See the seniors? It’s the new twenties – I kid you not!
I spent a fair bit of time behind the glass recently – looking at two great competitions, the Edinburgh International Men’s and Ladies Championships. Now, I will immediately admit to a bit of bias here, as I am the secretary of the organising committees for both the events, but actually, I am not talking about the organisation (splendid, obviously, though it undoubtedly was!), so much as the curling and the commitment of all the competitors who took part.
These were good, old-fashioned curling competitions – the way they used to be and here I will doff my cap in the general direction of 'my generation', to quote Pete Townshend of 'The Who' fame. No disrespect at all intended to the coaches and young curlers who now populate our sport at its elite level, but here were people, many of who have known each other for thirty years and more and who have competed hard against and with each other for that time as well, playing hard on the ice, then staying to enjoy the fun, chat, camaraderie and all of the rest of it at the end of the game. None of this debriefing stuff; no analysis by video; no coach’s input – just a good game of curling followed by some tales of derring-do.
Ah – but how was the curling, I hear you ask. It was just fine, thanks. Let me tell you about one stone. It was played by Kate Adams (mother of Kay and Vicky), judged by Catherine Dodds (mother of Stuart and Jennifer) and swept by Jill Florence (mother of David – OK, he’s not a curler but you’ll know him because every four years in our football-besotted land, he is suddenly famous for winning silver medals at the Olympic Games in the sport of kayaking) and Elspeth Johnston (mother of Lauren, who skipped the GB team to a bronze medal in the 2005 European Youth Olympics team, then played third in the gold medal winning team in the 2006 European Junior Challenge).
It was the final of the ladies competition (see me – see observation skills, by the way) and Kate was playing against Barbara Watt’s silver medal winners at last season’s world senior championships, Barbara herself (mother of Janice Rankin, Olympic gold medallist in Salt Lake City – oh, I could go on, but I will stop there!), Jean Hammond, Maggie Barry and Val Mahon. Barbara had the hammer. She was lying shot at about 10.00 behind the tee line. There was a stone out front, guarding the edge of the four foot and there was an Adams counter near the Watt stone behind the tee line, but lying second shot. Barbara’s first stone to come. The wags in the gallery (of whom there were a fair few, by the way) wondered whether she might be tempted to rip the guard; she had tried to earlier on in the end, as it happens, but Val Mahon’s stone had only succeeded in rolling to cover the four foot. Barbara decided, queen of the four-foot as she undoubtedly is, to draw top four and maybe tempt Kate into a fairly tricky hit and flop behind the guard. This would have left her with a fairly humdrum repeat draw to win the game and the competition. Her stone came agonisingly two feet too far, it front end straddling the tee line just off the centre of the one foot.
After deliberation, Kate decided to play the tiniest of taps at sweeping weight. She needed to move Barbara’s stone maybe six inches, so that she lay shot, but she did not want it to move any further for fear of giving Barbara a fairly run-of-the-mill hit for the game. She laid the stone and it tracked down the ice towards its destination. Brushes down, then up, then down again – always a good sign! Towards the end of its journey, as the weigh came off it, Jill and Elspeth leathered into it; it tapped the Watt counter back. Catherine looked anxiously at the stones as they lay, but the four of them had done just enough – and no more. It was the perfect team stone. Had this been the final of the world championships, I am telling you that the crowds would have leapt to their feet in admiration!
Barbara was suddenly faced with a nightmare shot; she needed to hit the Adams stone on the high side to force it over the top of her shot. Hopefully, both would spill, leaving her second stone (remember the one at 10.00?) as the game winner. Unfortunately for team Watt, her stone curled slightly over the face of the target stone and all she could do was watch as it drove Kate’s stone straight back onto her own, leaving Kate and her team the winners of the competition.
You had to feel sorry for Barbara and company, but at the same time admire the skills displayed by team Adams. It was as good a stone as the BTG mob are liable to see all season and the odds have already shortened in this watcher’s opinion on a repeat of that final come the Scottish Senior Championships in February.
In the men’s competition, another strong team, the reigning Scottish senior champions, no less, skipped by Keith Prentice, with Lockhart Steele, Robert Anderson (replacing Robin Aitken from last season) and Tommy Fleming in support, overcame the stuffy Kinross team skipped by David Clydesdale. David has made a habit in recent weeks of going four or five down in a game, only to roar back and win defiantly at the end! Not this time though – team Prentice used all their experience and talent to overcome the fightback and a big four in the seventh end secured things for them.
I have a word of advice to ice rinks out there, all of which seem intent on running junior or mainstream weekend competitions. Don’t stop doing the junior / mainstream stuff – it is really important that we have thriving age group and mainstream competitions and a meaningful circuit. But I’ll tell you what; think about running a 50s plus competition as well. Not only will they curl well, but they will put money behind your bar and give your club a real 'buzz' for the weekend.
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The Junior Men
Copey writes:
Sixteen junior men’s teams have entered the Scottish Junior Championships this year. Back to defend his title is Perth’s Kyle Smith. He retains Thomas Muirhead and Kyle Waddell from last season’s championship-winning team. Kerr Drummond has now aged out after a stellar junior career as a specialist lead. He has won the Scottish Junior Championship twice and was runner-up on two separate occasions as well. At world level, he made the podium on the two occasions he competed but the gold medal that he craved evaded him. This season, he is playing with Glen Muirhead, the skip that he beat in the first of his four Scottish finals. As an aside, Kerr’s older brother, Greg, played third in Glen’s team that year. Greg, as we know, has gone on to win two Scottish Championships and two World Silver Medals since his disappointment that day.
It is a big ask for Cammie Smith to fill those shoes, but that’s just what his big brother, Kyle, has asked him to do. This is a good-looking, strong team. They have that great advantage over the rest of the field – the “been there, done that” factor. When it comes to the business end of the competition on the Saturday and Sunday, that experience counts for a lot.
They have challenges though – perhaps the most obvious comes from Grant Hardie, Blair Fraser, Hammy McMillan and Ruairidh Greenwood, and here is a rub: the team will hardly have had a game together in the early part of the season. Grant and Hammy are playing in the Scottish Championship with Jay McWilliam and Billy Morton whilst Blair and Ruairidh are competing in a different team with Murray Young and Ian Copland. This is not good preparation for the Scottish Junior Championship, but they should still be good enough to get to the final stages of the Scottish junior championship on the Sunday.
Bruce Mouat and his team do not have that problem. Bruce, Duncan Menzies, Derrick Sloan and Angus Dowell are playing together all season. This will stand them in good stead. I expect them to be around come the play-off stages. Just this week, they reached the final of the EJCT competition in Thun, only to lose to Switzerland’s André Neuenschwander. They are doing well on the tour though and are the leading Scottish team, one point ahead of the Kyle Smith team and handily-placed at equal fifth.
What is pleasing about the Scottish junior men’s entry this year is the number of young teams that have entered the competition. I have already seen some of the names featuring in finals and the U17 slam series has helped develop a curling competitive edge in youngsters. The Scottish junior championships introduce the idea of ten-end games, fifth end breaks, coaches and all of the rest. I do hope that coaches are mindful of their duties to young and impressionable charges. Know when it is time to call your team off the ice and recognise that nobody tries to play bad shots. The one thing that youngsters do not need is an over-zealous coach shouting at them about percentages and missed out-turn hits!
The preliminary playdowns are in Perth, December 7-9, and the finals are in Aberdeen, January 23-27, 2013. Worth a trip!
Sixteen junior men’s teams have entered the Scottish Junior Championships this year. Back to defend his title is Perth’s Kyle Smith. He retains Thomas Muirhead and Kyle Waddell from last season’s championship-winning team. Kerr Drummond has now aged out after a stellar junior career as a specialist lead. He has won the Scottish Junior Championship twice and was runner-up on two separate occasions as well. At world level, he made the podium on the two occasions he competed but the gold medal that he craved evaded him. This season, he is playing with Glen Muirhead, the skip that he beat in the first of his four Scottish finals. As an aside, Kerr’s older brother, Greg, played third in Glen’s team that year. Greg, as we know, has gone on to win two Scottish Championships and two World Silver Medals since his disappointment that day.
It is a big ask for Cammie Smith to fill those shoes, but that’s just what his big brother, Kyle, has asked him to do. This is a good-looking, strong team. They have that great advantage over the rest of the field – the “been there, done that” factor. When it comes to the business end of the competition on the Saturday and Sunday, that experience counts for a lot.
They have challenges though – perhaps the most obvious comes from Grant Hardie, Blair Fraser, Hammy McMillan and Ruairidh Greenwood, and here is a rub: the team will hardly have had a game together in the early part of the season. Grant and Hammy are playing in the Scottish Championship with Jay McWilliam and Billy Morton whilst Blair and Ruairidh are competing in a different team with Murray Young and Ian Copland. This is not good preparation for the Scottish Junior Championship, but they should still be good enough to get to the final stages of the Scottish junior championship on the Sunday.
Bruce Mouat and his team do not have that problem. Bruce, Duncan Menzies, Derrick Sloan and Angus Dowell are playing together all season. This will stand them in good stead. I expect them to be around come the play-off stages. Just this week, they reached the final of the EJCT competition in Thun, only to lose to Switzerland’s André Neuenschwander. They are doing well on the tour though and are the leading Scottish team, one point ahead of the Kyle Smith team and handily-placed at equal fifth.
What is pleasing about the Scottish junior men’s entry this year is the number of young teams that have entered the competition. I have already seen some of the names featuring in finals and the U17 slam series has helped develop a curling competitive edge in youngsters. The Scottish junior championships introduce the idea of ten-end games, fifth end breaks, coaches and all of the rest. I do hope that coaches are mindful of their duties to young and impressionable charges. Know when it is time to call your team off the ice and recognise that nobody tries to play bad shots. The one thing that youngsters do not need is an over-zealous coach shouting at them about percentages and missed out-turn hits!
The preliminary playdowns are in Perth, December 7-9, and the finals are in Aberdeen, January 23-27, 2013. Worth a trip!
Monday, October 29, 2012
The Junior Ladies
Copey writes:
After a number of years in the international doldrums, Scottish ladies junior curling has enjoyed unparalleled success these past few years. The decade-long medal drought was ended when Kilmarnock’s Sarah Reid skipped Eve Muirhead, Barbara McFarlane, Sarah Macintyre and fifth player, Alison Black, to a 2007 World Junior Ladies gold medal that, to be very fair, had not necessarily been predicted. Just a couple of months previously, the two Sarahs and Alison had been to Pinerolo to compete in the World University Games and, though their play was much better than their final position gave them credit for, they ended up tenth! Since then, Eve Muirhead has gone on to skip Scotland to three more gold medals in World Junior Championships, and Hannah Fleming finally stepped out of Eve’s shadow to skip Lauren Gray, Alice Spence, Abi Brown and fifth player Jennifer Martin to a deserved gold medal in last season’s World Junior Championship in Östersund, Sweden. Five gold medals in six years is an astonishing success story, and make no mistake, the Canadians, Swedes, Swiss, Norwegians etc. are all sick of the sight of us and want revenge!
So who will go to Sochi in Russia to represent Scotland and to defend our honour? Hannah Fleming returns with two of her gold medal winning rink from last season, third Lauren Gray and lead, Abi Brown. Alice Spence has aged out and has been replaced by Abi’s cousin, Jennifer Dodds. This remains a really strong team and you must consider them warm, if not positively hot, favourites for the Scottish Junior Championship. They have already won the Braehead Open in Glasgow and forced Logan Gray to draw against three shots in the last end of their semifinal match up later in Dumfries. They are mixing at the top level in Scottish open curling and giving as good as they get with experienced senior teams. They will be pressed by a number of good-looking and strong teams in the junior ladies ranks, mind you, whose progress I will follow with great interest.
As an example, the other performance squad in the junior ladies this season is the team skipped by Jennifer Martin. She has Hamilton’s Hazel Smith at third, Vicky Wright from Stranraer at second and Murrayfield’s Mhairi Baird at lead. They were runners-up in the Kinross Classic junior event, though, to be fair, Jennifer had to sit the competition out due to injury. Their conquerors that day were Rebecca Steven, Karen Munro, Clare Degan and substitute Rowena Steven. This was a major breakthrough for Rebecca and she will hope to build on it come the business end of the season!
Winners of the low road were Laura Barr, Emma Hair, Jane Barr and Sophie Sinclair. This is a team to watch and whilst I do not think that they will win the Scottish championship this year, they will certainly challenge in years to come – a look at their surnames tells you that!
Past Scottish champion Tasha Aitken skips Louise Joiner, Naomi Brown and her youngest sister, Karina. This is Tasha’s last year in the juniors and she would like to repeat her Scottish success of two seasons ago when she played second to Lauren Gray.
Maggie Wilson won the first Braehead junior international competition, this year’s Scottish leg of the European junior curling tour. This again is a strong-looking line up, with experience all the way down the rink; third is Lesley Young, second is Becca Kesley and lead Rachel Hannen. Runners-up in the Braehead competition was the team skipped by Gina Aitken (see these Aitkens? They’re everywhere!), third is Katy Richardson, second is Rowena Kerr and their lead is Fiona Telfer.
Finally, Lauren Baxter has stepped into Hazel Smith’s shoes this season and is skipping Naomi Whyte, Sarah Wood and Eilidh Templeton.
What has also struck me this season about the junior ladies teams is their diversity. There is actually only one rink where all the members come from the same home ice rink. Step forward Katie Wright, Lauren Morgan and Jenni Cannon from Stranraer. I have no doubt that their fourth team mate will probably be from the south west of Scotland as well! That there is such a spread of talent speaks to a high level of commitment at junior club level. It is no surprise to see the likes of Murrayfield with ten participants, Stranraer with seven (maybe eight!), Greenacres and Hamilton with five each, Forfar with four and Inverness, Stirling and Dumfries with three. There are sleeping giants needing a prod, mind you: I can only see one Perth young curler and one from Lockerbie (quite a good one, mind you – Hannah Fleming, no less!) in the mix. These things are cyclical though and I have no doubt that there are lots of twelve- and thirteen-year olds doing their thing in those two rinks just waiting to prove me wrong!
The Scottish junior women’s qualifier competition will be played in Perth, December 7-9. There are two sections of six teams and the top three from each section will qualify for the finals in Aberdeen, January 23-27, 2013. There will be a play-off between the fourth-placed teams in each section, the winner of that game also going through to Aberdeen. There, the seven qualifiers will meet Hannah and her team and the eight will fight it out in time-honoured fashion.
Don’t miss it.
After a number of years in the international doldrums, Scottish ladies junior curling has enjoyed unparalleled success these past few years. The decade-long medal drought was ended when Kilmarnock’s Sarah Reid skipped Eve Muirhead, Barbara McFarlane, Sarah Macintyre and fifth player, Alison Black, to a 2007 World Junior Ladies gold medal that, to be very fair, had not necessarily been predicted. Just a couple of months previously, the two Sarahs and Alison had been to Pinerolo to compete in the World University Games and, though their play was much better than their final position gave them credit for, they ended up tenth! Since then, Eve Muirhead has gone on to skip Scotland to three more gold medals in World Junior Championships, and Hannah Fleming finally stepped out of Eve’s shadow to skip Lauren Gray, Alice Spence, Abi Brown and fifth player Jennifer Martin to a deserved gold medal in last season’s World Junior Championship in Östersund, Sweden. Five gold medals in six years is an astonishing success story, and make no mistake, the Canadians, Swedes, Swiss, Norwegians etc. are all sick of the sight of us and want revenge!
So who will go to Sochi in Russia to represent Scotland and to defend our honour? Hannah Fleming returns with two of her gold medal winning rink from last season, third Lauren Gray and lead, Abi Brown. Alice Spence has aged out and has been replaced by Abi’s cousin, Jennifer Dodds. This remains a really strong team and you must consider them warm, if not positively hot, favourites for the Scottish Junior Championship. They have already won the Braehead Open in Glasgow and forced Logan Gray to draw against three shots in the last end of their semifinal match up later in Dumfries. They are mixing at the top level in Scottish open curling and giving as good as they get with experienced senior teams. They will be pressed by a number of good-looking and strong teams in the junior ladies ranks, mind you, whose progress I will follow with great interest.
As an example, the other performance squad in the junior ladies this season is the team skipped by Jennifer Martin. She has Hamilton’s Hazel Smith at third, Vicky Wright from Stranraer at second and Murrayfield’s Mhairi Baird at lead. They were runners-up in the Kinross Classic junior event, though, to be fair, Jennifer had to sit the competition out due to injury. Their conquerors that day were Rebecca Steven, Karen Munro, Clare Degan and substitute Rowena Steven. This was a major breakthrough for Rebecca and she will hope to build on it come the business end of the season!
Winners of the low road were Laura Barr, Emma Hair, Jane Barr and Sophie Sinclair. This is a team to watch and whilst I do not think that they will win the Scottish championship this year, they will certainly challenge in years to come – a look at their surnames tells you that!
Past Scottish champion Tasha Aitken skips Louise Joiner, Naomi Brown and her youngest sister, Karina. This is Tasha’s last year in the juniors and she would like to repeat her Scottish success of two seasons ago when she played second to Lauren Gray.
Maggie Wilson won the first Braehead junior international competition, this year’s Scottish leg of the European junior curling tour. This again is a strong-looking line up, with experience all the way down the rink; third is Lesley Young, second is Becca Kesley and lead Rachel Hannen. Runners-up in the Braehead competition was the team skipped by Gina Aitken (see these Aitkens? They’re everywhere!), third is Katy Richardson, second is Rowena Kerr and their lead is Fiona Telfer.
Finally, Lauren Baxter has stepped into Hazel Smith’s shoes this season and is skipping Naomi Whyte, Sarah Wood and Eilidh Templeton.
What has also struck me this season about the junior ladies teams is their diversity. There is actually only one rink where all the members come from the same home ice rink. Step forward Katie Wright, Lauren Morgan and Jenni Cannon from Stranraer. I have no doubt that their fourth team mate will probably be from the south west of Scotland as well! That there is such a spread of talent speaks to a high level of commitment at junior club level. It is no surprise to see the likes of Murrayfield with ten participants, Stranraer with seven (maybe eight!), Greenacres and Hamilton with five each, Forfar with four and Inverness, Stirling and Dumfries with three. There are sleeping giants needing a prod, mind you: I can only see one Perth young curler and one from Lockerbie (quite a good one, mind you – Hannah Fleming, no less!) in the mix. These things are cyclical though and I have no doubt that there are lots of twelve- and thirteen-year olds doing their thing in those two rinks just waiting to prove me wrong!
The Scottish junior women’s qualifier competition will be played in Perth, December 7-9. There are two sections of six teams and the top three from each section will qualify for the finals in Aberdeen, January 23-27, 2013. There will be a play-off between the fourth-placed teams in each section, the winner of that game also going through to Aberdeen. There, the seven qualifiers will meet Hannah and her team and the eight will fight it out in time-honoured fashion.
Don’t miss it.
Monday, October 08, 2012
New Season Thoughts 2: The Ladies
Copey writes:
Twelve teams have entered the Scottish ladies' championships this year and I am pleased! Ok, so it is not thirty; but it is a few more than the past couple of seasons and I really hope that all the competitors enjoy their competition and that they are encouraged to enter again next season. I was worried for a while that Scottish lady curlers had lost their competitive mojo and that everyone else had just given up taking the fight to Eve Muirhead and her world-class team. I am glad that a few younger teams are taking up the challenge and I am looking forward to seeing some cracking games between talented teams as the season progresses.
The Scottish championships will have a pre-qualifying weekend on the 1st and 2nd December when eight of the twelve teams (teams Muirhead, Lockhart, Fleming and McMillan have been 'pre-qualified' to the final weekend) will play in two round-robin leagues of four, with the top two from each league qualifying for the eight-team finals in Perth, February 11-17. So, how will it all go?
Eve, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton are a talented foursome and no mistake. Are they the best team that Scotland has ever sent out to international championships? Well, they have to go some to equal the exploits of their predecessors, Rhona Martin’s Olympic gold medallist team and Jackie Lockhart’s world champion team, but they are on their way and time alone will tell if they reach those ultimate heights or not. They have to be installed as warm favourites for the Scottish championships.
Unlike the men (shame on that decision, by the way!), they will face a challenge to represent Scotland at the Europeans; that challenge will come from the redoubtable Gail Munro and Lyndsay Cumming. Lyndsay is a strong and supportive third; Gail has that McMillan 'chutzpah', for want of a better word – she never knows when she is beaten. Their front-end has yet to be confirmed, though Jodie Milroy returns from last season’s runners-up team. In a sense, it doesn’t matter who they get in as their second player (though it should, of course), but Gail and Lyndsay know each others’ games so well at the top end that I expect them to challenge strongly again – not only in the European play-offs, but also in the Scottish championships proper.
Jackie Lockhart plays with Karen Kennedy and Sarah Macintyre. They have recruited Katriona Davidson (nee Fairweather) to replace Kay Adams at second. Katriona and Jackie have 'form' of course; they won the world championship together in Bismarck. If they were good enough to win a world championship then, they will undoubtedly challenge for a Scottish championship now. Those three teams will be there or thereabouts when the fat lady joins the party and starts singing.
But, do you know what? I really hope that some other twenty-somethings make the party as well. I really like the look of Kerry Barr’s team this year. Rachael Simms is a strong player at three and Rhiann Macleod and Barbara McPake make up a useful front end, though Rhiann is better known as a top-class lead than second. They should challenge. So should Lorna Vevers, Sarah Reid, Alice Spence and Kay Adams. There is a wealth of winning international experience in this team; three world junior gold medallists and an Olympian serial winner of the Scottish junior and ladies' championships will be a tough act to knock out. The way the team reads, the top end are playing out of their 'natural' positions; Sarah is used to skipping and Lorna is used to playing in the middle order – the boiler house of the team at either third or, more recently, second. It will be interesting to see how they get on; the great curlers, mind you, can play anywhere in the team.
Leading the junior charge in the ladies' championships this season is the team skipped by Hannah Fleming. Fresh from their world junior ladies gold medal, Hannah, Lauren Gray and Abi Brown bring in Abi’s cousin, Jennifer Dodds to replace the aged-out Alice Spence. This is still a very strong-looking team and one whose progress I will follow with interest as the season progresses to the business end early next year. They won the Cardwell Garden Centre Braehead Open yesterday!
Look out also for young teams skipped by Jennifer Martin and Gina Aitken. I do not expect them to win the Scottish ladies this season, but I do expect them to do well in their own championship.
On the wider front, whilst I am pleased that there are more entries this year than last, we should not rest on our laurels. Somebody, somewhere in Cairnie House should be making plans to achieve a goal for ladies' curling. The goal should be this: by 2016, there should be a minimum of twenty-four teams entering the Scottish ladies' championships. Further, at least six of those teams should have a fighting and realistic chance of winning the championships.
I shall return to this theme as the months progress, but next – the juniors!
Twelve teams have entered the Scottish ladies' championships this year and I am pleased! Ok, so it is not thirty; but it is a few more than the past couple of seasons and I really hope that all the competitors enjoy their competition and that they are encouraged to enter again next season. I was worried for a while that Scottish lady curlers had lost their competitive mojo and that everyone else had just given up taking the fight to Eve Muirhead and her world-class team. I am glad that a few younger teams are taking up the challenge and I am looking forward to seeing some cracking games between talented teams as the season progresses.
The Scottish championships will have a pre-qualifying weekend on the 1st and 2nd December when eight of the twelve teams (teams Muirhead, Lockhart, Fleming and McMillan have been 'pre-qualified' to the final weekend) will play in two round-robin leagues of four, with the top two from each league qualifying for the eight-team finals in Perth, February 11-17. So, how will it all go?
Eve, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton are a talented foursome and no mistake. Are they the best team that Scotland has ever sent out to international championships? Well, they have to go some to equal the exploits of their predecessors, Rhona Martin’s Olympic gold medallist team and Jackie Lockhart’s world champion team, but they are on their way and time alone will tell if they reach those ultimate heights or not. They have to be installed as warm favourites for the Scottish championships.
Unlike the men (shame on that decision, by the way!), they will face a challenge to represent Scotland at the Europeans; that challenge will come from the redoubtable Gail Munro and Lyndsay Cumming. Lyndsay is a strong and supportive third; Gail has that McMillan 'chutzpah', for want of a better word – she never knows when she is beaten. Their front-end has yet to be confirmed, though Jodie Milroy returns from last season’s runners-up team. In a sense, it doesn’t matter who they get in as their second player (though it should, of course), but Gail and Lyndsay know each others’ games so well at the top end that I expect them to challenge strongly again – not only in the European play-offs, but also in the Scottish championships proper.
Jackie Lockhart plays with Karen Kennedy and Sarah Macintyre. They have recruited Katriona Davidson (nee Fairweather) to replace Kay Adams at second. Katriona and Jackie have 'form' of course; they won the world championship together in Bismarck. If they were good enough to win a world championship then, they will undoubtedly challenge for a Scottish championship now. Those three teams will be there or thereabouts when the fat lady joins the party and starts singing.
But, do you know what? I really hope that some other twenty-somethings make the party as well. I really like the look of Kerry Barr’s team this year. Rachael Simms is a strong player at three and Rhiann Macleod and Barbara McPake make up a useful front end, though Rhiann is better known as a top-class lead than second. They should challenge. So should Lorna Vevers, Sarah Reid, Alice Spence and Kay Adams. There is a wealth of winning international experience in this team; three world junior gold medallists and an Olympian serial winner of the Scottish junior and ladies' championships will be a tough act to knock out. The way the team reads, the top end are playing out of their 'natural' positions; Sarah is used to skipping and Lorna is used to playing in the middle order – the boiler house of the team at either third or, more recently, second. It will be interesting to see how they get on; the great curlers, mind you, can play anywhere in the team.
Leading the junior charge in the ladies' championships this season is the team skipped by Hannah Fleming. Fresh from their world junior ladies gold medal, Hannah, Lauren Gray and Abi Brown bring in Abi’s cousin, Jennifer Dodds to replace the aged-out Alice Spence. This is still a very strong-looking team and one whose progress I will follow with interest as the season progresses to the business end early next year. They won the Cardwell Garden Centre Braehead Open yesterday!
Look out also for young teams skipped by Jennifer Martin and Gina Aitken. I do not expect them to win the Scottish ladies this season, but I do expect them to do well in their own championship.
On the wider front, whilst I am pleased that there are more entries this year than last, we should not rest on our laurels. Somebody, somewhere in Cairnie House should be making plans to achieve a goal for ladies' curling. The goal should be this: by 2016, there should be a minimum of twenty-four teams entering the Scottish ladies' championships. Further, at least six of those teams should have a fighting and realistic chance of winning the championships.
I shall return to this theme as the months progress, but next – the juniors!
Thursday, October 04, 2012
The Curling Professional
I received an email from my old mucker, Richard Harding, the other day. In it, he referred to an attached flier advertising David Murdoch’s coaching at the Greenacres curling rink. I forgave him the fact that there was, in fact, no flier attached to the email – it’s the kind of thing I do all the time myself and I think it might be an 'age' thing – so I chuckled and sent him back a suitably rigorous rejoinder. Sure enough, the next day, Rod Dickson picked up the pieces and this time sent the flier as well (see below).
I thought so at the time and I still think now that this is an innovative and creative idea. I remember that there were dark murmurings about David’s lack of coaching qualifications when the idea was first floated and to be honest I don’t know what level of coaching badge he has – if any. I suppose I can understand the points that were being made and there are certain important milestoney-type moments that more traditionally-trained coaches need to reach and pass. There is, I suppose, a natural kind of reluctance to accept a newbie who walks into a position when the rest of us have to get ourselves badged and booted first.
But here’s the choice put starkly: I did have a coaching badge for a while (thankfully for all concerned, now lapsed), but I am trying to imagine who would deliver best value to a committed curler trying to improve some aspect of their delivery – me with my badge, or David Murdoch.
Let me pause just for a second there; I’ll maybe get a Havana out and have a few contented puffs as I turn that one over in my head – the pros, the cons – oh, the decisions, the decisions.
Ehhm.
But I think I would go with David!
Good luck to him and to Greenacres this season as they progress the initiative. I’m all for it and hope that the idea spreads.
Robin Copland
I thought so at the time and I still think now that this is an innovative and creative idea. I remember that there were dark murmurings about David’s lack of coaching qualifications when the idea was first floated and to be honest I don’t know what level of coaching badge he has – if any. I suppose I can understand the points that were being made and there are certain important milestoney-type moments that more traditionally-trained coaches need to reach and pass. There is, I suppose, a natural kind of reluctance to accept a newbie who walks into a position when the rest of us have to get ourselves badged and booted first.
But here’s the choice put starkly: I did have a coaching badge for a while (thankfully for all concerned, now lapsed), but I am trying to imagine who would deliver best value to a committed curler trying to improve some aspect of their delivery – me with my badge, or David Murdoch.
Let me pause just for a second there; I’ll maybe get a Havana out and have a few contented puffs as I turn that one over in my head – the pros, the cons – oh, the decisions, the decisions.
Ehhm.
But I think I would go with David!
Good luck to him and to Greenacres this season as they progress the initiative. I’m all for it and hope that the idea spreads.
Robin Copland
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
New Season Thoughts 1
What a summer of sport that we have had! I was enthralled by the Olympics and the Paralympics. The performances were spectacular but the dedication and commitment that led to those performances – well, they were simply outstanding. Standouts for me as a true Brit were the performances of the cyclists and rowers (obviously!), the Opening Ceremony (and tell me that you too didn’t shed a tear or two), that marvellous Saturday night when it all came together in the athletics stadium, Usain Bolt – oh, I could go on.
But do you know the biggest highlight for me? Four or five weeks when our national radio stations’ airwaves were not hogged by the great god, our so-called 'national' sport (at which we are totally and utterly woeful, by the way) football. With the gloriously apt exception of the shenanigans at the Rangers Football Club (Newco or Oldco – take your pick) and the interruption provided by a bunch of football fans indulging in what they seem to do best – fighting on the terraces at Dundee in Dundee United’s match against Moscow Dynamo, our screens and airwaves were filled instead with properly committed sportspeople, funded I will grant you, but not to the obscene levels of the top footballers, indulging in competition of the very highest quality and level. It was brilliant.
Sadly, it is over. After a brief respite, football hogs everything and is everywhere and those of us who despair are left with memories of the Tour de France, Wimbledon and the odd oasis provided by the likes of the Ryder Cup (What a performance!) and the US Open tennis championship (didn’t the boy do well?).
Oh. And the curling!
The season has started; I have already had my first fall and have suffered the pangs of defeat at the hands of the Midcalder curling club in the Jackson trophy. But you don’t want to hear about that! Instead, let me take a look at the upcoming season and post some thoughts on the runners and riders in Scotland. I shall start with the men.
The shenanigans at the top of our sport have Tom Brewster and his unchanged team from last season of Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow being joined by David Murdoch, erstwhile Scottish and Olympic skip. It seems to me that these five players look like the HHY’s shoo-ins for the next Olympics – call me an old-fashioned cynic if you will. It is going to be interesting to see how David Murdoch melds in and makes a tight four into an equally tight five. Certainly, they have to be considered favourites for the Scottish championship. Tom and co are now double world silver-medallists. It would be good if they could go one better this year!
To do that though, we first have to qualify for the world championships by doing well in the European championships and that done, they have to get past some other useful looking teams. Last season, the talented David Edwards won many more games than he lost at the Scottish championship finals. I expect that he will do the same again. He has kept his team together, so continues with former Scottish junior champion skip John Penny, Scott Macleod and Colin Campbell.
Logan Gray looks to me to have got things sorted out this year. I like the fact that he has Ross Paterson at third. Ross has developed into a fine top-end player in my view. In playing with Logan, they recreate the top end from Logan’s very first junior Scottish success. These two could do something special this season. At second is Al Guthrie, another strong player in the mid- to late-twenties generation and at lead, they have the (slightly older!) Richard Woods.
I fancy these three teams will make the top three of the Scottish championships this year. There you are – I can’t say fairer than that.
Mind you, three veteran teams will take a few scalps this season and are just loving the fact that I have tipped other teams to top them in the Scottish! Look out for Smiths (but not related) Warwick, David and Alan, who are joined by experienced lead Ross Hepburn in a strong-looking team. Ewan Macdonald has persuaded Duncan Fernie out of premature retirement to play third with a front end of young Ally Fraser (to be fair, he’s just out of juniors and can hardly be called a 'veteran'!) and Euan Byers. Sandy Reid and Moray Combe have persuaded another old warhorse, Hammy McMillan, to pick up where he left off a couple of seasons ago. Murrayfield’s Sandy Gilmour takes up the mantle with Hammy again. These are strong teams and are capable of beating anyone on their day.
I also expect strong challenges from Glen Muirhead, Graeme Black and John Hamilton. All three skips played in the Scottish championship finals last season and could well do so again. Junior teams (or teams just out the juniors) skipped by Grant Hardie, Kyle Smith (reigning Scottish junior champions) and Murray Young will be keen to compete in the finals. They will all challenge too at the two Scottish member events of the Champions Tour, the Edinburgh International, November 9-11, and the Ramada Perth Masters, January 5-8. Both events have attracted top overseas teams to augment the Scottish teams that will take part.
It’s a long slow burn towards Olympic stardom and the chance for new heroes to introduce themselves to the sporting scene at the top level of our sport and a chance for the rest to make statements of intent. An interesting season ahead, I would wager!
Robin Copland
But do you know the biggest highlight for me? Four or five weeks when our national radio stations’ airwaves were not hogged by the great god, our so-called 'national' sport (at which we are totally and utterly woeful, by the way) football. With the gloriously apt exception of the shenanigans at the Rangers Football Club (Newco or Oldco – take your pick) and the interruption provided by a bunch of football fans indulging in what they seem to do best – fighting on the terraces at Dundee in Dundee United’s match against Moscow Dynamo, our screens and airwaves were filled instead with properly committed sportspeople, funded I will grant you, but not to the obscene levels of the top footballers, indulging in competition of the very highest quality and level. It was brilliant.
Sadly, it is over. After a brief respite, football hogs everything and is everywhere and those of us who despair are left with memories of the Tour de France, Wimbledon and the odd oasis provided by the likes of the Ryder Cup (What a performance!) and the US Open tennis championship (didn’t the boy do well?).
Oh. And the curling!
The season has started; I have already had my first fall and have suffered the pangs of defeat at the hands of the Midcalder curling club in the Jackson trophy. But you don’t want to hear about that! Instead, let me take a look at the upcoming season and post some thoughts on the runners and riders in Scotland. I shall start with the men.
The shenanigans at the top of our sport have Tom Brewster and his unchanged team from last season of Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow being joined by David Murdoch, erstwhile Scottish and Olympic skip. It seems to me that these five players look like the HHY’s shoo-ins for the next Olympics – call me an old-fashioned cynic if you will. It is going to be interesting to see how David Murdoch melds in and makes a tight four into an equally tight five. Certainly, they have to be considered favourites for the Scottish championship. Tom and co are now double world silver-medallists. It would be good if they could go one better this year!
To do that though, we first have to qualify for the world championships by doing well in the European championships and that done, they have to get past some other useful looking teams. Last season, the talented David Edwards won many more games than he lost at the Scottish championship finals. I expect that he will do the same again. He has kept his team together, so continues with former Scottish junior champion skip John Penny, Scott Macleod and Colin Campbell.
Logan Gray looks to me to have got things sorted out this year. I like the fact that he has Ross Paterson at third. Ross has developed into a fine top-end player in my view. In playing with Logan, they recreate the top end from Logan’s very first junior Scottish success. These two could do something special this season. At second is Al Guthrie, another strong player in the mid- to late-twenties generation and at lead, they have the (slightly older!) Richard Woods.
I fancy these three teams will make the top three of the Scottish championships this year. There you are – I can’t say fairer than that.
Mind you, three veteran teams will take a few scalps this season and are just loving the fact that I have tipped other teams to top them in the Scottish! Look out for Smiths (but not related) Warwick, David and Alan, who are joined by experienced lead Ross Hepburn in a strong-looking team. Ewan Macdonald has persuaded Duncan Fernie out of premature retirement to play third with a front end of young Ally Fraser (to be fair, he’s just out of juniors and can hardly be called a 'veteran'!) and Euan Byers. Sandy Reid and Moray Combe have persuaded another old warhorse, Hammy McMillan, to pick up where he left off a couple of seasons ago. Murrayfield’s Sandy Gilmour takes up the mantle with Hammy again. These are strong teams and are capable of beating anyone on their day.
I also expect strong challenges from Glen Muirhead, Graeme Black and John Hamilton. All three skips played in the Scottish championship finals last season and could well do so again. Junior teams (or teams just out the juniors) skipped by Grant Hardie, Kyle Smith (reigning Scottish junior champions) and Murray Young will be keen to compete in the finals. They will all challenge too at the two Scottish member events of the Champions Tour, the Edinburgh International, November 9-11, and the Ramada Perth Masters, January 5-8. Both events have attracted top overseas teams to augment the Scottish teams that will take part.
It’s a long slow burn towards Olympic stardom and the chance for new heroes to introduce themselves to the sporting scene at the top level of our sport and a chance for the rest to make statements of intent. An interesting season ahead, I would wager!
Robin Copland
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
The New Dawn
By Robin Copland.
I was struck by a post that Logan Gray put up on his Facebook page this week, in fact, I was so struck by the post that I was moved to reply! In it, he admitted to looking forward to hearing who his new team was going to be this season.
Read that last sentence again.
Now, let me share something with you. If I were Rhona Martin, Sören Grahn, Nancy Murdoch, Dave Crosbee or any of the other High Heid Yins in charge of competitive curling development in Scotland, I would want to have a group of talented athletes around me over whom I had complete control and who were in my thrall. I would want to have them at my beck and call. I would want to be able to manage them effectively – which means I would want them to be more committed to their curling than to their work. I would want them all to be living in Stirling; in fact, I would set up camp beds in Stirling ice rink for them to sleep on.
I would want all of this because I would be earning my living and adding to (or detracting from) my reputation – and hence my promotion / new job prospects, based on the performance on the ice of that group of people. Of course I would want that control; the more imponderables I control, the more chance I have of stamping my authority on things and the better I can control my own destiny.
Imagine, if you will for a minute, Sir Alex Ferguson and his players. “Sorry boss, I can’t come to training tomorrow because I have a work deadline to meet.” Aye, right. So, as I say, if I ruled the world, I would want to rule it properly.
But.
I am concerned. There are all the usual reasons for my concern. Let me share some with you:
• Curling teams have always been 'organic'.
• Skips pick their teams and the rest is history.
• Psychology is far more important in a curling team than it is in, for example or rugby or a football team (where the coach traditionally picks the team).
• The best teams are friends off as well as on the ice.
But really, these are the 'old hat' arguments. All we are really arguing about here is who picks the teams. There has been coach input into that process for the last decade at least, so there is nothing really new there. What concerns me more – well there are two potential things, but I think one of them is already covered.
The one that I think is already covered is the team 'input' to the decision. I would hate to hear that there had been no input from the players themselves into who is playing with whom. Our coaches are, I think, sensible enough to realise that there needs to be harmony within a curling team much more so – and I mean much more so – than almost any other sport. Wayne Rooney does not need to like Rio Ferdinand, but David Murdoch needs to see eye to eye with Tom Brewster is all that I am saying here.
I would also hate to hear that a player has kept their mouth shut in these circumstances for fear of rocking the boat or putting themselves out on a limb with the coaching staff. In extremis, that could lead to four (sometimes five) players having an unhappy time of things playing with people with whom they just don’t get on. Nightmare on so many levels. That said, I am a young ambitious player; would I speak out against the people in power? Probably not and that is definitely not healthy.
My second concern is more fundamental. I am worried by the commitment that the coaching team are insisting on. I spoke about this at a recent dinner (and got pelters, I may add), but I really do worry that we are limiting the talent pool at our disposal by disenfranchising all those whose answer to the question, which comes first, curling or your work / studies, is not curling.
Come on and get real! Anyone over the age of twenty-five who is holding down a job might very well answer 'curling', but everyone in their right mind knows that the answer to that question is 'work', unless one or more of the following apply:
• You are married to a sugar-daddy
• You are married to a sugar-mummy
• You are as rich as Croesus
• Your parents continue to financially support you (and are themselves as rich as Croesus)
• You have a job willing to give you oodles of paid time off
• You are prepared to put your career aspirations on hold
• You are willing to defer your studies
• You are content to fail a few exams and finish up with poorer qualifications than if you had put the studying effort in
• You are funded to such an extent that your financial worries are taken care of
• You are prepared to live / work within a reasonable distance of Stirling
• You are Wayne Rooney.
So what’s the problem, you may very well ask. I’ll give you the answer in one person – David Edwards. David is an honest young man, who was not prepared to dissemble in order to get some funding. He is recently married and is holding down an important job. This job helps him pay his mortgage. Perhaps more worryingly from the perspective of Scottish curling, he is also a talented young curler, whose talent we can ill afford to lose from an already small enough pool. None of the above bullet points apply as far as he is concerned, so he is, not to put too fine a point on it, out. You may argue that he has made his choice. I would argue that he should never have had to make the choice in the first place. We can ill-afford to lose him and others like him.
Just to add a little bit of insult to this already injured soul, his second player from last season, Scott Macleod, is in the performance squad. It is not clear yet which team Scott will be placed in, but I am willing to place a wee wager on a performance team with people like Glen Muirhead, Jay McWilliam and perhaps Billy Morton. If that is the case, then David is looking for a new second player. This team, by the way, were good enough to finish on an 8-1 record in the Scottish Championship last season. Scott may very well be asked to leave that team to join three other players, at least two of whom are relative strangers. Could someone please explain to me why this is a good idea from anyone’s perspective?
The best teams are the ones where talented players get together because they want to. They enjoy playing with each other and they build up a rapport within the team. The coaches’ challenge will be to ensure that still holds true in the 'made-up' teams. The fact that Tom Brewster and Eve Muirhead’s successful teams have been kept together speaks volumes to that important point. Mind you, although every one of the four existing members of team Brewster speaks of the 'welcome' news that David Murdoch is joining them as fifth man, I would be looking over my shoulder. Maybe that’s because I was never, ever, in the same league as any of those fine players, mind you. Aye – that’s maybe it. But I’d still be looking over my shoulder, nonetheless!
And now for my last point – and it is about the Scottish Championships. Does anyone else out there bemoan the fact that one of Tom’s major competitors is no longer skipping his own team in the Scottish next season? Does anyone else feel just the merest smidgin cheated that we won’t see another clash of these two fine skips? I do earnestly hope and pray that the High Heid Yins do not have designs on the Scottish. I do hope that they do not intend it to be rendered second class by 'picking' a team to represent Scotland at the World Championships. The Scottish is the one competition we have that sorts out the men from the boys. It is the one competition where a curler is asked to play the kind of shot that leads occasionally to one of those 'squeaky bum' moments.
Lose the Scottish and you lose the Crown Jewel of Scottish curling. Lose the Scottish and you lose the chance to see a new team emerge, bright-eyed and excited into the light of success. Look at the season before last. Would anyone have picked Team Brewster to go the World Championship? Look at season 2003. Would anyone have picked Team Murdoch at that point? What the Scottish gives you is a competition in which new talent fights its way to the fore in the heat of competition. It gives that talent the chance to make the shots under intense pressure. It gives them the chance to play their curling under the same kind of pressure that they will face in World and European Championships.
Lose the Scottish and you give the chosen few a sinecure to overstay their welcome at the top of the game.
Lose the Scottish and Mr Angry from Balerno will be on your case good and proper. It should never, ever be allowed to happen. Our Scottish champions have earned the right to represent their country.
Full stop. End of story.
I was struck by a post that Logan Gray put up on his Facebook page this week, in fact, I was so struck by the post that I was moved to reply! In it, he admitted to looking forward to hearing who his new team was going to be this season.
Read that last sentence again.
Now, let me share something with you. If I were Rhona Martin, Sören Grahn, Nancy Murdoch, Dave Crosbee or any of the other High Heid Yins in charge of competitive curling development in Scotland, I would want to have a group of talented athletes around me over whom I had complete control and who were in my thrall. I would want to have them at my beck and call. I would want to be able to manage them effectively – which means I would want them to be more committed to their curling than to their work. I would want them all to be living in Stirling; in fact, I would set up camp beds in Stirling ice rink for them to sleep on.
I would want all of this because I would be earning my living and adding to (or detracting from) my reputation – and hence my promotion / new job prospects, based on the performance on the ice of that group of people. Of course I would want that control; the more imponderables I control, the more chance I have of stamping my authority on things and the better I can control my own destiny.
Imagine, if you will for a minute, Sir Alex Ferguson and his players. “Sorry boss, I can’t come to training tomorrow because I have a work deadline to meet.” Aye, right. So, as I say, if I ruled the world, I would want to rule it properly.
But.
I am concerned. There are all the usual reasons for my concern. Let me share some with you:
• Curling teams have always been 'organic'.
• Skips pick their teams and the rest is history.
• Psychology is far more important in a curling team than it is in, for example or rugby or a football team (where the coach traditionally picks the team).
• The best teams are friends off as well as on the ice.
But really, these are the 'old hat' arguments. All we are really arguing about here is who picks the teams. There has been coach input into that process for the last decade at least, so there is nothing really new there. What concerns me more – well there are two potential things, but I think one of them is already covered.
The one that I think is already covered is the team 'input' to the decision. I would hate to hear that there had been no input from the players themselves into who is playing with whom. Our coaches are, I think, sensible enough to realise that there needs to be harmony within a curling team much more so – and I mean much more so – than almost any other sport. Wayne Rooney does not need to like Rio Ferdinand, but David Murdoch needs to see eye to eye with Tom Brewster is all that I am saying here.
I would also hate to hear that a player has kept their mouth shut in these circumstances for fear of rocking the boat or putting themselves out on a limb with the coaching staff. In extremis, that could lead to four (sometimes five) players having an unhappy time of things playing with people with whom they just don’t get on. Nightmare on so many levels. That said, I am a young ambitious player; would I speak out against the people in power? Probably not and that is definitely not healthy.
My second concern is more fundamental. I am worried by the commitment that the coaching team are insisting on. I spoke about this at a recent dinner (and got pelters, I may add), but I really do worry that we are limiting the talent pool at our disposal by disenfranchising all those whose answer to the question, which comes first, curling or your work / studies, is not curling.
Come on and get real! Anyone over the age of twenty-five who is holding down a job might very well answer 'curling', but everyone in their right mind knows that the answer to that question is 'work', unless one or more of the following apply:
• You are married to a sugar-daddy
• You are married to a sugar-mummy
• You are as rich as Croesus
• Your parents continue to financially support you (and are themselves as rich as Croesus)
• You have a job willing to give you oodles of paid time off
• You are prepared to put your career aspirations on hold
• You are willing to defer your studies
• You are content to fail a few exams and finish up with poorer qualifications than if you had put the studying effort in
• You are funded to such an extent that your financial worries are taken care of
• You are prepared to live / work within a reasonable distance of Stirling
• You are Wayne Rooney.
So what’s the problem, you may very well ask. I’ll give you the answer in one person – David Edwards. David is an honest young man, who was not prepared to dissemble in order to get some funding. He is recently married and is holding down an important job. This job helps him pay his mortgage. Perhaps more worryingly from the perspective of Scottish curling, he is also a talented young curler, whose talent we can ill afford to lose from an already small enough pool. None of the above bullet points apply as far as he is concerned, so he is, not to put too fine a point on it, out. You may argue that he has made his choice. I would argue that he should never have had to make the choice in the first place. We can ill-afford to lose him and others like him.
Just to add a little bit of insult to this already injured soul, his second player from last season, Scott Macleod, is in the performance squad. It is not clear yet which team Scott will be placed in, but I am willing to place a wee wager on a performance team with people like Glen Muirhead, Jay McWilliam and perhaps Billy Morton. If that is the case, then David is looking for a new second player. This team, by the way, were good enough to finish on an 8-1 record in the Scottish Championship last season. Scott may very well be asked to leave that team to join three other players, at least two of whom are relative strangers. Could someone please explain to me why this is a good idea from anyone’s perspective?
The best teams are the ones where talented players get together because they want to. They enjoy playing with each other and they build up a rapport within the team. The coaches’ challenge will be to ensure that still holds true in the 'made-up' teams. The fact that Tom Brewster and Eve Muirhead’s successful teams have been kept together speaks volumes to that important point. Mind you, although every one of the four existing members of team Brewster speaks of the 'welcome' news that David Murdoch is joining them as fifth man, I would be looking over my shoulder. Maybe that’s because I was never, ever, in the same league as any of those fine players, mind you. Aye – that’s maybe it. But I’d still be looking over my shoulder, nonetheless!
And now for my last point – and it is about the Scottish Championships. Does anyone else out there bemoan the fact that one of Tom’s major competitors is no longer skipping his own team in the Scottish next season? Does anyone else feel just the merest smidgin cheated that we won’t see another clash of these two fine skips? I do earnestly hope and pray that the High Heid Yins do not have designs on the Scottish. I do hope that they do not intend it to be rendered second class by 'picking' a team to represent Scotland at the World Championships. The Scottish is the one competition we have that sorts out the men from the boys. It is the one competition where a curler is asked to play the kind of shot that leads occasionally to one of those 'squeaky bum' moments.
Lose the Scottish and you lose the Crown Jewel of Scottish curling. Lose the Scottish and you lose the chance to see a new team emerge, bright-eyed and excited into the light of success. Look at the season before last. Would anyone have picked Team Brewster to go the World Championship? Look at season 2003. Would anyone have picked Team Murdoch at that point? What the Scottish gives you is a competition in which new talent fights its way to the fore in the heat of competition. It gives that talent the chance to make the shots under intense pressure. It gives them the chance to play their curling under the same kind of pressure that they will face in World and European Championships.
Lose the Scottish and you give the chosen few a sinecure to overstay their welcome at the top of the game.
Lose the Scottish and Mr Angry from Balerno will be on your case good and proper. It should never, ever be allowed to happen. Our Scottish champions have earned the right to represent their country.
Full stop. End of story.
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