Latest News to Monday 14th May 2012

Braehead Open sponsored by Cardwell Garden Centre

The 2012 - 2013 Curling Season calls from afar....

Braehead Ice Rink invites you to the first major curling competition in Scotland on the weekend of Friday October 5th - Sunday 7th October 2012.

We promise a great competition, guarantee at least 4 games with the possibility of 6, and with prize money of £2000 at least.

Like 2011, we expect to be fully booked very quickly with entries from across the UK and Europe, and we encourage you to get your entry in as soon as possible.

Find full details of the competition and how to enter are on this page, so please confirm that your team will join us in Glasgow.

The BCDG Closing Bonspiel

The closing bonspiel organised and run by the Committee of The Braehead Curling Development Group took place on Friday the 30th of March 2012. The event is supported by Bruce Harley, Leisure Manager, and also incorporates the annual presentation of prizes to Teams who have won the various local competitions held at Braehead throughout the season.

A total of fourteen teams took part in the 1st On-ice session starting at 6pm with 12 teams taking part in the 2nd session starting at 8.30pm. Both the On-Ice session consisted of six normal ends of curling against 3 different teams to get the overall winning rink and this was immediately followed by a Team draw shot challenge, with each player trying to get a stone near the Pot Lid for points.

Everyone who came along enjoyed an excellent meal, with many players going back for more from a varied and wide choice of menu provided by our normal caterer. During coffee all teams took part in a Free Quiz and also loads of raffle prizes were distributed to the winning ticket holders.

The presentation of the various prizes was made by Bruce Harley at the break between games and special mention was made of the Small clubs League competition which was introduced this season by the Development group after a suggestion at last years AGM. Photo attached shows the winning team From Upper Cowal being presented with the Trophy and prizes.

All of the BCDG Committee who came along deserves praise for another excellent evening and special mention was made of Norman Cathcart for ensuring that everything went well. Norman has played a major role in getting the BCDG off the ground and has been The Chairman in the first three seasons.

The BCDG AGM

The AGM of the BCDG was held on Monday the 16th of April and Gary Macfarlane took over as chairman. Gary then made a small presentation to Norman in appreciation of all his hard work and what has been achieved with Norman at the helm. A hard act to follow but Gary impressed everyone with his thoughts and ideas’ for the way forward not only for the Group but Braehead Curling in particular. More information about the AGM including a copy of the accounts will follow.

The Curling Rink is now closed until the 1st week in September 2012.

Reports and photo
David Horne
CDO Braehead
Upper Cowal were the winners of the Closing Bonspiel!

Slàinte to the GGCC curling champs!

The Greater Glasgow (Health Board) curling team have swept to glory in the national NHS Bonspiel. Resplendent in their lucky SN Champion T-shirts (that will be Staff Newsletter promotional material?), they stormed to victory at Kinross Ice Rink to pick up the prestigious NHS Scotland trophy and bring it back to Glasgow. Our fab four – skipper Steve Russell, capital planning project manager; Robert Hosie, payroll team manager; Marjorie McCulloch, deputy site manager, and former NHS employee Neil Murray – were runners-up last year to arch rivals NHS Lothian. “The difference this year may have been a combination of great play and the fact that we all wore the T-shirts. It’s not mandatory for curling teams to wear club colours when competing in a Bonspiel, but there is a theory that it contributes to team spirit and intimidates opponents. Maybe our lucky light blue SN T-shirts gave us the edge,” said a smiling Robert. The competition was fiercely contested by the 11 teams taking part. The first match was against Lothian (team two) and Glasgow won five of the six ends (an end comprises of each player delivering two stones each) and an overall shot total of plus 10. NHSGGC won four of the six ends in the second and final match against Tayside, and an overall shot total of plus seven in a closely contested match, with winning ends alternating early in the game. The final outcome was that Glasgow won the overall competition by having won a total of nine ends and an impressive plus - 17 shot difference. An “All Stars” team, made up of players from several NHS teams, came in second place, with a total of eight ends.
This year is the fourth time in the 25-year history of the NHS Scotland Bonspiel that Glasgow has brought the trophy home. In 1999, they went on a three-in-a-row run of outright victories.

If you are interested in joining the NHS curling team, contact either:
Robert Hosie, email: robert.hosie@ggc.scot.nhs.uk or
Marjorie McCulloch, email: marjorie.mcculloch@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

Pictured: (Left to right) Neil Murray, Marjorie McCulloch, Robert Hosie and Steve Russell celebrate their victory

The Cadder 150

The scene as Cadder takes on the Rest of the World in their 150th Challenge Bonspiel.

A complete account of the proceedings on and off the ice can be found here!.

BCDG Closing Bonspiel

David Duncan Final

This was played on 14th March and produced a very interesting game, an account of which you can read about here.

World Championship Event news

Womens
March 17-25
Lethbridge / Alberta
www.curling.ca/championships/worlds/

Mens
March 31- April 8
Basel
www.wmcc2012.ch

Seniors
April 14-21
Copenhagen
www.worldcurling.org/world-senior-curling-championships-2012

For your convenience we will publish details about live coverage and highlights from the official sites as these are made available.

McDermid Seniors

Played on Tuesday 6th March 2012 at 2:20.


The winners were Kirstine Cochran; Jean McMaster; Christina Graham and Judith Jackson.

The Broadway Trophy

Played on Wednesday 7th March 2012 at 10am.

K Cochran beat K Cromar 5 shots to 3.


The winners of the Broadway trophy are K Cochran; P MacKenzie; K McMillan; S Lemond of 69 Curling Club. Shown here with the runners up.

Free Practice Ice

Braehead are offering Practice Ice sessions free of charge to Braehead members.
This will happen every couple of weeks if the ice is available and the day and time will vary each time.
This was going to start next season, however there is no reason we can’t get a couple of sessions in this month so watch for notices which will appear at the rink and on this site.

Free to Braehead members
Must be booked
1 hour per person

Pamela Stephen 0141 885 4611
pamela-stephen@capshop.co.uk

Robin Brechin Trophy 2012

A healthy 16 teams turned out on March 4th for a fun Sunday’s entertainment on the sunny banks of the Clyde, ages ranged from ‘Juniors’ to ‘Masters’ but that did not matter when it came down to the curling..
The format for the day was to have 4 x 5 end games with the winners in round one progressing to the play for the Brechin Trophy and the losers playing for the Allcomers Trophy.

Bruce Harley gave a warm welcome to the combatants and scorekeeper for the day – Robin Shand – outlined the rules with particular emphasis on playing quickly. With little time between sessions, keeping up to speed was essential!
Two sessions completed by lunchtime and all running smoothly – too early to pick a winner though as most teams were still in contention; by the end of session three however, the Brechin victors had to come from the top schenkel game – no one else could catch either Alan Lindsay or Michael Yuille.
Both had 6 points and the ‘end’ differential was just one in Alan’s favour. So what happened?
The game was peeled and Michael took 3 ends to Alan’s two – that meant that it woud be ‘shots up’ that gave us the winner and Alan had had bigger margin wins along the way.
Congratulations to Alan with William Johnson, Nicola Evans and Judith Jackson, commiserations to Michael, Delphine How, Gordon Nicholl and Lynn Black.

The Allcomers did not have to go to shots up to decide, Robin McGregors 5 – 2 win over Elaine Semple in round four ensured that, with six points, he was in an unassailable position so, with Alan Blakeley, Margaret McGregor and Sandra Blakeley for company, the trophy was theirs.

A grand day out – as Wallace and Grommit might have said.
Robin Shand

View the final table. here.

Ladies News

Elaine Semple is pleased to advise of the following:

Ada Provan Rosebowl winners were October Ladies.
New Glasgow Trophy winners were Duntocher (skipped by Margaret Paul).

The final of the McDermid Seniors is to be played on 6th March at 2:20 and features Elaine Semple v Kirstine Cochran.

(Please do let us know of your Braehead curling activities so we can advertise them here!)

Mackenzie Crook Part 2

The split divisions have now been posted on the competition pages and the fixture dates are available to view.
Please note that the scores from the qualifying stage carry forward to this phase hence the state of the tables...

Broadway Trophy

The first results for this competition have been posted and the tables updated.

Rink Championship Qualifier Result

Cadder "1" skipped by Gary Macfarlane played Partick skipped by John Summers in the final of The Rink Championship qualifier. Gary's team won by 10 shots to 2. However, both teams qualify to play in the National Rink Championship finals which are being held at Forfar Curling Rink on the 2nd to the 4th of March 2012.

Waterfront Final Results

Anne Rankin (Duntocher Ladies) beat Sheila Black (Maxwell Ladies).

You can see a match report and photograph of the winners here.

Braehead Ladies Open 2011 Results

Follow the competition links to see a full report and standings for the Ladies Open. You can go straight there from here.

Henderson Bishop Result

The local qualifier for the Henderson Bishop was won by Liz Paul's team of Nanette Davidson : Susan Lemond : Sheila Black. They beat Fiona Wylie's team by 15 shots to 2.

Braehead Mixed Doubles Results

Hanna Fleming and Billy Morton won by beating Graham Shedden and Jennifer Marshall in the final by 6 shots to 5.

Braehead Open Results

Kyle Smith beat Ally Fraser's team by 7 shots to 4 to win the Braehead Open.

Full House at Braehead Curling Seminar

Norman Cathcart, The chair of The Braehead Curling Development Group was delighted to declare a full house when almost 70 Club Curlers attended a Curling seminar held at Braehead on Wednesday 23rd November.
Braehead’s award winning Ice maker Chris Noble and the vastly experienced International Umpire Leslie Ingram-Brown were the guest speakers.
Chris started the evening by providing an insight to the secret world of creating ice by showing a fascinating video of his Ice making team transforming the concrete pad at Braehead into a high quality 8 sheet curling rink - this was two weeks work cut down to about 15 minutes on video. He was also able to give unique advice on how to read ice conditions by using several video slides. Many questions were asked and all expertly answered by Chris who even admitted that as they continually have to work with ongoing changing conditions they sometimes get it wrong. Fortunately for Braehead curlers and those that play in the various competitions held at The Curling Rink, including the Braehead open and the Glynhill International this does not happen too often and is quickly addressed by Chris and his dedicated team.

Chris follows the action

Leslie Ingram-Brown provided a guide on the rules which generally affect club Curling along with advice on the etiquette we should all be observing. He was also able to recall many stories from his world wide travels to keep the audience entertained. He then invited the audience to name as many of the curling etiquette rules named in the 2nd issue of the new “Your Curler” on line magazine. This talk was also followed by many questions ranging from “How do you carry out a proper measure” and “Why does the rule on curlers using a stick vary between The RCCC and The WCF. Again all questions were expertly answered and Lesley stressed that “The spirit of Curling” should always be at the fore when playing any game of curling.


Leslie holds the floor

The appreciation of the audience was reward enough for Norman who had spent a great deal of time organising the event. Thanks are due to everyone who helped and especially the curlers who came along to support the event.

David Horne