Kettle Trophy Final Results and League Table

It was all over, bar the whimpering, last week, but true to C&B form, the last two games had to be played out, and both were fought tooth and nail to the end! For those who need their teeth looked at, C&B has many recommendations to give its members; nails are another thing altogether, though we understand that the Lilac Rooms in Currie are very good with the scissors, varnish and all that other stuff that goes on between one's nail person and oneself. Not something I've ever worried about myself, but there we are and the world is a fine place for its diversity. Here's the final results grid before Christmas.

Jenny Barr's rink, skipped in her absence by Jennifer Marshall with Margaret Nicol and Angela Downie had a comprehensive win over Dave Munro's team. Team Barr was already assured of third place but this result stretched the gap between the haves and the have nots. Team Barr finished on 11 points - enough in previous C&B leagues to assure them of second spot and sometimes enough to win the league outright! Sadly for them one loss and one draw was enough to relegate them to third place in this competitive league. Team Copland leapt athletically (it says here) to an 8-3 win over team Watt, skipped in Shona's absence by Kerry Clark, and means that he also skipped into seventh place in the final league table. To be very fair, his team of regular third Maggie Barry and substitutes Douglas Burns and Vicky Gumley played out of their skins and made his life relatively easy and Kerry's life insanely difficult. Was he complaining? Are Hearts going to win the league? He rests his case. Here's the final league table.

Kettle Trophy Round 7.1

Well, it's all over! Congratulations to Brian Fleming, Rowena Steven, Douglas Burns and Richie Anderson, winners of the Kettle Trophy. They played John Steven's strong team - remember that they were in contention until only last week - and they ran out convincing 11-4 winners; crucially, they won five ends and made it impossible for second-placed Karen Munro's team to overtake them on ends. Here's the results grid.

In the night's other game, Karen Munro's team, skipped by Andrew Galloway, with Mike Wood playing third stones and subsitutes Eilidh Yeats and Angela Downie also had a good win over Niall Gunn's team, skipped in his absence by Katie Wood with regular team players, Betty Gibb, David Hogg and substitute Cammy Burns (thanks again for playing, Cammy). Though Karen's team had a convincing 13-4 win, they actually only managed to win four ends so they were unable to overhaul Brian's team. Congratulations to Karen Munro, Andrew Galloway, Mike Wood and Graham Paterson, who take the Harlaw Cup; they have been strong contenders for the Kettle Trophy throughout the competition and managed to keep Brian and his team honest right until the end! Here's the league table.

Kettle Trophy Round 6

Ooft! What with all the chat about European Championships and the like, we are apt sometimes to forget the really important stuff: C&B's Kettle Trophy results and league table with only one round remaining! So, we are down to three teams for the Kettle and four for the runners-up and the Harlaw Cup. Brian Flemingless, skipped in Brian's absence by Rowena Steven had a really good win over Niall Gunn and as a result, moves to the top of the table on ten points. Niall was one up without coming home, but lost a two and the game. Karen Munroless, skipped in Karen's absence by Andrew Galloway, was also victorious with a good win over John Steven's strong team, effectively knocking John out of the running for silverware. The two top teams are on ten points. Jenny Barr had a good win over Shona Wattless's team, skipped by not a bad player, right enough, the recently married Kerry Clark (in joke - don't ask!). There was another game played between two grizzled veterans and their young teams. Neither team is in the running but Mr Munro prevailed in what was actually a really good fun game of curling. So, first of all, here's the results grid.

So what does that do to the league table and what can happen in round 7 of the competition? First up, here's the league table after round 6.

Round 7 will be played over two Fridays. On the 9th December, John Steven plays Brian Fleming. John is out the running for a top two finish, but he could throw a spanner in the works because if he wins, then Brian would stay on ten points. The other game on the 9th is between Karen Munro and Niall Gunn. Again, Niall cannot win anything but will have a huge say in who wins both the Kettle Trophy and the Harlaw Cup. If he wins, Karen stays on ten points - potentially the same score as Brian (both might win, in which case they both move onto twelve points; they could both draw their games, in which case they would move to eleven points - you get the picture!). Fast forward to a week later and Jenny's game v Dave Munro, whose daughter, of course, is in the running. I'm not one for conspiracies you understand, but - all I'm saying! Anyhow, Jenny wins against Dave and moves to eleven points. See an earlier sentence in this increasingly long paragraph and - three teams on eleven points! I just love it. Meanwhile, Shona Watt plays Robin Copland. This game is for the honour of finishing plum last, a position currently held by Mr Copland, on zero points. Fair to say that neither are challenging for the top spot, so I am going to ask my glamorous assistant to get out the veil and draw it.

C&B's Gina Aitken Wins Bronze at the European Curling Championships!

What a fantastic and gutsy performance by Team Scotland, with our own Gina Aitken playing third, in last week's European Curling Championships in Ostersund, Sweden. Team Scotland started the competition off strongly with good wins against Turkiye and Latvia. The team was under pressure from the start because they were "supposed" to win both those games, and win them they did. Their next two games were against strong opposition in Italy and the on-form Danish team. Two losses and it could all have gone horribly wrong - but how they bounced back with a huge win against one of the pre-tournament favourites, Anna Hasselborg's Swedish team. In a week of ups and downs, the Scots girls lost their next two games against the experienced German team under skip Daniela Jentsch and the Swiss World Number One team, skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni. After a comprehensive 10-1 win over Hungary, the Scots were left with a must-win game against Norway. Two things had to happen in this round of the competition: first, the Scots had to win their game and then second, other results had to go their way. It all came together and they were semi-final bound!

Gina concentrating hard during the Bronze play-off game v Italy (picture credit to Celine Stucki and the WCF) In the semi-final, the Scots girls came up against the hot team of the week, Madeleine Dupont's Danish team. Madeleine and her sister Denise have been on the circuit for many years. They have played well on occasion, but never really threatened. Well they threatened this week - and some! The Scottish girls had played positively against them in their round-robin game so went into the semi-final with some hope. Sadly for them a few rubs and some great Danish play in the first five ends saw the Scots eight points down and the game already out of their reach. They conceded as soon as they could in order to better prepare for their Bronze Medal game.

(from left) Skip Rebecca Morrison, Second Sophie Sinclair, Lead Sophie Jackson and Third Gina Aitken discuss the position late on in their game against Italy. Not in the picture is Fifth player Hailey Duff and coach Nancy Smith (picture credit Celine Stucki and the WCF). In the Bronze Medal game itself, the first half was a cagey affair and the two sides were tied, but come the second half of the game, the Scots donned their party clothes and played outstandingly! A two, followed by a stolen two, then a stolen single had them five shots clear playing the ninth end. They managed a force and the deflated Italians shook hands in what is surely the worst game of the week to lose. Congratulations to the Scottish team and particularly to Gina.

Kettle Trophy Round 5.2

A good win for John Steven, Raymond Preston, Joe Barry and Donald Kennedy over team Shona Watt keeps them in the hunt for honours come Christmas time. Looks like a solid performance. A big score of four in the seventh and last end perhaps makes the game look more one-sided than it actually was. Meanwhile, Dave Munro had a comprehensive win over club president Niall Gunn. He and his team were 5-0 ahead after four ends. Here is the results grid.

And now the league table. With two rounds to go. it is tight at the top of the table. There's no change at the top, but John Steven has forced himself back into contention with Friday's win. Jenny Barr is also right there with the leading pack. Interestingly, there is a definite "top-bottom" split between the top and bottom four. The next two rounds will be interesting indeed. Big game coming up in round 6 is John Steven v Karen Munro. If John wins, he leapfrogs Karen in the league table, but if Karen wins, then that would be it for John. On 9th December, John plays Brian Fleming - another huge game in the league context and Karen plays Niall Gunn. We may very well have to wait until 16th December to finally get the full picture - why? Jenny Barr plays Dave Munro that night and, depending on her result against Shona Watt on 2nd December, she could still be very much in the picture. Here's the league table after 5 of 7 rounds.

C&B at the Edinburgh International Senior Men's Curling Championship

As in the Women's championship, C&B was well represented in the Edinburgh International Senior Men's Championship. Andrew Galloway had a team entered in the competition. John Steven skipped the team in all of their games and the core of the team was Andrew Galloway at third and Dave Munro at second. Lead duties were shared between Andrew Barr, Raymond Preston and Joe Barry. They won their first game and had two close losses before coming up against a rampant Graham Cormack in their final game. Graham went on to win the competition. Brian Fleming is a regular team member in the Peter Wilson team. They were absolutely in the competition until near the end of their fourth-round game against Andrew Morton. Unfortunately for them, Andrew shaded the game in the last three ends, so that was the end of the Wilson challenge and of C&B's interest in the competition. You win some and you lose some!

C&B at the Edinburgh International Women's Senior Curling Championship

There were a number of club members competing in the Edinburgh International Women's Senior Curling Championship from 11th to 13th November. Some did well; some did less well! Let's start off with the bad news: Fran Stretton and her team of Morna Aitken, Katie Wood and Jenny Barr had done the hard work by beating the Liz Paul team in an earlier game, but they went on to lose to team Wilcox - they had lost both their games to date - so Fran and company ended up on one win and two losses - out the competition at the group stage. Maggie Barry was play second stones on Liz Paul's strong team; they fought their way out of the group stage in first place and then went onto win a convincing semi-final against Barbara Watt's Edinburgh team. Who was playing last stones in Barbara's team? None other than C&B's own Shona Watt. Team Paul, with Ann-Maree Davidson at third, Maggie Barry at second and Lawrie McKerrow at lead were very much in the final after four ends with the score tied at 2-2. The wheels came off the bus thereafter though, and two big ends in which Jackie Lockhart's strong Scottish Championship team scored two 4s sealed the game for Team Lockhart. Many congratulations to them but also to Team Paul who did so well to get to the final. Here's a picture of the runners-up team.

(from left) Lawrie McKerrow, Maggie Barry, Ann-Maree Davidson and Liz Paul, Runners-up in the Edinburgh International Senior Women's Curling Championship

Vicky Gumley on the Scotland Women's Curling Tour of the USA

C&B's own Vicky Gumley looks to have had a fantastic tour to the USA. After nearly a month's travelling and curling, our picture has Kim Dalland and Vicky wrestling with the Marguerite Roberts Friendship Quaich, a trophy that the Scots convincingly won. Both Kim and Vicky's teams won 13 out of their 18 games. The Scots won a total of 52 games out of the 90 that they played and the final shots score for the tour was Scotland 719, USA 536. Vicky and company travelled through 11 states with a mixture of home hosting and hotel nights. There is a website with more tour news at www.swusatour.wixsite.com/2022.

Welcome home, Vicky and many congratulations on a great victory. Far more importantly, the memories will live with you forever!

Doubles Competition 2022

Ah - it's shots-up first, is it? Should have checked - along with half the membership! And there were we thinking that 3-1 on the old ends count was a good thing after our first game, not that it would have made any difference, right enough. It didn't stop our eventual winners, Jennifer Marshall and Graham Paterson from scoring a very creditable six shots in their opening game; what made it even better was the fact that they scored in all four ends. We're talking "granny" here"! Their second game was equally impressive and they were four shots to the good in that one. Imagine this: the two of them won eight out of the nine ends that they played. The competition was left reeling in their wake, though Robin Copland and David Hogg ended up seven shots up, as did Kerry Clark and Betty Gibb. Robin and David captured second place on shots scored, so it was tight. Well done Jennifer and Graham and here's a wee picture for your respective albums!

A great day's play with lots of talking points, including one team suddenly announcing a "Power Play" at the start of one end. Power Play? The world's gone to hell in a handbag! Apparently, it involves setting up the stones in the wings rather than in the middle. Maybe I should have checked that one as well...!

Kettle Trophy Round 5.1

Don't you just love the fact that you can jump from round 3.2 two weeks ago to round 5.1 now? You'll be wondering why. Don't ask me - I failed maths 'O' level first time around and still struggle every time anyone starts talking about Pythagoras and his bloody theorem. To be fair, there hasn't been too much of a struggle on that front these past 56 years or so, given that no-one I know has EVER started a conversation about Pythagoras, but you get my drift. It's all to do with the draw and don't even start me on Picasso. There should be a paragraph break here. Unfortunately, I don't know how to put a paragraph break in, so you'll just have to accept a paragraph that's far too long. Actually, there is a way of putting a break in, which is to put in the scoring grid. Here it is.

Two massive results tonight have thrown the league wide open. Brian Fleming, Rowena Steven, Douglas Burns and Richie Anderson had a big win against the absent Mr Copland, skipped by Maggie Barry. They won five ends as well. Those ends have taken him above Karen Munro's team by two ends. Meanwhile, on the other sheet, Jenny Barr's 'come from behind' - with two ends to go, she was 6-3 down! - victory over hitherto undefeated Karen Munro has blown the league wide open. What looked like a procession for team K Munro has suddenly become a really tight race for the prizes with teams K Munro, Fleming, Barr and Steven, and even Niall Gunn on four points, now all in the hunt! Well done to Jenny, Jen Marshall, Margaret Nicol and Angela Downie. The crowds will be gathering in the next few weeks as we reach towards the denouement of the competition! Here's the league table.

Kettle Trophy Round 3.2

The competition has reached the half way stage with the completion of round 3 on Friday night. Two good games - one a draw between John Steven and Jenny Barr and the other a good win for Niall Gunn over Robin Copland, making his first appearance in the competition! Robin was 5-0 down before he and his team, Maggie Barry, Sarah Ford and Morag Wellman got themselves together. Niall had Betty Gibb at three, David Hogg (who had a splendid game - well played David!) and substitute Mike Wood throwing lead stones. Final score of 8-6 with each team scoring in four ends. In the other game, John Steven, Raymond Preston, Joe Barry and Donald Kennedy scored a three in the third end to take a 4-1 lead and must have thought that things were going their way - especially when they limited Jenny, Jen Marshall, Margaret Nicol and Angela Downie to a single point in end six to take a one-shot advantage into the seventh and last end. Great steal from Jenny though and a drawn game. Here's the Results grid with Friday's games highlighted.

And now the league table.

Friday's drawn match did not help John Steven and his team who now find themselves 3 points behind the undefeated Karen Munro. Their match at the beginning of December is beginning to look to be an important game - and a "must-win" for John. Brian can only watch. He can still win the league,but whether he does or not is in other teams' hands as he has already played (and lost) to Karen in the first round. In other breaking news, one team cannot now win the league - and it's only the beginning of November. Modesty forbids and all of that.

Jen Marshall Wins the C&B Points Competition

Many thanks to president Niall for his report on last Friday's Points competition. The event followed a full session of C&B curling rather than take place before a session; as a result, thirteen members took part - doubtless encouraged by the sandwiches and cake that secretary Jenny had organised to encourage folk back onto the ice! In the absence of the Steven family, it fell to president Niall to lead the players off in the competition. There were a total of six disciplines completed - a creditable achievement by all who took part. There was some good scoring, but Jen's 36 out of 48, or 75%, was a really excellent score. Many congratulations to Jen. President Niall Gunn announced the winner at the end of the competition, but decided to keep the identity of the runner-up and winner of the butter dish until the AGM!

C&B Repeats its Jackson Trophy Win!

Congratulations to president Niall Gunn, Joe and Maggie Barry (three of last year's winning team) and Douglas Burns, who retained the Champion of Champions trophy, the Jackson Cup in 2022. A great achievement. First the picture of the winners, then over to Niall, who submitted a report for the blog.

President Niall Gunn, Maggie and Joe Barry and Douglas Burns defended their Champion of Champions Trophy, the Jackson Trophy. 4-1 down in the semi-final game wasn't the best place to be early on in the game, but a good second half performance enabled the team to pull through against Trevor Dodds' Carrington team. Lining up in the final against Ian Keron, the teams looked evenly matched. C&B played strongly early on in the game and were always up courtesy of a 3 in the second end. Ian and his team pulled it back to one down playing the last end, though C&B did have the hammer. In a terrific last end, Niall had to draw the one-foot to avoid an extra end. The trophy was presented to the winning team by ECC president, Sean Murphy, who had been in the losing team in the final. Congratulations to Maggie, Joe, Douglas and Niall.

Just for the record, Niall took a picture of last year's engraving on the trophy!

Kettle Trophy Round 4

Yet another Friday's C&B session and four games move us ever closer to the Christmas break. John Steven, Raymond Preston, Joe Barry and Donald Kennedy roared back to life with a huge 14-1 win over Dave Munro and his troops. Ouch! Shona Watt, Kerry Clark (that's Clark!), Lois Copland (at least we can say that one Copland is actually appearing this season!) and Susan MacFarlane had a good win over the hitherto very strong Niall Gunn team. They scored five ends in an eight-end game, so well done all in the pace of play stakes. Karen Munro, Mike Wood, Graham Paterson and substitute Anne Anderson had a great win over Maggie Barry with a tightish 8-6 win. Brian Fleming kept in touch at the top of the table with a win over Jenny Barr, courtesy of a big 5 in the penultimate end. Here is the results grid for this week.

Karen Munro and her team are stretching away in the league, though Brian is hanging on there! All to play for.

Vicky Gumley in the USA

Club member, Vicky Gumley is currently in the USA as a member of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club Ladies team. She will be having a ball! Here is the official team picture, taken by Tom Brydone.

Have a great trip Vicky. We look forward to hearing all about it when you return!

Kettle Trophy Round 3.1

Friday night last saw the first of the two-game sessions in the club. Shona Watt had to call in a late sub to protect her knee - get well soon, Shona! Eilidh Robb stepped in as a last minute substitute - thanks Eilidh! Kerry Barr moved up to skip the team, with Lois Copland at three and Susan MacFarlane at two. It was a stolen two in the penultimate end that did it for Shona's team, so well played, Karen Munro, Mike Wood, Graham Paterson and substitute Joe Barry. Karen now moves to the top of the league table on six points - going very well is team K Munro! Meanwhile in the other game, there was a bit of a ding-dong battle between Brian Fleming's team, skipped in his absence by Rowena Steven and Dave Munro. Dave Munro was particularly impressed by the opposition and Richie Anderson apparently had a stormer - well played Richie! Douglas Burns had moved up to play third and Eilidh Yeats came in as substitute and played lead. 10-9 was the final score and both teams were chucking 3s, 4s and 5s at each other! The 5 came in the last end and was scored by Dave and co - so close but the cigar rights stayed with Rowena and her team! Here's the results grid

And the league table

Kettle Trophy Round 2

Results are now in. Here's the scores grid.

And the resultant league table. Karen Munro and company making an early bid for glory whilst some of the old-timers sit languishing at the foot of the table! Apologies that the table is slightly askew - I forgot to rank it properly. All will be corrected in the next post.

Kettle Trophy Round 1

Absent reporter reports that he was absent. End of report! Here is the results grid for the first round of games. Reporter may well have been absent, but notes that the result that he would have got was duly delivered in his absence. He meanwhile was in Portugal. It was very warm.

And here is the league table. Interestingly, Jenny Barr's name has a different coloured background than everyone else's. This is because she is the club secretary and is therefore a very important person. That said, Niall Gunn is the club president and is therefore also a very important person, but his name has the same background as everyone else's. Here, I may have to confess that the whole thing is actually a cock-up of monumental proportions. That however is not as interesting.

Kettle Trophy Well Underway

Normal service is being resumed, the reader will be delighted to learn! Here is the draw for the Kettle Trophy. League tables for the first two rounds follow.

Tom Holmes Bonspiel and Supper

A fitting climax to C&B's season is always the Tom Holmes bonspiel and supper. This year was no different, but dare I say it, even more poignant given the events of the past couple of years. Anyhow, as I was absent without leave, I asked President Niall Gunn to pen a few words about the day. Here is what he had to say...

It was great to have a real bonspiel again with a good number of new and co-opted members playing. After the second round of matches, there were four teams out of the eight still in the mix which made it all to play for in round 3, with Douglas Burns and his team of Morag Wellman, Maggie Barry and Douglas's wee brother, Cammy Burns - probably the youngest player on the ice - emerging as the winners with five ends won in total. Many congratulations to them and well done, Douglas, on getting the winning skip thing off your back!

After some of the usual banter in the bar, we all sat down to supper. I gave a bit of a spiel about the origins of the competition and explained who Tom Holmes was, how we ended up having a bonspiel in his memory and the connection between current and past members who donated the trophy. The old traditions of grace before the supper, the presentation of prizes and sliding the coins towards the bottles (thank you to Dave and Sheena Munro for the bottle of port and to Donald Kennedy for the bottle of Highland Park malt whisky) were all enjoyed by members and others who were enjoying the atmosphere in a very busy bar. The meal had been delicious and beautifully prepared as always by Paul and his team. and we all went home happy and content!

Province Bonspiel Monday 31st January

The Province Bonspiel is always a bit of a hoot! It is run on traditional bonspiel lines although there is a modern twist. Not all clubs can raise three teams; in order to let smaller clubs still take part, they can enter at least two teams and have their results pro-rata'd using some complicated formula or other that is well beyond the arithmetical capabilities of your scribe. Is it even arithmetic? Who knows - and certainly pas moi! Anyhow, this is all a long-winded way of saying that President Niall wrote a report about a month ago that has sat on my to-do list all that time - apologies Niall! The first game of three involved Brian Fleming, Jenny Barr, Robin Copland and Mike Wood. They played Haymarket CC and found themselves 13 shots to the good by the end of their game. A great start, writes Niall.

Next up were Susan Kesley, Andrew Galloway, Joe Barry and Lois Copland. The ice had slowed up and was a bit tricky. It was all a bit tense as they went into their last end but a big score of six steadied the nerves and secured a four-shot win against a strong Stew-Mel rink.

This left the evening game in which president Niall Gunn teamed up with Jennifer Marshall, Dave Munro and Angela Downie to take on the might of Dalkeith. As often happens, their main rivals, Barbarians CC were on an adjoining sheet and their challenge was to try to keep pace with them. They were behind Barbarians in the last end so really had to go all out for a big end which, to be fair, they scored; a five took them to a 16-3 win. C & B were plus 30 in total which, divided by three meant a plus ten average score. Barbarians pipped us by one shot; they were plus eleven. Still - a great team effort and as two of our teams were plus 13, we thought that we were in with a shout at the Colin Black trophy. Even that was close though! There were in fact four teams on plus 13 but because my team had scored one more total shots than the others, that was good enough for the Colin Black trophy.

Thank you to Niall for the comprehensive report and congratulations to him, Jennifer, Dave and Angela on winning the Colin Black trophy.

Lymphoy Cup and Glenbrook Quaich Final Results and League Table

Well, it's been a rollercoaster of a competition and the final league table tells its story of success and gallant failure. Many congratulations to Katie Wood, Andrew Galloway, Joe Barry and Richie Anderson, this year's winners of the Lymphoy Cup. Team Wood came good towards the end of the competition, starting with a great win over Karen Munro's previously unstoppable team. That took them to level on points. They finished their competition on Friday with the draw that they needed - aided by Louise Edwards who helped Aunty Katie out by subbing for her. Congratulations to them! Oh, and an aside, they drew with Brian Fleming, giving him the point he needed to, well to get a point! Here's the score grid showing the results of all seven rounds in the competition.

The race for second place and the Glenbrook Quaich - well, the only certainty was that the skip's name was going to be Munro - but which one - faither Dave or daughter Karen? You've got to feel for Karen and her team, Morna Aitken, Douglas Burns and Angela Downie. They were riding along on the crest of a wave for four rounds before meeting Katie Wood and her troops. They lost that one, but at the time were still leading the field on ends won. Covid struck Karen though and the team lost to faither Dave in round six, so it was all to play for in round seven. Both Karen and Dave won their games but Karen's superior ends total (30 ends won in the competition) meant that she took the Glenbrook Quaich - congratulations all. Bad luck to Dave Munro, Rowena Steven, Sarah Ford and Susan MacFarlane who came third with a creditable 10 points. Here's the final league table.

Gina Aitken Wins the Scottish Women's Curling Championship

Playing third in team Morrison, with team mates Rebecca Morrison, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson, Gina Aitken has added to her Scottish Championship successes with her maiden win the the 'Blue Riband' Scottish Women's Curling Championship. Many congratulations to Gina from all members of the club! The team was selected to represent Scotland in the World Championships in Port George but very sadly some members fell ill with Covid and team Scotland has had to withdraw from the Championships.

Lymphoy Cup Round 6 Results and League Table

See that fan at the entrance to the rink - the brown one? The one that seems to be blocked and is smelling a bit? Yes, that one. It's Currie and Balerno wot done it - I'm telling you! There was Karen Munro, floating along nicely until round five when she came up against one Katie Wood (and company). Katie, whose company includes Andrew Galloway, Joe Barry and Richie Anderson won a 'must win' game, but was still behind on ends. Enter Covid; poor Karen (get well soon, Karen) was afflicted and her team played her dad (of all people) without her. 9-4 to dad! Apologies to Dave and team by the way; I got the game result transposed in the last update - it is corrected now. Katie and troops meanwhile accounted for Norman Nicol's team in round 6 and, from being two points down going into round five now find themselves in pole position going into the 7th and final round. Here's the table.

Katie is out front on her own - win or draw and she is our champion, but look at positions two and three - next thing we know, we'll all be mountaineers, climbing Scotland's tallest peaks! Karen plays John Steven's team; if John's team wins that game, they will overtake Karen and give themselves a shout at a podium finish. Dave Munro plays Robin Copland - an easy win for Dave, you would think, but Robin's not playing, so maybe not! If Dave wins by a barrel-load of ends and Katie gets gubbed - oh and Karen loses, he's not out of things either. Results grid follows.

For the rest of us, think tumbleweed; think dusty abandoned townships in gold country, USA. All to play for for some though. Good luck to all!

Team David Hogg Wins the Scottish Wheelchair Curling Association British Open Championship

This was a great win for David Hogg, skipping his team of Martin Sutherland, Owen Streeter and Carlyne McCluskey. David filed a report for the Scottish Curling website and, rather than write some nonsense myself, why don't I let David tell the story in his own words! Players from as far afield as Buckinghamshire and Elgin competed in an eight-team round-robin format with the final standings going right to the last session. Team Hogg won their final game to go through the tournament unbeaten and claim the title. Team Pimblett were runners-up with team Gault finishing in third place.

Many congratulations David from all your clubmates at Currie and Balerno CC!

Lymphoy Cup Round 5 Results and League Table

Round Five took place over two Fridays - 25th February and 4th March. That scrabbling sound you hear in the loft? It's the pigeons going mental because Topcat's been let loose. The pigeons (and I accept that the analogy is being stretched like a piece of German dough here!) are four other teams in the Lymphoy Cup league and the cat is Katie Wood and her team of Andrew Galloway, Joe Barrie and Richie Anderson. They took on the previously unassailable Karen Munro and, despite being three down after two ends, scored two, one, three and two in the next four ends to take an 8-3 lead into the seventh and last end. Karen managed a score of three in the last end to make the scoreline look more palatable, but still - big win for Katie and the race for the Lymphoy Cup is now well and truly open for business! In the other game on the February Friday, Robin Copland and Jenny Barr managed to get eight ends in! That's about it really - Robin scraped a win.

The next week saw the tightest game of the round in which Dave Munro, Rowena Steven, Sarah Ford and Susan MacFarlane come from one behind playing the sixth and last end to score a two and secure the win against Norman Nicol's team, this week skipped by Megan Priestley. The final score was 5-4 and each team scored three ends. In the last game of the round, John Steven's rink, skipped by Shona Watt, supported by Morag Wellman, Maggie Barrie and David Hogg had a good 9-4 win over Brian Fleming's team. They remain rooted to the bottom spot in the league. Here's the league table.

Game on, as a wiser man than I once remarked. Wide open now, though Karen's four-end advantage could prove pivotal. We shall see!

Lymphoy Cup Round 4.2 Results and League Table

Catching up here, sorry - a bit late. These two games completed round 4 and took place on 18th February. Betty Gibb skipped Norman Nicol's team with Morag Wellman at third and a rare outing for the Anderson combination, Richie and Anne. A big score of four in the fifth end of six against John Steven's rink, skipped by daughter Rebecca secured the points. Meanwhile, Dave Munro skipped his team of Rowena Steven, Sarah Ford and Susan MacFarlane to a good win over Mike Wood, who was skipping Brian Fleming's team. Here's the scores grid.

So - what does that do to the league table? Well, if you're Brian there is at least consistency! Norman's team moves up beside Katie Wood in their joint attempts to keep Karen Munro honest; Karen, it has to be said, is powering on...

Scottish Masters Championship 2022

Regular readers of these pages will be astonished to learn that Robin Copland, playing with his old team mate from the 70s and 80s, Ken Horton, as well as fellow Murrayfield curlers, Mike Dick and Trevor Dodds, reached the final of the Scottish Masters Championship, recently played out at Greenacres in Renfrewshire. They had good wins against some fancied teams including Stranraer's John Sharp and Kelso's Keith Prentice - playing with his Senior World Champion winning team of Lockhart Steele, Robin Aitken and Tommy Fleming.

Anyhow, they got to the final on the Sunday afternoon and found themselves playing against the only other undefeated skip in the competition, Don Stark. The Stark team played really well and ran team Horton out of stones in the eighth and last end. Silver Medals and suitably glum faces all around!

Lymphoy Cup Round 3 and 4.1 Results and League Table

By now, all teams have played three rounds, and as you can see below, some have moved on and played four. Already the league is sorting itself out and Karen Munro is leading the way on eight points from four games (though, and to be very fair, she would have been hard pressed to have scored eight points from three - something to do with arithmetic I'm guessing). What does that mean for the two teams at the bottom of the table, namely Brian Fleming and Robin Copland? Well, Brian is completely goosed and Robin is not far behind him in the old "a perfect fat for roast potatoes" stakes. To be very fair to Robin's team, the blame for that is all down to his inability to throw a stone that actually does what it says on the tin. In Brian's case, I cannot comment except to say that he slides on his toe and his knee will be wrecked pretty soon. Another youngster, Katie Wood of this parish, trails Karen by a mere two points and is grimly hanging on - still in contention for a podium finish. Here's the league and scores grid for your edification and entertainment.

A good couple of weeks and results for Katie, as you can see, but for Jenny, on the other hand - not so good. As I say, it's Karen's team that is setting the pace, so congratulations to Karen, Morna Aitken, Douglas Burns and Angela Downie - strong team!

Lymphoy Cup Round Two Results and League Table

Round Two was played over two weeks towards the end of January. Not a lot to say really and the league table speaks for itself. Regular readers will be wondering whether the reference to Buckingham Palace in the previous entry wasn't a bit ambitious, to be honest. Imagine a street leading out of Fort William in the general direction of Ben Nevis. Now we're talking! Good wins for Norman Nicol's team (skipped in Norman's absence by Kerry Clark) and Karen Munro take them to the top of the table on four points. Here's the proof of the pudding.

Swan Trophy - Five Times in a Row!

The Swan Trophy is one of the most prestigious competitions in the Edinburgh Curling Club calendar and dates back to the opening of the Haymarket Ice Rink in 1922. Until very recently, it had only had one sponsor, Swans the auctioneers. Now, ECC itself runs and sponsors the competition. It is unique in that it is a double rink competition. Each club has eight players split into two rinks. Two games are played and the combined scores are totalled. The club with the highest total score wins the competition. Players obviously have to concentrate on their own game, but they need to have an eye on the progress of their clubmates in the other game as well. All very entertaining! So, what happened in the final against Oxenfoord? Brian Fleming, Dave Munro, Maggie Barry and Robin Copland (substituting for Betty Gibb) got off to a good start against rival skip Trevor Dodds and were 4-0 to the good after three ends. In the middle of the game, C&B rode their luck on a couple of occasions but some great stones from skip Brian saved the day. Perhaps the limiting of Oxenfoord to a single point in the penultimate sixth end turned the tide finally. A steal in the seventh end secured a 7-2 win. On the adjoining sheet, Susan Kesley, Andrew Galloway, Joe Barry and Margaret Nicol were involved in a titanic struggle against Callum Harvey's team. Two down coming home (remember that Brian and company were only four-up at this stage, so the competition result all hinged on the last ends), Susan and company engineered a score of two with a lovely four-foot draw from skip Susan. So - a draw and a five-shot win combined to secure the Swan trophy for a fifth time - excellent news!