Gormac Glamour at Greenacres

Now, I know this is a family blog and I've cropped the photo above so it's not too revealing (shame, I can hear the shouts already). Katarzyna (Kasia) Selwant was Miss January in the first curling glamour calendar produced by Ana Arce last year. I confess I didn't turn over the pages of that calendar for some six months, such was the attraction of this beautiful curler from Warsaw. You can see more of Kasia here.

So when I encountered her at Greenacres on Saturday, competing in the 4th Gormac Irish International Bonspiel with teammates Krystyna Beniger, Anna Fijalkowska and Magda Dobiszewska, it really did make my day. And I am pleased to report that she is just as attractive a person with her clothes on as she is without! (That's the first time I've ever written that sentence!)

The curling was good too. Twenty teams in the event. Good prizes, good fun, good ice, a top class meal and party on the Saturday night. A typical Gormac Irish spiel!

Anyway, back to glamour calendars. Coincidentally (and it surely is no coincidence) also competing in the Gormac was Ana Arce herself, with a team from Andorra. Plans for another calendar for 2008 have not been confirmed. I asked and got an evasive reply! Sounds like the next one, if it happens, might run over a curling season, like an academic diary, beginning from next summer. Watch Ana's website here.

Know what I think? I think that Ana was on a scouting mission to see if she could persuade some of the Irish to pose for her. No, I don't necessarily mean just the Irish women such as Marie O'Kane, I think she was propositioning the Peter Wilsons, Neil Fyfe and John-Jo Kenny and other members of the Irish Curling Association!

I don't know, an Irish alternative glamour calendar (Shamrocks on Ice?) might be a big seller and make the Irish curlers a lot of money, which is what Ana's efforts are all about. Then again ......... I think I'll just put the 2006 calendar back on the wall!

Above: Ana Arce; the Andorran team (Arnau Friguls is skip, Merce Pascual, Andrew Ferguson Smith and Ana Arce are the sweepers); Krystyna Beniger, skip of the Polish ladies' team, discusses options with Kasia as Scott Lumsden and Tommy Campbell watch behind(s); Kasia getting excited; potential models for a future calendar - Peter Wilson (front) and Gary Macfarlane. Photos by Bob.

Calendar Girl Shock News: Will there be curling glamour in 2008?

Those of you who remembered that yesterday was the first day of October would have been greeted, when you turned the page of Ana Arce's Fire and Ice Team Sponsorship calendar (what do you mean you don't have one), by former Scottish and Euro Mixed Curling Champion Kim Brewster. How pleasant to have Kim staring down from the wall of my office this month! Kim follows on from Jackie Lockhart who starred in September.

The big news of course is that there will NOT be a new calendar in January. Interviewed in Madrid where she was competing for Spain in the 2007 Euro Mixed, Ana confirmed that a January-December publication was not in the plans. The good news is that a curling season calendar (September 2008 - May 2009) is being considered.

I'll just have to go back to buying the Scottish Munros calendar for the beginning of the year!

Above: Kim Brewster. Below: Ana Arce whips her 2008 models into shape on the ice at the Palacio de Hielo.

The glamour in curling

The Scottish Curler's Swiss correspondent, Erwin Sautter, has sent a summer curling update about Carmen Schaefer (who you will remember was a member of the Swiss Junior World Champion rink in 1999) and that she has teamed up with Mirjam Ott (who you will remember captured Olympic Silver in 2006) to go for Gold in Vancouver 2010. The Swiss Sunday paper, SonntagsBlick, gave Carmen the full treatment in a feature in the August 19 edition, see photo above.

I rather suspect that Erwin just wanted to send me a nice pic for my birthday!

However, it got me thinking that we in Scotland have our own share of glamour on the ice. There are just nine days to go before we turn over a new month on Ana Arce's Team Sponsorship calendar to reveal Miss September ........... Jackie Lockhart! Jackie, world champion skip in 2002, is now playing three to Kelly Wood and the team were bronze medallists in Aomori last season. Jackie had shoulder surgery earlier this summer and has made good progress in her recovery from that.

So, will there be a 2008 glamour calendar? Ana Arce's website does seem to indicate that there are plans. Could there even be male models? David Murdoch, Ewan Byers, Keith Prentice and Logan Gray have all been touted as Scottish possibilities!
Perhaps not.

There was glamour aplenty at the Editor's birthday bash last Saturday! RCCC Ladies' Branch President Patricia Thompson came suitably attired in an outfit to match Abbamania's costumes (below) and was a dab hand at the washer tossing too.

Last word on birthdays. Birthdays are good for you - the more you have the longer you live!


Jackie Lockhart pic is by Richard Gray. Birthday pics are by Hugh Stewart.