Ross Low Trophy

Alan Brown reports that his Gangrels team of Steel McFadzean, Francis McCrossin and Ken Ross won their semi final against Stair at an extra end on Friday night, and thus progressed to the final.
The final was against Troon Portland also on Friday night and Troon won.
A very creditable performance indeed in reaching the final.

Three in a Row for Bob

Bob Cherry's rink of David Kidd, Richard Morrison and Colin Naismith won the Drew Duncan Quaich tonight, beating David Hope's team by 9-3.
This was Bob's third win in a row.
In the other games the results were:
D Gray 13         R Boyd 8
F McCrossin 9  E Mutter 5
S Thomson 9    J Henry 7
R Wilson 8       J Niblock 6
The final table is shown here.

Good food and fellowship followed at our usual meal thereafter.

Your Curler Issue No 3

The latest issue of the online magazine has just been published.

You can download it here.

Look out for articles on The Eglinton Jug and the Ayr Mixed Invitation Competitions.

Photos of Drew Duncan

David Kidd, who was friendly with Drew, has unearthed these photos of him curling at Mochrum Loch on 29th December 1995.

The sun was always shining in the old days, although Drew was wearing a fine hat - just in case!

If any of our "older" members have any relevant memories of Drew and wish to add some of them to the website please let me know.  Just click on the photo to see it in a larger format.

European Curling Championships - Moscow

The European Championships start this Saturday in Moscow.  The Scots are represented by teams skipped by David Murdoch and Eve Muirhead

If you are interested, there will be TV coverage on Eurosport and the schedule of games is shown here.

President's Cup - Week One

The first round ties were played last night and resulted in wins for Ronnie Wilson, Jim Henry, David Gray and Ernest Mutter.
The league table is as shown here.

There are no games next week (5th December) but we resume on 12th at 5.00 pm, for the Drew Duncan Quaich.
Bob asked me to remind you that the draw for that night is in the finishing order of the Fraser Cup.

Jim Henry v Scott Thomson
Robert Boyd v David Gray
Ernest Mutter v Francis McCrossin
David Hope v Bob Cherry
Jimmy Niblock v Ronnie Wilson

There will be a meal for all players after the Drew Duncan Quaich, so don't have your tea before you play and if, for any reason, you can't stay for the meal please advise Bob Cherry asap.

Final Results for Fraser Cup

Good wins for Scott Thomson and Robert Boyd ensured that they finished the league in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Despite his loss to Scott, Jim Henry's team had won the league with a week to spare - a magnificent achievement.
The final table is here.

A reminder to our skips.
Please try to check the card before you sign it. One of our games last night only showed 5 ends and a win for, let's say, Team A over Team B.  (I don't want to mention names!).  Luckily, I was playing for Team A (Oops I've given it away) and knew that we had played 8 ends and indeed lost after a great last end by the opposition.
So Richard and I have awarded you the points, Euan, (Oops, again!) Lucky boy.

Next week we have the first games in the President's Cup. Teams 1 3 5 7 and 9 represent the President's side and the even numbered teams the Vice President.
Skips move down to lead and the rest of the team move up one place.

Charity Turkey Shoot

Sunday 18th December is the day.   Put it in your diaries now.
Robert Boyd is organising a Turkey Shoot, apparently the first at Ayr Ice Rink, to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The fun starts at 1.30 pm and Robert has organised a full afternoon of entertainment.  As well as the Turkey Shoot itself there will be games for children (and adults), food and refreshments, a raffle and lots more.

If you can't manage along on the day, don't forget you can still buy a stone and nominate someone else to throw it for you.

Forms for buying stones at £2 each were handed out at last night's game, but if you need more just download them from here or contact Robert.

Jim Henry's Team wins Fraser Cup

Jim Henry's team of Jimmy Begg, Alan Brown and Peter Reynolds took a two at the last end to beat Francis McCrossin's team by those two shots and win the Fraser Cup.  And this with a week still to go!

There were also wins for Scott Thomson, Robert Boyd, David Hope and Ernest Mutter.
Scott's team is now in second place and will play Jim Henry next week but three points will be too much even for Scott to make up.

The League Winners
Jimmy Begg  Jim Henry  Alan Brown  Peter Reynolds

The up to date positions are shown here.
Congratulations to Jim and his team for an excellent performance.

Results for Fraser Cup

Tonight saw Jim Henry extend his lead with a narrow 5-4 win over Jimmy Niblock.  Last week's second place, David Gray, succumbed to a 12 -6 loss to Robert Boyd and thus lost that second spot to Scott Thomson.
As well as Scott, there were wins for David Hope and Francis McCrossin.
So with two weeks to go, Jim is 3 points clear and knows that a win in either of the last two weeks will secure the title.
Click here for the up to date table.

Ronski

I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would have the chance to play curling for the Russians. But that is what happened this week when I answered the call to step in when one of the Russian Senior Curling Team had to call off with a knee injury.
They were playing in the European Senior Invitation Curling Championships at Greenacres.

Oleg, Ronski and Sergey
(picture courtesy of Hugh Stewart)

There were 18 teams in all.  3 were from Scotland, 2 each from England, Ireland, and Sweden and the rest represented most of the other curling countries in Europe.
Our results were mixed, with wins against Hungary and England but qualification for the Quarter Finals just eluded us.
The Russians were good guys and good curlers and we had a great week.

Week 6 Results - Fraser Cup

Jim Henry's team continued its winning ways with a 14 - 4 win over Ernest Mutter.  There were wins also for Francis McCrossin, Scott Thomson and David Gray.

The game between Bob Cherry and Robert Boyd finished tied at 8-8.

So with three weeks to go Jim has a two point lead over David Gray and three points over Scott Thomson.
See the up to date table here.

Fraser Cup Week 5

Before discussing last night's games, I feel we should recognise the superb achievement of our team in the Eglinton Jug.

Euan Lawrence with Jim Henry, Bob Cherry and Ken Ross played exceedingly well to reach the semi finals and beat some highly fancied teams on the way.
They then came up against a strong Stewarton Heather team and unfortunately didn't progress to the final.
Stewarton Heather themselves were undone when they lost the final 6-5 to Dundonald.

Well done Euan.

In the Fraser Cup, Jim Henry's team won their fourth game to top the league on 8 pts.
The results were:

D Gray           8    E Mutter     9
J Niblock       12  R Wilson     2
J Henry           8   D Hope       7
B Cherry         5   S Thomson  5
F McCrossin 15   R Boyd       4

The up to date League Table is here.

Eglinton Jug Progress

Bob Cherry reports on great success (so far) in the Eglinton Jug.


Gangrels 2 are having a good run in the Eglinton Jug. We had a bye through the first round, then narrowly beat one of the favourites, Galston, in the second round yesterday.
Today we beat Kilmarnock in the morning, and Galleon in the Quarter Finals this afternoon.
We meet Stewarton Heather in the Semi Finals tomorrow afternoon.


The rink is Skip Euan Lawrence, Third Jim Henry, Second Bob Cherry and Lead Ken Ross.


Well done to all the team and keep up the good work.

Week 4 Fraser Cup - Big Win Week!

While there were some apparently close games for most of the night, the final scores revealed some big numbers.  The results were:
R Wilson     5        D Gray         15
J Niblock    6        B Cherry       13
J Henry       6        R Boyd         13
D Hope      5         E Mutter       12
S Thomson 15       F McCrossin  7

If, like me, you are a numbers person you will see that the total shots scored over 5 games was 97! That's nearly 20 per game.

Even more interesting is that fact that there are only two points separating first place from eighth place. Looks like the league will be very close.  The up to date table is here.

Annual Match against Beresford Ladies

Annual match against Beresford Ladies

Thursday 13 October 2011

I am pleased to report that a very enjoyable, if slightly scary, close match resulted in two of the three rinks being won by the Gangrels -  skipped by  Alan Brown and Bob Cherry respectively. My game against Gail Brown was very close being peels going into the last end and Gail having the hammer. It was on the last stone that Gail’s team, with great excitement all round, won the end and the game.

An enjoyable get together for refreshments and a meal rounded off the evening with almost all participants attending. It was good to see Jim Lyburn at the rink to watch the games although it wasn’t entirely clear at times which team he was supporting with wife Helen skipping her team against Bob!

 I think all will agree it was an excellent evening of curling fellowship, fun and humour.

Ronnie (Wilson)

14 October 2011

Fraser Cup Week 3

Jim Henry continued his unbeaten run tonight with an 8-4 victory over Ronnie Wilson.
There were good wins also for David Gray, Scott Thomson, David Hope and Jimmy Niblock.

Jim leads the way with 6 points, closely followed by 3 teams on 4.

The latest league positions are shown here.

5 Gangrels reach Final of Province KO

Congratulations to Steell McFadyen's rink of David Gray, George Hodge and Ken Ross for a magnificent run to the final of The Province Knock Out Trophy.

Action from the final

Unfortunately they came up against the fifth Gangrel, Jim Dunlop, who starred as third for Bert Andrew's Crosshill Rink.  Steell's comment, after losing 9-1 was "played rubbish".  When I saw them in the semi they definitely were playing well and they deserve our heartiest congratulations.

The First "Your Curler " magazine

The Royal Club has just published its new eMagazine called Your Curler.  All of us who are members of the RCCC and who have registered their email address should receive an email link directly to their inbox.

If you have still to register your email you can do so by contacting RCCC at www.rcccmembers.org and adding your details.

If you are not an RCCC member and would like a look you can use this link.

Happy reading.

Week Two

Week two saw Jim Henry surge to the top of the league with an 11-2 victory over Bob Cherry. There were also wins for David Gray, David Hope and Robert Boyd, while Ernest Mutter's team drew for the second time, finishing 4-4 with Ronnie Wilson.

All the results are here.

Opening Night

Ronnie Wilson's first official task as President was to welcome everyone to a new season and to ask Honorary President Jim Watson to throw the first stone.  Jim's stone, ably marshalled by Robert Boyd, slid unerringly towards the house and the new season was underway.

There were a few oohs and aahs, mainly as unused muscles were reminded of their duties, and some enjoyable games were played.

There were wins for Jim Henry, Jimmy Niblock and Francis McCrossin.  Robert Boyd and Ernest Mutter drew 8-8, but the result of the night surely belonged to Bob Cherry's team. Trailing 7-5 at the last end they somehow conjured up a 6 to win by 4 shots.

All the results are here, or you can find them using the link to the Fraser Cup at the right of the page.

Afterwards, we all enjoyed an excellent meal and some good chat.  The club also took a few moments to remember our dearly departed friends Bill Beaton and David Murphy.

The New Season

Everyone hoping to start the new season on tip top form will be pleased to see that Training Ice has been booked for 20th September at 5.00 pm. All are welcome.

Monday 26th sees the first game of the season at 5.00 followed by a meal at 7.15.  Again, everyone is welcome to the meal.  Any reserves not already playing that night should let Bob know if attending.

The website is up and running again (we never really closed!) and the Club Fixture and Open Competition pages are ready to use.  Please let me know if I've made any major errors.  Results pages will be updated as the games are played.

Many of our members have said they like seeing results of our teams in outside games, so I would encourage all skips to email me with details of progress on a regular basis.

Our Motto is "The game first, the result second"

"Good Curling" and I hope everyone enjoys their season.

Message from Bob Cherry

Bob has asked me to let you know that we are one playing member short for next year's teams. If any non-playing members or reserves are interested in playing a few more games, then please let Bob know.

This would also be an opportunity for asking friends if they would be interested in joining the Gangrels Club.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Start Curling with the BBC

The BBC has a programme called Sport Nation and last Tuesday it had a feature by Rhona McLeod about curling.
This showed how Rhona had a first lesson from Eve Muirhead and is quite interesting.
If you would like to see it, the link is here.

World Seniors Championships

If you're having withdrawal symptoms after three weeks away from the Rink, why not keep up to date with events at the World Seniors.  They start this Saturday in St Paul, Minnesota, USA and three of the Scottish team are from my other club, Reform.  The team is skipped by Ken Horton.

Follow this link for details.

And finally, a link I have taken from Bob Cowan's blog.  This is a genuine advert for a certain disposable razor, but it certainly sheds a completely new light on the game of Curling.



Click on the picture above.
Try it yourself if you wish, but don't ask me along!

Gangrels AGM

Following the usual good meal at the ice rink, Robert Boyd chaired the 72nd AGM of Gangrels Curling Club.

Robert gave his review of his President's year and highlighted the successful season which the club had enjoyed.

David Hope included his report on the Competition Year and this can be viewed here.
Details of the Prizewinners have been previously reported with accompanying photos.

The following Office Bearers were elected:

Office Bearers

2011-2012

Honorary President

JIM WATSON

Immediate Past President

ROBERT BOYD

President

RONNIE WILSON

Vice President

BOB CHERRY

Secretary

BOB CHERRY

Treasurer

JOHN SHARP

Match Secretary
DAVID HOPE

Committee

2011        FORBES WATSON                                          PETER KENNEDY
2012        RICHARD MORRISON                                     DAVID MURPHY
2013        RONNIE PEAT                                                  FRANCIS McCROSSIN

John Sharp recommended that the subscriptions continue at the existing level and this was unsurprisingly agreed unanimously.

David Hope and Francis McCrossin were elected as the new skips and after a few matters of AOCB, Charlie Jack found a brief moment to pass on Jim Smith's message that the meeting should now be brought to a swift close with a vote of thanks to Robert and Ronnie Wilson for chairing the evening so well. 

 

World Championships start on Saturday April 2nd

The Ford Men's World Championships start this Saturday in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Tom Brewster's team are representing Scotland and of course they have Ayrshire lad Scott Andrews as their second player.

The championship website is here, and TV coverage is being provided on Eurosport.

Gangrels Rink Wins Kyle & Carrick Challenge Final

A superb performance from Euan Lawrence and his team of Bob Cherry, Ronnie Peat ( a last minute deputy for Russell Boyd) and Allan Hastie saw them beat the fancied team from Crosshill in the Kyle & Carrick Challenge League Final.

The key point in the game came at the third end when a great score of three gave Gangrels a 4-1 lead. There was then a wobble in the sixth, when Crosshill narrowly failed with a shot for a four which would have tied the game.  However, it was not to be, and Crosshill shook hands after seven ends, with the score at 9-3 to the Gangrels.

This is a major achievement since I had heard that Crosshill had previously been unbeaten in the league for four years.

Frame Salver, AGM and Presentation of Prizes

A brief report on the AGM will appear later.  For the moment, the Frame Salver was won by the three man team of Robert Boyd, Bert McKay and Jim Dunlop.

They overcame a three shot penalty to win the competition with a shots up score of +8.

Here are some photos of the last night's winners and all the other prizewinners.

Fraser Cup Winners
Allan Hastie, Steell McFadzean, Euan Lawrence and Peter Reynolds (absent)

Drew Duncan Quaich
Jim Henry, Ian Ruthven, Bob Cherry and Roy Penny (absent)

President's Cup
Allan Hastie, Steell McFadzean, Euan Lawrence and Peter Reynolds (absent)

Kirkbride Rosebowl - High Road
Robert Boyd, Charlie Jack,  Ronnie Peat and Willie Scott

Kirkbride Rosebowl - Low Road (with Mars Bars)
Ronnie Wilson,  Bert McKay, George Hay and Forbes Watson (absent)

David Gray with the Points Trophy

Pairs High Road
Steell McFadzean and Austin Thomson

Pairs Low Road
Allan Hastie and George Hay

Steell McFadzean receiving the Sportsman's Award from
Alistair Henry

Kirkbride Rose Bowl Finals

Two very close games featured tonight in the High and Low Road Finals of the Kirkbride Rose Bowl.  In both games the scores were level after 6 ends.

Robert Boyd's team of Charlie Jack, Ronnie Peat and Willie Scott took a two in the 7th end and just hung on to win, when David Gray ran out of stones in the 8th.

The winners
Ronnie Peat, Willie Scott, Robert Boyd (skip), Charlie Jack

David was very keen to let everyone know that it was exceedingly close and a cracking game - and it was! His team of David Kidd, Colin Naismith and Ernest Mutter fought hard all the way.

High Road Runners Up
Colin Naismith, David Kidd, David Gray (skip), Ernest Mutter

Low Road Runners Up
Jim Dunlop, Malcolm Bowden, David Hope, Austin Thomson (skip)

Low Road Winners
David Murphy, Bert McKay, Ronnie Wilson (skip), George Hay

The Low Road final was just as fiercely contested, with Ronnie Wilson's team of Bert McKay, George Hay and David Murphy eventually winning 8-6 against Austin Thomson, David Hope,Malcolm Bowden and  Jim Dunlop.

The final table looks like this

Starting tomorrow is the Capital One World Women's Championship in Esbjerg, Denmark. Three of the girls who won the World Junior Championship last week are representing Scotland again, skipped this time by Anna Sloan, with Clair Hamilton joining the team and Eve Muirhead being the alternate.

Games are being shown live on Eurosport and you can catch up with all the results here.

Day League C Won by Gangrels!

There was a top of the table clash on Tuesday in the C division of the Day League. Gangrels and Kilwinning were separated by only one point in the final game. Needless to say, the drama continued right up to the last stone.

John Steel had been wielding his cue in his usual highly effective way for Kilwinning and they were one up and lying shot with the last stone due.  Gangrels needed two to win and had three other stones in the head. Just the angled run back required - no pressure. Luckily, it came off well and we scored a four to win the game 11-8, and to win the league by 3 points.

The team was Ronnie Peat, Jimmy Begg, Jim Dunlop and Jim Smith, although for the final Allan Hastie and Ken Ross had been drafted in at the front end and John Sharp had also subbed earlier in the year.

Gangrels Beat Tarbolton and Kirkbride Semi Results

On 1st March, two teams from Gangrels beat Tarbolton in our annual match. The team skipped by Robert Boyd won 12-4 and that of Ronnie Wilson won 10-6.
Ronnie's team took home the trophy, by dint of having a better ends record. Congratulations to all eight players.

This evening saw the semi finals of the Kirkbride Rose Bowl. As usual, the games were hard fought and the eventual winners were Robert Boyd and David Gray in the High Road, Ronnie Wilson and Austin Thomson in the Low Road. Click here for the up to date draw.

The two Finals will be played on Thursday 17th March at 5.00 pm.

For those not involved in the Finals, the final game of the season will be the Frame Salver on Monday 21st March at 5.00 pm.  The game will be followed by the AGM.

World Junior Curling Championships - Perth 5th - 13th March 2011

The World Junior Championships start in Perth this Saturday, with Aberdeen's John Penny and Perth's Eve Muirhead representing Scotland.

Tickets are still available if you wish to travel to support the teams. The details are in the event website which is www.wjcc2011.com/

If you're not able to make it to Perth, the RCCC website link or Skip Cottage link will keep you up to date.

Some games are being webcast on the WCF website and the link is www.worldcurling.org/wjcc-2011-web-coverage

Kennedy Pairs Finals Night

First games were the Top Half semi finals.  The High Road  brought a convincing 5-1 win for Malcolm Bowden and Scott Thomson against David Kidd and Euan Lawrence.  The Low Road semi was a far closer match, with David Scott and Ronnie Wilson narrowly beating Bob Cherry and Robert Charters 3-2.

Ronnie and Allan in the head

There must be something we can do!

In the Bottom Half, a close game between Bob Grassom and Ronnie Peat and Steell McFadzean and Austin Thomson saw the latter duo progress to the High Road final with a 4-3 victory.  Allan Hastie and George Hay also progressed to the Low Road final with a 7-0 victory over Willie Scott and Jimmy Niblock.

Low Road Winners
George Hay and Allan Hastie

The Final of Low Road saw a convincing win for the Hay Hastie team. They built up a good lead in the early ends and David Scott and Ronnie Wilson eventually shook hands when they ran out of stones at 5-1 in the final end.

Ronnie and David

George in action

The High Road Final saw Bob Cherry returning in place of Scott Thomson, who had a prior engagement.  Yet another close game with Steell and Austin eventually coming out on top by one shot.  Don't ask Steell and Malcolm about their last shots - just remember the good ones earlier!

Losing finalists - Bob and Malcolm

The Winners - Austin & Steell

Spare a thought, also, for Willie Scott.  Having been knocked out in Round One, he found a second (unsuccessful) chance as a sub in Round Two. Undaunted, he tried again, partnering Jimmy Niblock in the semis. Third time lucky? Regrettably not.   But Willie is relatively new to curling and his enthusiasm has been evident all season.  There's always next year!

Late Night for Pairs Second Round

There were some bleary-eyed Gangrels roused from their usual fireside slumber to play in tonight's second round ties. The Bottom Half were particularly affected - they started at 10.30!
Despite that, some very good games were seen and the Semi finalists, through to Friday's games are:


At 5.00    Top Half
High Road
Malcolm Bowden & Scott Thomson    v   David Kidd & Euan Lawrence
Low Road
Bob Cherry & John Sharp                 v    George Hodge & Ronnie Wilson


At 6.00   Bottom Half
High Road
Bob Grassom & Ronnie Peat            v   Steell McFadzean & Ernest Mutter   
Low Road
Allan Hastie & George Hay              v    David Hope & Jimmy Niblock


Ernest was particularly keen to ensure that his name was quoted, despite us all knowing that he can't play on Friday night. (It's really going to be Austin Thomson)

Scottish Championship Finals - Live on Sunday

As well as showing highlights of the Scottish Finals on BBC2 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, BBC are broadcasting the finals live on their Sports website.

The link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/9398422.stm

If that doesn't work go to BBC Sport - Other Sports - Winter Sports and you should find it there.

That should give everyone something to do on Sunday. Unfortunately, I'm out all day, and won't see it.

Pairs First Round

The first round of the pairs was played tonight and there were many good tight games. The winners and losers will both be playing next week on Monday 21st - please note the change of date from the card.

The draw for round 2 is as follows:

At 9.30    Top Half
High Road
Malcolm Bowden & Scott Thomson  v   David Gray & David Murphy
Willie Scott & Gordon Neil               v    David Kidd & Euan Lawrence

Low Road
Bob Cherry & John Sharp                 v    Robert Charters & Greer Murray
George Hodge & Ronnie Wilson        v    Bert McKay & Francis McCrossin

At 10.30   Bottom Half
High Road
Russell Boyd & Austin Thomson       v    Bob Grassom & Ronnie Peat
Peter Kennedy & Colin Naismith       v    Steell McFadzean & Ernest Mutter

Low Road
Robert Boyd & David Scott              v    Allan Hastie & George Hay
David Hope & Jimmy Niblock           v    Ken Ross & Richard Morrison

The winning teams next week go on to the semis and finals on Friday 25th February, starting at 5.00 for the top half and 6.00 for the bottom half.  The Finals follow on thereafter.

Last Friday night, two teams from Gangrels played our annual match against Ayr and Alloway. Two good games were played and the teams were Robert Boyd, Allan Hastie, Gordon Steele and Willie Scott and Ronnie Wilson, Ronnie Peat, David Kidd and Forbes Watson.

Unfortunately neither of our teams won and the overall score was 20-10 to our opposition.

Scottish Championship Finals This Week

The Bruadar Scottish Men's Championship and the Columba Cream Scottish Women's Championship both get under way today in Perth.

There will be 10 men's teams and 8 women's teams competing and you can follow the results here for the men and on this link for the women.

 BBC2 will be showing will be showing the finals next Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 pm.

David Gray wins Points (again!)

A fiercely competitive evening at Tam's Brig saw David Gray narrowly retain the points trophy. There was a good turnout and four players excelled by scoring 40+ points.

Bob Cherry  scored  40
Robert Boyd            41
Francis McCrossin   42

So David needed to add two points to last year's total to triumph again with 43.

Thanks to all who turned out and made it a great evening, with special thanks to the (chilled) markers.

Kirkbride Rose Bowl

First Round winners tonight were Robert Boyd, Bob Charters, David Gray and Scott Thomson.   They move to the semi finals of the High Road on 8th March at 5.00pm.

The losing teams, Allan Hastie, Austin Thomson, Jim Henry and Ronnie Wilson play in the semis of the Low Road at the same time.

The up to date draw is here.

Yesterday, at Braehead, four Gangrels took part in the Waldie Griffiths competition, playing for Ayrshire Province against Dunbartonshire Province.

The team of Ronnie Peat, Robert Boyd, Jimmy Begg and Bill Morton beat a team from Cardross Curling Club 9-2 and helped Ayrshire beat Dunbartonshire by 29-25. That will not be enough to win the trophy, which goes to the highest up of 16 Provinces in the competition, but both our club and Ayrshire put in a creditable performance.

There are various matches and Open Competitions throughout the season.  I personally am of the opinion that  we should be letting The Gangrels know the results of these as they occur.

I am very happy to publish the information as it becomes available, and would encourage skips of these teams to let me know the results, preferably by email, once known.

President's Cup Finals Night

Two keenly fought semi finals were played tonight.  Charlie Jack's team, despite being four up at the last end, left Bert McKay a sniff of a magnifcent five. Luckily for them, it didn't come off and Charlie's team won 6-4.

In the other match, David Hope's team were one down, but lying one for a peel with the last stone still to come.
David was very slightly heavy and somehow, by a measure, managed to give the shot to Steell for an 8-6 win.

So we came down to a final between Steell McFadzean and Charlie Jack.

Steell's team played a great game with Steell in particular being on form.  Scores of 4 and 3 built up a good lead, and although Charlie fought hard, Steell controlled the game well, eventually winning by 10-8.

 The winning rink was  Jim Nelson, Steel McFadzean (Skip), Allan Hastie and Peter Reynolds.

Runners up were Ronnie Peat, Robert Boyd, Charlie Jack (Skip) and Willie Scott.

And finally, here's a photo of Jim Dunlop, because he wanted to have his picture taken.

Final League Positions in President's Cup

Final league is shown here, with  the qualifiers being Charlie Jack and Steell McFadzean in the President's rinks, and David Hope with Bert McKay in the Vice President's rinks.

Tomorrow sees the semis.

Charlie plays Bert and David plays Steell over six ends, with the winners meeting in the Final immediately thereafter.

The preliminary ties in the Kirkbride Rosebowl took place last Thursday. The winning rinks were those skipped by Alan Hastie and Scott Thomson;  the scores being 9-4 for Alan against Jimmy Niblock, and 9-6 for Scott against Ernest Mutter.

This is the amended draw, and the first round is next Monday at 5.00.

President's Cup Coming to Boil!

Eight out of the ten teams can still qualify for next week's semis.

In the President's Rinks, only Francis McCrossin's team seems to be out of it.  The other four have one game left and no one has yet booked their place in the semis.

The Vice President's Rinks are in a similar position, although it is clear that David Hope's team have definitely made it through.  David Kidd, Bert McKay and John Sharp have all to play for!

The current league table is here, but please check to ensure my calculations stand up.

A wee reminder to all the teams that the Semi Final is on Feb 1st at 5pm, with the Final following on immediately.  Please keep your diaries free.

President's Cup Update

Things are hotting up now we are roughly halfway through the league stages. All will become clear over the next two weeks when the semi finalists will emerge.

The up to date results can be found here, or by using the link at the side of the page.

With apologies for not having these posted earlier.

For the curling aficionado, today sees the start of the Glynhill Ladies International Competition at Braehead.
Eve Muirhead will be one of six Scottish teams taking on opposition from Russia, Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, England and Japan.

Details of the draw are here, and this will be an excellent competition, right on our doorstep.

2011 WFG Continental Cup

If anyone is interested in some serious curling, the annual Continental Cup is on this weekend in St Albert, Canada. 

The Continental Cup competition involves 12 teams (three men’s and three women’s for both Team World and Team North America) in a four-day event, featuring regular Team games, Mixed Doubles, Singles, Mixed Skins and Skins games. Each segment awards points for wins (or ties), with the first side to reach 200 points declared the winner.  David Murdoch is the only Scotsman playing this year.
For the first time, we in Europe have an opportunity to see the games online.

The link is here for those who wish to look at the games.

Regards

Ronnie

Grand Match

We were very close to the first outdoor Grand Match since 1979 a couple of weeks ago. Since then there has been a slight thaw, but do not despair. The good news is that the ice at Piper Dam, Dundee has survived the warmer weather quite well.

The RCCC home page, linked here, has the updates regularly on the bottom right hand corner of the page.

You will see from today's message that a couple of days of frosts could see the match taking place.  If you are in the team, be prepared and keep your stones outside. If not, you may wish to be a potential spectator.

A direct link to the Competition page for the event is here, where you can find a players guide, spectators guide and a copy of the draw.