Club Challenge 2019-20

”Report on Challenge Match – 13th November 2019

Holders
Andrew Lambie
Keith Morris
Robert Beaton
Martin Hobbs
           v
Challengers
Jim Ramsay
Dave Anderson
Ken Hunter
Ronnie Hope
Result : Andrew Lambie’s team won 7/3
Andrew reported that Martin and Robert played very well while Keith, who had a sore ankle, was in  the head but played third stones.
The score was 1-1 after the second end then Andrew’s rink scored a 4 at the third end then the teams exchanged single shots in the next 4 ends.”
Report written by Andrew Lambie, 16th November 

Tribute to the Wilson Family, Penicuik

THE WILSON FAMILY: FIVE GENERATIONS IN PENICUIK CURLING CLUB

WILLIAM WILSON (Club member 1839-93)

William Wilson was a painter, as was his father Charles. William’s grandfather, George, hailed from Wanlockhead, the son of the manager of the lead mines and scion of an old covenanting family. George Wilson took up the trade of a painter and plasterer and moved to Carlops with his son Charles and grandson William, who was born in 1808. Both Charles and William carried on the trade of George Wilson and all three built and occupied adjacent cottages in Carlops. In 1824, Charles was presented with a medal from the Highland Society bearing the words “In respect of the cleanliness and neatness with which the cottage was kept”. The medal was presented on behalf of the society by Mr James Mclean of Nine Mile Burn, who incidentally was a founder member of Penicuik Curling Club in 1815. The business flourished and William Wilson decided to move to Penicuik in 1839, where he joined the curling club. William was one of the club members who backed the proposal by fellow Penicuik Curling Club members Dr John Renton, John Piper and Charles Cowan to join the Grand Caledonian Curling Club at its inception in 1838.

He was appointed skip in 1842 and took part in the first Grand Match at Penicuik in1847, playing with John Piper, Dr Alison and John Dewar against Cumbernauld. Aside from his trade and curling, William was an officer in the free church, a member of the Free Gardeners and served on the parochial board. In the last few years of his life he loved to sit and chat about the old coaching days, when there was no police commission, railways, or machines for making paper! William Wilson died in July 1893 in his 84th year and after 54 years association with the club.

CHARLES WILSON (Club Member 1859-1927)

Baillie Charles Wilson took over the painting business from his father William. He joined Penicuik Curling Club in 1859, some twenty years after his father, although the first reference to him in our curling records is in October 1865 when he is appointed to the club committee. Charles served on and off the committee for the next forty years; the last record of him in the minutes is his appointment to committee in 1906. Charles curled well into the 1900’s winning the club medal in 1887 and seventeen years later in 1904! He spoke very eloquently at the centenary dinner in 1906 when he enthused affectionately of the fourteen years he had played in Charles W Cowan’s rink, reminding all present that in the eleven years when they had a full rink, they never lost a match! At that time Charles Wilson had been a member of the club for 57 years. He continued as a member till 1919, when he was appointed an Honorary Member. He died in 1927. This stalwart of the club had been a member for 68 years!

DAVID L WILSON (Club Member 1897-1964)

Charles’ son, David L Wilson, was born in The Glebe, now called Imrie Place, in Penicuik in  1881.  He was given the middle name of Lawson in memory of his grandfather Charles Lawson, another stalwart of the curling club. D L joined Penicuik Curling Club in 1897 and served in the Royal Flying Corps, and subsequently the Royal Air Force in France in 1917-18. His son, Charlie Wilson, was born in 1915 and a fourth generation of Wilson curlers was destined for inclusion in the club’s history. David played in the last Grand Match at Carsebreck in 1935 and won by 20 shots. He died in 1964 after 67 years in the club! He was a very well respected member of the community and church in Penicuik.     

David Wilson with his wife and young son Charlie, taken c1919

 CHARLIE WILSON (Club Member 1947-2006)

Charlie Wilson JP was born in 1915 and was called up into military service in 1939. He travelled through North Africa and Italy until demobilisation in 1946. Charlie joined Penicuik Curling Club in 1947 and was soon appointed skip.  He skipped in the last Grand Match at Lake of Menteith in 1979, beating Glamis No 2 by 15 shots to 10. In that game his third player was Willie Ross, who was playing in his fourth Grand Match! Charlie was appointed an Honorary President in March 1989, received the Royal Club gold medal for fifty years membership in 1997, and died in 2006 having given 59 years service to the club!

Charlie in front of Curling House
c 1978

LAWSON WILSON (Club Member 1965-1987)

Charlie’s son, Lawson, joined Penicuik Curling Club in 1965 to be the fifth generation of “Wilson the Painters” in the club. He played until 1987 after 22 years as a club member.

This was a truly remarkable, and probably unique, family. The family business of “Wilson the Painters” was a well respected and much loved institution in the town for 150 years, and their combined service to Penicuik Curling Club, totalling 270 years, is likely to be a record unmatched in any club, in any sport, in any country.

Tribute written by Honorary President Jim Cowper. November 2019

King George 1V Trophy

King George IV Trophy 2019-20

Penicuik’s battle-hardened, victorious rink from season 2018-19 entered the fray again on Friday 1st November to defend the trophy they won last season for the first time in the Club’s history. This year we avoided the preliminary round and were drawn against Dalkeith in the first round proper. The core of the successful rink remained intact, but last year’s third Robert Beaton moved to skip, Ronnie was upgraded to third, and Liz Anderson remained in the key position at lead. Craig Brown, a sub in last year’s contest, was introduced as second.

Dalkeith fielded an experienced rink, but on the night they failed to read the ice. Penicuik, contrastingly, caught their weight and line from the outset. Liz dropped shot after shot to the front edge of the house, Craig consolidated and picked off any potentially dangerous Dalkeith stones, and by the time Ronnie came to the hack the head was generally secure. Robert rightly played a cautious game, building end on end, and taking no risk until, with the score at 8-1, his third foolishly suggested a dodgy and completely unnecessary take-out. This failed, and Dalkeith picked up a two. Robert reverted to his original game plan for the remainder of the tie and Penicuik ran out winners 11-3.

So we march on to the second round, which will be an entirely different proposition. We meet Stewart’s Melville FP, who had a 6-3 win against Edinburgh Rotary on the adjoining ice. Stewart’s Melville were our opponents in the first round last season and we sneaked through on ends!

Ronnie Hope , November 7th 2019

Message from Walter and Christine

The following is the text of a Thank-you card sent to the Secretary thanking  PCC members for the Diamond Wedding Anniversary card sent by the President of the club  to Walter and Christine with our congratulations and best wishes.

‘ Dear  Jean,

What a nice surprise to get such a lovely card of good wishes on our Diamond Wedding Anniversary from our brother and sister curlers and friends at Penicuik Curling Club.

Please pass on our thanks to them all. Your kindness is much appreciated.

We hope you are all enjoying the new curling season and all the fun it brings.

With thanks and best wishes for ‘guid curling’ from us both,

        Walter and Christine. ‘

Hurley League Final Result

Conclusion of Hurley League 2019-20

Teams Lambie and Anderson had each prevailed in their respective sections of the Hurley, both winning all of their section games.  Team Lambie then overcame semi-finalist opponents Team Hope, to reach the final whilst Team Anderson overcame their semi-finalist opponents Team Carr (M) to reach the final.   Alex Moir feature at Second in the final for Team Lambie as a Sub for David Gillespie.

The first end was fairly tight with Team Anderson getting a nice roll from a strike on an opposition stone to go into the side of the four foot, and behind a short stone of their own.  Team Lambie countered with a heavy draw round the front stone to tap the Anderson stone towards the back of the four foot circle.  This position was subsequently guarded.  An exchange of shots on the other side of the four foot resulting in neither side gaining any further advantage, and the end was decided by a measure which went in favour of Team Lambie.  In the second end Team Lambie worked a tap back on a single counter to get a roll behind front stones.  Team Anderson drew around front stones to the other side of the house, but Team Lambie responded with a second draw to lie two shots and went on to protect this position to go three shots up overall.  Team Lambie then took a single in the third end to go four shots up.  The fourth end was pivotal to the outcome of the match, Team Lambie got in two counters on the left hand side of house, another stone was played up to the first counting stone and then it was guarded with a stone in the first circle.  Andrew drew his first stone to the centre of the house just in front of the four foot circle, in a position partly covered by a short stone; Dave clipped the short stone with an attempted strike, and Andrew was able to guard his stone.  Dave was then in a very difficult position facing four counters, and elected to draw down the left hand side to at least reduce the count.  His final stone was a good tee weight but it did not draw at all (where other stones had drawn) and it raised the front guard sufficiently to give Team Lambie a Five.

Team Lambie played conservatively in the fifth end, heavily guarding a single stone in the centre of the house.  In what looked like a desperate position for his final shot, Dave somehow produced a very fine raised take out to get a Three.  Team Anderson lifted their game in the sixth end and worked a fine Three against the hammer to make the score 9-6.  In the final end, Team Lambie kept stones at the front of the house covering a single opposition stone in the centre of the house.  A Liz Anderson draw resulted in Team Anderson lying with a further shot.  Andrew countered with a gentle raise on one of his front stones to reduce the count to one.  Dave’s only remaining resort was to attempt an extremely difficult raised take out which he did not make.  The final result was a 9-7 win for Team Lambie. 

Congratulations to my team mates on their victory, commiserations to our opponents who despite a poor start to the game came back strongly against us.

Ken Hunter

Opening Bonspiel 2019-20

The first stones of the Penicuik Curling Club season were delivered at the Opening Bonspiel on 22nd September and it was a great turnout with a total of 30 enthusiastic curlers taking part, 6 teams of 4 and 2 teams of 3.

The round-robin single end games were played in the best of spirit and had been well organised by Vice President Iain Scott.

It is fair to say that the new ice was very keen and this, combined with the new curling stones, took a lot of players by surprise with very few stones remaining in the house for the first end.

However normal service was soon resumed and, despite some close games, after 6 ends we had a clear winner with a score of +9 in Jim Ramsay’s team of Jim, Jim Cowper, Elaine Lambie and Jan Stuart.

At the bottom end unfortunately was Ronnie Hope’s team of Ronnie, John Jacobs, Alex Moir and Craig Brown with a score of -7.

Many thanks to caterers Paul and his team for the excellent meal which was enjoyed by all before the traditional Vote of Thanks given by President Liz who then went on to present the prizes.

We are also very grateful to Ian Neil for his generous sponsorship of the event. It was a great start to our season and thanks to all who took part.

Jean Noble

EICG 2019

The curling season ended with the Edinburgh International Curlers’ Gathering, very much a Penicuik event.  This international weekend tournament was started fifteen years ago by former member Colin McCall.  Currently it is run by an Organising Committee formed from club members.

The 2019 Gathering was very successful, attracting overseas teams from Canada (2), Norway, Sweden (3), Switzerland (4), and USA (4).  Home based teams included Penicuik and Roaring Stones (aka Penicuik Too).  Penicuik enjoyed victories in the preliminary group stage against Corriefisters and Electric Sliders (USA), and managed a peel against Apero (Switzerland), to qualify for Group B in the Final Rounds.  A comfortable win on the Saturday afternoon against Team Barrdahl (Sweden) represented a good start.  Penicuik then met Duddingston/Aegon on the Sunday morning, a close encounter with the teams lying peeled going into the last end, and unfortunately for us the opposition won the match  with the final stone of the game.  Still in contention, Penicuik finished with a re-match against Apero, who proved stronger and won the Group prize.

Roaring Stones lost a fairly tight first game against O’Neil (USA), peeled against Rocks & Roses (Perth), before gaining a narrow win over Slajding Bois (Sweden), to go into Group D for the Final Rounds.  A win against DAFS got them off to a good start; this was followed by a peel against Kelso Reivers.  Still in contention for the Group D prize, the team met old foes (and friends) The Rock Stars (Canada), and ran out to a 5-6 defeat to miss the Group Prize by one end.

The Penicuik squad included Dave Anderson, Andrew Lambie, Dave Carr, Ken Hunter, Roger Scott, Margaret Carr, Pam Ramsay, and Elaine Lambie.  Players in The Roaring Stones team were Murray Hope, Jim Ramsay, Iain Scott, Ronnie Hope, and John Jacobs.  Jim Cowper featured in the Corriefisters team, and Liz Anderson joined the Rocks & Roses team for the latter part of the weekend.

A really big thank you to everyone on the Organising Committee, and to other club members who helped across the weekend either at the Ice Rink or by assisting in transfers between the airport and hotel.

Photographs on the Social Page

Swing & Sweep 2019

Penicuik Curling Club was represented in this annual fun event on Sunday 25  March by ‘golfers and curlers extraordinaire’ Jim Ramsay, Dave Carr, Ronnie Hope and Dave Anderson. The golf has been played over Carricknowe Golf course, a fairly innocuous test of golf, for the previous three years. This year however, due to unforeseen circumstances, the golf was arranged at the Edinburgh Merchants Golf Club situated within the city between Comiston Road and Colinton Road which, if you have ever driven past it, you might appreciate is rather hilly and a much more challenging prospect, especially as it turned out we were subjected to gale force winds and squally showers on the day of the competition.

As a team, we complimented each other very well with each member contributing positively to our overall score of 70 for the round, with at least 6-8 single putts of around 12–15 feet being a major feature of our game. By the time we reached the curling club we were fairly exhausted  (bearing in mind we are all 65 years plus), but after some well-deserved refreshments we rose to the challenge of 6 ends of curling against Gill Black, Morris Anderson, Roger Scott and Iain McLeod representing Peebles Curling Club. Having lost the first end to a single, we drew a shot against five to level the scores and settle ourselves to take 2 shots then two singles to go into the last end 3 shots up where, unable to set a guard we lost a single to a well drawn shot. Our overall position was that we finished fourth out of six teams.

We then retired to the Club rooms for a fine meal with fine fellowship accompanied by a few refreshments. A good time had by all but we really need to encourage more participants in this event in future years.

Dave Anderson

Match Against ’37 Club’

Two rinks from Penicuik met two rinks from 37 Club on Monday 18 March for the annual social match.  One Penicuik team consisted of Jim Ramsay, Murray Hope, Robert Beaton, and Ronnie Hope,  and the second one consisted of Dave Anderson, Keith Morris, Dave Carr, and Ken Hunter.

Jim’s team kept nipping away at  their opponents and managed to get on level terms at five all after 6 ends.  In the seventh end, they started on the front foot but ended up losing a two to finish 5-7 down.  Dave’s team were under pressure in the early ends of their game, with their opponents playing well and establishing dominant positions.  Dave did well to restrict 37 Club to a single in the first end, and after four ends Penicuik were 1-4 down.  Penicuik managed a single in the fifth end, and a great final shot from Dave (wick in from an outside stone on the centre line to lie covered in the four foot) saved our bacon in the sixth end when a heavy loss loomed.  The Final end was cat & mouse, with one side taking the initiative only to be outdone by the other side.  Fortunately, it ended up going our way so the game ended up 4-4.

A welcome refreshment was shared in the bar afterwards before Jim Ramsay presented the trophy to 37 Club and congratulated them on another victory.  A fine night of sport in good company.

 

 

Conclusion of Thirds League

Wow! What a finish to the Thirds League. Team Carr just either needed a point against Team Hobbs, or for Team Occleston to drop a point to Team Gillespie, in order to win the League. If they lost and Team Occleston won, then it would go to Ends then Shots Up. Team Carr just had the edge on both.

Team Carr started a bit nervy, and Team Hobbs built up a well-deserved 4-1 lead after four ends. Meanwhile on the adjacent sheet, Team Occleston were even more impressive leading 6-0. The large crowd (Ronnie Hope and Dave Carr) were getting excited and checking the total ends and shots up. Team Occleston looked as if they were now ahead on both.  Then Team Gillespie started a comeback, with a 4 at the 5th end.  The sixth ends went to Teams Occleston and Hobbs.  It looked grim for Team Carr, unless there could be a game changing final end.

At last, Team Carr found their weight and built up 4 stones in the house with 2 stones left. Team Hobbs tried to reduce the numbers with a big hit but it was a bit wide and sailed through the back.  Provided Team Carr didn’t do anything silly with the last stone, they had pulled a draw out of the bag. The attempt at a draw to win the game pulled up well short for a final score of 6-6.  On the other sheet, Team Gillespie had also found their weight and were piling in the shots, a nice draw to the front of the house with the last stone gave them a 4 and for a 8-7 win. 

What a finish!  Big turnarounds in the last ends of both games, and victory in the Thirds League to Team Carr.  Team Carr finished on 9 points, with Teams Occleston and Gillespie both on 6 points. Whilst this looks comfortable, it was anything but on the night. 

Well done to all 4 teams for an excellent night’s entertainment, and congratulations to Team Carr (Margaret Carr, Christine Hope Mike Mauchline and Vic Ramage) on their success in winning the Hope Quaich.  I’m sure that the nerves of the players and the crowd will settle down in a few days!

Dave Carr