Monthly Archives: March 2022

Pairs Competition 2021-22

Many Congratulations to the Winners of this season’s Pairs Competition.

The pairing of Iain Scott and Liz Anderson take the High Road trophy after overcoming Dave Carr and Pam Ramsay in the final – getting to be a habit Iain!

In the Low Road Final, the pairing of John Jacobs and Margaret Carr win the honours  after beating fellow finalists, Jim Ramsay and Reg Dunbar.

With 16 keen curlers taking part, and teams pretty well balanced, this turned out to be a great competition, and it was good to see so many ladies and even a ‘first timer’ taking part.

Full results of the various games are shown in the Competitions page, but a few highlights of the day included: the demon Roger’s brilliant shot with the last stone of the 3rd end of the opening round, where he took out the two counting stones (which David G had left after playing an amazing three stone tap) to take the points; Jim’s face beaming with pride in Pam’s terrific performance to reach the High Road Final, along with Dave C who made a valiant effort despite having just recovered from COVID.

It was a long day, but with the gallery at times enthralled by what was happening on the ice, most players stayed to the end to soak up the atmosphere. Once again, many congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who took part. Thanks also to Jim and Pam for sponsoring the event.

Report by Jean Noble

Eventual winners, Iain and Liz playing against Dave A and Norrie. Sweep hard!
Dave C and Pam against Roger and Barbara – What to do here then, Roger?
Let’s get this show on the road.
Ready for action

Inter Club Medal

In this year’s Inter Club Medal (previously known as District Medal) two sides representing the President and Vice-President of Penicuik played in a tough draw against Musketeers.  

President’s Team – Iain Scott, John Jacobs, Keith Morris, and Barbara Gillespie were simply outclassed on the day after an uphill struggle from losing heavily in the first, and only managing to score in a single end late in the game.

Vice-President’s Team – Jim Ramsay, Dave Anderson, Kirsty McWilliam and David Gillespie put up a respectful fight holding a slim lead for the majority of the games, up 6-4 after the 6th end. Unfortunately, their valiant effort to keep the overall score respectable came undone at the last end when the opposition took a 5 to win.

Musketeers won both games (11-2 and 9-6) and will be awarded the Inter Club Medal, although the opposition Secretary has since indicated that the matches were much tighter than the scorecard suggested. There’s always next year!

Report by Iain Scott

37 Club Match

After a two-year break, the traditional good-natured and competitive double headed friendly against 37 Club was upon us. This year, the mood was no different.

Jim Ramsay had managed to amass two strong Penicuik teams worthy of the task in hand. (It is worth noting that an unforeseen diary clash maybe helped Penicuik’s cause, with 4 curlers from 37 Club doing battle in the Province Final, thus reducing their available pool of players). 

Team 1: (Dave Anderson, Ronnie Hope, Iain Scott, David Gillespie) started evens, trading 2 in the opening ends but then set about building ‘steady’ run of scores, but in the 6th Dave’s front end deserted him allowing 37 Club to close the gap to just one! The 7th end again saw the front end misfire slightly, leaving precision tactical play from the 3rd and the skip to hold out for the victory (8-5)

Team 2: (Jim Ramsay, Craig Brown, Keith Morris, Dave Carr) having taken a single in the first, failed to capitalise with the last stone in the 2nd thus losing a 3. They looked to be in for a different game.  However, momentum began to build from the 3rd and Penicuik came powering back with two 3s and another single to secure the second victory. (9-3)

All teams retired to the bar afterwards, where Penicuik was awarded the Silver Salver provided by 37 Club to mark the special relationship between the Clubs. Penicuik then proposed a vote of thanks to both sides.

Report by Iain Scott – photos courtesy of 37 Club with action shots available in the Gallery

Robert Steeples presents the Silver Salver to Iain.
Match 1 Teams
Match 2 Teams

Hurley League Champions 2021-22

Many congratulations to Dave Anderson’s rink of Pam Ramsay, Alicia Neil and Stuart Blackwood ( substituted last night by Jim Hume) for comprehensively winning the Hurley League Final against Team Hope (Ronnie, Reg Dunbar, Jean Noble and Norrie McLean) .

The match was very tight at the beginning, with each rink scoring only a single for the first 3 ends (2-1 to Team Anderson), but thereafter Team Hope lost a 4 in the 4th, and never really recovered losing two more singles before calling it a day. A good match at the end of a hard season, with Dave’s team definitely the stronger curlers on the night.

Now, there’s only the Closing Bonspiel to look forward to before we put our kit away for another season.

Club Singles 2021-22

Eight members of PCC gathered on Sunday March 13th (lucky for some!)

First round – Play kicked off on keen, straight ice.
Game 1) A strong start from Jim Ramsay saw him overpower David Ballantyne to a clear win after some valiant defensive play (5-1)
Game 2) Iain Scott (sub for a COVID impacted David Gillespie) peeled with John Jacobs, but Iain advanced by way of winning an extra draw to the house (5-4)
Game 3) Reg Dunbar v Dave Anderson – Close play throughout the match but saw David hold out for victory (4-2)
Game 4) Ronnie Hope v Craig Brown – did not go to the form of the ‘book’ being kept upstairs on the balcony, with Ronnie completing the line-up for the High Road Semi-Finals (4-2) and Craig in the Low.

Low Road
Unfortunately for David B, he was drawn against a resurgent John J in the first Low Road Semi-Final, with John running out a clear winner (8-0) in 3 ends and moving to the Low Road Final
Craig B also made amends taking victory over Reg D (8-3) in the second Semi-Final

Low Road Final was set-up to be repeat of the Second Points show-down between John & Craig; on newly pebbled ice John immediately applied pressure leaving Craig with high tariff recovery shots to try and rescue each end. The match continued in this style with what would become a decisive win for John in 5 ends (7-0)

High Road
Semi Final 1; Jim R v Iain S – came down to the last stone from Jim. 3-2 up Jim needed a well-judged back-rink draw to knock back the lying stone from Iain otherwise another peel was in the offing; a well delivered stone sidled past the guard and perfectly chipped the winner, so 4-2 to Jim
Semi-Final 2; saw Dave A take all the points against a now fading Ronnie; 4-0 Dave A

High Road Final: Dave A v Jim R, saw Dave made a strong start after an unfortunate error in tactics from Jim, caused by a miscalculation in shots played; 3-0 after one.
By the third end Jim was fighting back, but Dave crept away with a combination of steals and ‘ones’ in the 2nd, 4th & 5th ends, two of which were decided on well executed angled raises leaving Jim with simply too much to do in reply; 6-3 going to the last. The final end saw a cagey series of stone to the back of the house, that saw Jim simply run out of stones to close the gap, leaving Dave victorious.


Many congratulations to Dave Anderson on winning the High Road Final and to John Jacobs on winning the Low Road Final. And thanks to Dave for his generosity, as sponsor, at the bar (it’s just a pity we were all driving !!!)

Report by Iain Scott

A motley crew ready for the Singles Competition

Knockout Competition Winners

Another competition has been completed with the final of the Knockout competition on Sunday 27th February, a second curling event that day for Dave Anderson, Craig and Keith who had earlier played in the Second Points. Dave was supported by Margaret Carr, Linda McKay and Alister McDonald, whilst Craig’s team included Keith, Jim Hume and Jan Stuart.

With both teams scoring alternate ends, the match was pretty evenly contested at the start until after 4 ends, the scores were 3-2 in Team Brown’s favour. However, a 4 for Craig at the next end, followed by a single in the 6th, extended his lead and although Team Anderson took another single at the 7th, it was a clear win for Craig.

Many congratulations to Team Brown on their success and commiserations to Team Anderson. Thanks to all who took part.

Report by Jean Noble

DAFS Social game

Friday the 18th of February brought an interesting weather forecast with snow expected for most of the day. Thankfully it didn’t fall heavily and we managed to meet at Murrayfield for the DAFS social match. The Penicuik team consisted of Craig Brown, Kirsty McWilliam, Ian Neil and Neil Lackie.

The first end Penicuik had a fairly open draw into the house to score a 5. The 2nd end didn’t go as well, with some well-placed stones in the house from DAFS and defensive guards. Routes into them throughout the end were limited which resulted in DAFS taking a 4 back. From there the scores were tighter but the experience and strength of the DAFS players showed, and in most ends this left Penicuik trying to raise stones back in for shot, or squeeze through tight ports in order to cut down some of the well built ends to get a score.

It was great for Penicuik to get a team involved that haven’t had as much experience in social matches compared to others in the club. There were excellent stones played from all positions of the team!

The match ended with a 12-6 win for DAFS, and afterwards both teams retired upstairs for a drink and a blether before the traditional thanks for the match. 

Report by Craig Brown