Alastair Cranston is a

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

politician and a

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

Scottish Borders Council The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the ...

for the Hawick and Denholm ward. He previously was a

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player.

Political career

Born in

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

on 11 December 1949, in the Borders Region, he was recruited by the SNP, after failing to win the

Scottish Conservative The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 30 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Par ...

nomination, to contest the Hawick and Denholm ward for the party in the 2012 Scottish Borders Council election. 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 The Scottish Liberal Democrats () is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party holds 5 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, 6 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons and 86 of 1 ...

. 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

Amateur career

He played for

Provincial career

He was capped by South of Scotland District.

International career

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

; for whom he played as a

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

and won 19 caps between 1976 and 1981.

Administrative career

In 2002, he was appointed Chief Executive of the Borders Reivers rugby union team. His tenure lasted until 2005.

Business career

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. Of Cranston's concept, Chairman Guy Lee of the BMR stated:

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

External links

Alastair Cranston Council page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranston, Alastair 1949 births Living people Scottish rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish National Party councillors Rugby union players from Hawick South of Scotland District (rugby union) players Hawick RFC players Scotland 'B' international rugby union players Rugby union centres