The Gathering took place over the last weekend of March and fourteen local sides were joined by fourteen overseas teams for a 3-day fun curling tournament. Eight of the visiting teams were new to the event and came from France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA.
Penicuik fielded teams drawn from a squad of Dave Carr, Dave Anderson, Andrew Lambie, Jim Ramsay,Liz Anderson, Pam Ramsay, Barbara Gillespie, Jean Lennie, Roger Scott, and David Gillespie. Wins against Alba and The Queens (Sweden), and a loss to Lyss City 1 (Switzerland) in the preliminary stage meant Penicuik played in Group C in the final stage. Here they lost to O’Neil (USA), Curlingstones (Switzerland), and Lyss City 2 (Switzerland).
The Roaring Stones (aka Murray Hope, Iain Scott, John Jacobs, Robert Beaton, and Ronnie Hope) played in a very strong group in the preliminary stage losing to Paddy Power, The Maple Rocks (Canada), and Torsten Med Borsten (Sweden). Happily they went on to gain a victory against Easy Curlers (Switzerland) in the final group stage.
A number of members banded together to form the Organising Team for the Gathering. Jim R was Transport Manager and MC, Linda Hunter is the Treasurer and Competition Score, Janette Lambie and Barbara Gillespie manned the Registration Desk, and Christine Hope and Pam Ramsay ran the fund raising activities. The whole team readily took on additional duties throughout the weekend. A big than you to all of them, and to the volunteers who delivered Jim’s transport plan for airport transfers.
The Winning Teams this year were;
Group A Paddy Power
Group B All Mixed Up
Group C O’Neil (USA)
Group D Lyss City 1 (Switzerland)
Group E Balfron Wolves
Group F Kelso Reivers
Group G Midcalder
The Friendship Quaich was awarded jointly to the two USA teams (O’Neil and Mulville) from St Paul, Minnesota, who made a great contribution to the event both on and off the ice.