Penicuik were invited to play in the Midcalder Bonspiel on the 7th February. Midcalder provided 3 teams to play against 3 invited teams, the winner being the team with the highest shots up. The winning team was a Midlothian team skipped by Graham Young. They beat the Penicuik team of Dave Carr, Andrew Lambie, Jean Lennie and John Glidden by 5 shots. (Dave Carr just missing out on draws to save the last 3 ends.)
Haddington won the prize for the best invited team, winning their game by 1 shot.
As usual the games were followed by a pleasant drink upstairs.
Mid-bonspiel
The Mid-bonspiel was held on Saturday afternoon (13 Feb). Six teams vied to take the day, playing to a slightly different format. The teams lined up on the starting grid all polished-up and ready to go, full of optimism about the forthcoming trials. Turbo-charged Team D, with a third Skip in as a late replacement part, found the going harder than they would have hoped. Progress was difficult if not impossible to monitor in the constantly changing arena, but as the event moved on Teams B & F quietly moved up the leader board. In the final lap it was Team B who took the chequered flag narrowly ahead of Team F. Congratulations to Skip Christine Hope and her team Iain Scott, Colin Brown, and Ken Hunter.
Thanks also go to the Social Sub-committee in particular to Barbara Gillespie , for organising the event.
Photographs can be viewed on the Competitions pages.
Merchiston Team Points Match
Penicuik met Merchiston on Sunday evening (7 Feb) for the much anticipated annual Team Points contest. As the time of the engagement approached, our expeditionary brigade became somewhat depleted by call-offs to the Sick List; we were fortunate that sufficient volunteers from our battalion of reserves came forward to bring us back to full strength. Our formation for the night was made up of Tom Alexander, Dave Anderson, David Ballantyne, Jim Cowper, Ronnie Hope, Ken Hunter, Keith Morris, and Iain Scott.
On quite tricky ground, Ronnie, Dave, and Keith led our attack in the early skirmishes (Striking & Inwicking), with Iain Scott supporting well with his contribution at Inwicking. Merchiston regained some ground with their superior performance at Drawing, but Ronnie, Dave, Jim, and Ken ensured a quick reply at Guarding. A narrow gain was established at Chap & Lie with Ken, Dave, and Tom in our vanguard. Both teams struggled to take the initiative with the difficult objective set by Wick & Curl In, but Merchiston proved superior here. At this stage of the contest Penicuik had a 15 point lead; so onto the latter parts of the battle. Our light artillery proved effective at Raising with David and Ken extracting full points, however Merchiston equalled our boys when it came to Chap & Lie. In the final round (Drawing the Port, and Outwicking), a solid advance at Drawing the Port by the whole Penicuik Brigade ensured that we would take the day before we consolidated our position with a small gain at Outwicking, largely based on the actions of Dave and Keith.
The final score was Penicuik 124 points, Merchiston 97 Points. Our top three scorers on the night were Dave Anderson (24), Ronnie Hope (21), and Ken Hunter (21). A fine performance by Province Secretary David Cunningham made him Merchiston ‘s top scorer on 23 points, and he was supported by Keith Anderson and David Finnie, both on 17 points.
A good night for Penicuik, but our worthy opponents will return to give battle next season re-invigorated, so we must look to our mettle and be prepared for a tougher contest.
Midlothian Province Bonspiel
The annual Province Bonspiel was held on Monday 25 January. Penicuik fielded three teams (a consequence of our Club size). Ken Hunter skipped the first game, against our old friends Merchiston, with Ronnie Hope, John Glidden, and Reg Dunbar. After a keen contest Penicuik ran out winners by 7 shots to 6. The second game was against a strong Oxenfoord team; Jim Ramsay skipped with Jean Lennie, Andrew Lambie and Dave Carr. Penicuik lost the game by a single shot. The evening game against the Bank of Scotland was skipped by Walter Brown, with Dave Anderson, Roger Scott, and John Jacobs. The final score in this game was 9 – 4 in favour of the Bank team.
Overall not so good, Penicuik ended the day being 5 shots down, yielding an aggregate score of -1.67. The bonspiel was won by Carrington who ended the day with an aggregate score of +14.33 for their three rinks.
Rink Championship Exit
Penicuik 1 met Corstorphine in the second round of the Rink Championship on Sunday morning (24 Jan), with Walter Brown at Skip, Ken Hunter, Jean Lennie, and John Jacobs. Corstorphine skipped by Colin Campbell, with Aarhon Forsythe, Dan Arrendale, and Colin Baxter managed a comfortable win by 9 shots to 2, and we wish them well in their semi-final game.
Penicuik 2 met a strong Oxenfoord rink in their first round match on Sunday 13 December. Dave Anderson skipped the Penicuik rink of Jim Ramsay, Andrew Lambie, and Dave Carr. Penicuik stayed in the game until the last couple of ends when Oxenfoord ran out winners by two shots.
Pate Trophy
The annual match between Midlothian Province and Borders Province took place on Saturday 23 January at Murrayfield. Penicuik were one of seven teams representing Midlothian and were drawn to play Duns; Ken Hunter skipped with Dave Anderson, Roger Scott, and Iain Scott.
The game was played on a some what tricky sheet 2; Penicuik took a single in the first end, our Skip was just too heavy with last stone to make it a brace. In the second end Penicuik lay with a shot on either side both reasonably hidden and Duns left a draw to the open centre just inches short of taking shot. However Duns then came back to take a good two at the third end. Penicuik then took a strong grip on the game with a four, a two and a single, to establish a 10 – 2 lead. Duns took a two in the last end to make the final score 10 – 4 in favour of Penicuik. Afterwards we enjoyed the opportunity to socialise with Paul and his team from Duns, a really nice bunch of guys who will no doubt give any Midlothian rink a hard time in the return fixture at Kelso next year.
Overall Midlothian won the match by 55 shots to 43; home advantage is often a big factor in these matches.
West Linton Challenge Match
On 16th January, we played in the annual match against West Linton for the West Linton Trophy, a very nice glass trophy donated by Colin McCall a number of years ago.
The Penicuik teams were Dave Carr, Tom Alexander, Reg Dunbar and Margaret Carr; and Andrew Lambie, Ronnie Hope, Janette Lambie and Christine Hope.
Both games were close with the lead changing hands. The first game to finish was Dave Carr v John Dykes, with John taking a single to tie the game at 4-4. Penicuik were looking good in the other game until Shona Watt played a great take out, which turned the game round and resulted in West Linton winning 7-5.
So, congratulations to West Linton for winning the trophy, which had been in Penicuik’s hands for a few years.
The evening ended with convivial refreshments!!
Dave Carr
1816 Commemorative Match
In February 1816, curlers from the newly formed Penicuik Curling Club ventured into Edinburgh to play the club’s first inter-club game against opponents Merchiston Curling Club. Penicuik emerged as victors on the day however, in a return match played on Penicuik ice at the beginning of March 1816 the Merchiston curlers took the day. To mark the bicentenary of these games, the Merchiston and Penicuik clubs met in a friendly fixture at Murrayfield on Tuesday evening (12 Jan). The Penicuik team was Ken Hunter, Keith Morris, Tom Alexander, and Dave Carr; and the Merchiston team was Jim Cannon, Keith Anderson, David Hume, and Archie Smith.
Merchiston started off on the front foot and took a single in the first end. They pressed hard in the second end and were unfortunate to lose a single. After that the Penicuik team started to get a better grip on the game, and took two shots in each of the next three ends to go 7-1 up after five ends. Merchiston came back with a well worked two at the sixth end. In the final end a fine draw by Keith Morris saw Penicuik lying shot behind a gaggle of front stones. However it was not to be, Jim Cannon with his last stone managed to just avoid a front stone and get an angled raise within the house to take shot. Final score 7-4 to Penicuik.
Afterwards the players gathered to enjoy a sociable refreshment together and discuss the long association of their two clubs. David Hume, President of Merchiston, had drawn up information from the PCC minutes to entertain the party. It was mutually agreed that the fixture should become an annual event if suitable arrangements can be put in place.
First Points Competion
On Thursday evening (17 Dec), ten members turned out for the last fixture before the festive break. The event was played out in a grand atmosphere of mutual support with participants eager to learn from the shots played by colleagues and to garner any information that could be passed on. Time passed quickly as our ranks were marshalled by orders from Ronnie Hope, taking on a sergeant-major’s roll (his next booking is as Goldilocks! at the ECC Christmas Bonspiel).
Eight disciplines were completed, and the contest remained pretty even until the seven discipline (Raising). Ken Hunter took the medal with 44 points, Walter Brown was in second place (37 pts), and Dave Anderson and Ronnie Hope tied for third place (33 pts). There was a good standard of play overall which was reflected in a relatively high average score of 28.5 on the night. David Gillespie made his debut and set a good opening benchmark for the future.
Hamish Tait Trophy
Saturday 12 December 2015
This bonspiel competition is played in memory of Hamish Tait. Hamish, a Penicuik Curling Club member, was a remarkable man who had been involved with three other clubs, namely Chartered Surveyors, Merchiston, and Watsonian. Each club field two rinks which play single ends against each of the rinks from the three other clubs. Regretably this season Chartered Surveyors only had four players so their rinks were augmented by Jim Cowper and Ken Hunter, and by John Jacobs and Jim Ramsay. The Penicuik teams were Walter Brown, Jean Lennie, Tom Alexander and Vic Ramage, and Dave Carr, Reg Dunbar, Andrew Lambie, and Peter Occleston.
At the end of the afternoon’s play Chartered Surveyors emerged as winners, with Penicuik in second place, Watsonian in third place, and Merchiston last.
