Kettle Round 6.2

The second of the second group of split games took place on the 22nd of December, with a few interesting 'Christmassy' themed hats and jumpers gracing the ice. Two very close games were played although none of the teams playing really had a chance at the top spot. K Munro played Clark and despite getting a 5 in the first end, she lost a 4 in the second and the game went back and forth, ending in a draw 8 all. On the other sheet, Marshall took on Watt, with Watt getting the victory by only one point!

League table and Score sheet after Round 6.2:

League table after Round 6.2

Score sheet after Round 6.2

Kettle Round 6.1

The second of the split nights started on the 15th of December with teams Wood, D Munro, Fleming and Steven battling it out. Wood was at the top of the table after losing only one game, but a second defeat to team Fleming left it up to the end. On the other sheet, D Munro took on Steven, losing by one point. That means that Steven is also on 8 points so there are now 3 teams battling it out for first place!

The league table is as follows:

League table after Round 6.1

Score sheet after Round 6.1

Kettle Round 5.2

The second of the split nights took place on the 8th of December, with what happened to be the bottom 4 teams going against each other.

Team Munro had a good win against Team Marshall, but it was a much tighter game on the other sheet where Team Clark, skipped by Rowena, narrowly beat the 3 man Team Watt.

Score sheet after round 5.2

League table after round 5.2

Doubles competition 2023

The Currie and Balerno doubles competition took place on the 26th of November with lots of very close games (and lots of very impressive subs showing up the usual players!). It was very close in the end, with the winners being just one point ahead of second place. Unusually for doubles, the competition was won by 3 players! Not realising there would be more than one game, sub Holly Davies had to leave after the first game. Enter into the fold David Aitken, who had not thrown a stone in A YEAR! But much to Jenny's annoyance proceeded to draw to the 4 foot with his first stone...maybe curling is like riding a bike?

Talking subs though, Currie and Balerno are blessed with some of the finest subs around and I feel like they don't get as much credit as they are due. In fact, looking at the original draw for the doubles, out of the top 3 teams (of 7 players) only 2 were original players, the rest were super subs! 

Due to the mismatch of different players, I was unfortunately not able to get a picture of the winning team but the standing were as follows:

1st: Andrew Galloway and Holly Davies/David Aitken with +8 shots

2nd: Katie Wood and Josh Kellock with +7 shots

3rd: Eilidh Yeats and Colin Barr with +5 shots.

A massive thank you must also go to Dave Munro and Megan Priestly for doing the scoring for the competition. It can be tricky to wrangle up all the score cards especially with 2 different sessions happening and the 2 of them playing as well.

It was as always a fantastic afternoon of curling...just need to read up on how to successfully pull of a power play ahead of next years competition!

Kettle Round 5.1

 Hello All,

The first of the split weeks took place on the 1st of Dec, with what so happened to be the 4 teams at the top of the league table playing each other! From the look of the score cards, there were a few upsets too.

With the next split session on next Friday, there is no way of anyone catching up with top spot, Katie Wood, but there is still a chance of a bit of a mix up in the top 4.

Here are the score sheet and league table after Round 5.1: 

Score sheet after Round 5.1

League table after Round 5.1

Kettle Round 4

 Hi All,

Here are the results for the games on the 24th of November. A few key players missing has meant there is a very close race for the top at over the half way mark through the competition! 

The next 2 weeks are split weeks so it will be interesting to see how the score sheet and league table looks after them.

Here are the score sheet and league table for Round 4:

Score sheet after Round 4

League table after Round 4

Kettle Round 3

 Hello Everyone!

Apologies for the lateness of the results from the games on the 10th of November, been very busy with lesson planning! Anyway, here are the score sheet and league table.

Score sheet from Round 3

League table after round 3

Kettle Round 2 results

Hi All, 

Apologies for the late upload of last weeks games, busy week!

With teams missing a few people last week, the games relected that! All games, bar one, were very one sided, but it is still early in the competition so still everything to play for!

Anyway, here are the score sheet and league table to have look at head of tonights game: 

Kettle Round 2 Score Sheet

Kettle Round 2 league table

I will also take this opportunity to wish the Editor-in-chief, wordsmith extraordinaire Robin Copland a very happy 70th birthday. Many happy returns!

Kettle Round 1 results

 It was great to see everyone back on the ice on Friday, and making use of the new facilities!

The games were a mix, to say the least! All games (bar my own, and my Dads, must be a family trait!) were super close in the first few ends, with 1s being passed about. A few games then had some late surges later in the game (must have been the porridge finally kicking in at 9:15 on a Friday night) which tightened a few of the games up. Some games, not so much...I will not name names! 

Anyway, here are the results to get your teeth into before the next games tomorrow!

Score sheet from the 1st games of the season 

The current standings after the 1st games.

Best of luck to the rest of the season...and come on teams K Munro, K Wood and J Steven, we'll get them back!

Kettle Teams and Draw 23/24

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone had a great summer and are excited to get on the ice (and enjoy the new club rooms, which I can say look amazing!)

Here are the teams for the Kettle competition:

Kettle Teams 23/24

And here is the draw (Please note that the last game of the Kettle will be played in January!):

Kettle draw 23/24

Wishing everyone a fantastic 23/24 season!

Karen

A Glimpse into the Life of Thomas Horsburgh

 

Thomas Horsburgh,  25 November 1856 - 11 May 1938

 

Thomas was a Blacksmith based in Balerno and as you would expect had many irons in his fire. His many interests included Curling, Golf, Local Culture and Politics.

Here is a photograph of the man himself:

Thomas was a founder member of the Balerno Curling Club, established 1895. During his time at the Club he was Assistant Secretary and Club Secretary but undertook a number of activities within the Club. He was the Ice Master which included tasks such as preparing and upkeep of the rink, the stones, procuring and making snow clearers, tee ringer, score cutter, ringer hook, draw pins and brooms, open the Clubhouse for the members. In the summer months he turned his hand to mole catcher.

 Thomas was always at the forefront for Balerno’s fixtures with local Clubs and from all accounts was an excellent curler. He was also a member of the Scottish team which welcomed incoming tours from Canada and played in the Strathcona Cup. He won the Linlithgow Trophy dubbed the World Championship not just once but twice!

Thomas resigned as Secretary in November 1920 but continued his duties as Ice Manager. His disposition was described “as having unfailing kindness and unruffled temper attended to the wants of unfortunate members requiring his immediate attention to provide them stones, brooms and locks for lockers when the keys were allegedly loss even if he was in mid game.”  Thomas only missed one Committee meeting during his time with the Club between 1895 - 1927.

He also gifted the Club a pair of silver handles as the prize for a Points Competition.

 His second passion was Golf and was a Member of Baberton Golf Club. Here is an extract from the records of Baberton Golf Club.

 “Pre-eminent among our Founder Members was Thomas Horsburgh, a master-blacksmith with an inventive turn of mind.”

 In the Club's founding year, he forged a set of steel-shafted clubs, both woods and irons, at his Cockburn Smiddy. The original building still stands at Glenbrook Road. He found them such an improvement that he took out a UK Patent No 8603, dated 1st May 1894. The patent "relates to the use of steel shafts for golf clubs for the purpose of giving strength and elasticity." Included in his patent was a specified club which obviated the need to carry a set. It consisted of a single shaft and a number of club-heads each of which could be affixed by simply turning a screw. Unfortunately the parent expired and another golf club maker followed up Thomas’s idea and accrued a fortune.

Thomas at the age of 78 was still carding that number on a regular basis.

Thomas and few others were interested in Burns the poet and established the Club still known an meeting to this day as ‘Let it Blaw.’ Although Thomas was not identified as being one of the twelve founders he is listed as having attended and noted in their minutes to have regularly contributed to the Club. In 1896 Tom was appointed Croupier and, in 1898, was elected as Club President & Supper Chairman for the first time. It wasn’t until 1910 that he took the Chair for the second time but, on this occasion, it was the start of an era in which he was to become one of the Club’s stalwarts; one of the big names in the history of the Balerno Burns Club being re-elected as Chairman for 29 consecutive years until his death.

 In 1917 Thomas turned his hand to politics and he was elected as Councillor for the Currie South ward of the Midlothian County Council and appointed Justice of the Peace. This ward included the village of Balerno in addition to part of Currie, and he represented the people there continuously until his death.

 Lastly there is a note of service of a dinner hosted by the RCCC.  Thomas offers a toast and said he was proud to be involved with greatest club in the world. Although not stated which Club Thomas is eluding to, probably the RCCC, I would like to think he was silently referring to Balerno Curling Club.

 

Kindly collated and written by Norman Nicol. Edited by Robin Copland and Karen Munro

Thank you so much for the information, truly an interesting man to read about.

Lymphoy Cup Round 7

All teams out to finish the Currie and Balerno season. Lots to play for the final games, so lets get into it.

Kerry was on top of the table and a solid defeat of Brian kept her on top, so congratulations to Kerry and team for winning the Lymphoy Cup.

Second place was a little more interesting. Dave Munro and Andrew Galloway were tied on points, so a win from either would guarantee second place. Then Jennifer Marshall's team were on 6 points so if they could beat Andrew Galloway's team by taking all ends, and Dave was to lose then she could have come second. As it happened, Dave's team (skipped by Michael Wood in his absence) lost to John Steven's team and Andrew Galloway's team was beaten by Jennifer Marshall's team. 

It was incredibly tight for second, but congratulations got to Dave Munro's team for winning the Glenbrook Quaich by just 2 ends! Commiserations to Andrew Galloway's team and Jennifer Marshall's team. A close finish for a close half of the season.

Meanwhile on sheet 1, the game of Karen Munro and Katie Wood was won by Katie, and it was a fun game of curling with some interesting shots being played by both teams.

Thank you all for a fantastic season, wishing you all a lovely summer and look forward to seeing you all back on the ice for the 2023/2024 season!

Tom Holmes Bonspiel 2023

The Tom Holmes Bonspiel is a much loved event in the Currie and Balerno calendar. With the format of previous winners not being allowed to skip and teams selected out of a hat, it makes for an interesting mismatch of teams with a lot of players playing out of their normal positions (and comfort zones in some cases!)

This year's competition saw teams play 3x 2 end games, with ends being counted before shots. There were a number of teams on 3 ends (5 out of the 8 playing), which meant that 2nd and 3rd place were decided on shots up. The results were:

1st place: Karen Munro, Joe Barry, Eilidh Troup and Katie Wood (with 5 ends)

2nd place: Donald Kennedy, Raymond Preston, Connor Galloway and Anne Anderson (with 3 ends + 2 shots)

3rd place: Sarah Ford, Sheena Munro, Ian Keron and Kirsty McWilliam (with 3 ends + 0 shots)

Photo credit: Sheena Munro

The competition was a great success in no small measure due to all the subs that stepped in and helped us out. Many thanks to them all. 

The meal afterwards took place over the road at the Murrayfield Hotel. The food and the great atmosphere were enjoyed by all who came (the bar also was a great hit!). Our annual coin sliding competition was also enjoyed by many, with Connor Galloway taking the whisky (kindly gifted by Donald) and Jen Marshall winning the champagne (kindly gifted by Sheena and Dave). Club funds were boosted to the tune of £116, by the generosity of those having a go. 

Photo credit: Sheena Munro

Tense times watching the coin sliding! Hard floors are harder to read than ice!

Lymphoy Cup Round 6.2

 Friday really showed the power of subs.

Jennifer Marshall and Dave Munro went out with their full rinks, against John Steven and Andrew Galloway's rinks respectively. John Steven's rink was skipped by sub Ian Keron, with Sian Stockwell joining Angela Downie and Jill Gillard. They had a very good game against Jen's team, peeling 6 all. Andrew Galloway's team was skipped by Morag Wellman, who stepped up from her usual position of second, with Susan MacFarlane stepping up to play 3rd. Super subs Vicky Gumley and Eilidh Troup filled out the team. They also had a great game against Dave Munro, coming back from 6-0 to a respectable 6-5 loss. Well done to Dave's team on the win. 

The league table is looking pretty close at the top, with 3 teams in with a shout. If Kerry wins her last game, then the Lymphoy Cup is hers, but if she loses and Dave and/or Andrew win, then its down to ends! AND there are only 2 ends between the 3 teams as it stands! With only 2 trophies up for grabs, the Lymphoy Cup and Glenbrook Quaich, one unlucky team will have to miss out. No pressure Kerry! One other possibility is both Dave and Andrew lose and get no ends, Jennifer could, by winning all ends against Andrew, take the Glenbrook! You never know with curling, stranger things have happened.

Lymphoy Cup Round 6.1

 Hi All, 

Here goes, my first blog post! Please let me know if there are any issues. 

Friday seemed to be tricky for all teams. Brian Fleming and Katie Wood had an interesting game, with difficult ice being the main blame. Karen Munro and Kerry Clark had a very close game, and family vs family with the Barry's going against each other in second. Unfortunately, Karen and Brian fell short on the night, but congratulations to Kerry and Katie. 

Lymphoy Cup Round 5.2

Just when you thought this league couldn't deliver any more fun and games, it does. Big game today between Team Kerry Clark (Kerry, Jenny Barr, Maggie Barry and substitute Alexander Crich) and the league leader, Andrew Galloway, with Niall Gunn back from his Canadian adventure, Morag Wellman and Susan MacFarlane. The game swung one way, then the other but the turning point was the seventh end when Kerry scored a four. Actually, Andrew had an ouside shot at a peeled game with his last stone which he took on. He didn't quite make it and Kerry scored a two to wrap things up. Importantly, she also won the end. In the night's other game, John Steven had a big win against Woodless Katie, who was playing in the Scottish Senior Women's Championship in Hamilton. Her team was skipped by regular third, Lois Copland. John's team leapt from bottom place in the league to a slightly more respectable 5th, courtesy of a 16-1 win. Here's the results grid.

And now the league table.

You can see what I mean when I say that the last end in the game between Andrew and Kerry could be really important going forward. Andrew is still one end ahead in the league, but would have been three ends to the good if he had scored in their last end. He went for the peeled game with a really tricky runback double rather than take on the easier draw. You can see why: if he makes the double, then he peels the game and goes one point clear. But if he doesn't - well, he is still one end to the good with all to play for. In the run in, Andrew plays Jennifer Marshall and Dave Munro. Dave is still in the hunt on six points as, to be fair, is Jennifer on five points. Kerry meanwhile plays Brian Fleming and Karen Munro. League's not over yet!

Team Wylie Win Silver at the Scottish Women's Senior Championships

Susan Wylie, Katie Wood, Vicky Gumley and Morna Aitken have been competing in the Scottish Senior Women's Championships this weekend and the splendid news is that they reached the final against old rivals, Jackie Lockhart, Mairi Milne, Wendy Johnston and Katie Loudon. The game kicked off at 15.00 at the Lanarkshire Ice Rink in Hamilton. There followed a really tight game which started off well for Susan's team with a nice couple of stolen ends to take an early two-shot lead. Jackie's team is strong as well though and they fought back. The game was tied at 3-3 going into end seven, where Jackie managed to score a two to take a two-shot lead into the eighth and final end. A stolen shot secured the title for her and her teammates, but what a fantastic perfomance from Susan, Katie, Vicky and Morna and congratulations from us all on your well-earned Silver Medals.

Nice picture taken by Louise Edwards of our Silver Medallist-winning team. Congratulations all!

Apologies to Teams Munro (D) and Wood!

As a result of a transposed scoreline back in mid-January, I had recorded a win for Dave Munro over Katie Wood when, in fact, Katie had the beating of brother Mike (skipping in Dave's absence). I mean, it's there in black and white. The card is correct; it's been signed. The problem is the staff; you just can't get decent people these days - and more's the pity. What's that you're saying? It was me who got it wrong? Oh. Forget that first bit. Anyhow, many thanks to the eagle-eyed David Hogg, who spotted the error and brought it to our attention. Here's the revised (and hopefully correct!) league table.

So. All that guff I wrote last week about Dave now challenging, blah-di-blah-di-blah? Igonore it. Pathetic really, but there we are. Normal service will be resumed soon. Padded cell - what?

Lymphoy Cup Round 5.1

So, apparently there was another competition going on in Dumfries this week and some of our younger members felt that it was more important than C&B's Lymphoy Cup! Good grief, is all your correspondent can think; what was it - the Scottish Championship or something? Oh. It WAS the Scottish Championship. I see. Well anyhow, two games tonight and here's the results grid.

Dave Munro and his team of Mike Wood, Raymond Preston and David Hogg are a bit like the middle distance runner who comes from near the back, waltzes through the field and finds themselves at the front with 200 metres to go. And, to be fair, that will be the first and probably the last time that Mike Wood will ever be compared to a middle distance runner! A good win for them tonight against Karen Munro. In the other game, Brian Fleming did a bit of heavy lifting, moving him and his team of Shona Watt, Betty Gibb and Graeme Paterson from near the bottom to respectability in mid-table. Here's the league table

Lymphoy Cup Round 4

As we gently pass the league's halfway point, patterns begin to emerge and the front runners and riders begin to make a play for the silverware on offer at the end of the season. The big winners on Friday night were Andrew Galloway (13-4 over Karen Munro) and Dave Munro (6-1 over Kerry Clark). Dave's win gets him and team right in the mix. Interestingly, he and Andrew have still to play each other; that match up takes place on Friday 6th March and, I dare say, the result will have a direct impact on who the ultimate winner of the competition is. Jen Marshall continues to keep the teams above her honest after a good win over Katie Wood. Here's the results table.

In the league, the top four teams are gradually stretching away from the rest, who seem to be having their own wee private battle amongst themselves!

C&B's Eilidh Yeats Takes up New Role with British Curling

In an announcement on the British Curling website, it has been confirmed that Eilidh is taking up a new role, based in Stirling but part-funded by the English Institute of Sport, as a Data Scientist. For the older readers, what this means is that Eilidh has thin fingers as opposed to fat ones and that she knows how to work a computer quite well, as evidenced in the picture below.

The picture, by the way is lifted from the British Curling website. The position builds upon Eilidh's background as a competitive curler and also on her Masters in Data Science in Business from Stirling University. There follows a picture, taken by Graeme Hart, of Eilidh in more recognisable pose as far as her fellow C&B members are concerned!

Many congratulations from all at C&B. We may not understand it, but we know it's important, so good luck going forward in the new role!

Lymphoy Cup Round 2.2

Last Friday, the second round of the competition was completed. Confusingly, this means that all the teams have now played three rounds. Don't ask, because I don't know. Actually, I do, but I am choosing not to share it with you - why? I'm in a mood! Onto the results grid, including the latest round.

A good win for Kerry Clark over the strong Jennifer Marshall team keeps her on full points and takes her to the top of the table. Meanwhile Dave Munro kept in touch with a good win over Katie Wood's team. The league table looks like this.

C&B at "The Scottish"

This year's Scottish Men's and Women's Curling Championships take place in Dumfries Ice Bowl from the 6th to 11 February and C&B will be represented in both championships. Jennifer Marshall is throwing last stones for Team Young; Eilidh Yeats throws second stones in the team. Jennifer is the "Poster Person" for the championships, as you can see below!

Gina Aitken (pictured below) is throwing third stones in Rebecca Morrison's strong and fancied team.

As far as the men are concerned, the only member taking part is Gavin Barr, who throws lead stones for team Waddell. Good luck all!

C&B at the Hamilton Open

There was a strong representation of C&B women curlers competing in the Hamilton Open earlier this week. Congratulations to Shona Watt who played in the winning team skipped by Liz Paul. Here are Shona and her team mates with their prizes after the competition.

In second place was the all-C&B team of Susan Wylie, Katie Wood, Vicky Gumley and Morna Aitken. Both pictures were taken by Lyn Kenyon. Great performance from all five and many congratulations!

David Aitken at FISU Winter World University Games

C&B's own David Aitken is now a full-time coach with Scottish Curling and recently found himself out at Lake Placid, coaching Great Britain's men's team in the FISU Winter World University Games. As many readers will know, the men had a sterling competition and brought back Gold Medals from the USA. Here is a report of their progress through the competition, lifted from the Scottish Curling website. Team Craik went into the Games on great form and hit the ground running, winning their first five round robin games against Korea, Brazil, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Norway. Their first slip arrived in the next game when they narrowly missed out to Japan - the team, however, made sure it was the first and last defeat of the tournament. They went on to secure comprehensive victories over USA, Sweden, Sweden and Canada to finish the round robin top of the table. The standings meant that team Craik met Owen Purcell's Canadian side for the second time on the same day in the semi-finals. The occasion may have been a different one, but the outcome was the same. Once more the Scots in GBR colours emerged victorious with the final score reading 6-4. Up against local heroes USA, skipped by Daniel Casper, they delivered an outstanding performance. Team Craik were in control throughout and played some brilliant shots to clinch the Gold by five points to one.

Pictured (from left) James Craik, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce, Blair Haswell, Jack Carrick, Iain Watt & C&B's David Aitken.

C&B at the Sellar Trophy

The Sellar has a long and distinguished history as one of Edinburgh Curling Club's premier competitions and this year there was a healthy entry of sixteen teams, with many of C&B's finest on show in different teams. Congratulations must go to Maggie Barry who skipped her team to a great win in the competition. Here is Maggie with team mates Avril Anderson, Ruth Addinall and Catherine Dodds and the trophy at Murrayfield.

Shona Watt played last stones in her team and managed a great win in the low road final against another C&B player, Vicky Gumley. Here's Shona and her team - again with their trophy.

Honorary mentions for Morna Aitken, Lois Copland, Kim Dalland, Betty Gibb, Margaret Nicol and Morag Wellman, all of whom also competed in the competition - a strong C&B representation.

Lymphoy Cup Round 3

Well, well, well, as the thirsty traveller said to his three-headed friend, this was quite the week for results and upsets, was it not? First off, we have to get the elephant out of the room and admit that one team that would prefer to go unnamed, did indeed lose by a score of 19-2, managing to win only one end in the process. On the plus side, they did manage the full eight ends and their unnamed skip, one John Steven, was heard to comment that, "If you're going to lose big, you might as well lose fast," or words to that effect. Somebody on the team opined that they didn't get any breaks. Yeh - that and Kerry Clark and her whole team - Jenny Barr, Maggie Barry and Richie Anderson just played a little bit better! Well played Team Clark; a real statement of intent right there and they are snapping on Andrew Galloway's heels. Andrew has played three games to Kerry's two. Andrew himself, along with team mates Morag Wellman, Susan MacFarlane and Julia Mackey had a comfortable 9-4 win over Katie Wood's team, skipped in Katie's absence by regular third Morna Aitken. Dave Munro also had a good 9-3 win against Brian Fleming. Dave was aided and abetted by David Hogg and Jamie Rankin. Here's the scores grid for the night.

The more observant reader will notice that I haven't talked about the other game between two of our younger skips, Jennifer Marshall and Karen Munro, just returned from a shoulder operation. Three ends into their eight-end game, Jennifer must have been thinking that she was on easy street! She and her team of Douglas Burns, Sarah Ford and Donald Kennedy were 6-0 ahead! That all changed in the next four ends, in which Karen and team mates Rowena Steven, Joe Barry and Sheena Munro, put together a run of scores as follows: 4, 1, 2 and 3! They were now 10-6 ahead playing the last. So Jennifer scored a 4 and the game ended tied on 10-10! Here's the league table. Round 2.2 will be played next Friday.

Two teams remain undefeated, with team Clark to play their second round game next week. Teams Brian Fleming and Katie Wood remain rooted to the bottom of the table on zero points.

Lymphoy Cup Round 2.1