Looking forward to a new season

Curling Today is back, refreshed and raring to go for a new season! The Scottish Curler magazine will be returning too. I'm working on the first issue already and if all goes well the October magazine will go into the mail to subscribers in the last week of September. The team are in training!

So what curling is there to look forward to in September? Politics thankfully will take second place to seeing curlers enjoying their sport again as rinks open for action!

The men's teams of the World Curling Tour-Europe have an early season start at the Baden Masters. David Murdoch's side are the only Scottish representatives in this sixteen team triple knockout event, September 5-7. Later in the month, September 25-27, twenty women's teams and twenty-five men's teams will compete in the Radisson SAS Oslo Cup. I see that the provisional lineup for that event includes Team Murdoch as well as the John Hamilton and Peter Loudon teams. Four Scottish teams are in the women's event under the names of Kelly Wood, Gail Munro, Sarah Reid and Claire Milne. More nearer the time!

No live webcasting yet from most WCT-e events, although Swiss Sport Television will broadcast a curling game on Sunday mornings. It will be interesting to see if that can be picked up on the web here. Looking at some of the sports in the broadcaster's archive on the website menu, the quality is pretty good. Click on 'Bob' to see! All right then, click on the 'Cheerleading' button!

The WCT-e has a newsletter. Download the most recent issue here. Much credit to WCT-e Tour Director Armin Harder in his efforts to create a better, more professional tour, on high quality ice, with more venues, and increased prize money through television and sponsorship! I'll try to make sure that Curling Today highlights the best of curling in Europe, and how Scotland's top teams get on in the months ahead!

The European Mixed Championship is in Kitzbuhel, Austria, September 22-27. The event website is here. Alan Smith and his team of Gillian Howard, David Mundell and Karen Strang are our representatives. Should be a great competition.

At home, I'm looking forward to the Greenacres Junior Invitation at the Renfrewshire rink September 19-21, and that will be the first opportunity to see some of the new junior sides in action this season. Before that I hope to see some of the National Squad teams on the ice at Aberdeen. And Greenacres will also host a weekend for the country's Regional Academy athletes, an initiative of RCCC Performance Development Coach Rhona Martin.

Remember Primetime? The first programme in the series is tonight. Kelso's bid comes under scrutiny next Monday. Get ready to vote. But more about all this before then.

Just a reflection on the past couple of weeks. Congratulations to Team GB at the Olympics in China. Super coverage too on the BBC! Success and failure! The emotions! Of course next time, in around sixteen months time, all attention will be on the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. These months will go by quickly. Have you met Miga and Quatchi yet, two of the Vancouver mascots? If not, check them out here. Keen curlers they are too!
This pin is available on eBay.

It's nice to be back!