A pair of teams with minimal rest will face off in Nassau, Bahamas, on Sunday when No. 22 St. John takes on Georgia. St. John's (5-1), which will play its third game in four days, began the stretch in the Bahamas Championship on Thursday, dropping a heartbreaker to No. 13 Baylor. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Scenes from the City of Stockbridge’s 2024 Free Turkey Giveaway held Saturday at the Stockbridge Amphitheater. Click for more. PHOTOS: Turkey GiveawaySir Jim Walker CBE Born: June 13, 1944; Died: December 15, 2024 THE death, at the age of 80, of Sir Jim Walker brings to an end the trio of siblings who together made the family firm of Walker’s Shortbread a major presence in Scottish exports. Sir Jim became, while still in his teens, the Speyside company’s very first salesman and rose to become, along with his brother Joe, the joint managing director. With their sister Marjorie, who looked after the finances and later became company secretary, the brothers oversaw the remarkable growth of Walker’s Shortbread to the stage where it now sends more than 1,000 containers of product every year to 80 countries around the world. Last year, the turnover was £184million, with a workforce of around 1,400. Marjorie Walker OBE died, aged 83, in October 2023; Joe Walker OBE died in October 2021, at the age of 83. The close bond between the Walker siblings was illustrated a year ago when Sir Jim, speaking on a pre-recorded video address to The Herald’s annual Scottish Family Business Awards, highlighted the commitment made to the firm by his grandfather, father Jim, uncle Joe, and his brother and sister during their lifetimes. As he accepted an award for outstanding contribution he said that although he was the last surviving member of the third generation, five of the fourth generation and one of the fifth were involved in the company today. “There is no doubt that a family business that is not working well can be somewhat challenging,” he added. “And there is also no doubt that a family business working well can be unstoppable.” During his six decades with Walker’s he travelled ceaselessly at home and abroad, building many lasting friendships. He was, said his family, “intensely proud of being someone who could take Scotland to the world”. Recently he had stepped down from his responsibilities in favour of an advisory and ambassadorial role. A flavour of his gift for friendships comes from one tribute posted on the company’s Facebook page: “James was a true gentleman and an inspiration to so many. I had the pleasure of meeting him at New York Tartan Week in April and I have such fond memories of our chat about the north-east of Scotland.” Others have praised his charitable and community work. Moray-based powerlifter Graeme Reid wrote on Facebook that Sir Jim was “a gentleman and a true grafter” who had sponsored him to compete for Great Britain. Like Joe, James Nicol Walker was born in Elgin, to James and Winnie Walker, and, again like his brother, was educated at Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen. When he joined the family business, it had just 16 employees. “When the company started out it had a number of bakeries and when they first went into the manufacturing of shortbread, and making it part of their range, he decided to take it further afield and focus on selling it,” said his daughter, Bryony. “But he started out very informally, learning on the job as a salesperson, initially on just one afternoon a week. Over the years the company hired salespeople who had been more formally trained, and he learned from them. “He always had plans to join the family business. He talked about potentially being an accountant. He often said that one thing he would love to have done was to go to university.” Sir Jim himself once remarked: “There are many times that I wonder what I would like to do if I were to start afresh. However if I were simply to wind the clock back and find myself in the same place that I was in 1962, I would do exactly the same thing again except I would get a degree before coming into the business.” Bryony added that her father was excited to be part of a growing business. “One of the key things he asked himself was, where would he like to sell his shortbread if he could go anywhere. "The first place he chose was Harrod’s, in London, in late 1969. He felt that was the best-quality retailer that he could go to, so he went down there with his briefcase and a box of shortbread. “From there, he worked across Scotland and the rest of the UK. In 1978, he and Marjorie drove with a car boot filled with shortbread to attend an international trade show on the Continent for the very first time.” Read more John Burnside won’t be forgotten. He lives on in his poetry and novels Tributes to Herald journalist who reported Churchill's last words In their little car they battled through a snowstorm to get to the ferry. They drove non-stop to Hull, reaching the ferry with 20 minutes to spare and feeling enormous relief as they made the North Sea crossing to the Continent. “That got them exporting and he would visit many different countries and meet with distributors. So much of what he achieved was built on relationships with them. Many of them were family businesses, too, and we work with them to this day, some 30 or 40 years later.” Walker’s worked for decades with one particular American distributor and ended up buying it when the owner retired. It is now a subsidiary of Walker’s. (Image: Walker's) Currently, the firm’s biggest overseas markets are the US and Canada, Japan and Australia. Earlier this year Walker’s launched what it described as the world’s first interactive shortbread-vending machine, at Edinburgh Airport. Despite his successes and his awards – he was awarded a CBE for services to industry, and in 2022 he was knighted in Queen Elizabeth II’s last Birthday Honours list – he remained reliably self-effacing. “He genuinely was humble, I think,” said Bryony. “He loved the business and talking about business, but he also really loved meeting different people. Many have said that he showed such a real interest in them.” He is survived by his Canadian-born wife Jennifer, his children Jacqui, Jamie, Bryony and Alastair, and grandchildren Logan, Romy, Joshua, Torren, Joanie and Wyatt. RUSSELL LEADBETTER At The Herald, we carry obituaries of notable people from the worlds of business, politics, arts and sport but sometimes we miss people who have led extraordinary lives. That's where you come in. If you know someone who deserves an obituary, please consider telling us about their lives. Contact garry.scott@heraldandtimes.co.ukThese holiday gifts change the game when building fires, printing photos, watching birds and morewild ace jili demo 。

Voters in Ireland were more than usually busy in 2024, casting their ballot in five different polls – for two referenda in March, local and European ballots in June and a general election in November. The country’s political comings and goings were further punctuated by an emotional announcement in March from former premier Leo Varadkar that he was resigning as taoiseach and Fine Gael leader. He was succeeded the following month in both roles by Simon Harris. But the year had so much more to offer than just politics, and PA news agency photographers were on hand to capture some of the highlights.singer Paolo Nutini has donated over £100,000 to a community charity set up over 25 years ago to support those facing food poverty. The who previously staged a concert to raise funds for the Star Project and Doctors Without Borders, handed over the massive £101,886 check earlier this week. It came as the charity finished their 25-day celebration of the project which has supported over 60,000 people over two and a half decades. We previously reporter how the singer set up a concert in his home town in a bid to support the medical charity’s work in Gaza and to bolster the “amazing” efforts of the Star Project in tackling poverty, social isolation and mental well-being. Instead of buying tickets, fans entered a £3 raffle for a pair of tickets for the town hall show on August 6. This week the singer handed over the cash raised from the event - a massive moment for the charity which started off humbly with a drop-in at a tenement flat in Shortroods in 1999, reports the . Heather Kay, manager of the Star Project, said the Paisley concert was undoubtedly one of the many highlights of the past 25 years, explaining Paolo’s support had put the charity on the world stage. “We can’t thank Paolo, his team, all the wonderful people who text [to win a ticket] and the great people and organisations who helped us promote it enough,” Heather said. “Your generosity will make a huge difference and help us remain as responsive as possible to our community’s needs. “The concert itself was wonderful and it was great to see everyone excited; it was hugely positive for the Star Project and Paisley.” The gig however is just one of many highlights for the charity which was initially set up by local churches to tackle poverty and provide practical support to families in the Shortroods area. It tackles food poverty with a community fridge and pantry; tackles social isolation with a host of activities such as Men’s Shed and toddlers group Little Stars and neurodivergent support group; hosts a series of creative workshops and is integral to campaigning for change, working with Renfrewshire Council on making a fairer and more equal society. Devastated to see poverty retain such a tight group on Paisley, the Star Project and its members are however proud to still be here and more capable of supporting the community than ever. Heather said: “Building up to this birthday we were speaking with our community trustees about marking this big birthday and asking should we be celebrating when the need for support is higher than ever. “One of our members said, ‘it’s not about the need to be here but about celebrating the fact you are here’ and that was really important to hear. “In community work it is quite rare for a grassroots organisation to still be going after all this time. Our ethos, our approach has never changed and we have never lost sight of that; we haven’t morphed into anything else.”

Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83. Mark Young, Woolery's podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him,” Young wrote. Watch NBC Bay Area News 📺 Streaming free 24/7 Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978. In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV’s “Love Connection,” for which he coined the phrase, “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” a two-fingered signature dubbed the “2 and 2.” In 1984, he hosted TV’s “Scrabble,” simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990. “Love Connection,” which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then pick one for a date. A couple of weeks after the date, the guest would sit with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everybody about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest’s choice, “Love Connection” would offer to pay for a second date. Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite set of lovebirds was a man aged 91 and a woman aged 87. "She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, ‘I remember wagon trains.’ The poor guy. She took him on a balloon ride.” Other career highlights included hosting the shows “Lingo," “Greed” and “The Chuck Woolery Show,” as well as hosting the short-lived syndicated revival of “The Dating Game” from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated 1991 talk show. In 1992, he played himself in two episodes of TV’s “Melrose Place.” Woolery became the subject of the Game Show Network’s first attempt at a reality show, “Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned,” which premiered in 2003. It shared the title of the pop song in 1968 by Woolery and his rock group, the Avant-Garde. It lasted six episode and was panned by critics. Woolery began his TV career at a show that has become a mainstay. Although most associated with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, “Wheel of Fortune” debuted Jan. 6, 1975, on NBC with Woolery welcoming contestants and the audience. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it in Nashville as a singer. “Wheel of Fortune” started life as “Shopper’s Bazaar,” incorporating Hangman-style puzzles and a roulette wheel. After Woolery appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” singing “Delta Dawn,” Merv Griffin asked him to host the new show with Susan Stafford. “I had an interview that stretched to 15, 20 minutes,” Woolery told The New York Times in 2003. “After the show, when Merv asked if I wanted to do a game show, I thought, ‘Great, a guy with a bad jacket and an equally bad mustache who doesn’t care what you have to say — that’s the guy I want to be.’” NBC initially passed, but they retooled it as “Wheel of Fortune” and got the green light. After a few years, Woolery demanded a raise to $500,000 a year, or what host Peter Marshall was making on “Hollywood Squares.” Griffin balked and replaced Woolery with weather reporter Pat Sajak. “Both Chuck and Susie did a fine job, and ‘Wheel’ did well enough on NBC, although it never approached the kind of ratings success that ‘Jeopardy!’ achieved in its heyday,” Griffin said in “Merv: Making the Good Life Last,” an autobiography from the 2000s co-written by David Bender. Woolery earned an Emmy nod as host. Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery served in the U.S. Navy before attending college. He played double bass in a folk trio, then formed the psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde in 1967 while working as a truck driver to support himself as a musician. The Avant-Garde, which tourbed in a refitted Cadillac hearse, had the Top 40 hit “Naturally Stoned,” with Woolery singing, “When I put my mind on you alone/I can get a good sensation/Feel like I’m naturally stoned.” After The Avant-Garde broke up, Woolery released his debut solo single “I’ve Been Wrong” in 1969 and several more singles with Columbia before transitioning to country music by the 1970s. He released two solo singles, “Forgive My Heart” and “Love Me, Love Me.” Woolery wrote or co-wrote songs for himself and everyone from Pat Boone to Tammy Wynette. On Wynette’s 1971 album “We Sure Can Love Each Other,” Woolery wrote “The Joys of Being a Woman” with lyrics including “See our baby on the swing/Hear her laugh, hear her scream.” After his TV career ended, Woolery went into podcasting. In an interview with The New York Times, he called himself a gun-rights activist and described himself as a conservative libertarian and constitutionalist. He said he hadn’t revealed his politics in liberal Hollywood for fear of retribution. He teamed up with Mark Young in 2014 for the podcast “Blunt Force Truth” and soon became a full supporter of Donald Trump while arguing minorities don’t need civil rights and causing a firestorm by tweeting an antisemitic comment linking Soviet Communists to Judaism. “President Obama’s popularity is a fantasy only held by him and his dwindling legion of juice-box-drinking, anxiety-dog-hugging, safe-space-hiding snowflakes,” he said. Woolery also was active online, retweeting articles from Conservative Brief, insisting Democrats were trying to install a system of Marxism and spreading headlines such as “Impeach him! Devastating photo of Joe Biden leaks.” During the early stages of the pandemic, Woolery initially accused medical professionals and Democrats of lying about the virus in an effort to hurt the economy and Trump’s chances for reelection to the presidency. “The most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, media, Democrats, our doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it,” Woolery wrote in July 2020. Trump retweeted that post to his 83 million followers. By the end of the month, nearly 4.5 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19 and more than 150,000 had died. Just days later, Woolery changed his stance, announcing his son had contracted COVID-19. “To further clarify and add perspective, COVID-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for of those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones,” Woolery posted before his account was deleted. Woolery later explained on his podcast that he never called COVID-19 “a hoax” or said “it’s not real,” just that “we’ve been lied to.” Woolery also said it was “an honor to have your president retweet what your thoughts are and think it’s important enough to do that.” In addition to his wife, Woolery is survived by his sons Michael and Sean and his daughter Melissa, Young said.Canadian men win RAN Sevens tournament, qualify for World Rugby Challenger Series