12/02/2008

This year’s Highlands and Islands Press Ball has raised £2400 for charity...and the hacks at the swanky do in a deluxe Nairn hotel had first-hand experience of the new unwritten code of ‘responsible’ drinking.

The event, the 20th, has, as its main sponsor, a multi-national drinks group, and it has been the habit in the past that free bottles of malt whisky and Baileys liqueur have been placed on the tables of ten. This sometimes led to unseemly competition by thirsty guests to over-indulge in the free hooch.

However, this year, with deference to the ‘responsible’ drinking ethos, there were no free bottles on the tables but occasional free drinks were delivered with decorum to the tables in sensible modicums.

The occasion, which is master-minded by The Scotsman’s man in the Highlands, John Ross, saw Noel Donaldson, a reporter with the Caithness Courier and John O'Groat Journal weekly, win the Barron Trophy, which recognises lifetime achievement in journalism in the Highlands and Islands.

A former journalist of the year for the Highlands and Islands, Noel has spent a total of 47 years in the business. He joined the Wick-based freelance agency run by his late father, John ‘Hot News’ Donaldson, at the age of 15, and took over the agency in 1967.

Successive jobs took him from The Orcadian, to the Banffshire Advertiser, the Ellon Times, the Largs and Millport Weekly News and the Greenock Evening Telegraph. He set his compass for home, in his native Wick, 15 years ago.

Since then Noel, a professional accordionist in his leisure time, has been a reporter with the Caithness Courier and John O'Groat Journal, covering news and producing a regular column, Wicker's World, with its mix of opinions, anecdotes, nostalgic snippets and archive photos.

Both his sons are in journalism - James is production editor with the Aberdeen Evening Express and David is a radio journalist in Newcastle.

Gordon Fyfe, chair of the  awards' judging panel, said: "Noel has been a superb servant to journalism in Caithness and beyond, a news-hound of the old school whose ability to sniff out a story remains undimmed by the passage of years. Highly regarded by colleagues and hugely supportive of trainees in the office, Noel understands what a reporter on a local newspaper needs to be. He has the ability to connect with his readers and his Wicker's World is a great example of this.”


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