What's in store for the weekend?

Tommy Campbell and his Lanarkshire team will be trying for a fourth consecutive Senior Mixed title as that championship gets underway at Stranraer tomorrow (Friday). The event was postponed from earlier in the season, but there are still sixteen teams in the draw (here).

Lockerbie is the venue for the annual Junior Invitation competition. Juniors are also competing at Braehead in the Festive Cup. Just why junior events have to clash on the same weekend is a mystery to me - there are few enough opportunities for our young curlers to compete. But maybe I'm just being grumpy again!

Still, given the choice for seasonal good will, I would be headed south. Fenton's rink in Kent, which is England's only dedicated curling rink, is having the world's first Santa Claus Bonspiel, which will see twenty-four Santas on the ice. The event is in aid of local charity, Hospice in The Weald! See here.

Jingle Bells to you too.

Top: Tommy Campbell. Pic by Bob.

Scottish Curler cartoonist, the talented Ian Rodney of the Alternative CC, drew this Santa curling for the Christmas issue in 2004!

Scottish Mixed Seniors Championship

The Atholl rink in Pitlochry yesterday had an air of familiarity about it. No, I don't mean the warm and hospitable welcome that all visitors receive there. Check out the picture above. You might have seen it last year .... or even the year before!

Yes, Tommy Campbell, Isobel Waddell, Jim Waddell and Margaret Robertson won the Famous Grouse Mixed Seniors Championship for the third time! The team edged past Lindsay Scotland's side in the semi, then overwhelmed (I think that's the best word) David Hird, Irene Hird, Arthur Beattie and Catherine Beattie in the final.

Three years in a row! What a team, what a record! Congratulations to all.

L-R: Jim Waddell, Isobel Waddell, Tommy Campbell (skip), Margaret Robertson