Drymen Curling Club

As Summer is coming to an end, you may be thinking of dusting off those curling shoes.

It is still very uncertain as to the exact timing of the opening of The Peak for curling.   The NCA has opened for the elite curlers and some restricted club curling may take place in September.   Air conditioning in the Peak is being modified to meet new requirements and a tentative date for ice opening in the main arena has been suggested as mid October but many people view this as optimistic and subject to Government rules and community outbreaks of Covid not increasing.

When it does open for curling, session times are likely to be altered to allow for cleaning of stones etc so there is likely to less ice available to serve all the clubs who use the Peak.  Clubs will soon be asked to submit revised ice requirements, so over the coming weeks we will be looking at what competitions we would like to keep, depending on ice availability and willingness of players

Scottish Curling’s guidelines to resume curling include the following conditions:

• arriving well in advance already in curling gear apart from shoes
• no socialising on or off the ice
• wearing a mask
• one sweeper only
• opposing skip unable to sweep a stone through the head
• all players standing at socially-distanced marked spots on either side of the rink
• travel to and from separately

Updates will be posted when available.  In the meantime stay safe.

Due to the very strange times we are currently living through it has been decided to hold our AGM “virtually”.  All the papers for the 2020 AGM have been emailed to members.  Please email the club if you have not received anything.  Deadline for comments and/or concerns is 26 June 2020.

Sadly, due to the Coronovirus and recent Government guidelines on minimising social contact, all our remaining curling games are cancelled.  The AGM is also postponed until later in the year.  We do however need to prepare for the next season and our application form will be available soon on this website.

The Ladies recently took on the Gents in our annual battle of the sexes.  The Ladies were hopeful of a rare victory having won the first few ends.  The Gents rallied late to sneak a few stones in and won 8 – 6,  leaving the Ladies to pick up the wooden spoon again.   Well done to John, Alan, Andy and Bill.

The Christmas Challenge 2019 was a close call with two teams having 4 ends but Jo Cunningham’s team of Anne Ewing, Fiona Coleman and Chris Bilsland won on points.  Winners from last season were also awarded their trophies and photos of some of the awards are captured below.   

The 2018-19 Season winners are:

• Opening Bonspiel – cancelled due to ice breakdown
• League Cup – Andy Kinninmonth, Chris, Janet, Anne L
• J Bilsland Trophy – Jim Bilsland Les, Kate, Lorna
• Christmas Challenge – Bill Cunningham, Helen Chris, Les
• Clachan Cup – Janet Simpson, Alan, Fiona, Anne L
• Ladies v Gents – Andy Kinninmonth, Jim, Alan, Bill
• Pairs – Janet Simpson and Anne Lochhead
• Closing Bonspiel – John Steel, Andrew W, Anne E., Anne L.
• Player of the Year – Janet Simpson

This annual match was as competitive as ever, with four teams vying for the trophy.  The final was won by the best team on the day – Andy Kinninmonth, Alan Brunger, Mary MacDonald and Sheila Steel,  pictured above being presented with the trophy by Chris Bilsland.

Drymen won the Robert Paterson Shield last year and subsequently qualified to represent Forth and Endrick Province at the annual Scottish Province Championships.  The competition was held over three days at Greenacres on 9 – 11 November.   We played well and won our first three games but our stamina faltered and we lost the next two games, finishing third in our section of six teams which meant we failed to qualify for the next stage.  The overall competition was won by Ayrshire who beat Central in the final.

After a year or two’s absence, Drymen went back to Kinross on Saturday (formerly known as the Province Weekend) and won the Forest Hills Trophy by winning 10 ends over the 4 x 4-end games. Very well done to skip Derek Young, pictured here with the trophy and the rest of the team, Andy Kinninmonth, Alan Brunger and Anne Ewing.  

Drymen played Falkirk in the first round of this competition on Thursday and achieved a resounding 10-1 win to make it through to the next round.  Well done team Derek, John, Andy and Mary who scored a 5 in the second end which helped set them up for the win.  Fingers crossed for the next game on 2 October.