The third Club Challenge took place on Sunday 5^th Dec after a long wait due to the impact of COVID.

A strong team of Craig Brown, Iain Scott, Kirsty McWilliam and Liz Anderson had challenged Andrew Lambie’s team who are the long-standing title holders. Unfortunately, Andrew & Robert Beaton could not play so Keith Morris stepped up to skip the team of Roger Scott, Martin Hobbs and David Gillespie.

Craig’s team got off to a strong start, taking a 3 in the first end with Craig achieving a very impressive wick & curl in. Andrew’s team managed to get the measure of the ice & came back to take a 2 in the 2^nd end, narrowly missing a 3 on the measure.

The next few ends were closely contested with Craig’s team taking a 1 in the 6^th end to bring the score to his advantage by 1 shot. The 7^th end was started within only 30 seconds to the bell (a close call indeed). With a lot of stones in the house, Craig had the shot stone near the pot lid, with a few out front on either side. Leaving only a very small port through, Keith nominated to play a heavy last stone through the port to remove Craig’s stone.

It only needed to curl a few inches and tension was high. The stone just scraped passed the guards with millimetres to spare & hit Craig’s stone off to the side giving a 1 to Keith’s team.

It was a very enjoyable game with some impressive curling by both teams. The final score was 6-6 with the current holders retaining the title and looking forward to the next challenge in Feb next year, hopefully with Andrew back as skip.

Report by Keith Morris

On the 18^th November two Penicuik rinks took to the ice to play against Currie and Balerno in the first round of the Swan Trophy, a popular two rink competition in which we have played for many years. It’s good for the Club to play in these competitions which are very competitive but great fun to play in.

Craig Brown, Keith Morris, Roger Scott and David Gillespie played against the rink skipped by Brian Fleming. They experienced unlucky rubs in a couple of ends and ended up losing by 9 shots to 3

In the other game Dave Anderson, Jim Ramsay, Dave Carr and Ronnie Hope faced the rink of Susan Kesley. It was a very close encounter with the final outcome being a peel, 4 shots each, however one of their players was late and we were awarded 1 shot because of that so the official score was;

Currie & Balerno 13 – Penicuik 8

On Saturday 27th November, a Penicuik rink will play in the Quarter Finals of the Rink Championship against the winners of the Haddington v Carrington match already played on 23th October.

Penicuik CC will be represented by Iain Scott ( Skip), Jim Ramsay, Craig Brown and Roger Scott. A win on Saturday will ensure a place in the Semi-Final to be played on Saturday 11th December. We wish the team good curling.

The Annual General Meeting of Penicuik Curling Club will be held on 27th May at 7.30pm.

All members are invited to join the meeting via a Zoom Link which will be sent out a few days prior to the event.

Dear President Liz, Brother and Sister Curlers, and Friends,

Thank you very much indeed for your lovely card of good wishes for Walter and me when he was in hospital. Walter is delighted to be home now and hopes to be more mobile soon. 

We wish you all the best for “guid curling” when you are allowed to participate in these far from normal times.  

With many thanks again,

Walter and Christine

In a joint statement by Curl Edinburgh and Murrayfield Curling Ltd issued on 1st November, it has been confirmed that all curling at Murrayfield rink has been suspended until the end of the year. A further statement on the feasibility of re-opening in January 2021 will be issued in due course.

It has come to our notice that our Honorary President Walter Brown has had a bad fall in which he sustained both a broken ankle and a head injury, resulting in a stay in hospital.

Walter is recovering and is receiving physiotherapy, in the hope that he can get home as soon as possible. Our best wishes go to Walter and also to Christine, his devoted wife, who sadly is unable to visit him at this time because of coronavirus restrictions.

Curl Edinburgh have confirmed that, following today’s Scottish Government announcements, Murrayfield Curling Rink will not reopen as planned on 26^th October but will remain closed for at least another week until 2^nd November.