Kettle Trophy Round 7.2 and Final League Table

Team John Steven / Jennifer Marshall had their final game on Friday last and managed a good win over Jenny Barr. Congratulations to John, Jennifer, Rebecca Steven, Morag Wellman and Richie Anderson on a marvellous undefeated performance in the Kettle Trophy 2021, worthy winners of the competition. In the other game, Robin Copland, skipping in Karen Munro's place, had a tricky promotion to take Shona Watt's stone away from shot position. He was light (and it's been a long time since the writer has been described as light), leaving Shona's stone in place for a hard-fought draw after a great game. The final scored grid and league table tell no lies - congratulations to Team Fleming again for their second place and the Harlaw Cup.

Kettle Trophy Round 7.1 Results and League Table

Team John Steven Wins the Kettle Trophy! This has been a great performance and a real team effort, so step forward John Steven, who skipped the first three games, Jennifer Marshall, the regular third who has taken over skipping duties, substitute third Rebecca Steven, second Morag Wellman and lead Richie Anderson. To go through the competition undefeated has taken some doing and they have not had it all their own way, so congratulations. Oh - and another thing; they weren't even playing! So who was and what happened? Here is the results grid.

Niall Gunn's team played their last game with Joe Barry in the head. They had a good win over Andrew Galloway. Niall moves to seven points in the table - a respectable finish. Meanwhile, Brian Fleming's team, skipped by Raymond Preston cemented second place and the Harlaw Cup with a good win against Dave Munro. Congratulations to Brian, Raymond, Stuart Ronald and Angela Downie on a great performance - only one loss to team Steven. These two teams ran away with it in the first half, he admitted grudgingly!

Kettle Trophy Round 3.2 Results and League Table

One of the delicious ironies of the club card is that round 6 of the Kettle Trophy competition was played before round 3.2. Well, it tickled me anyway. Anyhow, onto the games and results and, perhaps more interestingly, nay intriguingly, what they mean to the competition as it approaches its denouement. Jennifer Marshall has stepped up to the plate and no mistake. She is filling John Steven's big shoes but she is doing so with aplomb. This week, she guided her team of Rebecca Steven, Morag Wellman (have I mentioned her earlier presidential role?) and Richie Anderson (who, whilst never a president, is an accountant) to a really tight win against president (aye, OK!) Niall Gunn and his team (welcome back Karina Aitken, by the way!). Neither team scored more than one per end and there were two steals, so the only separator was the fact that there were seven ends and not eight! Really tight game. Karen Munro, David Hogg, together with subs Maggie Wilson and Allan MacLennan found themselves 5-2 down against faither Dave after five ends. Team Munro the Younger were not to be counted out though - oh no! A stolen 3 in the seventh and last end did for faither and Karen took the win. Here's the scores grid.

And now here is the league table. If this were an election and just using the exit polls, you would almost have to call it for team Steven now. They are four ends ahead of Brian Fleming as well as two points. They can almost afford to have a big loss, as long as they score a couple of ends next week - they will be fine. For Karen, she could end up as high as third in the league. She plays Shona next week and if she wins that, she jumps over Shona; if Jenny loses or draws with the rampant team Steven/Marshall, then she could jump over Jenny as well. Who'd have thunk it, eh?

Doubles Pictures

President Niall sweeping.  Worth a Photo!

Or maybe two!
Good concentration, Stuart.

A pensive Morna Aitken...

... discusses things with partner Lois before...

...throwing her stone.
But Morna wasn't the only curler throwing stones!

Dave throws and leaves another short one
for Margaret to sweep into the house!

At the end of the day though, it's all about
the fun and camaraderie.

C&B Doubles

Large Highland Park please.  I'll take the 12 but if you have an 18... Well that was the plan until someone took me to one side and explained.  To summarise: two stones in place before anyone so much as looks at throwing a stone; each team has five stones to throw; no hitting until fifth stone, etc., etc..  Great fun as some of the pictures illustrate.  And, of course, Murrayfield's own Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat are the reigning World Mixed Doubles Champions, so what's not to like?

Another nice wee twist (should have read the rules before the competition, but that's a detail!) introduced by the committee was that shots-up would come first, not ends as is usual in C&B competitions.

Winners of the competition were Mike Wood and Sarah Ford.  They were a total of eight shots up after their two games - an impressive performance.  Should be said that Megan Priestley played one end out of the nine, meaning that she is a one ninth champion - an accolade that I know she will take with her to the grave!  Runners-up were Jennifer Marshall, helped by Colin Barr and daughter (Colin's - not Jennifer's!) Kirsty.  I am not sure how many ends each of the Barrs played so cannot comment on the share of prize.  They were plus five shots, equal with Norman Nicol (though Margaret played most of their second game) and Raymond Preston.  Jennifer and the Barrs were second on the basis of more shots scored.

Anyhow, there follows a picture of the winners.  I've had a quick word with Niall by the way.  I asked him where he buys his shirts - just so as I can avoid the place, you understand.

On-ice pictures follow in a separate post.

From left: Sarah Ford, president Niall Gunn and Mike Wood
Winners
C&B Doubles Competition 2021-22

David Hogg Wins the Scottish Pairs 2021 Low Road Competition at Kinross

Many congratulations to David who was playing with Martin Sutherland at the Kinross weekend competition organised by the SWCA (link here). He practised on Friday evening in his C&B game and I can confirm he was playing just fine and dandy!

Great performance.

David Hogg and Martin Sutherland
Winners
Scottish National Pairs 2021 Low Road

Kettle Trophy Round 6 Results and League Table

An interesting night's curling with results that rule every team out of silverware apart from two, teams John Steven and Brian Fleming - and we aren't even into December!

First of all, here is the results grid for tonight.

Jennifer Marshall carries on team John Steven's winning ways in John's absence.  A good 8-3 win over Shona Watt moves the team to five wins out of five.  Crucially, their four ends move them to 22 ends in total which equals Brian Fleming's ends total - and they have a game in hand.  Fair to say that they are warmish favourites for overall success in the league and the Kettle Trophy.

Talking of Brian Fleming, he and his team had a hard-fought win over Niall Gunn.  Niall was 5-0 up after three ends and looked to be cruising.  Brian, with Raymond Preston, Andrew Cargill and Angela Downie moved up a gear and took a 4, followed by a stolen 2 in ends four and five.  They limited Niall to 1 shot in the penultimate end before scoring a 2 in the seventh.  A satisfying win then and they are still in the hunt for the Kettle.  As you can see in the league table, they are guaranteed second place at the worst.

So (sound of tumbleweed drifting on the wind), what of the other games this evening?  Irrelevant.  No, hang on, that's ridiculous; apart from anything else, your scribe was playing in one of them.  Playing for Karen Munro and they had a win over Jenny Barr.  Scored a 6 in one end.  All I'm saying.

And in the other game, Andrew Galloway had a tight win against Dave Munro.

Here's the league table...

... and you can see what I mean.  John and Brian are so far ahead of the pack that they cannot be caught.  Niall can get closest with nine points if he wins both of his games.  Jenny, Shona and Karen can get to eight points if they win their remaining games - but no-one can get to ten, so that's that, then - and we haven't even got to the end of Black Friday!

Kettle Trophy Draw

Some folk wander into town (just as an example) and forget to take their draw with them, then wonder just exactly what time it is that they are playing their C&B match that particular evening.  This particular lawyer and retired sheriff shall, of course, remain nameless, but for their benefit (I wouldn't want to give any clue as to this resident of North Berwick's identity but for the avoidance of doubt, his name is not Barbara, nor indeed is it Kate) here is a copy of the Kettle draw.

Kettle Trophy Round 5 Results and League Table

An interesting week's curling and results.  On a personal note, I missed our game and we won it.  First game we have won.  All I'm saying on the matter.

Clash of the night was the match up between the two hitherto undefeated teams - John Steven and Brian Fleming. John will be missing the rest of the competition for health reasons (and I am sure everyone joins with me in wishing John all the best with his treatment), but his team carried on where he left off.  Jennifer Marshall skipped Morag Wellman (Is C&B the only club, I wonder, that has two past-presidents of the Ladies Branch plus the current president of the RCCC as current members?), Rebecca Steven and Jamie Rankin to an impressive 10-4 win over Brian.  Remarkably, the Steven team scored two fours in their win.  They have moved themselves into prime position for the Kettle Trophy.

Jenny Barr kept her and her team in contention with a tight 5-3 win over Dave Munro and finally, president (report's full of presidents, it would seem!) Niall Gunn had a good 9-3 mid-table win over Shona Watt.  Results and League Tables follow. 

C&B Win the Edinburgh International Senior Women's Championship

Well OK - maybe that's a bit of a rich headline, but congratulations nevertheless to Susan Kesley, Fran Stretton, Vicky Gumley and Morna Aitken, all C&B members, who ended up winners of the Edinburgh International Senior Women's Curling Championship.  It was a marvellous win over a tough and high quality field.

(From left), Susan Kesley, Fran Stretton, Vicky Gumley and Morna Aitken

Kettle Trophy Round 4 Results and League Table

 It's kind of "as you were" after this fourth round of the Kettle with the top three teams all winning and stretching away from the pack.

Brian Fleming had a good win in what was a tightish game against Karen Munro - still looking for her first points in the competition.  Brian, Stuart Ronald, substitute Blair Jeffrey and lead Angela Downie all played steadily and withstood some pressure situations.  He has played four and won four.

The other undefeated team in the competition, John Steven,  had an altogether easier game against Andrew Galloway's team, skipped in his absence by daughter Rowena.  Bragging rights stayed with dad, who won the game 10-1.

Shona Watt has only dropped one game so far in the competition and on Friday she had one of those "good game to win" struggles against Dave Munro's team.  Dave was away on Province duties in Stranraer but had arranged for Jamie Rankin to take his place.  Maggie Barry skipped the team and started well, but Shona, Fran Stretton, Jill Gillard and the quietly effective Louise Edwards - well, quiet in comparison to Mike for whom she was subbing! - ended up winning the game 6-5.

Finally, Jenny Barr, Katie Wood, Sarah Ford and Douglas Burns kept themselves in the hunt with a good "middle of the table" win against Niall Gunn's team.  Good to see Vicky Gumley on the ice subbing for Niall.

So - a good week's curling with many a substitute out on the ice and plenty of good curling on show.  Tables follow.

Points Competition

Well, I have obviously lost the old marketing touch!  After my wee piece on the history of points and the Currie Curling Club's role in codifying the various disciplines, only three people actually played in the event this year.  Given that two of them rejoiced in the surname Steven, is this the only time there has been a Points event where the name of at least one of the podium finishers was known in advance?

Rowena and John Steven had come down to the rink to compete and Jenny Barr, who was originally going to keep the score and generally organise the event, made up the three.

Instead of having four shots in each discipline, they decided to have two shots, but to go through the whole card.  John won the overall event with 25 points, which translates to 50 had all the shots been taken.  Given that typically you get your read / find your weight from the first stone that you throw, plus from watching the other competitors' ice and shots, that's a pretty good score in the circumstances.  Well done, John.

Rowena won the ladies competition with a creditable 20 points - ditto my comments above.

Now what can we say about the cue-using (on this occasion) Jenny?  Well, she was either runner-up in the main competition (if Rowena's score is not allowed because it counted towards her winning the ladies competition), runner-up in the ladies competition (on the grounds that John is a man - oops, stop right there, Robin, you can't say that kind of thing now), third in the main competition (see above), or last in the main competition (but that doesn't sound as good as third!).  Haven't got a clue, to be honest.  Tell you what; we'll leave it to the club secretary to make the decision and buy the prize.

Who - Jenny Barr, you say?  The same Jenny Barr that came either second or third, depending?

Confused.com.

The Mystery of the Stone and Robert Palmer

 About twenty years ago, a young man was walking along the banks of the Water of Leith when he spied a stone lying on the river bed.  He fished it out and took it home.  It sat in his garden until 2019 when he moved to a flat - crucially without a garden!  What to do with the stone?  Long story short, he contacted our own Jenny Barr, secretary of C&B, wondering if the club would be interested in looking after it.

The stone is old and has a lump out of it, as you can see in the picture above.  The handle (or what's left of it) is not centrally positioned and, though it is not clear in the picture, the date, we think, is 1827.

So who is RP?  Well, there was a famous Currie Curling Club member of the time called Robert Palmer.  Here is an interesting fellow!  Together with fellow club members Dr Somerville and David Cunningham, he codified the points game and set out the rules - still followed to this day.  

Lindsay Scotland recently attended a talk on Charles Lees' famous painting of the Grand Match on Linlithgow Loch in 1849 and tells me that Palmer is the only "commoner" (in this context, someone who is not an Earl, Viscount, Duke or Knight!) who is identified in the painting.  It can be viewed at the Scottish Portrait Gallery on Queen Street in Edinburgh.  Apparently Palmer, a mere dominie from a small village just outside Edinburgh, had been included amongst the great and the good of the time because of his prowess at the sport; basically everyone wanted to be on his team - the Bruce Mouat of his day!

To be honest, unless we can access a picture of Palmer AND the stone, we will never know.  The link between the two is the juxtaposition of where the stone was found in the Water of Leith, the date on the stone and the initials RP.

Currie Curling Club had a pond and curling hut in the hills above the village to the south and east of Harlaw Farm.  The ruins of the hut, together with the outline of both the original pond as well as the shallow pond can still clearly be seen, though all are now overgrown by trees in what is now a wood.

The hut, as you can see, sits forlorn and in ruins with trees growing within the original building.  There was space within the hut for club members to store their stones and take shelter if the weather turned inclement.  You can imagine the fun of a cold winter's day with the players all enjoying a dram or two from their hip flasks!  Maybe a fire was raised and who knows if a steak or two wasn't perhaps cooked to keep appetites at bay?  More perhaps on the hut and the ponds in a future post.

The question is begged though: why was the stone's final resting place the Water of Leith?  There is a clue perhaps on the same Lindsay Scotland's Map of Historical Curling Places, a site well worth visiting by the way.  On the site, there is an entry for the damhead at the Water of Leith and attached to the entry, there is a newspaper cutting highlighting that a match took place there in 1895.  Here is the cutting.

And now here is the map, showing the site.

Map reproduced with the permission of The National Library of Scotland  [ http://maps.nls.uk ]

Note the reference at the end of the article to a match in "the long winter of 1838".  Robert Palmer was the secretary of the Currie Curling Club in 1838, so it would not be a wild leap to imagine that he played on the damhead then just as his successors did in 1895.  Perhaps his stone fell through the ice.  Water would still be flowing underneath the ice.  If the same freeze were to happen today, I cannot imagine for a minute that people would take to the ice the way that they did almost two centuries ago.  Health and Safety was something for the future!  So, imagine that his stone fell through the ice.  When the ice melted, it was perhaps at the bottom of a deep pool and so lay undisturbed until 20 years or so ago when, just maybe, it was dislodged - in a flood, perhaps - to a position where a young man could first see it, then lift it from the water.  

Ridiculous?  Perhaps not.  True - who knows?  Good story though, even if the only certainty is that the young man found it in the Water of Leith 20 years ago!

My thanks to Lindsay Scotland of Carrington Curling Club whose Map of Historical Curling Places is a wonder to behold and to Jenny for giving me access to the stone.  And to Robert Palmer, of course, who seems to have been quite the fellow.

Points Competition Preview and a Wee Bit of History...

I wonder how many C&B members know of the club's proud tradition in regard to the famous old points game?  In fact, it was invented by three members of the Currie Curling Club, one of the two clubs that merged to form the Currie and Balerno Curling Club.  They were famous in their club's history and I dare say that their names will be remembered long after any of the current membership - why?  Well, they were true innovators in our great sport.

Robert Palmer was a teacher in Currie and we believe that we may have found one of his old stones from the 1830s.  More of that in a later post.  David Cunningham and Dr Somerville were the other two members who codified the rules of the points game that remain with us to this day.  It's really only in the various points competitions around the country that we revert to the old way of describing shots like "chap and lie" or "inwick"!

Somerville was also famous for inventing a shallow curling pond to enable the sport to take place outdoors after maybe only a day or two of freezing temperatures.  Actually, there was a heated debate that eventually ended up in the courts; was it Somerville, or the first President of the Grand Caledonian Curling Club, Dr John Cairnie of Curling Hall in Largs who invented the curling pond?  Cairnie got the nod.

This year's Points competition takes place this Friday at 18.00 (6.00pm).  There is an overall prize as well as a ladies prize on offer.  It's a fun couple of hours, so why not come along and see what our predecessors came up with.

Kettle Trophy Round 3.1 Results and League Table

As the competition moves towards its halfway point and four teams now find themselves having played three games out of their seven, Brian Fleming's strong team with Raymond Preston at third, former skip Andrew Cargill (who shares the position with Stuart Ronald) at second and Angela Downie at lead are on six points after a good win against Shona Watt's hitherto unbeaten team.  This was a big game for both teams so Brian's 4 taken in the second end must have gone some way to calm the nerves.  As is often the case in this league, the rest of the game was pretty even.

Meanwhile in the other game, Jenny Barr got her show on the road against Rowena Steven who found herself skipping again in Andrew Galloway's absence.  Rowena's four ends may come in useful later on, right enough and the stolen one in the seventh and last end will bring them back happy for their next game.

Results and League tables follow.  

It's all looking a bit ominous at the foot of the table, but John and Brian are looking pretty at the top.  Actually, I'll maybe rephrase that last sentence - they've been called many things but never pretty.  Never in a million years.  Just saying!

Jackson Trophy Winners 2021!

 Many congratulations to C&B President Niall Gunn, John Steven and Joe and Maggie Barry who have won the prestigious "Champion of Champions" Jackson Trophy.  Great achievement for them and for the club.

Kettle Trophy Round 2 Results and League Table

 Well, round two has been and went, as football commentators are wont to remark, and already there are patterns developing; good news for some but less so for others - including your scribe's team, which has been at the wrong end of two defeats!

It was a tight game in the first three ends between Karen Munro and club president Niall Gunn and his strong team of Joe Barry (3rd), Morna Aitken and Susan MacFarlane, but they pulled ahead with a big steal of 3 in the fourth end.  Karen was presented with big shots every time that she came to play and was inches away on a couple of occasions from a spectacular result.

On the next sheet, Shona Watt, Fran Stretton, Mike Wood and Jill Gillard were 6-2 up on Rowena Steven, who was skipping Andrew's team in his absence.  A spirited fightback towards the end of the game saw her win three important ends.

John Steven, Jennifer Marshall, Morag Wellman and Richie Anderson have made a great early statement of intent in October's games.  Poor Dave Munro was on the receiving end of a bit of a doing, eventually losing out 11-2.

The last game of the evening was that between Raymond Preston, skipping the team in the absence of Brian, and secretary Jenny Barr.  A tight game this one; Raymond got off to a good start, winning the first three ends, before he and Jenny swapped the next two.  A 2 at the last end resulted in a final score of 4-3 for Raymond.

League table and score grid follows.

Kettle Trophy Round 1 Results and League Table

Well, we are back curling! All eight teams were out for the first round of the Kettle Trophy 2021. John Steven took a six in the first end of his game when Karen Munro's stone overcurled and skinnied her shot right out of the house. Tough to take and the rest of their game was close! There was even a blank end thrown in for good measure with John eventually winning 8-2. Andrew Galloway and Brian Fleming had a really tight game with Andrew in the ascendancy all the way to the last end when Brian scored a three to sneak the game 6-5. He and his team go to the top of the table. The tightest result of the night was the draw between President Niall Gunn and Treasurer David Munro. Niall was 6-2 ahead going into end six of seven, but a big 3 followed by a stolen 1 secured the draw for team D Munro. Finally, in the Shona Watt v Jenny Barr game, Jenny was 7-4 ahead going into the seventh end, but managed to lose the second four of the night! I was driving home with her (thanks for the lift, Jenny!) and - well, let's just say she could have been happier! Looks like I will have to print off the league table and results, photograph them and then post the photos as Blogspot has removed the facility where I could just copy an Excel spreadsheet into the articles. Thanks Blogspot. Thanks for absolutely nothing!

New Season Is Upon Us!

Well now! Hopefully we will all play a few more games in season 2021-22 than we did in 2020-21! Covid is still out there of course, so it behoves us all still to be careful, but the vaccine seems to be doing its job in making everything safer so that now we can mix and match and even curl to our hearts' content! 

The committee has been been beavering away and you should already have details of your various teams, reserve lists, contact phone numbers and the like. President Niall has sent round his missive; diaries should by now be updated and all that remains for us to do is to pitch up for our first games! 20.15 on Friday 1 October will see everyone out on the ice. Team John Steven plays team Karen Munro; team Dave Munro plays team Niall Gunn; team Andrew Galloway plays team Brian Fleming and finally, team Shona Watt plays team Jenny Barr. Promises to be a great night's curling with old rivalries and friendships being renewed and new stories to be enacted and then told. 

There has been one very small change to the original card - did you all get it? The games originally scheduled for 18.00 on Friday 19th November will now take place at 17.30. Teams Dave Munro, Niall Gunn, Shona Watt and Jenny Barr are the only teams affected. What does this mean? Well, if you are a member of one of those four teams, check your diary and make sure that you have changed the time. If you are NOT a member of those teams, you need do nothing, zero, the square root of diddly squat.

Roll on Friday 1st October which, according to my calendar, is today!