Monday, January 28, 2013

President's Cup Semi Finalists Decided

Ronnie Wilson's rink overcame stiff opposition from Scott Thomson to win by 11 shots to 4 and progress to the semi finals along with David Hope. The final score did not reflect what was a close game until the last two ends.
In the Vice President's league there were wins for Jimmy Begg and Jimmy Niblock, but a score of two shots on the last end was enough for Bert McKay to sneak through to the semis alongside Jimmy Begg.
The Begg, McKay and Niblock teams had each won two out of their three games, so were level on 4 points.
Ends scored were as follows:

Jimmy Begg      12
Bert McKay     11
Jimmy Niblock 10

The  final league positions are here and the semis are played on 14th February at 6.15.

Ronnie Wilson  v Bert McKay
Jimmy Begg v David Hope

The final will follow immediately afterwards at 8.30 on 14th.

Next Monday sees the first round of the Kirkbride Rosebowl at 5.00 pm.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Latest President's Cup Results

Only one game played in the President's half of the draw last night, but what a big result it was for David Hope's team. They beat Steell McFadzean by 15 shots to 1, thereby confirming their place in the semi finals.
Next week will see Scott Thomson playing Ronnie Wilson and the winner will probably (subject to ends won) take up the remaining semi final place.
In the other half of the draw, Bert McKay beat David Gray 8-6, and Mr Begg won the battle of the Jimmys by beating Mr Niblock 11-2.
It's all to play for next week - each one of the four teams can still qualify to represent the Vice President's league in the semi finals.
The up to date league table is here.

If you're following Alistair Henry's progress in Canada, you'll be aware that the Scottish Team are performing very well indeed, up by 1654 to 1381 as I type this.
Follow the results here

The latest edition of the "Your Curler" magazine has just been released. You can view a copy here.

Monday, January 14, 2013

President's Cup Week 2

In the President's mini league, there were wins for Ronnie Wilson and David Hope by 11-3 and 7-5 respectively over Steell McFadzean and Scott Thomson.

The Vice President's league saw Bert McKay's team beat Jimmy Begg by 6 shots to 5.

The up to date positions are shown here.

Strathcona Cup

Latest results from Canada show that Scotland are up overall by 585 points to 481. Alistair Henry's team are contributing their fair share of wins. A long way to go.

Keep up with their progress here.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Continental Cup

If you remember, I showed a great quadruple take out (see here) by Tom Brewster on our website at this time last year. It was taken from the Continental Cup.  Well the 2013 edition of the Cup starts on Thursday 10th January and last for 4 days.
This competition features 6 teams from North America against 6 teams representing the Rest of the World. Scotland has two teams, Tom Brewster and Eve Muirhead, as part of the World team.
The WCF is providing a live feed so we can watch some great curling, including skins games.  If you're interested, the link is here.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Season So Far

David Hope has sent the following review of the season to date.


Gangrels Story of the Season so Far

The story of the season so far has been mixed for our various rinks that play in the open competitions within the ice rink.

The Eglinton Jug saw Gangrels 2 skipped by Robert Boyd, David Gray, Steell McFadzean and Robert Charters start the competition with a win against Ardrossan. Later on they met Symington where they recorded another victory. On Thursday in the quarter finals they came up against Sorn 2 with Sorn 2 coming out victorious.

Gangrels 1 skipped by David Hope, Francis McCrossin, Richard Morrison and Jim Henry went out in the first round when they were beaten by Troon Portland 1.

In the day League “A” Gangrels 1 has lost 1 and 1 won game. League “D” Gangrels 2 has played 3 games winning 1 and losing 2.

In the Ayrshire Province Knock Out competition we were represented by Skip Robert Boyd, Jimmy Begg, George Hodge and Richard Morrison who were playing Stewarton Heather who came out victorious.

In our annual match against Beresford Ladies we managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat putting together some large ends. The caterer’s gave us a most excellent meal, which was enjoyed by the company present.

In the Kyle and Carrick Challenge League we are represent by the rink of Russell Boyd, David Hope, Peter Galloway and Ken Ross. Currently we have played 4 games and managed a win, peel and 2 losses.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you on the ice very soon.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Strathcona Cup

Our President's Cup games resume on Jan 14th at 5.00 pm - please check schedule of games to see if you're playing.

In the meantime, we wish Alistair Henry all the best as he leaves with the rest of the Scottish Team to tour Canada on Wednesday 9th January.

Billy Howat and Andrew Kerr are just two of the other weel kent Ayrshire names amongst the 61 who will be trying to regain the trophy for Scotland,  playing just 427 games in the process!



You can follow their progress over the following three weeks by following this link. We wish them every success.

Updated 7th January 2013
Here is some more info that Alistair has sent us re the Tour


I have been aiming to go on this specific tour for 30 years – ever since Dad returned from his in 1983.  He still meets with (surviving) Tourists every January and has not missed any in the 30 years.  There are 60 playing tourists – selected from nearly 100 applicants.  Each Central Rink will play 32 games, with most days featuring 2 games.  We will be on the move by 8 a.m. on most days and all our travel is by bus – unlike some of the other tourists who are flying between some locations.  It is a hectic schedule but as you only get to do this once in your life, we’ll make sure we enjoy it and bring back (and leave behind!) many happy memories.

I have a supply of Gangrels badges and will be passing these to my direct opponent at each match we play.  The whole event will be done on a competitive but friendly basis with the importance of meeting and enjoying the company of new, fellow curlers. 

The most relevant tabs for myself are those featuring the Central Tour.  I suggest that the Tourists, Itinerary and Results tabs are the key ones.  I am on Central Team 1 and our tour starts in Ottawa on Wed before moving east to Montreal and then down the St Lawrence through Toronto to Niagara Falls area.  We then return to Toronto to meet up with the East and West Tours for a grand finale and closing banquet.  We get back to Edinburgh on Sat 2nd Feb.