On 27^th November, an intrepid group of Penicuik Curlers (Iain S, Jim R, Craig B, Roger S) ventured forth after a ‘bye’ into the Quarter Finals of the Rink Championship and now drawn against Trevor Dodds and his rink from Carrington.  Trevor, on a high from daughter Jennifer’s European success earlier in the day, may have momentarily lost his focus as in End 1 Penicuik, with the hammer, were lying 4 with last stone to play.  A successful draw to the centre of the house got us off to a great start, up 5-0.

Second end quickly became a tense affair with a series of successful draws forming a column of alternating stones spanning the 4 ft. Unfortunately, every subsequent Carrington stone seemed to remove/move the previous Penicuik stones back or out of contention.  

First skip stone from Penicuik was a draw to the back of the 4’ and seemed to have solid backing settling the team nerves.  However, our optimism was short-lived and again the Penicuik stone was somehow removed from contention leaving Carrington stones in play.  Unable to repeat end saving draw with skips second stone, Carrington were able to take a 5 straight back – Ooops!  

End 2: Penicuik 5 v 5 Carrington (afterward this was deemed a very fair & sociable thing to do!)

Competitive play followed with ends that could have gone either way…   End 3: Carrington steal 1,   End 4: Penicuik take 1, End 5: Carrington take 1,   End 6: Penicuik take ‘only’ 1, after a relatively open draw for 2 picked up as it passed the 2nd Hog line. The game is tied going down the last… 

End 7 was played well on both sides and by skips stones, Carrington have a single stone scoring but open to hit. Hit & Stick, Penicuik lie, Hit & Stick, Carrington lie, neither player getting the required roll under cover (Centre line guard in play). Penicuik change tactics and decide to draw around the guard attempting to take shot and put the pressure back on Carrington, however the Ice Gods had other ideas. Another pick-up resulted in the stone pulling across and hitting the guard!!!  Carrington already scoring, had no need to play their last stone.

Final Result – Penicuik 7 – 8 Carrington. Thereafter both teams retired to the bar area for a well-earned drink, and proceeded to watch how curling could be played as Bruce Mouat triumphed over Sweden in the Final of the European Championship.

Report by Iain Scott

On 4th December, the Penicuik rink skipped by David Gillespie, with Keith Morris, Reg Dunbar and Liz Anderson had a comfortable win over Musselburgh, 8 stones to 1, to get through to the Quarter Finals of this competition.

The next match will be against DAFS on 4th February. Good luck team!

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.