The Penicuik squad for the Gathering this year was led by President Jim Ramsay, Vice-president Dave Carr, and Andrew Lambie. The other players included Liz Anderson, David Ballantyne, Margaret Carr, Andrew Dalgleish, Ronnie Hope, Janette Lambie, Pam Ramsay, and Jan Stuart. Penicuik got off to a really good start with victories over Prairie Fire (Canada), Nic Nacs (Norway), and YODA (Scotland), and ended up in the top group for the final stages of the weekend tournament. The Club teams put in some really good performances against seasoned teams of Midcalder, Red & Blue, and the Swiss Schimidis in their games, but just failed to turn it into points. This top group was won by Midcalder.
Murray Hope and John Jacobs enjoyed the opportunity to play as part of the Red & Blue team and featured well in a performance that took the team to a game that was the group decider in the final session of the tournament.
Iain Scott kindly agreed to supplement another Swiss team, CC Limmattal, who had lost a player to injury back home in Switzerland before the Gathering started. This team went on to win Group C, so well done to Iain for his contribution.
Overall the Gathering was a great success yet again. Jim Ramsay and your Web Master, of the EICG Organising Committee, are indebted to the team of Penicuik members who always appear to make the event work, assisting with transport for our visitors, helping out at the ice rink, selling raffle tickets, and making the Dinner/Dance so enjoyable.