Congratulations to David Gillespie and his rink of Dave Carr, Reg Dunbar and Kirsty McWilliam for winning their first round match in this competition against Duddingston with a score of 9-4 . They will now meet SIAE in the next round on Friday 9th December.
Category Archives: Competition
Opening Bonspiel 2022
The first winners of the 2022-23 season were decided at the Opening Bonspiel on Sunday 2nd October when 24 keen curlers took to the ice. Craig was on top form, organising the play and keeping everyone right as to their next opponents as they moved about the ice. Many congratulations to Dave Carr, Kirsty McWilliam, Jim Cowper and Ian Neil who finished with a score of +3 to take the Bonspiel Trophy. Jim in particular was delighted to retain his Bonspiel medal.
Craig, on the other hand may not have been quite so delighted to retain the ‘Bonspiel Booby’ Trophy with his rink of Roger, Mike and Saho.
An excellent meal was enjoyed by participants and members at the Glencorse Golf Club after the Bonspiel. Many thanks to the catering team, to Craig and the Social Committee for organising the event and to Ian Neil for his sponsorship. Lots more to play for in the season ahead.
Report by Jean Noble
Statement from our Club President
HM Queen Elizabeth II
I would like to take a moment to reflect on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
As the late monarch was Patron of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, I am sure many of you will have taken a moment to contemplate recent events. Our thoughts are with the royal family at this sad time, as well as reflecting on our own recent losses.
Iain Scott, President Penicuik Curling Club
Sunday 18th September 2022
Ronnie Hope
It is with great sadness that Penicuik Curling Club announces the passing of Ronnie Hope, who died suddenly at home on Monday 9th May.
Ronnie was an Honorary Member of our Club, and had served both as President and also regularly on the Management Committee during the thirty years since he first joined in 1991. He will be remembered for his boundless enthusiasm for curling, and his tireless support of the Penicuik Club and it’s members over the years. He will be sorely missed by all his many friends in the curling world and beyond.
The photo below was taken at the Saturday League Christmas Bonspiel in 2019, and is a nice one to remember him by.
Annual General Meeting 2022
The Annual General Meeting of Penicuik Curling Club will take place at Glencorse Golf Club, on Wednesday 25th May between the hours of 7pm and 9pm.
All members are invited to attend.
Closing Bonspiel 2021-22
What a terrific end to the Season on Wednesday 30th March, with four sheets of ice filled with jovial members of Penicuik Curling Club, all up for a great night’s curling.
The Social Committee team had prepared everything impeccably, including teams; order of play; which sheet to play on; score cards clearly showing who had the hammer; and most importantly clear rules on being ready on the hack to ensure swift play, with ‘Thirds only’ decisions in disputes on winning stones, – all with the clear intention of getting 7 ends completed – and that we did. Amazing!
Play flowed freely and an exciting two hours curling flew past with only the occasional shriek of disbelief at a stone well played. All credit to a Magnificent Seven of our newest members for taking part on the night – Jean and Graeme Cassie, Paul and Louise Clapperton, Saho Arakawa, Karen Black and Neil Lackie a great way to introduce them to fellow Club members, and well deserving of the Club Badge they were presented with in the hope that they will take part in many more Club Competitions next season.
With play complete, the group retired upstairs where the Curlers Grace was said before players enjoyed a terrific meal prepared by Paul and his catering staff. 31 hungry curlers very quickly demolished the dishes provided and then it was time for the customary presentation of prizes. Ronnie took to the floor, reading a passage from the Club’s Bi-Centenary Book describing traditional matches on the Low Pond of Penicuik Estate, and how it was only in the last 50 years or so that that ‘Wives and Sweethearts’ had been admitted to the traditional men-only sport including, in 1969 Christine Brown and, in the early 70s, Margaret Cowper who sadly died just recently.
It’s fair to say that checking the scorecards still proved to be a little challenging (shame on those who can’t count). However, the final results were declared, and the Club’s President stepped forward to present the prizes.
On the positive scoring side, it was a very close-run thing, but the Mary McConnell Winners Trophy went to the rink of Jim Ramsay, Margaret Carr, Alicia Neil and Paul Clapperton. (This Trophy is named in honour of ‘Wee Mary’ McConnell, another well respected former member of Penicuik Curling Club, again sadly no longer with us.)
The ‘Bonspiel Booby’ Trophy went to David Gillespie, David Ballantyne, Jim Hume and Karen Black.
The President then closed the event by proposing the traditional vote of thanks to the organisers, the ice men and the catering staff. Special thanks go to Jean Lennie who sponsored the competition and provided the prizes.
What a fantastic end to the season, thanks to all who took part.
Report by Jean Noble
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
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
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.
Penicuik Curling Club 