Vernon delay

I posted on Friday (here) that I hoped that I would see some resolution soon of the issues arising from the Ford World Women's Championship in Vernon.

The Chairman of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, Bob Tait, has just released (see here) the following on the governing body's website: "Further to my statement of 7 August I regret to advise that the report by the Independent Investigator has not been completed by the due date of 5 September. The Investigator has asked for more time as witness interviews have been affected by pre-arranged holidays and other commitments, not wholly anticipated when the timescale was set. A further update will be provided as soon as possible."

The saga continues.

Regional Academy at Greenacres

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club Regional Academy programme was instituted three years ago. The 2008 Squad have just had a weekend at the Greenacres rink. This pic of the squad is by Brad Askew.

The programme is now run by Performance Development Coach Rhona Martin, here with Emma Craig. This was the first time that all the Regional Academy athletes had been brought together for a weekend camp.

Video analysis is an important aspect of any curling camp. Pic by Bob.

The curlers used the facilities of Lapwing Lodge (owned and run by the West Regional Scout Council), with raft building being one of the fun activities. Pic by Agi Bryson.

"Scotland's curlers practise for the consequencies of global warming." Pic by Agi Bryson.

Other weekend news. Congratulations to David Murdoch, Graeme Connal, Craig Wilson and Euan Byers who went undefeated to reach the final of the WCT-e Baden Masters, losing to Norway's Thomas Ulsrud in the last game. Photographs of the event are here.

World University Games update

There are 165 days to go.

Just to remind you that the GB woman's curling squad for the World University Games, in Harbin, China, February 18-28, 2009, comprises Kay Adams, Vicki Adams, Laura Kirkpatrick, Sarah Macintyre and Sarah Reid.

To be eligible, athletes must be students and under the age of 28.

Today's announcement by British Curling (here) is to confirm that Keith Prentice (left) will be the coach to the women's squad. Keith skipped the team which won gold for Scotland at the World Senior Championship in Edmonton in 2007, and has been working with a number of junior teams in recent seasons.

The men's squad has undergone a change since it was first announced back in May. Andrew Craigie, Michael Goodfellow, John Hamilton, and Thomas Pendreigh are the four now.

Today sees the appointment of former Scottish and Scottish Junior Champion David Ramsay as coach to the men's squad. David was a member of Colin Hamilton's team at the Bruadar Scottish Championship last season, and won the sportsmanship award then (pic below).

Cate Brewster, in overall charge of the GB team, is the Assistant High Performance Curling Coach at the Scottish Institute of Sport, and was the first to be appointed in the run up to the 2009 Universiade. She said "I am delighted with the appointments and look forward to working with David and Keith."

Also of interest is that Scott Henderson is the WCF choice to be Chief Ice Technician at both the Pacific Junior Championships (which is to be the test event for the World University Games) and for the Universiade itself.

The Harbin website is here.

Pics by Bob.

A Scot in California

Curling in the United States is growing as a consequence of the last two Olympic Games. The USA now has more registered curlers than has Scotland. The sport has spread far from the traditional Midwest hotbeds. You can now curl in a number of places in California for example (see here).

Edith Loudon has been one of Scotland's top woman curlers for many years. Indeed, her team is set to challenge Kelly Wood to decide who will be Scotland's representatives at the European Championships in Örnsköldsvik in December. That challenge goes ahead next month at the Dewars Rinks in Perth, October 24-26, and the draw is here.

Now, you are wondering I'm sure, what is the link between Edith Loudon and California? Check out this video here.

Thanks to the Curling News blog - always a wonderful source of the esoteric and interesting - for posting this earlier today!

Top: Edith (described as 'one of the elite') is interviewed at the Second Annual Bay Area Crush Bonspiel. Why is it called the Crush Bonspiel? Because it's organised by the Wine Country Curling Club of Northern California which promotes the sport of curling in Solano, Napa, Sacramento and neighboring counties. During the season, the club curls every Friday evening on five sheets of arena ice in Vacaville, which is between San Francisco and Sacramento. Taken from kfarr's fascinating video.

Vernon investigation report soon

Friday, September 5 is today's date. Significant? Remember that laywer Michael Nicholson of Harper Macleod was charged with conducting an independent investigation into the events that resulted in the Scottish team at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championships at Vernon in March 2008 playing two games with three players, and the events in Vernon following each of these games. By the end of today Nicholson is due to have sent a copy of his report to Bob Tait, the Royal Caledonian Curling Club's Chairman, see here.

So, when might we expect to know the outcome of Nicholson's investigation? The Royal Club's statement on August 7 said, "The report will also be circulated by the Investigator to all Scottish team players at the event, the National Coach, the Team Coach, Support staff and the RCCC representative at the event. The report will also be placed on the RCCC website no earlier than 48 hours after it was sent to the parties."

I am looking forward to reading this report, whenever it appears, with some dread. Can we hope that it will provide a satisfactory conclusion to the Vernon issues? Or will it just be another chapter in this dark saga of Scottish curling?

Baden Masters on tomorrow

David Murdoch and his team of Graeme Connal, Craig Wilson and Euan Byers have their first game in the Baden Masters WCT-e event tomorrow (Friday) at 10.20. The Scottish team face Manuel Ruch's Swiss side in the first round of the sixteen team triple knockout event.

There are no Canadian teams in the draw. Paul J. Vogler, the President of CC Baden Regio, offers this explanation in the event programme (which can be downloaded from here). "It is a great shame that the three Canadian teams have had to pull out of the tournament at short notice due to the sharp rise in the price of the air tickets, and as a result will not be able to pit themselves against the other top class international teams from Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland."

Really?

The event website for results is here.

And if you are interested in Fantasy Curling, CurlingZone is trialling a new system with the Baden Masters event, sign up here.

David Murdoch. Photo by Bob.

Wheels to Taarnby

Scotland's wheelchair curlers will compete in the Danish International Wheelchair Curling Cup 2008, at the Taarnby rink this weekend.

Representative teams from six countries will take part, Germany, the Czech Republic, Norway, Russia and Denmark, as well as the Scots. A round robin is planned to allow all the teams to compete against each other. Michael McCreadie, Angie Malone, Jim Sellar and Rosemary Lenton are the team for this event and play their first game on Friday evening against Germany.

Aileen Neilson and Tom Killin are the other members of the six member National Squad.

At home, the new wheelchair curling Performance Squad has its first training weekend at Curl Aberdeen. Good news is that Ena Stevenson is out of her 'retirement' as Technical Advisor! The Royal Club's Disability Curling Officer Sheila Swan will deliver most of the programme with Ena, and Albert Middler.

Curling figures, split timing, new delivery techniques and basic nutrition are in the programme for the ten strong squad: Jackie Cayton, Murray Cran, Jim Elliott, Gregor Ewan, Angela Higson, Gill Keith, David Morgan, Mike McKenzie, Mo Simpson and Paul Taylor.

Top photo: Jim Sellar and Rosemary Lenton at the Scottish Wheelchair Curling Championship last season. Pic by Bob.