small selection of cheese with bread is £6 or can be made large for £16. Smoked salmon and cucumber on a bed of soft cheese is £6.50 or a selection of saucisson, salami, home-made terrine, rillettes, ham and bread is yours for £8.50 or £15 depending on size. Disappointingly there were no chocolates available; given the choice of dessert wines it would be great for Le Di-Vin to offer a small selection of luxury chocolates.

I do hope Le Di-Vin are particular about the number/intentions of people allowed in at the weekends. The nearby Indigo Yard and Sygn lose what style/luring quality they have on Friday/Saturday nights when hundreds of drinkers descend and cause bottlenecks throughout the venues. Le Di-Vin strikes me as a wine bar for the discerning customer and a venue where couples and groups could enjoy a Friday/Saturday night out without having to push their way to the bar or shout to make themselves heard.

In summary Le Di-Vin is a very welcome addition to Edinburgh’s wine scene and provides a quiet, enjoyable and welcoming recess from the hustle and bustle (not to mention tram disruption!) of Edinburgh city centre.

Le Di-Vin Wine Bar is located at 9 Randolph Place, Edinburgh.
Telephone 0131 538 1815.

Yesterday was the first time The Edinburgh Blog has visited The Royal Highland Show, at Ingliston’s Royal Highland Centre. The Royal Highland Show really is a phenomenally huge event and there’s no doubt it provides a great day out. However a trip to The Royal Highland show isn’t cheap. Firstly there’s the transport cost: we paid £4 return for a special Lothian bus (which I’m sure had been brought out of a well earned retirement). Ridacards were not accepted and the Royal Highland show ticket wasn’t valid on other Lothian bus routes. Entry to the Royal Highland show was £20 per adult, although children under 16 were free. An advertising heavy programme and map was £3. Once inside the Royal Highland show the spending didn’t stop with a plethora of food and drink stalls.

The queue to enter The Royal Highland show from the East gate lasted 15 minutes, but paying by debit card proved a frustrating process with the card machines suffering information overload. Although it was tempting to make a rash combine harvester or tractor purchase from the huge range being exhibited by the gates, we began to navigate the crowds in search of The Countryside Arena. Once there, The Galloway falconry display was impressive, bettered only by their stand which had a range of stunning owls and birds of prey on show. Later in the day The Fife and Kinross Terrier Racing display was good fun, although the noise of the barking was ringing in my ears for a long time after. Dog owners were encouraged to enter their own dogs into the race, but none managed to get off the starting blocks! Later the countryside arena played host to an entertaining sheepdog display, with ducks masquerading as sheep: ‘The Quack Commandos’

I really enjoyed wandering around the sheep and cattle enclosures, especially seeing the baby Highland cows. The cattle enclosure also gave an appreciation of how large Aberdeen Angus cattle are. After a refreshing pint of Tennents (£3) and a very average cheeseburger (£3.50) we began our walk through the crowds to the Food and Drink exhibition. En route we spotted the Arbroath Smokies stand, where haddock was being freshly smoked. The Arbroath Smokie (£3) was absolutely delicious and this is one company which deserves its success.

The Food and Drink exhibition was very interesting, although it emphatically emptied my wallet. The MacSween haggis stand was excellent and their haggis (served with neeps and tatties for £4) was fantastically tasty. I also tried the Cranachan ice cream (£1.50 for cone with two scoops) from Orkney ice cream; this has to be one of the best ice creams I have ever tasted. Finally The Chocolate Fondue Company’s huge milk and white chocolate fountains proved too tempting to resist. My mixed marshmallow and strawberry skewer (£3.50) dipped in pure white chocolate was deliciously indulgent, as was a cup of pure hot chocolate (£3 and perhaps the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted). Anne Hemstock, as seen on Dragon’s Den, was at The Royal Highland show promoting her newly launched Fruitie Cutie product.

We ended the day at the Main Ring, after passing the Young Farmers tug of war competition, for The Royal Highland Show Grand Prix. £15,000 (as emphasised by the commentator on dozens of occasions) was on offer in prize money for this hugely enjoyable show jumping event. We stood by the ring, which gave a great view of the horses leaping over the obstacles of the challenging course.

Our journey back was hassle free, thanks to the plethora of Lothian buses waiting outside the East entrance. Overall The Royal Highland show is a must visit event, although it will be a few years before I head back. Our day out for two cost just under £75.

Further photographs from the 2008 Royal Highland Show are available.

It’s taken a few years but I’m now reasonably confident to label Delta on Roseburn Terrace Edinburgh’s Best Indian takeaway. The Edinburgh Blog’s judging criteria is quality/taste, value for money and service. Delta Indian takeaway, which is solely a takeaway/home delivery operation has consistently met or exceeded my expectation in all three categories. Oh and regular readers will know I value an Indian takeaway which provides complementary poppadoms. Thankfully Delta manage this feat!

Delta Indian takeaway is housed in small premises on Roseburn Terrace, perfect for picking up a curry on the way home from Murrayfield. All customers are offered a complementary coffee, which given the obvious link with alcohol perhaps isn’t a bad idea. That said the take up is probably low. Delta also have a good range of newspapers to read while you wait. The takeaway’s menu is a professional affair: thick paper, stapled sheets and impressively styled typography. Thankfully when the words come alive there is no disappointment.

The Balti set dinner for one person has surely been devised for those with insatiable appetites like myself. For £10.95 you receive Sabzi Pakora (5 tasty pakoras and side salad), chicken balti, pilau rice and nan. Given the sizable portions it’s somewhat acceptable (depending on size of your appetite) for your partner to order just a curry and share the rice and nan from the Balti set dinner. Delta Indian takeaway’s Chicken Balti is absolutely delicious. The portion size (including chicken) is good, but it’s the taste, which has bite but not too much which really impressed me. I also like a Balti which mixes the ingredients up so the plentiful onion and green chillies boosted this dish to Balti brilliance.

My fellow curry lover enjoyed Delta’s Chicken Pasanda (£6.25), which has only been bettered in Edinburgh by the extra creamy Pasanda of Sonar Gao. My pakoras were pretty good and I enjoyed the sauces they were served with. Curry dishes from Delta hang around the £6/£6.50 mark, nans just £1.95, side dishes £2.95 and pilau rice a fair £2.25.

The staff at Delta Indian takeaway are very friendly and the quality of takeaway food they produce is of little surprise. I have always collected my Indian takeaway order from Delta but friends have spoken highly of their delivery service (free delivery for orders over £12). The menu is fairly standard Indian takeaway fare, although some good fish and vegetarian dishes are available.

Overall I think Delta offer a great balance of quality curry, great service and value for money. Delta is my preferred Indian takeaway in Edinburgh and, through my experience alone, definitely Edinburgh’s Best Indian takeaway,.

Delta Indian takeaway is located at 27 Roseburn Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5NG

Telephone: 0131 3468973

Tickets for the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe went on sale today. You can purchase tickets through the edfringe.com website, by telephoning 0131 226 0000 or in person at the Fringe Box Office at 180 High Street, Edinburgh. Be sure you don’t miss the opportunity to purchase ‘2 for 1′ tickets for shows on the 3rd and 4th August.

Many of the trusted names we have come to expect and be entertained by like Stephen K Amos, Reginald Hunter, Jimmy Carr, Daniel Kitson, Omid Djalili, Rhona Cameron, Phil Nichol, etc. etc. are all back at the Fringe. I was pleased to see the hilarious Tim Vine back this year at the Pleasance. Jerry Sadowitz is also back with ‘Comedian, Magician, Psychopath II’ , following on from part I last year which was excellent. More interestingly Jerry Sadowitz is also running a late night ‘The People versus Jerry Sadowitz’, which is sure to entertain and disgust in equal measure!

A few shows which look like early hits are:

• ‘Vincent’ written by Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy). This stars Jim Jarrett as Vincent Van Gogh.
• Michael Barrymore playing Spike Milligan in the premiere of ‘Surviving Spike’

This year’s Festival Fringe is not without change. The four largest comedy venues (Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly) have created their own Edinburgh Comedy Festival within the Festival Fringe; I guess moves like this are inevitable. Unfortunately there is no mega event like Fuerzabruta last year, so the huge space outside Ocean Terminal will be empty this August. And The Edinburgh Blog has got used to big outdoor gigs in August, courtesy of T On The Fringe. With Tennents pulling the sponsorship this year there are no stadium events at Meadowbank, although ‘The Edge Festival’ will host gigs from Maximo Park, Scouting For Girls, Dizzee Rascal and Kate Nash at The Corn Exchange and The Liquid Room.

Thankfully we still get The Edinburgh Festivals’ Cavalcade on 5th August (2.30pm) and the free Fringe Sunday event on August 10th. The Edinburgh Blog will be providing further updates and reviews from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, so check back often.

Update: edfringe.com has not launched today due to computer problems. This is perhaps the biggest joke of all and very amateurish!

Murrayfield and rain are synonymous with The Edinburgh Blog venturing to Scotland’s national rugby stadium. Other plans prevented my attendance on the sun soaked Saturday of this year’s International Rugby Sevens tournament. I made it on Sunday, but unfortunately a six hour long torrential downpour put a dampener on the day. Nonetheless the International Rugby Sevens provided a hugely entertaining and great value for money day out. New Zealand ended Sunday as Edinburgh champions and also collected the IRB Sevens World Series title, after a very successful season.

We bought a £15 day ticket from the Roseburn Street ticket office and a programme for £3. A steady stream of people were making their way into Murrayfield and we found the lower tier of the East stand very busy. Later in the day the upper tier was also opened. Despite there being more people in the East stand the stage where winners were crowned and losers commiserated was built to face the West stand. On the pitches behind the West stand a ‘Festival of Rugby’ was taking place, which included International Women’s 7s and a warm up pitch. The Calcutta Cup was also on show. Disappointingly the heavy rain meant I and many others never visited the ‘Festival’.

I’m sure beer sales (Tennants £3.50 a plastic pint) were negatively affected by the adverse weather. There were some ‘fun’ loving Australians and New Zealanders who wore wet suits and slid down the muddy embankments, wore t-shirts stating “Blonde’s are not Bimbo’s’ and donned wigs. The doughnut food van was doing a roaring trade and soon exhausted their supply of hot drinks. Healthy food options were in short supply so I succumbed to burger and chips.

Anyhow none of the matches were real classics, which is partly attributable to the very difficult conditions caused by the rain. Towards the end of the day each time a player hit the ground there was a huge splash. Also the players’ boots were sinking into the Murrayfield pitch. Home crowd hopes ended early in the day when Scotland were put out of the Cup competition by New Zealand with a thumping 36-14 scoreline. Scotland made it through to the Plate final after a tense and exciting 19-14 victory against Fiji in extra-time (team who scores first in extra time wins). This was a good achievement considering Fiji finished fourth overall in the IRB 7s standings and are one of the most exciting 7s teams. Unfortunately the Scots were second best in the Plate final and lost out to South Africa 14-5.

England had earlier beaten South Africa 10-0 in the quarter final Cup after a superb first half performance and a scoreless second half. It was an all British affair in the semi-final Cup where England beat Wales 7-0 in a lacklustre match. The Cup Final saw New Zealand triumph over England, with three quick first half tries setting England too high a target.

Kenya were perhaps the comical highlight of the day, unless you count Moldova’s constant thrashings which I classed as more sombre. Kenya’s performance in the semi-final shield was quite comical as their mishandling, including an unfortunate fumble just yards from the try line, resulted in a 7-0 loss to Russia. Still the loud and colourful Kenyan fans in the West stand were not deterred and the Kenyan team did a lap of honour. Infact the laps of honour were an highlight of the day, with the French team sliding on their stomachs along the Murrayfield pitch infront of applauding fans.

Overall the International Rugby Sevens tournament really is a great day out, it’s just a shame the weather didn’t play its part on Sunday. I look forward to next years tournament! For more photos see flickr.

There were lots of advertisements at Murrayfield for the following events:

• Hibernian vs Barcelona, Thursday 24th July. A pre season football match. This follows on from last years friendly against Hearts. Adult tickets are £35/£30/£25.
• Heineken Cup Final 2009. 23rd/24th May 2009. Adult tickets are £25/£40/£60
• Autumn tests. Scotland versus New Zealand (8th November 2008), South Africa (15th November 2008) and Canada (22nd November 2008).
• 2009 Six Nations tickets. Scotland versus Wales (8th February 2009), Italy (28th February 2009) and Ireland (14th March 2009)

Tickets for all the events are on sale now and available from Scottish Rugby.