Rink Championship

So what has this fuzzy old pic got to do with anything? Read on, and it should become clear!

Allan MacLennan (lead), Graeme Adam (skip), Ken Horton (3rd) and Stuart Naismith (2nd), representing Reform CC from Greenacres, with the RCCC Rink Championship trophy which they won today at the Galleon Rink, Kilmarnock. All the results are here.

The runners-up, from Keir CC, Stirling, were John Dewar (lead), Judith McFarlane (skip), Barbara McFarlane (3rd) and Andrew McAughtrie (2nd).

Judith, who is the Royal Club's Development Manager, skipped a great game in the final, making a number of fine doubles too. Adam was one up with the hammer playing the last end and had an open hit for the game.

This was the shot in the sixth end which changed the game. Jude had just made a great double takeout and lay beind the corner, with another counter in the house, and last stone advantage. Allan and Stuart are horsing their skip's stone, to make it lie perfectly frozen. And Judith had no choice but to play a straightforward draw for a single. But she was just heavy, gave up one against the head, and the game advantage!

Scott Hamilton

Moray Combe practising a little meditation on the release!

Lois, aka Mrs Copey!

Forfar skip Alan White

'Whoa,' says Alan.

The former Scottish Senior Champions were in good form. Here Ken Horton joins in to help Allan MacLennan and Stuart Naismith on skip Graeme Adam's stone.

Sarah Reid, recovered from her Harbin adventures.

A touch of nostalgia for me. Anyone else have longings after a pair of Spogos?

I'm not sure who calls him this!

Ken Horton and Graeme Adam. Ken was just 14, and Graeme 17 when they won the Rink Championship in the 1970-71 season. It has taken them a few years (you work it out) to come back and try to win it again. Quite a record for the two of them - they are unbeaten in the competition! Now here's a wee competition for you. Who were their teammates in 1971, who were they representing, and where was the championship played? I bet John ML Brown, the Scottish Curler correspondent and sometime quizmaster, will know the answer to this one!

Hair of the day. Craig Gudmundson

Judith doing her traffic warden impersonation.

Trevor Dodds

RCCC Finance and Admin Manager Alastair Hibbert

Lindsay Scotland

David Mundell and Jimmy Waddell

The top photo (courtesy of Leslie Ingram-Brown, from the Scottish Curler archive) shows Ken Horton, Peter Adam (Graeme's dad), Graeme Adam, John Brown, Ian Webster, and 'Mr Horton' (as we all called him, Ken's dad, to whom many young curlers in these early days in Crossmyloof owed so much). See John's comments below.

What's next?

I'm looking ahead to this weekend. The major event is of course the RCCC Rink Championship at the Galleon Centre. Twenty-four teams play in four sections, and the first games are on the ice at 09.00 tomorrow, Friday. Quarters, semis and finals are on Sunday. The draw is here.

I'm looking forward too to seeing something of the Schools Championship. Twenty-four teams from twenty different schools will play in four sections, beginning at 11.00 tomorrow, at the Ayr rink. Quarters, semis and finals are on Sunday. The results will be here.

Dollar Academy are in the draw. That's the team in the photo above with the Miller Drummond trophy which they won at the final at Braehead last Saturday. Photo by Bob. L-R: Tom Haddow (3rd), Jayne Stirling (2nd), Ruairidh Macdonald (skip) and Duncan Filipkiewitz (lead).

Now, a little history about schools' curling. The Scottish Schools' Championship was first held in 1967. But schools had been participating in the sport for some years prior to that. There was an active schools' league at Crossmyloof on Saturday morning ice in the early 60s. The first inter-city games took place in the 1961-62 season, see below!

I found this pic recently in the March 1962 Scottish Curler. The legend reads, "The happy group of schoolboy curlers in the second Hutchesons' Grammar School v George Watson's College match at Edinburgh Ice Rink."

Can you recognise a fourteen-year old future Scottish Curler editor (front row, third from left)? Click on photo to enlarge!