Wrapping up the weekend

It was another busy weekend to round up! Let's start off with the Edinburgh International, a new WCT-e event, although the competition and the trophy have a long history. The winners (above) were L-R Andy Kapp (skip), Holger Hohne (2nd), Andy Lang (3rd) and Andreas Kempf (lead). The results are here.

A few more reminders of Murrayfield follow:

The runners-up received the famous Berne Bear trophy. L-R Conny Llungqvist, Goran Carlsson (skip), Morgan Bergkvist and Magnus Ekdahl.

You don't often see Andy Kapp getting this excited on the ice!

Goran Carlsson

The Senior Championships shared the stage on Sunday with the International event. The winners were L-R Alan Collett, Frank Forrest, Jim Wood and Michael Sutherland (skip) who beat Alan Durno's team of Peter Fraser, Willie Young and Mike Watt in the final. Gary Macfarlane's side beat Ken Watson's team in the Low Road. Find the linescores and other results here.

My favourite pic from the Seniors final!

Now this is the furthest travelled fan at Murrayfield this weekend. Andrea Boling had come from Florida. Highlight of this self-confessed curling groupie's Scottish holiday was to be watching David Murdoch play! However, Team Murdoch exited early and Andrea didn't get the chance to watch her curling idol. When the Ed heard about the story he rounded up RCCC President Matt Murdoch, whose main claim to fame of course is that he is David's dad, and arranged for Andrea to meet him instead. Not sure how impressed Andrea was, but we all hope her holiday this week in Scotland will have better outcomes!

Elsewhere, in Wetzikon in the International ZO Women's Tournament, Vicki Adams, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird won three of the five games in their section, but just missed out, on ranking, on getting through to the playoff stages. Mirjam Ott's team won that WCT-e title.

At Greenacres, in the U-17 Baljaffray competition, Blair Fraser, Thomas Sloan, Kirsten McNay and Jennifer Martin beat Gavin Reid, Kyle Waddell, Craig Waddell and Andrew Muir in the final. The scores are all on the RCCC website here.

But my player of the weekend award goes to Angie Malone (below). Many of those who follow wheelchair curling will know that Angie, a Paralympic silver medallist from Pinerolo and a member of the current GB squad, has been fighting some health concerns. Despite her worries, she decided to play in the British Open this weekend at Kinross. And she skipped her team of Ian Donaldson, Jim Elliot and Jim Taylor to a 6-4 win over Jim Gault's side in the final! Results are all here.

Angie, we're all rooting for you!

Pics by Bob.

Murrayfield climax

Two great semifinals, both going to an extra end, set up the afternoon at the Edinburgh International Curling Championship, sponsored by Belhaven Best. Andy Kapp of Germany played a double takeout with last stone to beat Warwick Smith's side in the ninth, and Goran Carlsson from Sweden had a straightforward draw to the eight foot to beat Hammy McMillan's side in extra time.

So it was a Sweden - Germany game for the Edinburgh International trophy. Kapp stole a single at the second and were always in control. A two at the sixth gave the German side a 5-2 lead and they were two ahead coming home with the hammer at the last. Kapp, Andy Lang, Holger Hoehne and Andreas Kempf were the champs at Murrayfield.

The final of the Seniors' event was contested by the teams skipped by Michael Sutherland and Alan Durno. Sutherland with Jim Wood, Frank Forrest and Alan Collett came out on top.

Top: Andy's German team working hard. Above: Michael Sutherland.

You can find all the linescores here.

Pics by Bob. More later.

Strictly Curling at Murrayfield

So Brucie, shall we ask the judges for their comments on today's play at Murrayfield?

"They'll need the audience vote to keep them in."

"I'd like to have seen a little more aggression."

"You lost a bit of bounce on your voltas!"

"You could have been a bit more precise."

"You make such a lovely couple." (Would anyone like to sponsor the Ed's stones?)

"Would tonight's curlers please take to the ice."

"Men in Black was probably not the best theme for your samba, although the choice of Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer, was rather appropriate music!"

"Arrogant, full of attitude.... I loved it!"

(Unfortunate - and I'm sure accidental - placement of a team nameplate as seen on the webcast that went out round the World! The sponsor's product is really very nice.)

"I liked the intensity and arm movements."

"Gripping tale of a tango."

"You were like Cinderella, and tonight you ARE going to the ball."

"Soul tingling."

"Fab - U - Luss!"

"SeVEN!"

Don't phone now. The lines aren't open and you may be charged.

The couples going straight through to the quarterfinals at 08.30 on Sunday are:
Niklas Edin
David Edwards
Goran Carlsson
Hammy McMillan

Smith, Stock, Shaw, Kapp, Meister, Brewster, Kiiskinen, Hamilton and Sik are in the dance off.

The results are all here. The webcast is here.

Saturday at Murrayfield

Here we are in Murrayfield at the Edinburgh International Championships, sponsored by Belhaven Best. This is Hammy McMillan.

Andy Kapp's German team in action.

Finland is here, as you can see!

David Sik's Czech team are one of eleven countries competing in this WCT-e event.

Today's Caption Competition. They say Organising Committee chairman Trevor Dodds had hair before he started to organise the event! Here talking to David B Smith, Scotland's curling history guru.

John Hamilton

Here is the webcasting crew. Bob Kelly and Kenny Edwards doing the commentary this morning. That's Colin Mouat working a camera. Alex Mitchell i/c production in the background. Find the stream here. Scores here.

Pics by Bob.

Scottish Curler team member Robin Copland has these thoughts about yesterday's play. Good with words is our Copey. (But please don't expect full reports like this from every competition from now on! Unless of course every event recruits a good press officer who knows about the game and is willing to write for Curling Today!). Over to Copey....

A great day’s curling in Edinburgh

The first day of the Edinburgh International sponsored by Belhaven Best threw up some interesting games and provided a lively audience with a couple of shock results.

Perhaps the toughest section is A, with three fancied teams – and only two quarter-final places available. A key game in this section pitted David Edwards against the impressive Swedes skipped by Niklas Edin. Niklas himself has an impressive four Swedish Junior titles to his credit and an even more impressive haul of one Gold and three Silver medals in the World Junior Championship to his name. His three team mates, Sebastian Kraupp, Fredrik Lindberg and Viktor Kjall also have recent International experience, including a brave bronze medal at the 2007 World University Games in Pinerolo, playing with three players after one of their number fell ill at the start of the competition.

Niklas won this game, in the end fairly convincingly and Edwards found himself under pressure after only one game. Both he and Edin won their second section games and, in the third round, Edwards faced David Murdoch, cruising after two wins (although his second was only after an extra end final draw to the four foot against an impressive Dutch foursome, skipped by Mark Neeleman).

The first four ends between these two normally attacking teams was a dour (though impressively so!) affair until Graham Sloan managed to place a guard in end 5. Thereafter, it was 'game on' with a lot of excellent attacking play culminating in an eighth end steal for Team Edwards. This result brings them right back into contention; their two last games in the section are against an unlucky Jamie Dick - he lost an agonising 'last stone, last end' game against England’s Andrew Reed - and Mark Neeeleman.

Edin and Murdoch play off at 5.30pm on Saturday in a game that might very well become a 'must win' for David - especially if David Edward manages to win his last two games.

Meanwhile, in Section B, Pete Loudon and his team of Logan Gray, Richard Woods and Al Guthrie had a mixed day at the office, though they are still in contention on one win and two losses. They had the beating of Göran Carlsson, but a four shot swing when Pete’s attempted hit and roll for three turned into a horror jam for a lost one did for them in the end. They were lacklustre against a rampant Seb Stock but managed to get a score on the board with a tight win against Italy’s Joel Retornaz. Carlsson leads that section on three straight wins; Warwick Smith lost to both Colin Hamilton and Carlsson and finds himself in a dogfight that he probably thought he would avoid!

Sections C and D only had two games on Friday and each team faces three games on Saturday. In Section C, Tom Brewster won a tight game against Kalle Kiiskinen, who in the earlier session had taken the scalp of John Hamilton. John went on to lose a game that he probably will have felt he should have won against David Sik from the Czech Republic and thus finds himself propping up the table on zero wins and two losses. Strange to report, he is not out of it as Tom Brewster is the only team on two wins – everyone has else has dropped a game.

In Section D, the crowd was witness to some vintage Hammy McMillan play. Fresh from his Galleon Mini Tour victory, he accounted for John J Kenny’s Irish team, skipped in John’s absence by P J D Wilson, and the young Swiss team, skipped by Florian Meister. He sits alone at the top of the table with the only senior team in the competition, the former World Champion Rink skipped Keith Prentice, propping up the bottom of the table. That said, Keith forced Andy Kapp to play a difficult four foot draw for the game. Kapp had earlier lost to Graham Shaw in another tight game that went to an extra end.

The planned webcast of the first game was hijacked by technical difficulties – a shame, because it would have been good to see the team of the moment, Niklas Edin, in action. The second game seemed to be received, but in some cases without sound. The third game suffered a similar plight! Eventually, by draw four in the afternoon, the gremlins were put to the sword. Kenny Edwards, on a long hard road to recovery after a horror motor cycle accident at Knockhill, teamed up with Keith MacLennan to provide commentary on the Hammy McMillan v Florian Meister game; Robin Copland and Bob Kelly took over the commentary duties for the last round of the day game between the Davids Edwards and Murdoch.

Alex Mitchell oversaw things and Samantha Mooney, Stuart Dodds and Lesley Arrowsmith waggled the cameras!

There should be some cracking games tomorrow. There was a grand atmosphere in the bar, but there was more room down in the ice hall - take your pick!

Edinburgh International webcast

Initial problems in getting the webcasting of the Edinburgh International up and running this morning appear to have been resolved.

The link is here. There will no doubt be discussion of how successful it is/has been on the Scottish Curling Forum here.

End by end scores of all the games can be found here.

Eve in Wetzikon, but not really!

All eyes may be on the Edinburgh International at Murrayfield, but there is another WCT-e event this weekend, the ZO in Wetzikon, in the women's tour.

Eve Muirhead's team is listed in the draw for this 24-team event. But she won't be there. Instead, Karen Addison, Vicki Adams, Rachael Simms and Annie Laird will line up as the Institute four.

Four sections of six, five games. The Scots are up first against Petra Tschetsch from Germany at 12.30 tomorrow (Friday).

Find the results here. If you want to see what the rink looks like it has a webcam here.

Our under-17 teams are in action too this weekend at the Baljaffray in Greenacres. Twenty-two teams are signed up. The draw is here.

This is the second version of the post. First version had incorrect info, sorry.

Getting it out there

Curling Today goes where no other curling blogs dare to venture. Yes, this is really a photo of the inside of the Gents toilet at the Murrayfield curling rink! You see, like the organisers of events anywhere in the world, those involved with this weekend's Edinburgh International Curling Championship, sponsored by Belhaven Best, want to make sure that ALL the club members know what's about to happen at the rink, and want to encourage them to come along and support!

What better place to put a poster. Eye level, cannot be missed. The Editor is not privvy (sorry) to whether similar notices are on the back of the doors of the cubicles in the Ladies'!

Actually, plans to webcast of the weekend’s games have been finalised, for those who really cannot get along to the rink. Volunteer junior members of Edinburgh Curling Club have already had a training session from Alex Mitchell, the coordinator of the project. One of their number, Samantha Mooney, is a photography student.

Five games on Friday and five on Saturday will be broadcast over the web. Overhead cameras over three of Murrayfield’s seven sheets have been in place since the summer and pictures from those cameras will be mixed with pictures from two cameras in the bar above the sheets.

The preliminary schedule is:

Friday
9.30am Niklas Edin v David Edwards
12.00 noon John Hamilton v Kalle Kiiskinen
2.30pm Göran Carlsson v Warwick Smith
6.00pm Florian Meister v Hammy McMillan
8.30pm David Edwards v David Murdoch

Saturday
9.00am Andy Kapp v Florian Meister
11.30am Peter Loudon v Warwick Smith
2.00pm Alan Smith v Kalle Kiiskinen
5.30pm David Murdoch v Niklas Edin
8.00pm Tom Brewster v David Sik

For the semifinal and final games, it is planned to have two on-ice cameras to supplement the existing cameras.

Commentators will include Bob Kelly and Robin Copland from Edinburgh, Mairi Milne and Keith MacLennan from Perth and Kenny Edwards from Lockerbie. Keith and Kenny will be working together on at least a couple of occasions and doubtless they will provide a refreshing insight into the modern game! It will be good to see Kenny back in a curling rink, as his recovery continues (see here)!

The Seniors competition, the warm up to the main course, got underway today. Find the results here. This is Royal Club Board Chairman Bob Tait doing the hard work!

And this is Kirsty Letton's front end Pat Orr and Anne MacDougall doing the hard work on Judy Mackenzie's stone on their way to defeating Jimmy Green's Borders side.

Pics by Bob.

Heading for Murrayfield

The Murrayfield rink is the place to be this week! With the revamped Edinburgh International, a new WCT-e competition, set to get underway on Friday, the attention tomorrow is on the Seniors' competition. Sixteen teams have entered. They will play league matches in four different sections of four teams at 10.00 and 15.00 on Wednesday and Thursday. The winners of each section advance to the High Road semifinals. There's a Low Road too.

The draw can be downloaded from here.

The semifinals and finals of the seniors event will share the stage with the semifinals and final of the Edinburgh International on Sunday, November 30.

Weekend report

The main thing to report, for me at any rate after this weekend, is that December's Scottish Curler magazine is now just about ready to go to press on Tuesday! But there was a lot of curling on this weekend and I was frustrated at not being able to see any of it first hand. The scores on the Royal Club website were my lifeline to what was going on.

At Aberdeen, Curling Today's 'kiss of death' after Friday's build up saw Mairi Milne and her new team just win one of their four games in the first weekend of the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies' Curling Championship! Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood had a good weekend, with wins over Milne's side and those of Judith McFarlane and Gillian Howard. Their only loss was to Sarah Reid's team of Kerry Barr, Barbara McFarlane and Laura Kirkpatrick.

World Junior Champ Eve Muirhead skipped her 'put together' team for the season's Scottish - Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird - and shares the top of the table position with Team Wood, winning three games. In fact their only loss was at an extra end to Gillian Howard.

What of the Scottish Champion Gail Munro? Gail and Lyndsay had a new front end in the shape of Kerry Adams and Sharon Stewart. They won two (against Howard and Milne), and lost two (against Reid and McFarlane), and are still in contention.

It all remains wide open for the next Championship rounds, but these are not until January 31 at Kinross.

Mike Haggerty's roundup is here.

At Kilmarnock, Hammy McMillan, Philip Wilson, Ross Paterson and Sandy Gilmour beat David Edwards, Moray Combe, Gavin Fleming and Graham Sloan in the final of the third of the men's mini tour events. With his win in Lockerbie in the second of the competitions, this gave McMillan's side the overall Mini Tour title, the Colin Galbraith trophy, and a foreign trip next season.

It wasn't an easy road for Team McMillan though, as they lost two early games and only came through from their section after a tiebreaker.

One of the incentives for entering the Mini Tour this season was that if you did well your team could avoid the pre-qualifier and get through directly to the main Scottish Championship qualifying weekends. The Competitions Manager's report is here. As I understand it, the teams who were not already through by virtue of their performance in the finals (ie David Edwards and Colin Hamilton) last season and who benefit from their mini tour performances this season are Hammy McMillan, Keith MacLennan, Jamie Dick, Scott Hamilton, Alan Smith, Alan Manuel and Lee McCleary. Have I got this right? Someone will no doubt tell me if I haven't! The mini tour standings tables are here if you want to try figure it out for yourself.

Top: Team McMillan at the Galleon. L-R Hammy McMillan, Philip Wilson, Ross Paterson, Sandy Gilmour. Photo by Richard Gray.

The pressure will be on Kelly

Gail Munro (above) may well be the reigning Scottish Champion with a new team for this season's Columba Cream Scottish Women's Curling Championship, but it will be Kelly Wood's side who I suspect will be feeling the pressure at Curl Aberdeen this weekend. Kelly, Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood are off to the European Championships as Scotland's representatives next month, having edged Edith Loudon's team in a five game playoff, described here.

With Edith now retired, Mairi Milne, Claire Milne, Lynn Cameron and Katie Loudon are the new girls on the block this weekend. They played together in Oslo early in the season and are undoubtedly a team with the potential to be in the mix when it comes to the final rounds of the Championship next February. No prize for guessing who the Milne team plays in their first game at 12.30 this Saturday - it's Team Wood!

Wood's other games this weekend are against Judith McFarlane, Sarah Reid and Gillian Howard.

After Vernon, Gail and Lyndsay Wilson have had to find a new front end. Just who has been a secret until now - mimicking a tactic used by the GB Squad of not naming the team prior to the competition, keeping the opposition guessing. So, who will line up for Munro at Curl Aberdeen on Saturday? Curling Today can exclusively reveal that.............. xxxxx xxxxx will be lead, and xxxxxx xxxxxxx will be second! (I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you!)

Sadly, getting the December Scottish Curler ready to go to press will keep me away from Aberdeen this weekend. Ah well, I can look forward to the day when such events are webcast to one and all! In the meantime, I'll be following the results on the Royal Club website here, and you can also read Mike Haggerty's preview here.

Actually, I would like to be at Aberdeen for tomorrow's Q&A session (5pm and 6pm Friday evening at the curling rink), an opportunity for members to sit down with Bob Tait, the Royal Club Chairman. There are lots of questions even before this takes place, like 'Why should there be a need for such an event?' As I've said before, I wonder if anyone will turn up?

I found the atmosphere at the last AGM particularly acrimonious, and I would hope that this does not carry forward to what is really a positive and forward looking initiative by the Royal Club Board. It's good to talk!

Elsewhere, life goes on on the ice. I note that Germany and China have qualified for the World Wheelchair Curling Championship from the special ten country qualifying competition that has been going on this week in Prague. Germany and China will now join Canada, Korea, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and USA in Vancouver.

Sadly, Japan did not. You may remember that it was only the matter of a few centimetres which kept Scotland in the main world event after the competition in Sursee last season when relegation was decided on the basis of the draw shot challenge results rather than extra games. Japan was the country that lost out then. They did compete in Prague, finishing in sixth place with a 4-5 win-loss record. The linescores are here, and the summary report here.

At Greenacres, the qualifying rounds of the men's Scottish Masters Championship (for over 60s) have been taking place. Six sections of five, four games each, to find the top two in each section. Twelve teams progress to the finals next March. Teams skipped by the following have won through: Gifford Rickard, Walter Brown, William Shanks, Jim Stevenson, Ian Dykes, John Phillips, Bob Smellie, Michael Sutherland, Jim Bryson, David Smith, Jack Steven and Sandy Reid. Find all the scores here.

Twelve womens' teams are directly through to the finals which are again at the Greenacres Rink, March 5-8.

This weekend the last of the men's Mini Tour events takes place at the Galleon Centre. Find the draw for that, and follow the results, here. That's quite a section with Hammy McMillan, Alan Smith, Graham Shaw and Andrew Reid. Hammy won in Lockerbie. Can he rack up a second win in Kilmarnock and win the Colin Galbraith Trophy. We shall see!

And did you notice that the GB Squads are going to benefit from sponsorship from Primary General, and were on the ice in a public relations role yesterday? Read the story here.

Gail Munro's photo is by Richard Gray.

Looking ahead to Swift Current... and back to Vernon

It was announced today by the World Curling Federation and the Canadian Curling Association that the 2010 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship will be held in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, March 20-28.

Where is Swift Current? It's west of Moose Jaw heading towards Medicine Hat. The twelve-country Worlds will be played at the Credit Union i-plex, a hockey arena complex which underwent a $15 million renovation in 2007. There are lots of pics of the renovations here, on the Swift Current Broncos site where the photo above is from. The arena will seat approximately 2,400 for the championship, and has a number of corporate suites. There is also a six sheet curling rink in the complex.

The full press release can be found on the CCA website here.

The problem for some of us here in Scotland of course is that we find it hard to look forward to a future women's world event when we are still looking back at what happened in Vernon! I'm sure no-one needs reminded of the story, but if you do, you can find what I've written about it on Curling Today. Start here and here. Or from another source here. It is an issue which at the time made Scotland the laughing stock of the curling world, and the indecent time it has taken to conduct an investigation, to find out what really happened and to ensure that such a thing never happens again, has not done anything to improve the reputation of our governing body. Please, let's get this resolved, for everyone's sake.

I have some information today, little though it is! The investigation is ongoing apparently, in the hands of lawyer Michael Nicholson. The lack of hard information coming from the Royal Caledonian Curling Club is frustrating. But it seems to be common knowledge according to some recent posts on the Scottish Curling Forum that there has been a delay caused by .... who knows for sure?

This afternoon, I asked Colin Grahamslaw, the Royal Club CEO, if there was any progress to report. He was not in a position to give details (yes, there is still a media blackout in place) but he assured me that Michael Nicholson will produce a report, although as yet there is no timescale. Grahamslaw offered 'within a month'. Let's hope so!

Now, the Royal Club has made a big thing of the Board Chairman, Bob Tait, getting out and talking to members. The first Q&A session is at Aberdeen this Friday evening, to which all members have been invited, see here. I wonder if anyone will ask about the Vernon enquiry?

Oh, and don't forget, the first rounds of this season's Columba Cream Scottish Women's Championship are this Saturday at Curl Aberdeen. The draw is here.

Sports Minister at Lockerbie

It was a big day for curling in Lockerbie as Sports Minister Stewart Maxwell and sportscotland Chief Executive Stewart Harris were in town to officially open the upgraded Lockerbie Ice Rink, which received sportscotland funding. Also announced officially today was the sportscotland annual investment in the governing body for curling, the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

As previously reported (see here and here), Lockerbie Ice Rink received a sportscotland investment of £214,151 to enhance their facilities including the upgrade to the refrigeration plant and changing rooms, improving the insulation and installing energy efficient light and a lift for wheelchair users.

I liked the header for today's press release, 'Leaving no stone unturned - sportscotland supports curling development!' £385,000 has been granted for the development of the sport across the country. This investment will play an important part in enabling the Royal Club to grow and develop the sport at every level. To quote from the press release, "A drive to increase participation at grassroots level is complemented by a strong coach development programme to ensure that curlers are given every opportunity to progress, becoming the stars of the future who will carry on Scotland’s proud curling tradition."

This is the money that goes towards ACDO salary contributions, all the aspects of the Royal Club's development and coaching programmes, and the National and Regional Academy initiatives. In addition, the Scottish Institute of Sport, the high performance arm of sportscotland, receives an additional £200,000 to support the national coaches and the elite teams.

The full text of today's press release can be found here.

Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland said, “Curling is one of Scotland’s most successful sports with thirty-five medals on the world stage over the last ten years but investment in the sport is essential if we are to continue that excellent track record. The sportscotland funding of £385,000 to the RCCC will allow them to build on this success and nurture the champions of the future."

In 2007-08 sportscotland invested over £11.5 million in forty-one sports governing bodies.

Stewart Maxwell addresses a large number of guests at the rink.

After a short lesson from David Murdoch and Euan Byers, the Sports Minister lines up for his first ever curling delivery, with young curlers Thomas Sloan, Alice Spence, Hannah Fleming and Lisa Jardine in attendance. Needless to say, his stone finished in the four foot!

Mind you, it could not have been easy with all these lenses pointed at him. Our Sports Minister is definitely a good sport!

Pics by Bob.

What else happened at the weekend?

The ROK Highland Junior International at Inverness occupied my attention at the weekend, but curling life was still going on elsewhere.

At Greenacres, Midlothian Province won the National Province Championship. Mike Dick's winning rink from Carrington CC comprised Alastair Galloway and Kirsty Galloway with a substitute - none other than RCCC Competitions Manager Colin Hamilton in place of Trevor Dodds, who was in Inverness coaching his daughter Jennifer's team. Mike Haggerty's roundup of the event is here. (Hugh Stewart's photo above shows L-R Kirsty Galloway, Alastair Galloway, Colin Hamilton, Bill Marshall, RCCC Vice-president, Mike Dick and Elma Paterson of Greenacres)

Five men's teams competed in the WCT-e Lucerne Trophy. Three (Team Murdoch, Team Brewster and Team Smith) made it to the quarterfinals, although only the GB Squad made it any further, bowing out in the semi against Andi Schwaller, who won the event. The Lucerne website has Ewan MacDonald as skip of the GB Squad at the weekend. If anyone can confirm this before I can find out for sure, then please use the comment box! For the linescores, the event website is here.

The World Wheelchair Curling Qualifying Competition is well underway already in Prague. The results and standings are here. There are ten teams involved. The top two will qualify for the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Vancouver, February 21-28. This will be a test event for the 2010 Paralympics.

The teams are playing a round robin, then a Page playoff where 1 plays 2, with the winner qualifying as No 1. The loser plays the winner of 3 v 4 and the winner of that game also qualifies.

Just a final note from Inverness. I posed a question about the connection between Marco Pasquale, skip of the Italian junior men's team, and the Greenacres rink. The answer is below, and makes me feel very old!

The Editor used to help out with the coaching at the Greenacres rink in the early 1980s. One family, the Simpsons, were very supportive at the rink and there were two daughters who both took up the sport and became good curlers. One of them, Fiona, was the best ever student - mastering the sliding delivery as fast as I've ever seen it done. You see, she was a ballet dancer! Her career took her to Italy working with her dance company, she met an Italian policeman, fell in love...... (I do like a good romance), married, had a family, and lived happily ever after. That is, until the curling rink opened in Pinerolo, near where they lived. Then it got even better.

Cutting a long story short, this is their son Marco, skipping the Italian team at Inverness!

The other sister, Morna Simpson, married World Junior Champ David Aitken, and the curling genes from that partnership can be seen in their daughters Gina and Tasha who, alongside their cousin Marco, were both competing at Inverness. This pic is Gina who substituted for Vicki Adams in Eve Muirhead's team yesterday. Sarah Macintyre and Anna Sloan are the sweepers. Her birthday is today, so 'Happy Birthday Gina' from us all!

Photos by Bob and the third episode of 'Curling Family Trees' is next month!

Inverness report

Just a quick update from Inverness. This is the Swedish side (L-R: Kristian Lindstrom, 4th, Oscar Eriksson, skip, Henrik Leek, alternate, Alexander Lindstrom, 2nd, and Christoffer Sundgren, lead) who won the ROK Highland Junior International at the weekend, defeating Kerr Drummond, Blair Fraser, Tom Pendreigh and James Dunn in the final. All the linescores are here.

Hannah Fleming, Rebecca Kesley, Alice Spence and Abi Brown beat Claire Hamilton, Lauren Gray, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr in the Junior Women's final, Hannah playing a memorable double takeout for the two she need to win with last stone of the game.

Photos by Bob, apologies not up to standard, must do better. A fuller report in next month's Scottish Curler!

Saturday's Northern Lights

It was a hard day at the ROK Junior International at Inverness. You can find the results and standings here.

Paul Russell

"Can you pass me the baby powder please," says Jamie Dick.

It's a long story but this life size wooden native American is a fixture in the bar at the Inverness Ice Centre, having been rescued from a skip (no, not the curling sort of skip, the other type)! He doesn't have a name! Any suggestions?

Family blog - no need for your captions! L-R: Kimberley Smith, Jennifer Dodds, Mhairi Anderson.

Italian style - Federica Bruera and Isidora Quaglio .

Claire Hamilton

Tasha Aitken calls line as Claire Hamilton and Lauren Gray watch.

Norway's Eli Skaslien delivers, with Gina Gronseth

Anna Sloan in charge as Rebecca Kesley and Hannah Flemming watch.

Eve Muirhead with Kay Adams

I wonder how long it's going to be when in the bar behind EVERY sheet at every junior event are two laptops and two video cameras. Note to organisers. Fundraising opportunity. You could charge for the electrical connection. How about £50 per day per coach?

An evening at Inverness

So, here we are at the Inverness Ice Centre for the ROK 27th Highland Junior International, the second of the European Junior Curling Tour events of 2008. That's Helen King in the photo.

Glen Muirhead's team won this event last year. How's he doing this time. You can find all the results here.

You should have seen the fifth end of the Eve Muirhead v Claire Hamilton match!

Glen Muirhead against the Italian visitors.

Friday's competition. This is Italian skip Marco Pascale. He has a very strong connection to the Greenacres Rink in Renfrewshire. What is it?

Is this why they call it the Highland Junior International? This is Swiss skip Nicole Dunki (with a name like that she must have Scottish ancestry) whose team all sport the kilt!

Jaap van Dorp of the Netherlands

Graeme Black's team are going places this season. Thomas Sloan and Steven Mitchell are the sweepers here. Ally Fraser is in the head.

Dutch colour! Diederick Bontenbal.

Kerr Drummond and Blair Fraser. Caption required.

Oscar 'the Professor' Eriksson skipped his Swedish side to silver at the World Juniors last season. He's skipping a new Swedish four this year, in which Kristian Lindstrom is throwing last stones here at Inverness.

Tomorrow something never before seen in Scotland is being attempted for the first time! There's a 7.30 am draw, and ten girls' teams are involved! "What are the chances of this actually happening?" asked one skeptical fan (mother of one of the players). The Editor is not a morning person so the chance of his being on site for this historic occasion is rather small, but hopefully someone might be there to record the event! 7.30 am. Is it light then?

Ramada Perth Masters update

We already posted here about the 'Canadian invasion' that will happen early in January. No fewer than five top Canadian teams are coming to Scotland for the Ramada Perth Masters at the Dewar's Rinks. The draw for the WCT-e event has now been published and can be found here.

The above poster is going out to all curling rinks, to persuade curling fans to put the dates, January 8-11, in their diaries, and come along and support the event. So how will the European teams deal with a Canadian invasion? I look forward to finding out!

Olympic Stones

February 2010 may seem a long way away but preparations for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver are well underway. The venue for the curling at Hillcrest in Vancouver is almost there, it's expected the first ice will go down next month.

And in the meantime back here in Scotland the stones to be used at the Olympics are undergoing testing at Greenacres.

Hans Wuthrich, chief icemaker for the Olympics, is in town working with Kays of Scotland to ensure the stones are matched and in tip top order for 2010. The testing involves all the stones being thrown mechanically and their final resting place recorded, then all the data is analysed and the stones are matched.

The Olympians won't be the first to get their hands on the stones, they'll be used in 2009 for the World Wheelchair and World Junior Curling Championships in the Olympic venue.

(Added later by Bob. How is stone matching carried out? If you are interested, this link will provide an overview)

Looking north again at the weekend

The second of the new WCT-e Junior Tour events, the Highland Junior International, begins tomorrow morning (Friday, November 14) at the Inverness Ice Centre. The boys play in two sections. Graeme Black and Kerr Drummond are in Section A with Jaap Van Dorp (Netherlands), Joacim Suther (Norway), Mario Freiberger (Switzerland) and Kristian Lindstrom (Sweden). Lindstrom's team were the winners of the first Junior Tour event in Norway.

In Section B, three Scottish teams are skipped by Glen Muirhead, Paul Russell and Jamie Dick. Peter de Cruz (Switzerland), Kristian Rolsvjord (Norway) and Pascale Marco (Italy) are the other sides in the group.

There are ten junior women's teams. Scotland is represented by Eve Muirhead, Hannah Fleming, Jennifer Dodds, Claire Hamilton, Helen King and Claire MacDonald. Foreign sides are skipped by Frida Jonasson (Sweden), Nicole Dunki (Switzerland), Eli Skaslien (Norway) and Quaglio Isidora (Italy).

Ole Ingvaldsen's report on the first of the Junior Tour events in Norway last month makes interesting reading. Find it here.

Elsewhere this weekend, the Royal Club's National Province Championship takes place at the Greenacres Rink in Renfrewshire. The results will be here, and Mike Haggerty's preview of the event is here.

In Switzerland, Tom Brewster, David Edwards, John Hamilton, Logan Gray, David Murdoch and Alan Smith are playing in the Lucerne Curling Trophy, a WCT-e event. The event begins this evening (Thursday 13) and the website for results is here.

Last (but not least), if any Curling Today readers in the UK are thinking perhaps of the Olympics in 2010, then you will be interested in this post on the British Curling website about registering interest in tickets and travel packages. Sooner than that though, the 2009 World Junior Championship, whose website has recently gone live here, will be the test event in the new Olympic venue. The first ice is soon to be laid therein.

Cupar fundraising begins: making a dream a reality

There will be a new curling rink in Cupar! At least that was the impression I was left with after the open meeting last night in the main hall of Elmwood College in the town. More than eighty interested souls attended to listen to the presentation by the Fife Curling Trust.

The story goes back to March 2007 when the original ideas for a rink to serve the needs of the local community were launched. Much has happened in that time, the project group being shunted up a branch line for a while with its, ultimately unsuccessful, application for the National Curling Academy project. However, the group has now returned to its original focus for a four sheet facility which will be simple, functional, comfortable and built in a cost effective way.

It was an interesting meeting. David Steel is the chairman of the charitable trust that has been set up to make the project happen. He took the major role to discuss the details - why, where and how. He says, "Location is critical to the success of the project." Cupar ticks all the boxes for a new Fife rink.

It is important to realise that if the rink goes ahead it will be the first new rink to be built in Scotland which is not a direct replacement for a previous facility since Forfar was opened in 1989. Hence, much of David's focus was on development and how the game could, and should, be grown in the area. Elmwood College, the likely site, has 400 staff and 850 full time students. It also has a Sports education Department. It is just across the road from Bell Baxter school, one of the biggest in Scotland with 1900 pupils, and there are other high schools in the area which could access the facility. And St Andrew's University is just a few minutes along the road.

The development emphasis was directed to the young, given the aging demographics of club membership, not just in Fife, it should be said! All the clubs, many with a long history, could benefit from an influx of new members, and that is certainly the group's focus to attract more young people to our sport. But the key to the success of the project is the more than 700 curlers who live in the local area, and the meeting was really directed at trying to guage what support they would give to the new venture.

The total cost is £1,000,000. If the trust can raise a quarter of this, then funding from sportscotland for half the total is likely to become available. The remainder can, in theory, be raised from other sources. Raising a quarter of a million pounds then is the primary target.

I was impressed by how the group intend to do this. We all left the meeting last night armed with donation forms, direct debit mandates, gift aid forms. But that's only the start. Several fundraising schemes were outlined by Jim Steel, another key member of the project group, and will be launched soon. Small ones such as the Crampit Club and the Webshop have been running for some time (see here).

Is £250,000 a feasible target? Of course it is. I wonder if there are other philanthropists in the wider area that would like to see the project succeed. If there are, then Andrew Stevenson, the Fife Curling Trust secretary and treasurer, is your contact. His address is The Pend House, 29 High Street, Earlsferry, Leven, Fife KY9 1AF. Or contact the Trust here.

The orator of the project group is Alan Stuart! (Actually he was World Scotch Pie Champion in 2007 see here, and purveyor of Iron Brew saugages, but that's another story, here). To him fell the job of winding up the meeting. "Let's build an ice rink - it slips off the tongue so easily," was how he began. After complimenting the determination, tenacity, vision and enthusiasm of David Steel, he stated boldly to the assembled curlers and interested parties, "Tonight we must decide whether you are all still with us." In exhorting curlers in the local two Provinces to open their purses and wallets, he said, "Think not of what curling can do for you, but what you can do for curling. And remember just how much curling has done for you already."

"Just pause for a moment, close our eyes and picture the best wee ice rink in Scotland!"

I left Cupar for the long drive home heartened and optimistic. I admire the work that the dedicated group have already put into the project. But my route home though took me past Ratho, the site of the stalled Gogar Park replacement project. It was then that the significance of what is happening sunk in. The whole future of curling in Scotland is at stake. If curlers support the project whole-heartedly and help to raise the money needed, then I have no doubt that a new successful rink will be built. But if the support is not offered, then the rink will not go ahead. What chance then will there be for any future development and expansion of curling in this country? If Cupar cannot do it, then who can? I'll be watching the Fife Curling Trust's efforts with interest, and supporting these. I hope you will too.

Top: David Steel during his presentation.
Above: Last night's four presenters. L-R: Alan Stuart, Andrew Stevenson, Jim Steel, David Steel.
One innovation in the plans for the new rink is the use of geothermal energy. See here.
Pics by Bob

Loudon wins Inverness Skins

Peter Loudon, Logan Gray, Richard Woods and Alasdair Guthrie won the Inverness Skins yesterday. Robin Wilson takes up the story:

"In the final they met a rink who were playing together for the first time, the five curlers drawn from Scottish Universities who will represent Great Britain in next February's World University Games in Harbin (China) - skip John Hamilton (Napier), Andrew Craigie, Thomas Pendreigh and Michael Goodfellow (all Strathclyde) and fifth man, Ian Copland (Glasgow).

The students after winning their section with £167 beat Aberdeen's Neil Joss in the quarters then brought off a great win in the semis over David Edwards with a last end carry over skin of £80 to meet Loudon, the Section C runner-up with winnings of £147.

It was almost an all junior final until Loudon pulled off the shot of the weekend with a crucial last stone against the other surprise rink of the competition, Graham Black's Lockerbie side consisting of local junior Ali Fraser, Paul Russell and Thomas Sloan. £124 was resting on the last end and and the bank pay-in slip was about to be made to Black when Pete denied the juniors when his classy final stone got the narrowest of edges on Black's shot stone, nipping it out to lie the required two shots to take the end and the place in the final.

In the final, with the students winning £120 - £80, and a game deciding last end pot of £100 on the line, Loudon had last stone but was this time blocked out from making the required two shots to win, and the encounter extended into a draw shot challenge.

Alasdair Guthrie hit the pot lid for zero measure, Richard Wood's stone measured 6 cm, and Logan Gray's 6.3 cm. That left their skip only a leisurely roll down the ice to find the house and win the final £180-£120, returning home with a bulging wallet of £542."

Thanks Robin. Purple prose!

Photo of the finalists is also by Robin Wilson: L-R Alasdair Guthrie, Richard Woods, Logan Gray, Peter Loudon, John Hamilton, Andrew Craigie, Thomas Pendreigh, Michael Goodfellow.

Weekend across the pond

David Murdoch, Warwick Smith, Peter Smith and Euan Byers competed in the Best Western Wayside Inn Curling Classic in Lloydminster, Alberta, this weekend. Amend that - they are still competing! They won their first two games, then lost to Kevin Martin. In the B Road they beat Kerry Burtnyk, before losing their next game to drop into the C Road. They won twice there, their last game against Kevin Koe, to qualify for today's (Monday's) quarterfinals. Find the results here.

Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Eve Muirhead and Lynn Cameron were the GB squad members competing in the Royal Lepage OVCA Womens Fall Classic, a twenty-four team double knockout, in North Grenville, Ontario. Wood and her team won their first, lost their second, then won two more in the B Road before meeting the RCCC National Academy team of Gillian Howard, Kay Adams, Linsey Spence and Megan Priestley, in the decider to go through to the playoffs. Howard had won her first two games in A before being beaten by Sherry Middaugh.

Wood won her game against Howard, and were successful too in their quarterfinal game. But then the GB side faced Middaugh in the semi, losing 8-4. Find the results and linescores here.

Glen Muirhead, Greg Drummond, Scott Macleod and Scott Andrews won two and lost two in their section at the Oak Island Junior Cashspiel in Nova Scotia and did not qualify for the playoffs.

On the other side of the world

The Pacific Championships were played last week in Naseby, New Zealand, to decide the nations which will go forward from the Pacifics Zone to the World Championships. The organisation of the event was somewhat testing to follow!

The five countries involved in the women's event played a double round robin to begin with. The World Women's Championship will be held in Korea (in Gangneung, March 21-29) so that country has an automatic qualification, and only one other qualification place was available. Here's how it was all explained before the event:

"The Women (5 teams) will play a double round robin. At the end of the round robin series there must be a ranking from 1 to 3 for the playoffs, and the final rankings established for the 4th and 5th teams. This ranking will be done in accordance with the WCF Rules of Competition (C9 - Page 32). The team ranked #1 will go directly to the final game.

a) if Korea is directly into the final, the semi-final (2 v 3) will be a 'best-of-five' series of games. The results (W or L) of the two games in the double round robin will be considered as the first 2 games of this 'best-of-five' series. The final will be a single game.
b) if any other team is directly into the final, the semifinal (2 v 3) will be a single game, and
(i) the final, if Korea is in that game, will be a single game
(ii) the final, if Korea is not in that game, will be a 'best-of-five' series of games. The results (W or L) of the two games in the double round robin will be considered as the first 2 games of these 'best-of-five' series.
The Gold medal winner (or Silver medal winner if Korea wins the Gold) will qualify their Association for the 2009 World Women’s Curling Championship."

Right, I hope you've got all that! (I'm definitely getting too old.) So how did it pan out?

After the round robin games China was top with seven wins and got a bye to the final. Japan had six wins and Korea four, so both of these were in the semifinal. New Zealand finished with three wins and Australia was winless. So it was a single game semifinal, and Korea beat Japan 9-6. It will be China and Korea at the Worlds. For the record though, in the single game final, Bingyu Wang's Chinese side beat Korea to win the Pacific Gold.

So Japan's Moe Meguro does not get back to the Worlds where she finished fourth last season, just being pipped by Canada in the semifinal at Vernon.

Now, let's take the Men's Championship. There were six countries involved, looking for two places at the Ford World Men's Championship in April. The teams played a double round robin to find a ranking. The top four teams progressed to 'semifinals'. 1 played 4 and 2 played 3 in best-of-five series, the round robin games being considered as the first two results of the best-of-five. The winners of these two series of matches progressed to a final game, both gaining their places at the Worlds.

Three countries were tied on seven wins after the double round robin. Ranking based on who had beaten who showed Korea (1st), China (2nd) and New Zealand (3rd) with Japan in 4th place on five wins.

Hugh Milliken's Australians did not qualify for the playoffs, winning four games, and Milliken, a fixture at the last four world events, won't be celebrating the fifty years of world curling in Moncton, New Brunswick, April 4-12.

In the semifinal games then, Korea played Japan, the latter starting the best of five series with a two game advantage. The Koreans won the next two games, and so it all came down to a single decider. Japan won that, and qualified for the Worlds.

In the other semifinal, China came through by three games to one against New Zealand to reach the final and qualify for the Worlds, and indeed the Chinese team beat Japan in the Gold Medal game. You can find the results and linescores here. The team lineups are here.

The regulations on how the Pacific Championships are run can be found in the WCF Rulebook (here). However, to make it even more difficult for those of us watching from the sidelines, these regulations were not followed. In the men's event, rather than playing a single round robin according to the WCF rulebook, a double round robin was played. One has to ask why. Is the new 2008 WCF Rulebook wrong?

It does not seem logical (to me) to have one regulation in the Rulebook, then to play an event using different rules. Mind you it is not the first time that I've accused those in the World Federation of being strangers to logic. Remember this post?

I expect someone will tell me if there was a reason why the Pacific Men's Championship was run the way it was.

Added later. I was correct. Keith Wendorf sends this response:

"The PCF controls the playing system, etc. for their Championship. There was lots of discussion with their Member Associations about the playing system to be used at the 2008 event. They decided that having the weaker teams travel all the way to NZL for only 4 games (women) and 5 games (men) was not reasonable. I as Chief Umpire agreed with their decision and everyone was well aware of this playing format before traveling to NZL.

They voted at their AGA to have in the future a double round robin and then the Page playoff system. So the WCF rule book will have to be amended on the next printing."

November's Scottish Curler magazine

November's Scottish Curler magazine has been printed and is on its way to subscribers.

That's Hammy McMillan on the cover. His team won the Lockerbie Mini Tour last month.

Inside the November issue you can read why the Editor fears that the Spirit of Curling is in danger.

There are the usual news items, competition reports, and comment. Behind the Glass this month (by Robin Copland) describes how curlers in one club in Canada recovered after their facility was wiped out in a fire. 'Can do, will do' is an attitude that we could do with more of here.

Sweepings, Curling World, Across the Border, Hibby, Looking Back, the Extra End, the Caption Competition, and the Club News page are all there as usual!

Chris Hildrey, the Chairman of British Curling, is the subject of the Maryel interview. You can even learn how you can improve your curling skills with self hypnosis! And much, much more.

Star feature this month is about the amazing curling paintings of William Winter. Enjoy!

Now, I hear that this weekend is when most people start to think about buying Christmas presents. How many gift problems could you solve by giving a gift subscription to the Scottish Curler? How to subscribe is on the inside of every magazine, or from here.

Skins time

Inverness is the place to be this weekend for the 6th annual Skins competition. The format is four sections of six teams playing each other once for a first round six end skin total of £54. The section winners and runners-up carry their money forward to seven end quarterfinals where the pot is £100, the semis £160 and the finalists will play eight ends for a pot of £300.

Scottish Curler stalwart Robin Wilson forwards the following info about the Inverness event:

'Alan Smith's team went home with the lion's share of last year pot, and is back again. Smith faces a plethora of Scottish names from all ranks of curling. Seniors Alan Durno, Bob Kelly, Graeme Adam, and Ronnie Peat are looking to top up their pension funds and out to stop them are Graeme Shaw, Brian Binnie, John Hamilton, Keith MacLennan, Peter Loudon and Dave Edwards.

North support will go to Alan Campbell (Buckie) Graeme Govan (Elgin) Ali Asher (Nairn) and home based Stewart Sturrock. There are three female skips in the line up, Shona Watt, Edith Loudon and Jennifer Morrison. Local junior and EYOF squad member Blair Fraser was called upon only this week to raise a team of juniors to replace a late withdrawal.'

Looking further afield, the GB squads are still out in Canada. David Murdoch, Warwick Smith, Peter Smith and Euan Byers compete in the Best Western Wayside Inn Curling Classic in Lloydminster, Alberta. The draw for the twenty-eight team triple knockout event is here.

Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Eve Muirhead and Lynn Cameron are the four GB squad members competing in the Royal Lepage OVCA Womens Fall Classic in North Grenville, Ontario. This is a twenty-four team double knockout with consolation event. Also in the draw (here) is the RCCC National Academy team Gillian Howard, Kay Adams, Linsey Spence and Megan Priestley, the last substituting for her sister Jennifer.

Last but not least, Glen Muirhead, Greg Drummond, Scott Macleod and Scott Andrews are in the draw for the Oak Island Junior Cashspiel in Nova Scotia. Check for results here.

WCF website revamped

As one gets older, one's memory can become a bit suspect! In his seventh decade, the Editor's recall of when and where is definitely no longer as sharp as it once was. Striving to ensure that both the Scottish Curler and this blog are as accurate as they can be (a summit that remains elusively out of reach) it is useful to have a source of facts readily to hand.

And so it has been over the last five years that the historical records on the World Curling Federation's website has been much visited for the answers to questions like, "Where were the Euro Championships in 1984?" "Who represented Canada in the 1994 Men's World Championship?", "How many games did Scotland's junior men win at the World Juniors in 2001?" and "How many times has Kristian Soerum represented Norway in International competitions?"

What a fabulous resource to have online. Paul Ahlgren was the force behind setting this up originally.

Mind you, the WCF website has not been universally liked by those who have used it regularly since its last redesign. So negative has been the feedback that the decision was made to revamp it completely. Not an easy thing to do! The more content a website has, the more difficult a job it is to do a complete redesign. The WCF has tackled the problem and the new website is up and running this morning (here).

First impressions are that it is simpler and easier to use, although there is work yet to be done. I particularly like the fact that the WCF rules are now prominent. Some content is not yet available. Frustratingly the historical records are not yet back online, so there is no need to rush to check your answers to the questions above! "Check back soon," is the exhortation. If anyone from the WCF is listening, please please make this 'soon' soon!

Copland joins WUG squad

If you have been following the selection of the curling teams that will represent GB at the World University Games (see Curling Today's previous posts here and here and here and here), you will be aware that the men's team originally selected had just four players. When Glen Muirhead had to pull out of the squad, Michael Goodfellow was drafted in and today's news is that the squad has been increased to five with the announcement on the British Curling website (here) that Ian Copland has been included. Ian is studying law at Glasgow University.

David Ramsay is the men's coach and Andrew Craigie, John Hamilton and Thomas Pendreigh are the other three squad members.

The five-strong GB women's squad is Kay Adams, Vicki Adams, Laura Kirkpatrick, Sarah Macintyre and Sarah Reid with Keith Prentice as their coach.

Cate Brewster is in overall charge of the GB team. The Games will be held in Harbin, China, February 18-28. The event website is here.

Ian's pic is by Bob.

Weekend roundup

Let's start with the Scottish Wheelchair Curling Pairs Championship, sponsored by Star Refrigeration. Aileen Neilsen and Jim Taylor came from 3-0 down to snatch the title from Elgin's Mike McKenzie and Jim Gault in an extra end of the final at the Braehead rink today. First class and exciting stuff! Find all the results on the Royal Club website here.

In Canada, the David Murdoch team won their first game in the Cactus Pheasant Classic. They lost their second, to drop into the B road. They lost there, then strung back to back games in C, before losing out to Pat Simmonds in a game which was webcast on CurlTV. Record: played six, won three, lost three. At the Red Deer Classic, Kelly Wood's side had the same record. The team lost their first, then won twice in the B road before being put into C, where they won one more game before bowing out.

At the Ottawa Valley Curling Association Junior Superspiel, Claire Hamilton's team of Lauren Gray, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr won their first game but lost their second, putting them into the B Road. They lost there, but then won three straight to qualify for the semifinals! They came up against the current Canadian Junior Champion Kaitlyn Lawes then, and lost that one. Still, they were in the prizemoney and come home $1000 in pocket!

Kerr Drummond's team did not have such a good run. They lost three straight to go into the (mixed) consolation event, where they won one game before going out.

Top: Aileen Neilsen and Jim Taylor in concentration mode in the National Wheelchair Pairs final. Pic by Bob.

Alan Walkinshaw represented the sponsors, Star Refrigeration, at Braehead. With Aileen and Jim is Jim's niece and biggest fan Ana Martin, and a bear who got excited during the final and ended up on the ice. Umpires Ian Addison and Leslie Ingram-Brown had to make an unusual intervention in the game, to rescue the embarrassed bear, who wishes to remain anonymous! Pic by Bob.

The Swedish Ladies' tour party has moved on from Lockerbie to Braehead, and here they are engaged in the tradition of broomstacking with members of Glasgow Ladies CC. Pic by Bob.

The European Invitation Seniors event at Greenacres concluded on Saturday. The men's event was won by the Roxin brothers from Sweden, here being presented with their trophy by Malcolm Richardson. All the results, and lots of photos, can be found here. Photo by Hugh Stewart.

Kay Gibb, Judith Carr, Annette Canata and Ronnie MacDonald won the senior women's event at Greenacres. Results here. Photo by Hugh Stewart.

Will there be a new rink at Cupar?

There has been much interest recently in the decision of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club to back the bid by Kinross to be the site for the National Curling Academy, new offices for the governing body and a curling history museum. The bid to site the complex at Ratho was unsuccessful, and it seems unlikely now that this venture will go forward, to judge by the tone of the letter written by Michael Wood, President of Gogar Park Curling Club, on October 16, which can be downloaded from here.

He says, "We are, naturally, bitterly disappointed that, despite the perseverance shown over a number of years, we now appear to have reached the end of the road. I will meet with our Committee to consider our position fully early next month but I think it fairly clear that without the public funding that the award of the National Curling Academy would have brought there is no realistic prospect of being able to continue the project. The final decision in that regard will be taken at the continuation of our currently adjourned AGM."

The provisional date for that meeting is Tuesday, December 16, at the Braid Hills Hotel.

But what about Cupar? The bid by the Fife Curling Trust for the National Academy project was not shortlisted (see here), but that group's plans to build a new facility are still very much on the table. There is to be a public presentation on Tuesday, November 11, to review progress, present plans and discuss the way ahead for the provision of a new curling facility in Cupar.

The meeting is in the main hall of Elmwood College, Cupar, at 7pm. All are invited.

You can find out more about the Cupar venture here.