Curling History

Curling on Speed River

2012-01-16T12:33:00.002Z

Curling on Speed River, Guelph, Ontario, by Evan Macdonald. Click on the image to see larger size.

During the summer, Jim Fraser of Sorn CC told me that he had bought at a car boot sale a wee print of a curling match, and he asked if I knew anything about it. Although I had never seen a copy before there was something about it that suggested Canada to me: the match was taking place in the open air in front of some buildings, and although there were in evidence some half dozen Tam o’ Shanters, there were one or two distinctly un-Scottish bunnets to be seen. The print did afford another, important, clue; the artist had signed it 'Evan Macdonald'.

As usual Google came up trumps, for the search showed that Macdonald had been in fact an Ontarian artist who painted largely in the Guelph area of Ontario, and that his daughter, Flora Macdonald Spencer had written a book about him and his work.

In the hope that the book might contain some information about this picture, and perhaps some more curling works, I bought a copy from the publisher, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ontario. My hunch proved wrong for there was nothing of curling interest in the book. So I wrote to Brian Henderson of the publisher asking for any information about the artist and the curling picture.

This was the reply, which he had got from the daughter:

“Evan painted it for the Guelph Curling Club, and used an early photograph as a reference, I recall. Not sure if the photo was of actual Guelph curlers, but as he was working on the picture, he told us that his father and grandfather, and fellow local curlers would curl on the Speed River, after cutting a hole in the ice to flood it to greater smoothness. His father was a founding member of the Guelph Curling Club's indoor rink originally on Baker Street in Guelph. The club still has the original, I believe, and were given permission to make prints from the original about 20 years ago.”

She added this amusing anecdote which emphasises the dangers of curling on water-borne ice. “It reminds me of a family story of my father's uncles going out to do such a flooding. Somehow they let go of the axe and it sank to the bottom of the river. The smallest, Uncle Sandy, had to strip off and be held by the ankles until he found it, so fearful were they to return home without it!”

This story reminded me of a reminiscence about John Cairnie:

“On a certain occasion one of his own name, in spite of friendly warnings, played a rink of stones at Denny over ice that was much too weak, with the result that the whole lot went to the bottom of the pond. The accident would not have mattered had not the stones been required for an important match on the following day. Having reviewed the whole situation carefully, Mr Cairnie, all heedless of the biting blast that was blowing and the deep and dangerous character of the pond, calmly divested himself of his clothing and dived for the stones, one after another, until all were safely landed. It is pleasant to be able to add that Mr Cairnie was so little the worse of his adventure that he assisted in brilliant style to play the rescued 'channel stanes' to victory on the morrow.”

Allan Forrest, the father of my late skip, Joey Forrest, told us of his early curling days on the River Clyde at Dalserf, Lanarkshire, and of their chopping a hole in the ice after the day’s play to get water 'to flood the ice to greater smoothness'.

The question remained: did the painting still hang in Guelph Curling Club’s clubhouse? Sadly, a couple of emails went unanswered and so did what I should have done in the first place. I found the number of the club and phoned.

As luck would have it the person who answered the call was Gerry Sundwall, a keen member, who said that it did and that there were prints and that he would send me one. He also answered questions about Professor Murray MacGregor, professor at Guelph University, who with his family had spent a year’s sabbatical in Edinburgh, and curled in every ice rink in Scotland! Janice MacGregor, daughter of the family, was his next-door neighbour, and Murray and Betty, his wife, were still to the fore though both had given up curling now that they were in their eighties.

In fact, it was Janice who sent the print along with up to date photographs of the MacGregor family. And Gerry sent me a snapshot of the oil painting (shown above), 21 inches by 42, as it hangs in the club.

David B Smith.

Curling Spoons

2011-12-30T12:03:00.008Z

There's a collector in all of us. David B Smith gives a collecting suggestion for the curling enthusiast in this post which he entitles 'An Alternative to Collecting Curling Stones':

Strange as it may seem there are some spouses who are not only not in favour of encouraging the collection of curling stones in the family home but who are distinctly averse to the idea.

The problem is the space occupied by even a pair of stones. One could accommodate a very large and valuable stamp collection in far less space than that occupied by a single stone, as my wife has pointed out to me more than once.

In her defence I have been asked to say that within our house – in various places, such as, cupboards, shelves, under beds, and lying open in corners of rooms – there are more than 250 full-size stones of various ages, sizes, shapes, and weights. The surplus embellishes the exterior of the house. The increasing number of miniature stones has caused the remark – no doubt jocular – that the big stones seem to be breeding.

What, then, to collect, if the most characteristic item of our game is denied?

I recently acquired a small, pretty, interesting object of some value, since it made of silver. It is a tea spoon with a curling design upon the handle. Here it is:

This is the only spoon I have so far come across which occupies the whole of the handle with the design. Moreover it is unique in that it depicts an indoor game in a rink with a wooden barrier. On the reverse it bears the legend: BIRKS STERLING. No date.

The next group of spoons is embellished with a circular disc, at the end of the handle, which has the decoration.

From left to right, 1. Hall-marked silver, 1968-9, a stone below crossed brooms; 2. Hall-marked silver, 1950-1, a stone below crossed brooms; 3. EPNS, (electro-plated nickel silver), a curler delivering a stone; 4. Hall-marked silver, 1932-3, on reverse engraved RINK 1932, a curler delivering a stone; in a band round him PANMURE CURLING CLUB.

A small number have enamel badges as decoration.

From left to right, 1. Silver-plated, at top of handle an enamel badge of World Ladies Glayva Curling Championship Glasgow, 1988. 2, silver-plated, engraved on bowl GLASGOW, and in plastic an oval plaque with below the coat of arms of Glasgow a curling stone below crossed brooms; 3, Sterling silver, no date, a badge, silver and enamel, of Rideau Curling Club Ottawa. 4, EPNS, no date, a badge, enamel, of Edinburgh Ice Rink Curling Club.

The last group have three dimensional decoration in the form of stones or curler.

From left to right, 1. silver plated, no date, a three dimensional curler throwing his stone, engraved on bowl; Nelson BC (British Columbia); 2, silver-plated, no date, Great Britain, at top of handle a three dimensional curling stone.

Happy collecting.

David B Smith

Images are © David B Smith.

Allister's Memorial Seat

2011-11-16T08:28:00.000Z

David B Smith writes:

"I was intrigued when fellow-member of Kilmarnock and District History Group, Sandy McIntosh, asked me if I had seen the bench seat in the Burns Monument Gardens at Alloway which had a curling scene on it.

At the earliest opportunity I was down in Alloway, and, on a terrace just below the monument and above the River Doon, I found the seat. Sure enough it had a curling scene on it.

The bench consisted of two vertical stone ends between which ran the timber planks which formed the seat. The outer ends of each stone bore decoration. The curling scene was a representation of a 'house', that is, the concentric circles round the tee, on which five miniature curling stones were attached by means of stainless steel handles. All were made of stone from Ailsa Craig.

On the other end was an inscription which surprised and moved me, for it showed that the seat was a memorial to that remarkable young curler, Allister Boyd, and I had heard nothing of this memorial.

The inscription reads simply 'Allister Boyd. Truly Inspiring'.

Allister’s history IS truly inspiring. He had a brain tumour diagnosed in October 2005, and underwent apparently successful treatment for it in the Beatson Clinic in Glasgow. However, in August 2008 the tumour recurred and with it the diagnosis that it was terminal. He died on April 4, 2009, at the age of nineteen.

Throughout his illness Allister never lost his cheery and positive view of life. He decided to raise funds for the two charities that had helped him, Teenage Cancer Trust and CLIC Sargent. The energy which he put into his fund-raising activities was truly amazing. Allister’s efforts resulted in about £180,000 before his death. The efforts have been continued by family and friends and up to the present about £500,000 has been gathered in his name.

The reason for the curling part of the design was Allister’s keen enjoyment of the game. His father Robert was the area representative for Ayr on the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, and wee brother Russell and he were enthusiastic members of Ayr Junior CC.

The commissioning of the seat came about when 'the lady who ran' Ayrshire Business in the Community Initiative, a body which promotes ways in which businesses can become involved in local communities in Ayrshire, read about Allister’s achievements, and suggested to two apprentice stonemasons at Culzean that they should design and make a bench seat in his memory as part of an ABiC competition. This they did and although they did not win, their efforts have provided a very fitting memorial to a remarkable young man."

David B Smith.

Captions:
• The Burns Monument.
• The seat in its place in the gardens of the Burns Monument, Alloway.
• The seat end with the curling house.
• The seat end with Allister Boyd’s name. Below this are the logos of the two charities.

Photos © David B Smith

Scottish Curling Magazines

2011-11-04T18:37:00.002Z

The Royal Club's e-magazine YOUR Curler, published first in October 2011 as a 'Members' Benefit', joins a select few Scottish magazines which have been produced over the years. This list concentrates on national publications, not including the Royal Club Annual. Also excluded are publications associated with specific events, such as the Hogliner in its various incarnations, and other ice rink based newsletters.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club's Royal Club Round Up ran from 1993 to 2000. At least twenty-five issues were printed. It was variously a four or eight page publication.

The publication that stimulated my own interest in the printed word about curling was Tee to Tee. This was brought out by Graeme Adam in the late 1970s, really as a challenge to the Scottish Curler which, as younger curlers, we all thought a bit staid at that time. Above is the November 1977 issue, Number 2. I believe there was an Issue 3.

Richard Harding's Curling was first published in October 1982. The front cover of Issue 1 marked the opening of the four-sheeter in Pitlochry. It had 28 pages. The magazine ran for four seasons, with six or seven issues each year with a varied number of pages. The final issue to appear was in April 1986.

On The Button was a simple newsletter produced by The Curlers Association. At least nine issues were printed.

Frank Tocher produced five issues of this newsheet Curling beginning in November 1992 with the above. The lead story is about the Kilmarnock and District Council Cashspiel at the Galleon.The £1000 first prize was the biggest in Scotland at the time.

Scottish Curling Magazine was set up by Frank Tocher in 1999 in opposition to the Scottish Curler. It ran for just three issues.

So, what publication was a constant feature of the Scottish curling scene for so many years? It was, of course, the Scottish Curler, which was published from 1954 - 2010.

This is the cover of the January 1954 Scottish Curler. Robin Welsh was the first editor, before he became Secretary of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

For many years the distinctive tartan cover was the trademark of the Scottish Curler.

When Robin Welsh retired as RCCC Secretary he was able to devote more time to the magazine which became bigger and had much more content. This is the September 1985 issue. It was published then by Dunfermline Press.

By 1998, Robin Welsh had been editor of the Scottish Curler for an incredible forty-four years. On Robin's retiral, another Robin, Robin Crearie, became the editor for four seasons, beginning with this October 1998 issue.

I took over as editor in October 2002, and held this position until April 2009. Fifty-six issues, all but one of 24-pages, were published during this time. In January 2004, the magazine celebrated its fiftieth birthday with this special 40-page issue.

Caroline Paterson was the editor of the magazine for the season 2009-10, the magazine being the responsibility of the Ardrossan arm of Clyde and Forth Press. The final issue of the magazine was the souvenir edition after the RCCC Curling Awards dinner in 2010.

Having a library of curling publications spanning all these years provides a superb resource for those interested in the history of curling in Scotland.

Thanks to John Brown and to Christine and Hugh Stewart for help with this post.

Argyllshire Curling

2011-10-13T18:59:00.005+01:00

David B Smith writes:

The Glasgow Herald of December 18, 1874, carried the following snippet of information about curling.

“OBAN,- The Oban and Inveraray clubs played a match yesterday on Loch Druimlie, near Port-Sonachan. The results were as follows:- Alex. Macarthur, Oban, 8, against J. Macarthur, Inveraray, 11; John Caddow, Oban, 9, against Sir Geo. Home, Inveraray, 10; Hugh Shedden, Oban, 7, against A. Guthrie, Inveraray, 24. The Obanites were defeated by 10 shots.”

Port Sonachan is a place on the south bank of Loch Awe, from which some sort of ferry plied across the narrow stretch of water to the northern bank.

In 1874 Inveraray CC had 22 regular members, and Oban 35. Inveraray fielded their president, Sir George Home, Bart., who won, and Oban theirs, Alex Macarthur, who lost.

Both clubs had quite a journey to make by horse and carriage to arrive at the icy field of battle. I think the report has named the loch in error. A loch that lies, if not equidistant between the two contending parties but at least equal in difficulty to reach, and which is near Port Sonachan, is Loch Tromlee which lies about a couple of miles from the hamlet of Kilchrenan and to the east of the road from Tyndrum to Kilchrenan, which is the route the Obanites would have to follow.

There is no trace in the maps of a Loch Druimlie on either side of the loch.

The Obanites’ route took them about twelve miles from Oban through Connel along Loch Etive to Taynuilt, from where they had about eight miles up the very wild and picturesque Glen Nant along a minor road which is still single-track and difficult at the present day.

The Inverarayans did not have quite so far to travel but their route did take them over the hills from Loch Fyne to Sonachan on Loch Awe, where they had to cross the loch, with their stones, in rowing boats, no doubt leaving their horses and carriages until the return journey after the game.

A curling match such as this in 1874 must have been quite an adventure as well as a sporting occasion. It seems to have satisfied the participants for neither club played in the Grand Match which followed on Carsebreck a week later.

The Glasgow Herald of February 20, 1888, tells us of another curling match in this vicinity, a points game for four prizes, played by Lochaweside CC on Moonloch. There is no such name on the modern maps of the area but to the north of the road from Kilchrenan to Ardanasaig appears Lochan na Gealaich, which being translated is the 'Lochan of the Moon'.

This map shows the routes of both teams in 1874. Click on the image to see in a larger size. The OS Map Reference for Loch Tromlee is NN 043 249.

Top photo: The Lochaweside curlers competed on Loch Tromlee in 1897, as this photo from the Annual of the Royal Club for 1897-8, p. cxlviii, shows. To see other historical curling places in Argyll look at the map to be found here.

Images © David B Smith

The Diaspora of the Duddingston Medal

2011-10-05T10:51:00.009+01:00

David B Smith writes, "It is often said that the influence on the game in Scotland of the Duddingston Curling Society was great; some evidence for that can be seen in the number of Duddingston medals that belong to other curling clubs.

Perhaps the fact that the society set down its 'Rules in Curling' in 1804, and had them printed so that they could be promulgated throughout the land, was the most important feature of its influence, but there can be no doubt that curlers in other clubs found the medal an attractive addition to the game.

When the decision was made in 1802 that 'a medal with proper insignia' should be struck 'to distinguish the Members from any other gentleman' and that purchase of the badge should be part of the entrance fee, the way was opened for the creation of lots of medals.

The design – a small oval of silver with curlers on Duddingston Loch in front of the Kirk below the motto 'SIC SCOTI; ALII NON AEQUE FELICES' - struck a patriotic note. The motto means – roughly translated from the Latin – 'this is the way the Scots play: the rest of mankind isn’t equally lucky'.

On the reverse of the medal were struck the words: 'Duddingston /Curling Society/ Instituted/7th. Jany. 1795'.

Some time after 1825 when the octagonal curling house was built on the edge of the loch a new version which included that building was struck but the minute book is silent about this matter.

As the fame of the Society grew in the decades after its foundation in 1795 and more and more influential curlers from various parts of Scotland became members, and therefore owners of a medal, the currency of the Duddingston Medal grew throughout the country. It must have been these members who donated examples of the medal to their 'other clubs'.

What some clubs did was to use a Duddingston medal, suitably customised, as either a prize for one of their existing competitions or as a trophy.

Three examples exist of the former use by Merchiston CC. They date from 1821, 1830 and 1832. In these cases the reverse of the badge has been buffed smooth and engraved 'Merchiston Prize Medal' with the winner’s name and date. Two of these are in the collection of National Museums of Scotland and one is in mine.

Drum CC went a bit further, for in their case the original oval badge was incorporated into a circular medal, on the reverse of which was engraved the legend that the winner had won it for gaining the club’s gold medal, presented in 1820. The first prize version is dated 1826, but that there was a tradition of presenting them becomes clear when one sees a version of 1855 which maintains the same design, engraved onto the silvered copper of the medal, because, it seems clear, the supply of the original silver badges had by this date run out. (Both are in my collection.)

A number of examples of the use of the medal as a trophy still exist.

Largs had a Duddingston medal of 1802, with a new border of thistles, presented in 1828 for points by John Cairnie, who was a member of the Duddingston Society. (It is in my collection.)

Carnwath CC was formed in 1832, and its first trophy appears to have been a post 1825 Duddingston medal adapted by the addition of an applied border of thistles and foliage, and by the buffing of the reverse and the engraving of: 'Presented by Alexander McDonald Lockhart to the Carnwath C.C. 13 September 1832'. Lockhart was also a member of Duddingston. (It is in my collection.)

Fenwick CC had a Duddingston medal, post-1825, the back of which has been buffed smooth and engraved: 'Fenwick Curling Club 1834'. (It is in my collection.)

Crawford had a post 1825 medal donated in 1835 with this inscription on the reverse: 'For Auld lang syne/Presented/ to the/ Curlers of Crawford/ by/ Thomas Johnston,/ to be/ Played for Annually/ Single Handed.” (It is in Gladstone Court Museum, Biggar.)

Kirkcowan CC still has a Duddingston badge of 1802, with this inscription on the reverse: 'Presented/ to the /Kirkcowan Curling Society/ by/ W C Hamilton Esqr/ Craighlaw /8 Jany. 1840'. The club’s minutes record: "In January 1840 Captain Hamilton presented the Society with a Superior silver medal to be played for Single Handed every year."

A Duddingston medal , engraved 'West Linton. Prize Medal' was sold by Baldwin’s in 1994.

All of these medals appear to have been given while the Duddingston Society was still active. It came to an end about 1853. It is rather surprising therefore to discover that as late as 1886 it was still thought to be appropriate to give one as the trophy for a points competition.

Some years ago I found the two newspaper references which I print below. It was thrilling to acquire recently the very medal to which they refer.

Aberdeen Weekly Journal., 1886, 26 February:-
“BRAEMAR CURLING FOR AN ANCIENT MEDAL. – A handsome silver medal, nearly 100 years old, lately presented to the Braemar Club, was the subject of competition on Castleton Pond on Wednesday last. The ice was in good trim, and neither bumped nor biased to any tangible extent. Twenty-one candidates drew tickets for the contest, which was throughout strongly marked by real curler’s zest, not omitting the higher qualities of practical skill and science. The match was one by points, and after the usual course of play, the contest closed in a tie of 11 points a-side in favour of John Aitken, carpenter, and John Mackenzie, coachdriver. On the tie being played off, Mackenzie won the trophy, with which he was duly presented, after a felicitous address of a commendatory nature by the president, Mr Kames Aitken, banker. After the winner, who cordially returned thanks, and whom many readers will readily recognise as the careful and attentive driver of the Braemar evening coach between Ballater and Braemar, had been cheered to the echo, the company divided and played a friendly match, the leading skips being the medallist and the losing tieholder:-…It deserves to be added that the mystic medal, whose appearance sweeps back into the last century, and to the period when curling was at least a recognised institution, and also to some extent in the south of Scotland as a national game, instead of being round, is nearly oval in shape; aand perhaps by a modern jeweller might be called crude in workship. On one side it shows the facsimile of Duddingston Loch, Edinburgh, with curlers at play, and on the obverse are the inscriptions: - 'Duddingston Curling Society, instituted 17th January, 1795. Presented by R,G, Foggo to Braemar Club, 1885.'

1887, 30 Dec., Aberdeen Weekly Journal.
“BRAEMAR. – SILVER MEDAL COMPETITION. – The first match of the season by points, played under the new rules issued by the Royal Caledonian Club, came off on Auchindryne Pond on Tuesday last. The ice was so exceedingly keen that scoring was not nearly so good as otherwise might have been. The medal contested for was a present to the club from Mr R.G. Foggo, factor to Colonel Farqhuarson of Invercauld, and is a piece of last century workmanship illustrative of the roaring game. Apart from its intrinsic value, it is an object of historical interest. Twenty six of the brethren entered the list for the trophy, which, after two hours’ play, was carried off with a score of 19 points by Mr John Lamont, …”

David B Smith.

Captions.
• The obverse of the 1802 medal.
• The obverse of the Drum medal. The Duddingston oval has been incorporated into a circular medal.
• The Largs medal.
• The Carnwath medal. This is a particularly sharp striking which displays the curling house clearly.
• The reverse of the Braemar medal. It appears that the engraver had forgotten the second initial of the donor’s name and has had to squeeze it into what he had already engraved. He seems also to have omitted the A of Braemar and has had to add it to the E.

Illustrations © David B Smith

Curling Stone Whisky Miniature Decanters Part 1

2011-09-30T07:33:00.001+01:00

Whisky curling stone miniature decanters, like these, are common items in any collection of curling memorabilia. The two above were produced by Peter Thomson of Perth Ltd, wholesale wine and spirit merchants, and contained Beneagles Scotch whisky. I believe these will date from the 1970s.

Importantly, the handle is the stopper, the container being filled, and emptied, from the top!

This photo shows the stopper and a colour variation with the same marks on the bases.

These may be earlier. The description is stamped on the base. The stone on the left still has its original ribbon and seal.

Putting a date on exactly when these decanters were manufactured is difficult, but here is one produced and sold when the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship came to Perth in 1975. The stopper is the handle.

Similar commemorative stones were produced for the 1980 and 1981 world championships, but these had a different design with the stopper in the bottom of the stone, see below.

The stones were packaged in card boxes. I believe this is the earlier of the two in my collection.

Two more colour variations, again with the handles as the stoppers. No markings on the bases.

Here are two with the Beneagles eagle, and description of the contents, stamped on the side of the containers.

By 1980, the design of the ceramic container had changed, the stopper now being at the bottom of the stone, and the handle and the body of the stone being molded as one piece.

These containers are clearly marked WADE.

This container is marked Carlton Ware.

I believe these later containers were packaged in boxes like this.

That's not the end of the story, and a lot more questions remain to be answered.

Here's a container, with a bottom stopper but no markings on the base, yet it appears to have been constructed in two pieces, the body, and separate handle.

These two containers are made from a similar design mold but may not contain Beneagles whisky. The sticker covering the stopper simply says Scotch Whisky Souvenir.

Here are two containers, with handle stoppers, clearly stamped with the mark of the Govancroft Pottery. I do not know what whisky they contained. The Govancroft Pottery in Glasgow existed from 1911-1976, on London Road, at the corner of Potter Street.

In more recent years, into the 21st century, curling stone whisky miniatures containing Glen Calder Scotch have been marketed by Gordon and MacPhail of Elgin. The containers have the mark WTK 50 ml on the base. Although very similar to the Beneagles miniatures, the design of these containers, apparently manufactured in Italy, has reverted to the stopper being the stone handle.

These are the most valuable in my collection, as they retain their original contents!

Yes there will be a Part 2, which will describe whisky decanters of different shape. To follow!

Historical Curling Places

2011-09-21T09:58:00.004+01:00

There is hardly a community in Scotland that does not have somewhere - a custom rink or pond, a loch, a river, or even part of a flooded field - where curling was played outside in past years. Documenting these places was initially a lone effort by David B Smith, co-author of this blog. David gleaned information from archives, Royal Club Annuals, and club minute books to create a list of Scottish 'curling places'. This list was originally a Word document, but thanks to Lindsay Scotland, and more recently Harold Forrester, the information has been put into a database and via that database into a map. The map entries link to the underlying database which records the original references, and where possible there are links to photographs and old maps.

We have talked about the project in this blog before, see here. Until now the information has all been hidden away deep in the layers of the old Royal Club website. Today's post is to advertise the fact that 'Historical Curling Places' now has its own identity at historicalcurlingplaces.org. Click on the link to visit, and zoom into where you live! There is a tips and hints page if you are new to the interactive site.

Lindsay and Harold would love to hear from you if you can add any information to what they have on file about any curling place that you know or is near where you live.

I was fascinated to see that the mapping exercise has expanded to encompass a database and map for England. It is often said that the sport of curling in the nineteenth century stopped at the Scotland - England border. Not true, as the English Curling Places map shows.

And a similar exercise is underway to document all the ice rinks and curling rinks that are now closed. This project has just recently begun. Why not get involved with it?

Curling places in England screenshot.

Parliamentary Curling

2011-09-13T09:57:00.000+01:00

One of the features of curling throughout its history has been that it is what social workers of the present day would call 'socially inclusive'. You might be the laird and provide the pond on your land but unless you could curl well you couldn’t aspire to skipping a rink.

We historians of the game like to emphasise its egalitarianism. There’s the famous story – perhaps even spurious – about the poacher and the sheriff, both members of Peebles Curling Club in the early years of the nineteenth century. They played in the same rink. The poacher was the skip because of his skill on the ice. Sadly, from time to time it fell to the sheriff to have to jail him for unlawfully taking red fish during the summer. The story goes that during one bonspiel the poacher skip shouted down the ice to the sheriff, “Shirra, do you see this stane?” “Aye”, said the sheriff. “Weel, just gie it sixty days!”

I was delighted recently to come across two newspaper reports that showed that even far from home the Scot took what opportunity he could to indulge his passion for his favourite, national game.

The first appeared in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal of February 7, 1895.

“Parliamentary curling is at present popular among members of Parliament. Mr Graham Murray, at the Crystal Palace, has won the point medal with a capital score of 23. The Parliamentary players include Mr G. Whitelaw, Mr William Whitelaw, Sir John Kinloch, Mr Cochrane, Mr H. Anstruther, Mr Thorburn, and Mr Ramsay.”

The second appeared in the pages of the Glasgow Herald of February 12, 1895.

“A curling match between certain members of the House of Commons and the curling club was held at Wimbledon on Saturday. Of two Parliamentary rinks one was composed of Mr Bruce Wentworth, Sir John Kinloch, Mr William Whitelaw, and Mr Parker Smith; while the other consisted of Mr Graham Murray, Mr J.A. Baird, Mr Anstruther, and Mr Graham Whitelaw. But the Wimbledon Club won by three points.”

The lake at Wimbledon, which still exists close to the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s headquarters, had been used for some time by curlers, mainly of the expatriate Scots type. The Wimbledon CC had joined the RCCC as recently as 1893, but the Crystal Palace CC had been on the go since 1870.

Of the Parliamentary curlers:-

A Graham Murray, was MP for Bute,
William Whitelaw was MP for Perth City,
Sir John Kinloch was MP for East Perthshire,
Thomas Cochrane was MP for North Ayrshire,
Henry Anstruther was MP for St Andrews, and
Walter Thorburn was MP for Peebles and Selkirk,
The Hon. Charles Maule Ramsay was MP for Forfar,
Bruce Vernon Wentworth was MP for Brighton, and
John Parker Smith was MP for Partick.
The geographical spread is notable.

Graham Murray was, perhaps, the most distinguished of these curlers. He became an advocate in 1874, and his career blossomed. He was appointed an Advocate Depute in 1888-90, Sheriff of Perthshire in 1890-1, QC in 1891, was Member of Parliament for Bute from 1891 to 1905, Solicitor General in 1891-2 and 1895-6, Lord Advocate 1896-1903, Secretary of State for Scotland 1903-5, Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, 1905-13. He was created a peer as Lord Dunedin in 1905, and was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (that is, a judge of the House of Lords) from 1913 to 1932. In fact, he is regarded as one of the most important and famous of Scots judges.

Despite these onerous offices he kept up his interest in curling. In 1897 we find him writing the Sport of the Month article, on curling, in The Pall Mall Magazine. Until he moved to London in connection with his Lords appointment he was an active member of the club which was the successor to the ancient but defunct Duddingston Curling Society, namely Coates CC. He was a member of Crystal Palace CC.

When he was made president-elect of the Royal Club in 1908-9 the editor of the Annual wrote: “It is also pleasing for us to have as President-elect at such an interesting juncture, the Right Hon. Lord Dunedin, who throughout his career of strenuous activity in the profession of which he is now the honoured head, never missed a day on the ice when a game was available, and as a ‘keen, keen curler’ discarded his ‘briefs’ for the nonce when he heard the curlers’ war-cry and the sound of the channel-stane.”

In the next year he succeeded Lord Strathcona as the Club’s President.

As for the other Parliamentarians’ curling connections in the year 1895, so far as I have been able to find them:-

William Whitelaw was president of Perth CC,
Sir John Kinloch was a member of Strathmore CC,
Thomas Cochrane was a member of Dalry Union CC,
Walter Thorburn was vice-president of Peebles CC,
The Hon. Charles Ramsay was a member of Brechin Castle CC,
Bruce Vernon Wentworth was vice-president of the family club, Dall CC, at their estate of Dall on Loch Rannoch, and
John Parker Smith was a patron and member of Partick CC.

David B Smith.

Top: Curling on Wimbledon Lake, January, 1891, from a private album.

Graham Murray, also known as Lord Dunedin, as president-elect of the Royal Club. From the programme of the dinner held by the Royal Club to honour the first team of Canadian curlers to visit Scotland in 1909.

A sketch from The Penny Illustrated Paper of January 14, 1893. The accompanying article commented on how seldom the Scottish game of curling could be played in the south of England and also remarked that Wimbledon because of curling had become a sort of Scottish colony.

All illustrations are courtesy of David B Smith.

Greenacres 1987

2011-09-06T10:29:00.003+01:00

Here is a short videoclip from the final of the Greenacres Junior Ladies Invitation in 1987. The game matched Diane Lyle's Inverness team of Jane Calder (3rd), Karen Smith (2nd) and Lorna Matheson (lead) against Eva Andersson's Swedish side. Eva skipped and played third, Katarina Oberg played the last stones, with Maria Karlsson (2nd) and Malin Linquist (lead).

The YouTube link is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bffThrY04sM

or simply click on either of the images above which are screenshots showing the two teams in the final. Richard Courtney, of sponsor Goudies Garage, is in the photo with the Swedish girls.

There is no commentary. The background music was on the original tape. And who filmed this? Image Video Production was by Ron and Jen? Who were they? Can you help?

(Added later: Gordon McIntyre has been in touch to say that the couple that were involved with the video were Ron and Jen Graham from Bishopton, who were later to video weddings with their Image Videos business. Thanks Gordon.)

See if you can spot Jane Sanderson and Elizabeth Paterson-Brown watching in the gallery.

The second video is of the presentation ceremonies. Look out for many well known junior curlers of the day including Marion and Janice Miller, Kirsty and Karen Addison (to name just four) and future Olympians Debbie Knox and Margaret Morton, and a certain Rhona Howie. I wonder what future she would have in the sport!? Christine and Hugh Stewart as well as Kerr Graham from the organising committee are there. If you were around at the time you will recognise others I'm sure, such as Gordon McIntyre who became the Greenacres ACDO for many years.

Yes the 'master of ceremonies' with all the facial hair is indeed me, Bob Cowan. Apologies about that. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that this was twenty-four years ago. There was a great surprise in store for the runners-up!

The link is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVbYDdy880

or just click on the image below.

Was Prince Albert a Curler?

2011-08-30T09:07:00.000+01:00

It is well known that the Grand Caledonian Curling Club in 1842 sought royal patronage from HRH Prince Albert and that the prince graciously condescended to bestow that honour upon the young club. The Annual for 1843 records the gift to the prince of a 'splendid pair of Curling Stones, made of the finest Ailsa-Craig granite, most beautifully finished and ornamented, the handles being formed of silver, and bearing an appropriate inscription'.

The presentation was made by the Earl of Mansfield, then president of the Grand Club, at his home of Scone Palace, 'and with a view to illustrate the explanations that were given to Her Majesty by Lord Mansfield, the polished oaken floor of the room was summarily converted into a ‘rink’, and the stones were sent ‘roaring’ along its smooth and even surface.' So impressed was the Queen that she next year granted the club the privilege and honour of using the term 'Royal' in its title.

I long had thought that that was likely to have been the only use ever made of these special stones. My efforts to trace the stones were unsuccessful until early in 2003 when, as I described in an article in October 2003 in the Scottish Curler, I discovered that the stones were in Frogmore House in Windsor Park. Why they were there no one was able to tell me.

My continuing researches recently unearthed a couple of articles which may give a clue. It now seems possible that Prince Albert actually used his presentation stones at Frogmore.

I found in the newspaper John Bull, of January 2, 1847, this exciting piece:

“At the conclusion of the presentation of Her Majesty’s new year’s gifts in the New Riding School, at the Royal Mews, the Queen, His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and a party of upwards of twenty, proceeded across the Home-park to Frogmore, and paid a visit to her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. The Prince Consort and the gentlemen of the Royal Household amused themselves for an hour and a half at the Scotch game of curling upon the lake, the ice being in a most excellent state for the enjoyment of the sport. The Royal party afterwards retired to the mansion, and partook of refreshment with the Duchess of Kent, and returned to the Castle at two o’clock.”

The next account appeared in the Glasgow Herald of January 4, the same year:

“The Court still remains at Windsor, and the Queen is engaged in the agreeable occupation of dispensing the hospitalities of the season… Directly after breakfast on Thursday morning, her Majesty, accompanied by the Duchess of Sutherland, and attended by all the ladies of her court, rode to Frogmore in the pony phaetons, and promenaded for several hours in the beautiful grounds surrounding that mansion; whilst His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, and all the gentlemen in his suite, amused themselves by skating and playing at ‘curling’ (as our Scottish neighbours call this fine game) on the ice of the lake…”

Whether the two accounts are speaking of the same game or two separate ones is not clear.

And Prince Albert seems to have passed on his enthusiasm to his second son Prince Alfred, for we see in The Scotsman of 29 February 1864:

“…On Saturday the party [H R H Prince Alfred, Earl of Home, Earl of Dunmore, Lord Henry Scott, MP., Lord Schomberg Ker, Hon. F. Charteris, Sir John Marjoribanks, Colonel Cathcart, &c.] at present sojourning at The Hirsel [the home of the Earl of Home near Coldstream] betook themselves to the loch, where two or three hours were spent in curling and skating…”

David B Smith.

Top: A picture of one of the single-soled, common Ailsa stones presented by the Grand Caledonian Curling Club to HRH Prince Albert.

Part of the inscription on the silver handle. The whole inscription is: “Presented to His Royal Highness Prince Albert. By the Grand Caledonian Curling Club on the occasion of His Royal Highness’ First Visit to Scotland. Edinburgh, 1st. Septr.. 1842.”

The maker’s hallmark is that of the firm of Robb and Whittet.

The photographs of the Prince’s stones are by courtesy of The Royal Collection, copyright 2003, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

The 1962 Scotch Cup

2011-08-26T00:01:00.002+01:00

The Scotch Cup international series of matches in 1962 involved four countries. The first and second series of games in 1959 and 1960 had matched Canada and Scotland against each other. The USA became involved in 1961, and in 1962 a Swedish team took part for the first time. The competitors were:

Scotland:
Bobby Young
Sandy Anderson
John Pearson
Willie Young (Skip)

Canada:
Wes Richardson
Garnet (Sam) Richardson
Arnold Richardson
Ernie Richardson (Skip)

USA:
Nick Jerrule
Terry Kleffman
Fran Kleffman (Skip)
Dick Brown (Fourth)

Sweden:
Arne Stern
Per Ivar Rydgren
Knut Bartells
Rolf Arfwidsson (Skip)

The four teams played a double round robin, the first games at the Falkirk Rink and the second round at the Haymarket Rink, Edinburgh.

The Canadians were undefeated in six games, the USA lost twice to Canada, the Scots lost all their games against Canada and the USA, and the Swedes did not win a game in their first appearance in the Scotch Cup.

The Scotch Whisky Association produced a promotional 16mm cine film after the event. Leslie Ingram-Brown recently had this original film converted to DVD, and he very kindly gave me a copy for my archive. It runs beautifully on the big screen television. I already had a VHS tape, but this is so much better quality. I've edited the DVD content down to two YouTube clips, each less than ten minutes, concentrating on the curling action and discarding the social events and the trip to the Glenkinchie Distillery. It's in black and white of course, and a bit grainy. Commentary is from Doug Maxwell who was to become the executive director of the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship in 1968.

The first clip, of the Falkirk games, is here. And I bet you smile when the pipers lead the players on to the ice!

The second clip, of the Haymarket games, is here.

It is fascinating to watch our sport fifty years ago. Twelve end games! So many people smoking, even when playing and when sweeping! The old Scottish hack, and the crampit used just by Willie Young. It was the Richardsons who inspired me when I began to play in the early 60s, and I just love watching them even now, particularly with their corn brooms.

Have a look out for faces you might recognise in the crowd!

[IMPORTANT: These clips are on YouTube as 'Unlisted', ie, only those who know the links can view them. They are not searchable. If you wish to share these clips with others that might be interested, please link to this page which you are reading now (the address is:
http://curlinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/08/1962-scotch-cup.html)
rather than directly to the YouTube clips themselves. I think it important that anyone watching the clips knows where they came from, that they have been edited, and can read what is written above. Thanks. Bob Cowan]

The top image is of the Falkirk Rink, long since closed, and is a frame from the DVD.

When the Clubs Rallied at Stirling

2011-06-09T14:22:00.008+01:00

David B Smith writes the following, with the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the occasion approaching, see here:

On June 24, 1861, crowds began to assemble early in the ancient burgh of Stirling. After years of talk and six years of fund-raising, the second step was about to be taken to make a permanent memorial to Scotland’s great patriotic hero, Sir William Wallace, knight, of Elderslie.

The first step had taken place on the same date six years before: a large concourse of patriotic Scots at a vast meeting in the King’s Park in Stirling had resolved to appoint a committee charged with the task of raising a suitable monument to Wallace and finding the money to do so.

The design chosen was the one we see today – the large Scots baronial tower with the gothic crown on top set upon the Abbey Craig, and the designer was the Glasgow architect, J T Rochead. Contributions poured in from Scots all over the world.

June 24, 1861, was the day on which the foundation stone was to be laid. That was the anniverary of the Battle of Bannockburn, in 1314.

The Rev. Charles Rogers, the committee’s secretary, invited all the right people, the provosts and town councils of the important towns and cities of Scotland, a large number of Masonic lodges, many companies of Volunteers, and seventeen curling clubs representing Scotland at play.

That it was curling clubs that were chosen is important for that shows clearly what an important place in Scottish society was held by the game. Said The Glasgow Herald, "At an early hour the town became crowded with visitors from all parts of the country; and, latterly, there could not have been fewer than 60,000 or 80,000 strangers in the place." There were "various decorations adorning the principal streets and flags flying in gay luxuriance from the most prominent points in the town."

A little after one o’clock the procession of 8,000 to 10,000 persons began to leave the King’s Park, led by two horsemen in ancient armour, followed by Lieutenant General Sir James Maxwell Wallace, a descendant of the hero, and an instrumental band. There followed seventeen companies of Volunteers from all over Scotland, many with pipers.

Then came the curlers, interspersed with more pipers and pipe bands. Gardeners’ Lodges, Oddfellows’ Societies and St Crispin Societies followed them; and behind came the civic representatives of Stirling, Ayr, Hamilton, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Musselburgh, Cupar, Lanark, Airdrie, Rutherglen, Inverness, Elgin, Dunfermline, Peebles, North Berwick, Rothesay, Helensburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Dumbarton.

Bringing up the rear were bearers of Wallace’s and equally ancient swords, and the organising committee.

The walk to the top of Abbey Craig took well over an hour and the ceremony involved important speeches before everyone dispersed.

The curling clubs involved, according to the Programme of Proceedings, were Cardross, Polmont and West Quarter, Shotts, Balmerino, Cambuslang, Meigle, Abercairney, Crossgates, Hopetoun, Partick, Strathendrick, Port of Menteith, Johnstone, Merchiston, Dollar and Devonvale, Drummond Castle and Lochgelly. Of the participant and surviving clubs only three have been able to provide to me evidence of the event from their minutes. I thought that patriotic curlers of the present day might like to share what was written.

Since it was what the Secretary of Polmont wrote that prompted this article I’ll quote him first.

June 24, 1861. “Seldom does it occur that curlers are called out at this flowery season of the year to enjoy themselves they being more appropriately turned out when the icicles are depending from the Boughs and all around in 'hoary cranreuch drest' but as this was an exceptional day and the object one in which every lover of liberty and of his country was called upon to do homage to departed valour our club turned out 16 of its number and had a very pleasant trip to Stirling to witness the inauguration of the Wallace Monument on the Abbey Craig.”

The Merchiston secretary recorded merely that on 31 May 31, 1861, “[he] laid before the Meeting A letter which he had received from the Committee of the National Wallace Monument requesting the Presence of the Merchiston Curling Club at the laying of the foundation stone of the Monument.” And that it was decided to send a deputation of two members “at the expense of the Club…”

Perhaps the Partick secretary entered into the spirit of the occasion best.
“In the King’s Park of Stirling on the 24th of June, 1861, about thirty members of the Club gathered and formed part of the procession of all denominations of their countrymen to march to the Abbey Craig, there to honour by their presence the name of their departed Patriot, The Noble Sir William Wallace, ‘The Hero of Auld Scotland,’ whose name was to the English as the Breath of the deadly ‘Simoon’ [a violent hot sand-laden wind] is to the Arab, or the Ravenous Wolf to the Russian or Lapland travellers, by lending a helping hand in the laying of a foundation stone of a monument to be erected on the Abbey Craig to his memory as a token of the high estimation in which his countrymen hold his departed worth, and as a remembrancer in all time coming of him who so nobly has gone before, being a tribute of respect so dearly won by him, who suffered death rather than submit to the ‘Power Seeking’ English, or prove a Knave to his country. The curlers were rallied round their handsome Silken Banner, presented to the Club by Mr. John Dunn and crowned by an imitation Curling stone presented by Mr. John White. The Partick Curling Club formed no mean part of the lengthy procession. The whole proceedings passed off with complete success, and the curlers wended their way home , no doubt much pleased and much edified by their journey north.”

(This article was first published in the October 2005 issue of the Scottish Curler magazine.)

Top: The early photograph by the famous Dundee firm of James Valentine must have been taken very shortly after the National Wallace Monument was completed in 1869.

Alloa Medals

2011-05-21T11:42:00.006+01:00

David B Smith writes, " I have just had the rare pleasure of repatriating – through the good offices of eBay.com! – a priceless piece of curling heritage, a medal presented in 1860 to Alloa Prince of Wales Curling Club. How this ornate silver medal got to New Zealand is not known, but it is now back in the land of its birth.

As the illustrations show, the medal is of unusual design, for although oval medals are fairly common, they are usually taller than wide, whereas this oval is, as it were, lying on its side. That enabled the designer and silversmith to attach from the bottom rim a pair of crossed curling brooms which are balanced by two dangling miniature stones of granite with silver L-shaped handles. I know of no other medal with two dependent stones.

The suspension at the top is a casting of the Prince of Wales feathers, and the border is a richly worked casting of thistles.

I had often wondered why there were two clubs in the very small burgh of Alloa, the Alloa CC and the Alloa Prince of Wales, and why one of them was apparently named in honour of the Prince Consort. The donation inscription provides the answer. The donor was David Cousins 'OF THE PRINCE OF WALES HOTEL ALLOA': the club took its name not from royalty but from licensed premises!

The obverse bears the donation below a finely engraved version of Sir George Harvey’s very popular painting of The Curlers. On the reverse is a list of seven winners, of whom two won it twice, for this was a points medal, on dates from February 11, 1860, to February 7, 1873.

I find that if one addresses oneself to local librarians and archivists they are very ready to help; and so I sent an email about the medal to Clackmannan libraries, and asked if there had been any report in any of the contemporary newspapers of the presentation of this fine medal. Within hours I had scans of the three pieces in the Alloa Journal, which dealt with it.

The first reported thus:
“ALLOA PRINCE OF WALES CURLING CLUB. – Some kind friend of this club has commissioned one of the members to purchase another point medal. The name of the donor will be given when the medal is ready for presentation. Meantime the competition for its possession takes place to-day at two o’clock on Gartmorn Dam…”

It was next reported that “The Alloa Prince of Wales Club assembled on Gartmorn last Saturday, to compete for their newpoint medal. After a keen game, Mr Robertson of the Ferry Inn was declared the winner, having taken seven points…” Twenty one members competed and the scores ranged from zero to seven, although it must be remembered that under the scoring system current in 1860 the maximum score for a successfully played shot was one, and not two as at present, and there was no score for a partly successful shot.

The mystery surrounding the gift was dispelled shortly after the competition at a meeting of 'this flourishing club' held in the Prince of Wales hotel. “…After some routine business, the worthy host of the hotel stated to the president and the meeting, that he had much pleasure in presenting a medal to the club – that although the medal had been already played for, and honourably won by Mr Robertson, of the Ferry Inn, it had not as yet been announced , and he believed that it was, with the exception of two members and himself, a mystery regarding the name of the donor. He, however, had pleasure in stating that he was the donor. He had had in view for long the presentation of such , and especially now as he was advanced in years, and unable to take an active part in the roaring game; he therefore hoped that the club would accept of his heart-felt gift. The president, in name of the club, returned thanks to the donor, and thereupon put the ribbon, to which was attached the medal, round the neck of Mr Robertson, wishing him much enjoyment of it for the season. Mr Robertson made a suitable reply. The medal, we may mention, is most beautiful in design, and cannot fail to meet with the approbation of all who may have the opportunity of inspecting it. It can be seen at the hotel for a few days. The inscription on the medal is as follows:- ‘Presented to the Alloa Prince of Wales Curling Club, by David Cousins, of the Prince of Wales Hotel. Alloa, Feby. 1860. Gained by Wm Robertson, 11th Feby. 1860’”

One piece of mystery remained. Who was WJM’D whose mark showed that he had made the medal? My friend, George Dalgleish, Principal Curator, Scottish History, National Museums of Scotland, and a great expert on Scottish silver, told me there was a silversmith, William J Macdonald, sometime at 139 Princes Street, Edinburgh, who was probably our man. Using that information I looked in the Edinburgh Post Office Directory for 1859-60 and found him, described as 'working jeweller, 31 Castle Street', whose house was at number 12. That the National Library of Scotland has recently put all the extant Post Office Directories for the whole of Scotland online has made this sort of research very much easier.

The Prince of Wales curlers were not unique in possessing a beautiful and splendid medal. The older club, the Alloa CC, was also the owner of a marvellous specimen (above) given to them in 1844 by James Johnstone of Alva, a local laird. It is one of a very small group of very ornate medals which bear on the front surface miniature curling stones set among crossed brooms. In this case two stones are made of bloodstone and the other two of reddish hardstone.

The taste for fine medals continued. I have in my collection- one of my earliest acquisitions - a silver medal given to Alloa CC in 1868. It is a more straightforward medal: a suspension of crossed brooms from which hung formerly a diminutive silver stone, and within a buckled belt, an engraved contemporary curling scene."

Illustrations from top:
• Alloa Prince of Wales Curling Club medal, obverse.
• Reverse.
• The 1844 medal.

• Alloa Curling Club, medal. This photograph shows the engraved scene on the obverse and the border, detached. In my collection.

• The reverse. The medal assembled.

Images are © David B Smith

Collecting RCCC Annuals

2011-04-13T19:12:00.007+01:00

Since the foundation of the Grand Caledonian Curling Club in 1839 there has been published every year an Annual. Even during the years of war 1916 to 1919 and 1939 to 1946 the Annual tradition was so strong that a truncated form of annual was printed.

There have, therefore, been 172 issues. As might be expected the earliest annuals are small in size and in content. Not only that, only 300 of each of the first three were printed.

When the Grand Club grew into the Royal Club there were many more member clubs and the requirement upon member clubs to purchase numbers of annual according to the size of their membership meant that the editions were much larger.

The foregoing means that the earlier issues are much rarer than the later ones. Because clubs, like curlers, come and go, there are lots of partial runs of annuals. In fact, complete runs of all 172 issues are exceedingly rare. The Royal Club owns three. Two of these have always been in the office. The third was lent to me as an 'incomplete set' some years ago. I have managed to fill the gaps in this set so that it too is now complete.

Over many years I have tried – from nothing – to put together a complete set of my own. Recently I bought at auction one of these small runs that had belonged to a club, Sliosgarbh, that existed only from 1850 to 1865. Slios garbh is the Gaelic name for the 'rough' (garbh) south side of Loch Rannoch. The club was centred on the western end of the loch, the very location where our worthy RCCC President, Robbie Scott and his wife Kathleen, both Orcadians, first came across this weird Lowland pastime of curling.

The run extended from 1851 to 1875, and was not only quite a handsome group, bound in half calf with marbled boards, but it enabled me to fill all but three gaps in my collection. The President of the Royal Club and I indulged in a swap so that now only two years are lacking in my run. They are the years 1845-6 and 1846-7. I wonder if anyone reading this blog might have duplicates for one or other or both of these years.

The first Annual was a small pamphlet of only 48 pages. As the Club grew in numbers so did the size of the annual. By the Jubilee of the Royal Club in 1888, the Annual contained 426 pages. In the preface to this volume the editor remarks that since it had been decided to celebrate the jubilee with the publication of the club’s history in 'a special volume' (which turned out to be Kerr’s History of Curling, 1890) he would just restrict the opening remarks 'to the usual limits'. Nonetheless he managed to comment on the new rules for points, and the Jubilee Medal in bronze, which each club received, "to be preserved or played for as they may see fit."

One can but read with a wry smile that "the Committee also hope that the adoption of a proposal to form a collection of old stones, implements, etc., illustrating the history of the game, will lead to the formation of a small museum of antiquities, interesting to all Curlers…” We still await - 123 years later - the realisation of this dream.

The title page of vol. 1 was embellished by a design for a club button, for the adoption of which the “Committee were most desirous.”

The first appearance of Sir George Harvey’s famous painting as the decoration of the title page was in the Annual of the Grand Royal Caledonian Curling Club for 1843; and it has appeared every year since.

From 1888 the Annual blossomed. In 1900 photographs were incorporated into the text. In that year there were ccxii and 493 pages: a curler buying such a publication got a lot for his One Shilling (one twentieth of a pound).

A favourite feature of Annuals until 1939 was the poetry of curling. Most songs, or verses, appeared but once: others became favourites and were printed as often as three or four times over the years. The most popular song of all, if one judges by the number of appearances, is The Music of the Year is Hushed by the Rev. Henry Duncan of Ruthwell. This song, to the air Killiecrankie, first appeared in Memorabilia Curliana Mabenensia in 1830, was printed in the Annual for 1842, and reprinted other four times, making its swansong in 1939.

Here it is:

The music of the year is hushed
In bonny glen and shaw, man,
An’ winter spreads, o’er nature dead,
A winding-sheet o’ snaw, man;
O’er burn and loch the warlock, frost,
A crystal brig has laid, man;
The wild geese, screaming wi’ surprise,
The ice-bound wave hae fled, man.

Up, Curler! Leave your bed sae warm,
And leave your coaxing wife, man,
Gae, get your besoms, trickers, stanes,
And join the friendly strife, man.
For on the water’s face are met’
Wi’ mony a merry joke, man,
The tenant and his jolly laird,
The pastor and his flock, man.

The rink is swept, the tees are marked,
The bonspiel is begun, man;
The ice is true, the stanes are keen;
Huzza! for glorious fun, man.
The skips are standing on the tee
To guide the eager game, man;
Hush! No a word – but mark the broom,
And take a steady aim, man.

Here draw a shot – there lay a guard,
And here beside him lie, man,
Now let him feel a gamester’s hand,
Now in his bosom lie, man.
There fill the port, and block the ice,
We sit upon the tee, man;
Now tak’ this inring sharp and neat,
And mak’ the winner flee, man.

How stands the game? It’s eight and eight:
Now for the winning shot, man;
Draw slow and sure, the ice is keen,
I’ll sweep you to the spot, man.
The stane is thrown, it glides alang,
The besoms ply it in, man,
Wi’ twisting back the players stand,
And eager, breathless grin, man.

A moment’s silence, still as death,
Pervades the anxious thrang, man,
Then sudden bursts the victor’s shout,
Wi’ hollas, loud and lang, man;
Triumphant besoms wave in air,
And friendly banters fly, man,
Whilst, cauld and hungry, to the inn,
Wi’ eager steps, they hie, man.

Now fill ae bumper – fill but ane,
And drink wi’ social glee, man;
May Curlers on life’s slippery rink
Frae cruel rubs be free, man;
Or should a treacherous bias lead
Their erring steps a-jee, man,
Some friendly inring may they meet
To guide them to the tee, man.

The few statistics which I have mentioned are clear indications of the importance given to the Annual over the years. The Royal Club has already taken one large step towards its abolition in the decision that it should no longer be necessary for clubs to take some copies compulsorily. That must have seriously upset its financial viability. Let us hope that that unfortunate resolution does not lead to the decision to abolish the Annual in print form.

Glossary.
Trickers: crampets, worn on the foot.
Inring: inwick.
A-jee: astray.

David B Smith.

Ladies Do Not Curl

2011-02-09T20:46:00.006Z

“Ladies do not curl – on the ice. The Rational Dress Association has not yet secured for them the freedom that is necessary to fling the channel-stane, and like Her Majesty at Scone, the majority find the curling-stones too heavy for their delicate arms…”

Although acknowledging that to this sweeping generalisation there were exceptions which he went on to detail in a long footnote the Rev. John Kerr was, I suppose, merely reiterating the view of middle-class society towards the end of the nineteenth century that ladies were not designed for sport.

His reference to 'Her Majesty' was to that demonstration of the game in Scone Palace well recorded in the Annual for 1843; “Her Majesty inquired particularly respecting the game of curling, and with a view to illustrate the explanations that were given to Her Majesty by Lord Mansfield, [the owner of the Palace and president of the Grand Caledonian Curling Club], the polished oaken floor of the room was summarily converted into a 'rink', and the stones were sent 'roaring' along its smooth and even surface. And we have reason to know that Her Majesty herself 'tried her hand' at throwing the stones, although they proved to be too heavy for her delicate arm…”

Nonetheless a pair of splendid Ailsa Craig stones with appropriately inscribed solid silver handles was presented to Prince Albert, who readily agreed to become the club’s royal patron, leading to the inconvenient name of the Royal Grand Caledonian Curling Club.

I had until recently thought that when John Kerr referred to the Rational Dress Association he was inventing a title for a non-existent movement. However, the wonders of the internet soon showed that I was wrong. There was a Rational Dress Association which published a catalogue in 1883. The three sketches below show ideas of how ladies might dress for different sport. Sadly the catalogue had no proposals for curling.

The sketch of the Countess of Eglinton and her ladies at play (above) on one of the several curling ponds at Eglinton in Ayrshire in 1860 not only adds yet another exception to the rule but shows how inappropriate was the dress in which the fair sex took to the ice.

David B Smith.

Captions: Top - Countess of Eglinton and her ladies, 1860. Middle - Prince Albert’s stones, 1842. Below - Alpine climbing costume. Skating dress. Ladies’ cricketing dress. (All from this web page)

The Bell Quaich

2011-01-19T12:00:00.008Z

Faed Sproat was a weel kent farmer and curler from the Stewartry of Kirkcubrightshire from the early 1930s onwards. His mother club was Anwoth. I was fortunate recently to be given by his daughter some curling items from his estate. Among these was a small silver medal.

As the pictures of it show, it was won by a rink competing in the Bell Quaich competition in 1939, the year of the trophy’s donation and of the opening of the original (The Aul’) Ice Rink in Ayr.

The medal was intriguing from a number of viewpoints. It was one of the very earliest prizes from Ayr Ice Rink; and the obverse was of a design with which I was familiar. A bit of research showed that it had been won by a rink of which Faed Sproat was a member.

The Quaich was presented by E A Bell, the first secretary of the ice rink curling club, for inter-district competition. The first winners were The Stewartry, and the small medal was obviously the prize which was given to each member of the winning rink.

As will appear from the illustrations there are other examples of this design. The first I acquired are thin, uniface, gilded strikings with no clue as to when or where or why they were made. The same comments go for the second example I got, except for the fact that it is bronze and ungilded. The third is thicker, has a rim and is in the form of a blank medal for engraving and presentation. Sadly, it too gives no clue as to why, where, or when. The small medal is 'signed'. That is, it bears the maker’s name, John Pinches, who was a well-known London medallist.

The Bell Quaich still exists; it is still played for at Ayr but no longer for inter-district competition. In fact, the original plinth which boldly proclaimed its inter-district nature has been pensioned off.

The photograph shows that the plinth is made of ebonised wood and of heptagonal cross-section. On each of the seven faces is a silver plaque bearing the appropriate heraldry for each of the original districts, the team of each of which had to consist of three rinks. They are:

Kyle,
Carrick,
Cunningham,
Machars,
Rhins,
Stewartry,
Dumfriesshire.

That for the Stewartry includes as the first winners’ inscription in 1939 'JF Sproat'.

This is a photograph of the first winning rink and the Quaich in 1939. Faed is wearing the plus fours, front left.

Faed Sproat is second from the right in the front row. The picture is of Stewartry curlers and Americans on tour to Scotland in 1952.

David B Smith.

The First International Match: England v Scotland

2011-01-02T18:16:00.011Z

It should perhaps be remembered, at a time like the present, when the English organisers of the Four Nations Match have been crying out for a few Scots to represent the most important nation in the contest, that it was the English who started the whole affair. In 1893 there were about fifty clubs in England associated with the Royal Club. It was William I’Anson of the Malton Club in Yorkshire, and some of his friends, who suggested to the Royal Club that there should be an Anglo-Scottish challenge match.

The idea was discussed at an AGM of the Royal Club, and approved, and a committee established to develop the idea. They came up with the location of Talkin Tarn, a lake of about 100 acres, beside Brampton, a small town in the vicinity of Carlisle. No doubt the idea was to select a spot near the Border within reasonable reach of all participants.

Many more Scots clubs indicated a wish to enter than their English counterparts and the final draw resulted in 69 rinks a side. Invitations had been sent out to member clubs on both sides of the Border, and a draw was made. Like so many other largish bonspiels it did not prove an easy matter to pick a date on which natural frost would provide ice of the requisite thickness – even though the organisers were happy with a thickness at least a couple of inches less than 'the curling authorities' of the present day deem necessary.

This was not the first time that such an international had been thought of. For example, the Caledonian Mercury of 15 January 1849 tells us that, “The preliminaries of a match have been settled betwixt the Newcastle Curling Club and Haddington Club. We understand that the event will come off at Berwick and will take place at an early date, as soon as the frost has sufficiently set in to secure permanent and good ice.”

Rev. John Kerr in his review of the curling winter of 1894-5, A Grand Curling Year, published in the Glasgow Herald on 4 January 1896, wrote thus of the first International Match. A very similar piece from the Stirling Journal of 8 February 1895 was printed in the Annual for 1895-6.

“On the 29th January there came off the long-talked-of International match, England v. Scotland – an event which in itself made the season memorable. The venue was the deep and picturesque 70 acre lake named Talkin Tarn, where the Brampton folks in summer enjoy rowing and sculling. The preparation for the match roused much interest among the natives, who had never seen the 'roaring game'. “I knows all about this curlin’”, one was heard saying to a neighbour the night before the match, “every man plays with a large stone weighin’ a hundredweight and a half, and the one that got his stone farthest away wins the game.”

“Nay, friend, that’s not it at all”, said another. “I’ve heard o’ curlin’ fifty times from them that does it, an’ they all play on skates, don’t ye know, just like they do at hockey; that’s curlin’.” Not the least interesting part of the play was to watch the countenances of those knowing ones and the thousands of others who came from Carlisle, Brampton, and elsewhere to see the fight.

“Down the rinks the stones are roaring,
Ringing through the frosty air,
Skips frae a’ the airts are pouring
Booming orders everywhere.
Surging sounds of mimic battle,
Flash of fastly fitting kowes,
Clang and clatter, rush and rattle,
Pealing far o’er heichs and howes.”

William I’Anson, of Malton, and Sir James Gibson-Craig, of Riccarton, did well in bringing about that gathering, and the Royal Club will do well to have it annually when frost permits. It will not likely come off again on the Tarn , for only curlers could have surmounted the difficulties that barred the way thither, and borne with good humour the inconveniences of going to and returning from such a place. From window to window of each train curlers’ chaff flew backwards and forwards. “At one station,” says a Stirling player, “we stopped rather longer than there was any occasion for a very red-faced ‘party’ with a countenance which negatived his chances of his being a local optionist, put his head out of the window to ascertain the cause of the stoppage. ‘Pit in yer heid, man’ said a brither in a neighbouring compartment; ‘the gaird thinks that face o’ yours is a danger-signal, and ‘ill no start the train as lang as it’s oot.’”

In that style every hitch made the company happier, and the failures in the arrangements were made to contribute to the success of the bonspiel. There were 68 rinks or 272 players on each side, and Scotland won by 275 shots. It was not another Bannockburn, for the large majority of players on the English side were Scotchmen; but many of these had not for years been north, and such a reunion with their countrymen over Scotland’s ain game was delightful. For England, which has adopted our golf and made her sons champion players of that game, the gathering was an unmistakable proof that Scotland has another sport which excites even more enthusiasm among its votaries, and is quite as healthy and invigorating. We are not surprised to hear, as the result of the international match, that 1895 has been a year of great progress for curling south of the Tweed, that several new clubs have been formed, and that an association of provinces has been constituted to make arrangements for the great annual bonspiel with Scotland and foster and strengthen the game in the south. Lochmaben, which is to be scene of next meeting, has the honour of having added a word to the curler’s vocabulary. Her shoemakers used never to let their opponents get a single shot. This was called soutering. At the international match it was “Up wi’ the Souters o’ Selkirk”, the gold badges to the rink with the biggest majority being won by the Selkirk team, whose opponents scored only two shots by mistake at the first 'head' of the game…”

The result of all the games which made up the match are taken from the Leeds Mercury of 30 January 1895, and are printed so that the curious can see from where all the rinks, English and Scottish, had come from. The gaps in the numbering are obviously caused by some rinks’ failure to appear. By my calculations based on this report there were 69 rinks, and the Scots beat the English by 281. As far as I can judge the furthest travelled Scot was the Rev. C. Halliday of Scotscaig in the East Neuk of Fife. What a pity to travel so far and lose to the 'Auld Enemy' in the form of John Smith, with his rink of Blackburn Rose and Thistle curlers, by 13 shots to 9.

More of the other open air International Matches later.

David B Smith

A bird’s eye view of Talkin Tarn today. (Photo from the Visit Cumbria website)

The busy scene at tarn level. (From the author's collection)

Some rinks at play in the match. (From the author's collection)

The results of the matches were:

Scotland - England

4. John Martin, Corstorphine, 20 - T Darling, Berwick-on-Tweed, 14
5. W Strang, Haremyres, 27 - Rev RC Inglis, 11
6. Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Clackmannan & Kennet, 19 - Jas Blacklock, Harrington, 11
8. W Crawford, Duns, 16 - J McGregor, Durham, 10
9. W Gibson, King Robert Bruce, 29 - J Carrick, Durham, 6
10. Peter Taylor, Airdrie, 14 - J Gray, Preston, 8
11. P Rankin, Cambusnethan, 17 - E Wilson, Preston, 12
12. DP Laird, Merchiston, 17 - M Macartney, Preston, 13
13. Sir R Waldie Griffith, Kelso, 23 - Rev S McNaughton, Preston, 6
14. W Henderson, Kinnochtry, 11 - Wm McNab, Bolton, 8
15. R Cross, Rutherglen, 6 - B Rannam, Bolton, 21
17. S Brown, Tynron, 8 - Dr Irving, Huddersfield, 18
19. W Hislop, Eskdale, 17 - J Brown, Birmingham Caledn., 12
20. R Riddell, Galshiels, 33 - R Kerr, Birmingham Caledn., 9
21. J Fleming, Liddesdale, 18 - Wm Stuart, Belle Vue, 12
22. Archd. Marshall, Kelvindock, 5 - J Meggatt, Belle Vue, 18
23. Capt. JA King, Lennox Castle 18 - W McNaught, Wigan & Haigh, 16
24. J McHenry, Haddington, 12 - Jas. McLellan, Wigan & Haigh, 15
25. John Reside, Cathcart, 3 - W Connell, Blackburn Caledn., 16
27. Major Robertson Aikman, Hamilton, 18 - W Gibson, Blackburn Caledn., 17
28. Wm Paterson, Douglas, 14 - Joe Allweed, Southport, 10
29. M Anderson, Neilston, 10 - Wm Platt, Southport, 7
30. W Callander, Minnigaff, 12 - John Boyd, Southport, 6
31. W Stevenson, Glasgow Lilybank, 7 - WH Milner, Harrogate, 17
32. James Miller, Crossmichael, 14 - W Pearson, Derwentwater, 13
33. JR Blackwood, Rosslyn, 18 - Charles Clark, Derwentwater, 8
34. D Draper, Falkirk, 22 - Thos. Hodgson, Derwentwater, 8
35. W Grieve, Selkirk, 27 - E Bowden, Derwentwater, 2
37. William Sutherland, Partick, 7 - Wm I’Anson, Malton, 18
38. Sir JH Gibson-Craig, Bart., Waverley Kierhill, 15 - W Roberts, Malton, 14
39. W Chapman, New Monkland, 24 - W.Young, Middlesborough, 7
40. John Bell, Tinwald, 22 - John Dickson, Middlesborough, 3
41. R Connel, Castle Semple Loch, 26 - John Davison, Middlesborough, 9
42. J Fulton, Lees & Lithtillum, 18 - W Longshaft, Middlesborough, 18
43. Robert Fleming, Avondale, 20 - W Alexander, Liverpool, 13
44. J Keanie, Lochwinnoch Garthland, 8 - Isaac Graham, Liverpool, 21
45. A Kirkpatrick, Crocketford, 17 - W Gracie, Liverpool, 16
46. W Morris, Craiglockhart, 14 - Samuel Cowan, Bradford, 11
49. J Smith, Hillhead, 10 - Sir J Heron Maxwell, Crystal Palace, 17
50. John Stodart, Pencaitland, 10 - JG Gibson, Crystal Palace, 13
51. W Renfrew, Hurlet & Nitshill, 11 - J Barbour, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 16
53. Dr Haldane, Airthrey Castle, 10 - WHA Marshall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 29
54. JH Webster, Stenhouse & Carron, 11 - T Taylor, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 17
55. P Turner, Kirknewton, 11 - J Telford, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 22
56. R Husband, Broomhall, 7 - RM Waugh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 24
57. R Knox, Alloa, 14 - R.Young, Manchester Caledn., 5
58. Col. Hope, Earlston, 14 - Wm McClymont, Manchester Caledn., 8
59. GR Ure, Bonnybridge, 23 - J Ayton, Newcastle Tyneside, 9
60. T Mitchell, Kirkhope, 20 - W Semple, Newcastle Tyneside, 12
61. J Young, Upper Annandale, 20 - J Robertson, Newcastle Tyneside, 5
62. G Robson, Antonshill, 14 - J Main, Newcastle Tyneside, 11
64. R Frater, Stirling Castle, 11 - AC Millwater, Leeds Caledonian, 8
65. J Thomson, West Calder, 17 - J McCulloch, Leeds Caledonian, 6
66. J Coubrough, Strathblane, 27 - A Sword, Leeds Caledonian, 7
67. WJ Gulland, Musselburgh, 20 - T Steel, Barrow Caledonian, 12
68. J Wood, Ayton & District, 21 - T Blacklock, Barrow Caledonian, 12
69. J Dryden, Kirkintilloch, 16 - CJ Armstrong, Carlisle, 11
71. D Thomson, Largo, 6 - W Hamilton, Carlisle, 13
73. Wm Smith, Buchan, 15 - R Todd, jr., Carlisle, 15
74. D Brown, Coatbridge, 10 - W McKie, Carlisle, 13
76. J Craig, Blantyre, 34 - RS Benson, Darlington, 11
77. J Brown, Upper Nithsdale, 20 - Wm Swan, Darlington, 6
78. John Currie, Stewarton Heather, 8 - R Alexander, North Staffs., 13
79. Rev. C Halliday, Scotscraig, 9 - John Smith, Blackburn Rose & Thistle, 13
80. Hugh Gilmour, Waverley, 14 - John Jardine, Blackburn Rose & Thistle, 9
81. A Kerr, Dalton St. Bridget’s, 19 - Wm McCowen, Whitehaven, 9
83. J Scott Davidson, Hercules, 17 - R Currie, Manchester Trafford, 12
85. J Grant, Alloa Prince of Wales, 22 - Wm Carruthers, Workington, 16
86. Capt. Middleton, Cupar, Fife, 16 - Dr. Myrtle, Harrogate, 12

Total……. 1,108. Total…… 827.

Grand Matches

2010-12-20T18:59:00.008Z

This year’s unaccustomedly early onset of really cold weather and the chaotic traffic conditions thereby brought about caused me to think about the dates on which Grand Matches have been held.

We must remember that in the whole history of the Royal Club - a period of 172 years, of which the 163 since Penicuik in 1847 have been potential years for Grand Matches - only thirty-three examples of the whole Scots nation at play have actually taken place; and that in a long period when namby-pambyism and 'health and safety concerns' had not yet taken hold.

After the trial run at Penicuik in 1847 the first real Grand Match was, of course, played on Linlithgow Loch in 1848. Was there some serendipity involved in holding it on Robert Burns’s birthday, the 25th of January? Since then January has proved to be the most popular month for the event, sixteen Matches in total having been played in that month.

It is not surprising to find that December has been the next favourite month, with nine. February has had seven and only one has ever taken place in November. That was the Match on Carsebreck on November 24th. The latest date for event has been 15 February.

In one calendar year, 1896, but in two different winters, two matches were played – on 12th January and 21st December - both on Carsebreck, and BOTH won by the same club, New Monkland, who were, incidentally the very first winners of the new Grand Match Trophy which is still the much-coveted prize.

David B Smith

The Grand Match on Linlithgow Loch, 1848, oil painting by Charles Lees.

Sir Mitchell Thomson, Lord Provost of Edinburgh and president of Craiglockhart Curling Club. Oil sketch by Charles Martin Hardie for his large oil painting of the Grand Match at Carsebreck, signed by initials and dated 10.2.99.

The Grand Match of 1929 in progress at Carsebreck.

1929, Carsebreck. The happy but droukit curlers make their way from the Royal Club Pond to the railway, which was just over the fence. The Royal Club Secretary’s office is the building on the left.

Your author, suitably attired in the rear of the photo, prepares for the start in 1979.

Top photo: Aerial view of the Lake of Menteith, February 6, 1979, with the last Grand Match in full swing.

Photos © David B Smith

Curling Lighters: Part 2

2010-10-31T22:18:00.004Z

I recently wrote about the wonderful variety of table lighters which the game of curling had spawned, see here. This second piece on the topic concerns a newer and more conventional design, namely the miniature curling stone. In these the body of the stone is generally turned from real stone. In the top has been cut a circular hole into which is fitted the actual lighter. As one would expect the common types of curling stone metal are used but a large proportion of those which I have seen are made from rare and uncommon rocks, which are difficult to identify and name.

I will briefly describe the lighters in the illustration. These are described from left to right and from top to bottom. Clicking on the image will open it at a much larger size in a new window.

1. Blue hone Ailsa Craig stone, made by The Scottish Curling Stone Co., Ltd. In its original cardboard box of Red Robertson tartan, appropriately for the company was part of The Robertson Group of companies. Lighter: made by Rolstar, England.

2. Blue hone Ailsa Craig stone, made by The Scottish Curling Stone Co., Ltd. In its original cardboard box of Red Robertson Tartan. Lighter: no maker’s name.

3. Pottery with green glaze, no maker’s name or mark. I wonder if it is by Rainbow Pottery, Ingleside, Canada, a company which made, inter alia, pottery curling stones from ca. 1972 until 1990. Lighter: made by Ronson, Woodbridge, N.J., U.S.A.

4. Granite, perhaps from Aberdeenshire, no maker’s name or mark. Lighter: made by HB., West Germany.

5. Basalt (?), no maker’s name or mark. Lighter: made by HB., West Germany.

6. Trevor microgranite, North Wales, no maker’s name or mark. Lighter: made by Rolstar, England.

7. Unidentified stone, no maker’s mark or name. Lighter: Ronson, made in England.

8. Schist (?), no maker’s name or mark. Lighter: made by HB, West Germany.

Six of the stones have striking bands. Nos. 3 and 7 do not.

Since it is unlikely that table cigarette lighters in the form of a curling stone - or anything else - will ever be made again, it may be that this is an area for the curling collector who wishes to collect not just for the love of the game but for investment!

David B. Smith.

Curling Memorabilia on Flog It

2010-10-14T18:12:00.008+01:00

BBC's Flog It programme broadcast a segment in 2005 with presenter Paul Martin being shown some of David B Smith's collection of curling memorabilia. Click here, or on the image above, to watch. The YouTube clip is around six minutes only.

The screenshot shows David explaining to Paul what a loofie is!

Curling Lighters: Part 1

2010-10-04T10:12:00.012+01:00

The Table Lighter

In its heyday the custom of smoking was all-pervasive. For many a decade no film star could be photographed without a lit cigarette between first and second fingers.

The paraphernalia and accoutrements which served this habit were legion; and often they were decorated with emblems of the many sports and pastimes enjoyed by smokers.

Not least of these was the cigarette lighter. Even the comparatively humble pocket lighter was often embellished with the picture of a curler - to gladden the curler’s eye.

More impressive, however, was the table lighter, too large for the pocket, and designed to be handed, or slid, around the dining, or, perhaps, the club table.

The picture above displays five of these from my collection. (The punchbowl and the curling stone merely form an appropriate background.)

The oldest is the second from the left. It is of a fairly common design in silver plate, THE emblem of the game, the stone, held aloft on a trio of brooms and crampets. What is unusual about this design is the three little knobs which protrude from the top of the stone. One of them is different from the others in that it appears to have a sort of wick just emerging from a hole at its top. All three can be removed from the top of the stone. When the top of the stone itself is removed all is clear. The body of the stone is a receptacle for oil of some sort, the wick dangles into the oil; it can be lit when the stone is closed and left burning 'on the peep'; the other two contain at their inner ends enough fibrous material to hold some of the oil; when removed from the top of stone and applied to the burning wick they ignite and can be used to convey fire to the smoker’s cigarette or cigar. This is the only example of this type of light that I have ever seen.

The most recent is the rectangular dark blue plastic model with elegant depiction of house, broom and stone. It is a Ronson SociaLite, made in Canada.

Second from the right is a fairly sturdy model about which little needs to said except that they appear to be offered for sale on the internet quite commonly.

The remaining two are variants of the same design. The metal castings of the curler in the act of delivering his stone are very similar but in one he is enclosed in a hollow tube of transparent plastic and in the other he is engulfed in a solid lump of it. These two, which were made in Japan, still have attached to them the small label which no doubt enabled the traveller to do his best sales pitch to his tobacconist customers.

David D Smith.

Played in Glasgow

2010-09-27T11:40:00.004+01:00

The Curling History Blog's guru, and my good friend, David Smith, has been ill for some months. I welcome his return to health with this contribution, the first in a while, in the form of a book review.

Played in Glasgow, Charting the heritage of a city at play, by Ged O’Brien, pp. 228, Malavan Media, £14.99.

This is the tenth and latest in a series of books designed to celebrate the sporting heritage of our country. The importance of the series is vouched by the sponsorship of the series by Historic Scotland for this volume and English Heritage for the previous volumes which all dealt with aspects of English sporting history.

The coverage is encyclopaedic, both in terms of time and variety of sports. A feature of the series is the richness of the pictorial material.

The blurb includes this; “…until now there has been little work on the architectural heritage of British sport and recreation; on the pavilions and clubhouses, the greens, the grounds and the grandstands, the parks, pools, and lidos that form such an integral part of our urban landscape and, whether we play or not, watch or not, our cultural identity too.”

The first seven chapters deal with the history of sport generally in the city of Glasgow and thereafter more particularly in relation to distinct portions of the city, like the East End, Glasgow Green, Queen’s Park, Jordanhill and Anniesland. In each of these chapters there are successions of pictures showing the evolution of stadiums, such as Celtic Park, and of bowling greens and clubhouses.

Chapters 8 to 15 cover specific sports, such as golf, bowls, ice sports, cricket, football, greyhounds and speedway, swimming, and doocots. In relation to each sport there is a profusion of pictures, old and modern. The book is a veritable treasure house of sporting material.

The curler, of course, will look to see how his favourite game is handled. The chapter on Ice Sports contains fourteen pages, largely devoted to curling. A very evocative portion of the text and pictures tells the story of Partick Curling Club, and illustrates this with modern pictures of the club’s curling house and tarmac rink in Victoria Park, Glasgow, which were in use in January this year. No doubt it is preferable to be able to plan and execute a whole season’s curling in an indoor ice rink than to be dependent on the fickleness of John Frost, but these pictures will help to show that we have lost something.

The first building in which curling in Scotland was played indoors on machine-made ice was the spectacular circular, domed, Glasgow Real Ice Skating Palace, situated in Sauchiehall Street directly below the present School of Art. In 1896 a few games were played on the small, circular ice pad. This precursor of modern curling is illustrated by a fine engraving and an architect’s plan.

This is a marvellous book. What a pity that for whatever reason the publishers have chosen to send it forth without an index.

David B Smith.

Previous blog posts here and here are relevant.

Archibald, Earl of Eglinton

2010-07-04T09:22:00.004+01:00

When Archibald, 13th Earl of Eglinton, died in 1861 at the early age of forty nine he was, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 'the most popular nobleman in Scotland', while Disraeli described him as 'the most honest man, and the most straightforward, I ever dealt with'.

He had been active in politics and on the turf. Today he is probably best remembered for his extravagant medieval tournament in 1839, but his legacy to the sport of his native land is more significant.

As a founder of Prestwick Golf Club and its first captain in 1851 he was one of those instrumental in causing the famous golfer Tom Morris to move to the west from St Andrews as golf professional, and later in establishing The Open Championship.

Curlers remember him as an enthusiastic supporter and player of the game. When the Grand Caledonian Curling Club met in Kilmarnock in October 1841 the youthful earl thus addressed the meeting: "…there can be no doubt that there is no curler present who has sent his stone gliding through a port, which, at the distance of the rink, seemed almost impassable - or who has delicately cracked an egg on a stone… - or who has, perhaps, performed a glorious in-wick… - or who has planted his stone on the tee, the all-important stone upon which the success of his party depended - and who has enjoyed the rapturous applause with which such feats have been greeted by his fellow-players, there is not a person present I dare say, who has done and seen all this , who will not engage in the game with pleasure… Who that has passed the day at that game , or enjoyed the glories of in-wicking and out-wicking that does not rejoice that he was born a Scotsman; and glad to think that he is not like the poor shivering wretches of other countries, who know not how to pass the frosty season of the year, and the tedious hours of winter!"

And then the company elected him President for the ensuing year.

This speech is eloquent testimony to the earl’s love of the game and of his warm patriotism.

Two paintings by the famous painter, Charles Lees, R.S.A., celebrate these two games which were such significant parts of his life. In each the earl is shown as a keen votary of the game.

The earlier is the famous The Golfers A Grand Match Played on St Andrews Links 1841, which now belongs to the nation, having been bought by the National Galleries of Scotland in 2002.

The second is the slightly later Grand Match, North versus South, of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, at Linlithgow. This painting, of course, belongs to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

In each of the pictures the earl appears - taking a keen interest in the proceedings - though in neither is he in an ostentatious position.

Last week Bonhams, the famous auctioneers, at a sale of Sporting Memorabilia in Chester, sold a preliminary sketch of our earl in oils on paper done for the golf picture. Such is the fame of the artist and the subject that the price achieved, including buyer’s premium, was £10,920.

The sketch is reproduced by kind permission of Bonhams 1793 Ltd.

David B Smith.

The Diamond Jubilee Painting

2010-06-27T13:37:00.005+01:00

As the Royal Caledonian Curling Club’s diamond jubilee approached in 1898 much thought was given as to how to celebrate the important event.

The main idea for the jubilee had been a brief history of the club. In the hands of the indefatigable chaplain, the Rev. John Kerr, this project blossomed; and instead of a brief sketch there appeared in 1890 the most comprehensive account of the history of, and enthusiastic celebration of every aspect of 'Scotland’s Ain Game' – a work that has never been surpassed.

The idea that bore fruit in 1898 was a companion painting to Charles Lees’s most loved picture, The Grand Match of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club at Linlithgow, which had been created fifty years before. The plan was not to represent an actual Grand Match but to portray the general scene at the Royal Club’s own pond at Carsebreck and to include a comprehensive selection of the curling notables of the day.

The painter, Charles Martin Hardie, RSA, (1858-1916), himself a curler, was selected for the task, but when the true magnitude of the expense involved became clear, and it appeared that the Royal Club’s resources could not meet it, it was the Club’s worthy former president, Sir James Gibson-Craig, convener of the 'selection committee', who commissioned the picture and became its first owner.

(You can see a representation of the painting online here.)

Since the idea was that the picture was to be representative and not personal the decision as to who should be included was the subject of much consultation.

The Annual for 1899-90 contains a long and detailed account of the process by which particular curlers appeared in the finished work.

“From the foregoing summary [the editor writes] it will be seen that, with a very few exceptions where special circumstances have to be considered, to gain a place in the picture a curler had either to have held the highest honour the RCCC can confer, the presidency, or to be the selected representative of his district, or of some club which has gained special honour in the curling world during the last few years. But though the selection has been made from a purely curling point of view, there is no game which can boast of such a list of men among its active votaries who have distinguished themselves in other paths of life as is to be found in this short leet of curlers.

The present government is strongly represented by the First Lord of the Treasury, the Secretary for Scotland, the Lord Chamberlain, and a Lord-in-Waiting, the last one by the Lord High Treasurer and First Commissioner of Works. Colonial Government is represented by a Viceroy of India and Governors of Victoria and South Australia. Municipal government by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and the Provost of Selkirk, County government by the Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfriesshire and the Conveners of Midlothian, Perthshire, and Fife. The Church by three out of the four Lord High Commissioners since 1868, by the chaplain and by the minister of Mouswald. The Press by a proprietor of the leading newspaper in Scotland. Agriculture by two presidents, nine vice-presidents, the treasurer and several directors of the Highland and Agricultural Society. As representatives of other sports we have the Master of the Renfrewshire Hounds and Captains of the Royal and Ancient and Prestwick Golf Clubs, while Sir Waldie Griffith and Mr. I'Anson represent the Turf. Those who have held or still hold commissions in the Army, Militia, or Volunteers, and members of County Council; Parish Councils, School Boards, etc., are too numerous to mention. The Committee consider they may he congratulated on the success of the selection, and anticipate that the picture and its engravings will be of interest not merely to curlers, but to all Scotsmen.”

The artistic work involved in the capturing of over sixty likenesses was immense. We are fortunate that some of Hardie’s preliminary work survives.

I have recently been fortunate enough to acquire his oil sketch (above) for Sir Mitchell Thomson, Lord Provost of Edinburgh and president of Craiglockhart Curling Club. It is intialled – in pencil on the canvas – and dated 10.2.99. It consists of a right-facing head and shoulders in just the attitude in which he appears in the painting. When he was painted he was in his fifty third year. He was Lord Provost from November 1897 until 1900 and at the conclusion of his term of office he was created a baronet. At the time of his death in 1918 his residence was No. 6 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, now known as Bute House, and the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland.

David B Smith.

Hercules Ladies

2010-05-05T19:29:00.004+01:00

There are stray accounts of ladies indulging in the 'ancient, manly game' of curling from the second decade of the nineteenth century, but it was not until the century’s end that ladies so far threw away their femininity as to form themselves into curling clubs.

It is perhaps not surprising that the first of these were 'sister clubs', as it were, of well-established men’s clubs. Boghead Loch at Bathgate had been the scene of much curling throughout the century. It was an important centre for the curlers of West Lothian. Similarly, Hercules CC at Elie in Fife was a hotbed of the game, conveniently situated close to Kilconquhar Loch. And so, Hercules Ladies and Boghead Ladies Curling Clubs were the first to be admitted members of the Royal Club in 1895. Balyarrow Ladies (Fife) followed in 1898, and Cambo Ladies (also Fife) in 1899.

The first newspaper reports of the activities of any of these clubs which I have come upon are in The Glasgow Herald of February 6, 1899. Two Balyarrow rinks had taken to the ice on a private pond at Edenfield, beside Springfield in Fife; and Hercules Ladies took on Montrave at Montrave. The report was factual, and brief, and made nothing at all of the new phenomenon of ladies curling.

So quickly and well established did the ladies from Elie become that the opening on October 12, 1899, of a new club house for the Hercules ladies as well as the Hercules gentlemen was reported in the Annual for 1899-1900.

“The house is in two divisions, one for each club. The gentlemen’s house… is fitted up with tables, chairs, and an excellent stove, the gift of Captain Scott-Davidson, while the curling stones are ingeniously boxed in what serves as a seat all round the house. The ladies’ house…is provided with cloak-room and lavatory, and is handsomely furnished with cushioned seats and curtains, while the stones are placed under the seats as in the gentlemen’s house. Here also there is a large, handsome stove, the gift of General Morgan, Elie.

After the formal business of the opening of both houses the lady curlers and the gentlemen curlers took tea together. The curlers then arranged themselves outside the house so that photographs of the ladies and their part of the new house, and the same for the men and theirs, could be taken.

The fashion for ladies’ clubs looked as if it might catch on: in addition to those already mentioned Boarhills Ladies (Fife) was instituted and joined the Royal Club in 1902, but thereafter the movement appears to have fizzled out. By 1930 the only two ladies’ clubs to appear in the Annual were Hercules Ladies’ and Edinburgh Ladies, formed in 1912 but not joining the Royal Club until 1924.

David B Smith.

The illustration is of Hercules Ladies outside their new curling house. The photograph originally appeared in the RCCC Annual for 1899-1900.

The Glasgow Real Ice Skating Palace

2010-04-25T23:03:00.003+01:00

It might be asserted that the modern era of curling in Scotland began on 9 October 1895, for in that day’s Glasgow Herald there was published the prospectus of The Glasgow Real Ice Skating Palace Ltd with its proposal to turn the Panorama Building in Sauchiehall Street into a “real ice Skating Palace, such as has proved so attractive to the general public, and so profitable to the Shareholders in London, Paris, Brussels, and Munich…”

The existing building, a handsome circular and domed structure, the use of which had been to display large panoramic pictures of historical events such as the Battle of Bannockburn, was to be transformed into an ice palace to the plans of the well-known Glasgow architect, James Miller. “Should the Directors receive sufficient promises of support, an adjoining piece of ground can be rented sufficiently large to admit of the construction of a curling rink as an annexe to the building.”

The Palace opened to the public “for a short season” on 16 May 1896, for skaters and spectators, who could enjoy the music provided by a “magnificent orchestra” as well as refreshments, while watching not only the antics of the skaters but the “cinematographe”, “which may be said to create living, moving pictures…First the figure of a skirt dancer is thrown on the screen…This is followed by ‘Westminster’, a ‘Blacksmith’s shop’ in which a realistic effect is created by a man thrusting red hot iron into water, followed by rising steam, etc.” It was proclaimed that the “champion skater of the world” would give demonstrations twice daily.

On 2 June the Palace advertisement boasted that the ice was “THE TRIUMPH OF THE AGE !” and announced that as well as “skating on the most Superb Ice Surface in Europe” there would be “CURLING (TRIAL) MATCH from 9 till 11 a.m. to which all Members of Curling Clubs are invited…”

Partick CC took part in the trial. We are fortunate that their secretary, realising the historical importance of what was taking place, recorded the event:

“Eight players forming two rinks, took part in a game on this date within the Glasgow Real Ice Co.’s Skating Palace, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. The game lasted two and a half hours and nineteen heads were played and resulted in a win for Mr White, [President], of eight shots.. There was a beautiful sheet of ice, which was very keen, and, although the length of the rink was some yards shorter than usual (thirty yards being the extreme distance), the game was thoroughly enjoyed by players and spectators alike. This was the first game ever played in Scotland on artificial ice…”

On 11 June the advertisement for the first time solicited applications to the general manager for ice for curling, hockey, etc. On 3 July a hockey match took place.

The first season came to an end on 6 August when the Palace closed for alterations. It reopened on 27 August when it became, until the beginning of December, a vaudeville theatre. On the reopening evening and for the rest of the week patrons could enjoy:- Royal Yokahama Troupe of Jugglers; Hartz, the world’s greatest magician; Miss Lilian Lea, soprano vocalist; Clown Clemolo and Comical Monkeys; Mark Anthony, vocal comedian; The Great Bale Troupe, acrobatic bicyclists; Arpad Argyal, Hungarian sleigh-bell viruoso; Brothers Artols, gymnastic grotesques; Curtis Dalton, baritone vocalist; Mr and Mrs Dickson Moffat, society sketch; and Mr James Norrie, tenor vocalist, not to mention the Local Pictures on the cinematographe, The Gordon Highlanders leaving Maryhill Barracks, and Rothesay Pier – Steamer “Columba” , Arrival and Departure.

From December 12 until it finally closed on 1 May 1897 skating seems to have been the main business though the adverts solicited applications for curling, and there was a Grand Ice Carnival in March.

In the advert of 21 April 1897 there were announced curling matches: Port Glasgow v. Lilybank, and the next day, Breadalbane Lochearnhead v. Breadalbane Killin, to be followed by a hockey match. The last advertisement was that Wishaw would play Motherwell on Wednesday 28, and Glasgow Lilybank would play Paisley the next day.

One cannot but notice the contrast between the short, diminutive rink of the Palace and the massive, fourteen-sheeter in Chelyabinsk, Russia, where the recent World Senior championships were held.

The next public announcement was that on 1 May the Palace was closing for the season.

This was closely followed by the formal announcement in July of the voluntary liquidation of the company. The final act was the sale by auction of all the plant and fittings in November.

Glasgow and Scotland had to wait a further ten years until, with the opening of Crossmyloof Ice Rink in 1907, the modern era of Scottish curling – on artificial ice in indoor rinks – really began.

David B Smith.

The top print shows the building before its transformation into the Glasgow Real Ice Skating Palace. It was situated in Sauchiehall Street directly below where the Glasgow School of Art now is.

A sketch of the interior of the Palace. The circular form of the building can be seen, as can the viewing gallery above, and the orchestra in full swing.

David B Smith

Curling's dollies

2010-03-29T18:17:00.014+01:00

The Rules of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club provide in relation to the 'House', which is defined as 'the area within the outside circle at each end of the sheet', that 'with the tees as centres, circles having radii of 1.22m (4 feet) and 1.83m (6 feet) shall be drawn. Additional inner circles may also be drawn.'

There is no provision for painting the ice or any part of it in order to create the coloured, target-like houses which are such a characteristic feature of present-day indoor curling. There is no doubt that coloured circles add a great deal to the visual appeal of the game. In fact, the coloured circles are what strikes the casual television viewer as the characteristic image of the game

The purpose of the colour is, however, to assist the curler to assess where each stone is lying in relation to the house, and, perhaps more importantly, the tee, when it is his turn to deliver the stone.

Painting the circles is a comparatively recent custom. For a large part of the history of curling the curler played to a house which was only scored in the ice. It was difficult to see from the hack how the stones lay in relation to the tee.

The original way of reducing this difficulty was to mark the tee with a moveable object, known as the 'tee-marker'. This was usually made of wood so that if a stone perchanced to come into contact with it, it did nothing to affect the running of the stone. The marker had to be small in cross-section so that it took up as little room as possible, and high so that it could be seen above any stones that were lying near it. What better shape for this device than a bottle? Hence in many a place the 'tee-marker' was known as 'the bottle'. In other places the shape was like a skittle.

J. Gordon Grant in The Complete Curler, (1914), writes, “In addition to the bottle which is occasionally to be found in the ‘press’ of the club-house, another ‘bottle’ can sometimes be observed on the pond – a solid wooden ‘bottle’, totally unconnected with aqua vitae. It is usually about the size of an ordinary quart bottle, and stands on and indicates the position of the tee to the man on the crampit. It is not an indispensable adjunct of the game (as many consider the other bottle to be), and, accordingly, some clubs never make use of it…if the ‘bottle’ is in the way of a moving stone, it ought to be removed temporarily out of the way of the stone, but often the skip is too late in trying to reach it, and accordingly the ‘bottle’ is knocked down or sent skimming along the ice. But this is not really of any consequence, as the collision with the ‘bottle’ has no appreciable effect on the motion of the stone; the ‘bottle’ gets the worst of the encounter.”

Robin Welsh in his International Guide to Curling, (1985) classed the tee-marker as one of the pieces of curling equipment which was extinct in Scotland, just like the 'duster'. I have never seen a 'bottle' used in indoor play but when I began to curl at Haymarket in the early 1960s some of the older skips still used the 'duster' to indicate either a stone to be struck out or the place a draw had to end up. At the risk of sounding a bit like Chic Murray I should explain that the duster was called the duster because it was a duster – one of the bright yellow variety with which we’re still familiar, and the skip used to wave it to the player and then throw it down on the ice in the place where he wished the stone to finish.

For some reason, which I have been unable to discover, the 'bottle' came to be called the 'dolly' in Switzerland. (In fact, one of Switzerland’s most famous competitions is for the Dolly Cup of Geneva Curling Club, which will be played for the 53rd time on November 26-28, 2010.) Neither the Oxford English Dictionary or the Dictionary of the Scots Language has an entry for 'dolly', in the curling sense.

Curiously, A Noel Mobbs in his book, Curling in Switzerland, (1929), which deals with all aspects of the game in that country and in which one might reasonably have expected the author to elaborate on the use of the dolly, only mentions the 'Dolly' to define it as 'A wooden skittle placed on the ice to make the position of the tee visible from the other end of the rink'.

David B. Smith

Top photo: This splendid 'bottle' was specially made for a rink of Aboyne Curlers, under their president, the Rev. T.S. Gray, at the Grand Match of December 24, 1934, the last to be held at Carsebreck. Curiously the Annual for 1937 which records this Match does not include this rink!

Above: Two tee-markers beside a stone of standard size. The red one on the left featured in the curling scene in the film My Life So Far. The film crew repainted it. The other one is from Dunblane.

The story behind the photograph

2010-02-09T21:16:00.004Z

Click on the photo to see it larger size

Old-Time Bonspiel in Edinburgh

I recently came across a photograph of a group of curlers posing in front of a motley selection of ancient curling stones. Since Lindsay Scotland was in the picture I sent it to him.

He in turn sent it to Bob Cowan to test how many of the curlers Bob could name. Bob forwarded it to me with the request that I write 'a wee post around' the photo.

Here goes.

On 30 December 1972 the Abbotsford Curling Society had a game 'using Dave Smith’s collection of old stones', as the Scottish Curler put it in its account of the game in February 1973, under the above title.

"Since none of the old stones matched, either in size, shape, weight or running property, it was decided to revert to the late 18 th century custom of having eight in a rink, each throwing one stone. This, of course, meant that six were available for sooping…Sometimes the skips couldn’t see the stone for brushes, besoms and bottoms (when there are six sweepers helping the stone along it’s not always easy to ‘sweep to a side’)... It took a couple of ends to learn the idiosyncracies of one’s allotted stone, but thereafter the standard of play was high."

Eleven ends were played in two and a half hours; Professor Murray McGregor from Guelph, Canada, ably assisted by his two sons, Bob and Scott, skipped the winning rink; and beat the said Dave Smith by 16 shots to 6.

The photograph shows: back row, left to right: Calwell Loughridge, David Brown, Lindsay Scotland, Sandy Moffat, David B Smith, Jim Gardner, Alastair Stewart, ?, Murray McGregor and Ronnie Malcolm; front row: Bob McGregor, Hazel Smith, Bob Martin, Janice McGregor, Jessie Loughridge, and Scott McGregor.

Dave Smith was the only person who followed his own suggestion that people might like to dress up in a sort of eighteenth century style!

Sadly two of the curlers are no longer with us, but most of the remaining Scots are still actively involved in the game one way or another. So obsessed with it did Ronnie Malcolm become that he chose to be manager of Murrayfield Ice Rink.

Murray McGregor was professor of agricultural economics at the University of Guelph, Ontario, and he and his family, of two sons and a daughter of curling age, and a daughter who was too young and therefore kept her mother off the ice, spent a year’s sabbatical in Scotland. So keen were they on curling that before the year was over they had curled in nearly every ice rink in Scotland, and made friends all over the country. When he left Murray donated a fine silver quaich for competition in Edinburgh. I am very proud to have won it.

As can be seen from the photograph the stones were mainly single-soled, circular, early nineteenth century. The sharp-eyed may think they can discern the massive Jubilee Stane, but, no, it was a fibre-glass replica included in the picture to enhance the 'old-time' atmosphere.

David B Smith.

The Widgerys at Breakfast

2010-02-06T12:24:00.003Z

The magazine Funny Folks that ran from 1874 until 1894 commenced a series of humorous pieces in February 1886, entitled The Widgerys at Breakfast.

Mr Widgery usually began by mentioning something he had just read in the morning paper, and Mrs Widgery at once began to misunderstand him. Some such topics were 'billiards', 'hare and hounds', 'football' (she, of course didn’t understand ‘dribbling’), 'the new German Diet' (which she thought was about food and not politics).

Curiously the very first of the series involved Mrs W’s failure to understand the game of curling. She can hardly have been the only English citizen who did not understand the pastimes of her northern neighbours.

From Funny Folks, 20 February 1886.

THE WIDGERYS AT BREAKFAST

"Capital curling match they've just had in Scotland," remarked Widgery, with his eyes on the sporting column and his feet in the coal scuttle. "Should like to have been there."

"La!" said Mrs Widgery, handing him the toast, "I didn’t know curling was in again. Were the competitors regular hairdressers, or only ladies’ maids?"

"Curling, my love," returned Widgery, putting down the paper and bracing himself up for the inevitable, “in this connection has nothing whatsoever to do with feminine coiffure, but is one of the national pastimes of Scotland, and it has the great advantage over many other sports that it is bound to be a straight game, and - "

"A straight game?" interrupted his spouse. "I – I – don’t quite see –"

"Don’t quite see what, dearest?"

"Why, how it can be such a very straight game if it’s curling!"

After a savage bite at his toast, Mr. W. benignly proceeded:

"I’ll just give you an idea of the pastime. My love. You see – a bonspiel, as a match is called –"
"I see," jerked in Mrs. W. "Bonspiel. That’s Scotch for spills; but we don’t call ‘em matches because they don’t have any brimstone on the tips."

"I was speaking of a curling match, darling, not pipe-lights or Lucifer matches," explained Mr. W., blandly. "Curling is played in a rink with a pair of curling stones –"

"Oh, not a pair of curling irons, then," trespassed Mrs. W. once more. I should have thought –"

"I said curling stones, love."

"La! How funny; I didn’t suppose stones could be curled, anyhow."

Widgery looked more than half inclined to kick the cat, but with an effort he swallowed his pride, and refrained.

"Well, poppet, the players, all having crampets on their shoes –"

"Crumpets in their shoes!" echoed Mrs. W. "Well, I never heard of that before. To be sure,” she continued, contemplatively, “they’re softer than muffins would be, and “ –

“No, dearest; I said crampets. Crampets are little spikes to prevent slipping on the ice.”

“Oh, I see now, it’s (s)pikelets you mean, then, isn’t it?” was his better half’s triumphant solution of her puzzle.

“Ahem! Well, there’s a hogscore on the ice –"

“Oh, they hold their pig-market there, then. I’ve read of hogs sold by the score” –

“No, no, dearest, the hogscores are marks upon the ice, drawn at a certain distance from the tees” –

“What do they let a tease be there for? Isn’t he likely to interrupt the play?”

“No, pet, the tees are the centres of the rinks. Well, then each side has a skip” –

“Why, then, they must play at something like hop-scotch.”

“Not at all, child, there’s no resemblance whatever.”

“But they skip in hop-scotch, and hop and jump too,” insisted Mrs. W.

Widgery still manfully commanded his temper.

“In curling, a skip is a sort of judge,” he explained. “Well, then, the players whose stones are best soled – “

“Do they get a good price for them?”

“Get a good price for what, darling?”

“Why, for the stones, when they’re sold?”

“No, ownest, when a stone is well played, it is said to be soled – understand?”

“Oh, yes, now, of course. Then there’s never any occasion to have them heeled as well as soled, I suppose.”

Widgery felt a sort of sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, nevertheless, after an attack on the coffee and toast, he proceeded:

“A stone on the move is called a running stone. You’d be surprised at the tremendous speed a running stone attains.”

“Oh, yes, I know,” wedged in Mrs. W., sweetly. “It must be a very hard runner indeed, I’m sure.”

“Exactly,” acquiesced W., beginning to glare. “Well, then, you see, each side does its best to cut the other out, as it’s called.”

“I see; then there’s cutting as well as curling going on?”

Though Widgery secretly gnashed his teeth, and felt his pulse under the table, he suppressed himself, and continued, as if he liked it:

“Yes, pet, and a good curler’s a bit of a twister too, I can tell you. By the way, there’s one thing about curling, the players being on the hard rink all the time” –

“Oh, the hard drink! How dreadful!” said Mrs. W., horrified. “That’s the worst of men; they can’t get together for ever such a little time without having too much of these horrid stimulants.”

“I was about to observe, sweetest, that being in the hard rink – h, a, r, d, hard; r, i, n, k, rink, hard rink – all the time, makes ‘em peckish, and gets ‘em into good condition to do justice to the curler’s fare, as it’s called, of beef and greens.”

“La! What’s it called curler’s fare for?” inquired Mrs. W., innocently.

“Why, oh, well, because it’s symbolical of fare play, I suppose, sweetest. Hell! There’s my ‘bus.”

And he was out of the house and clambering up to his seat beside the driver almost before he realised that he had left the room without bestowing upon her the customary salute.

David B Smith.

Almost contemporary with The Widgerys at Breakfast these woodcuts appeared in The Graphic of 7 February, 1880.

Click on the graphic to see a bigger size.

A blether about some favourite medals

2010-01-18T11:59:00.004Z

Most clubs have, if not an actual medal, a note in their minute book that shows that they once had a medal. For a long period – from the beginning of the nineteenth century to its end - the medal was a very popular form of trophy, far more popular than the cup.

When I use the word 'trophy' I mean that the medal was played for year after year, and did not ever become the property of a winner unless, for example, in terms of the donation he had won it three times in succession, in which case he won it 'outright'.

This philosophy could cause difficulty if the medal was meant to be played for in rinks, but even here there was a custom in some parts of the country of having a match at points, involving all the rink members, and the winner of the points carried off the medal as his own.

An early form of embellishment of the obverse, or front, of a medal was an engraving of a curler in the act of throwing, or having just thrown, a stone.

The first of my favourites is new to the collection, for it was a Christmas present from my wife in 2009. As can be seen from the photograph it is of modest size, a standard medal of the sort which could be bought blank in many a silversmith’s shop, and then engraved to suit its purpose, whether for a curling or a ploughing match, or a horticultural society.

Not too many were as elegantly engraved as this one. The curler delivering the stone is wearing not only a tall, silk hat but on his feet are crampets, the pronged devices much favoured in the south west to give a sure footing. This they did, but at the cost of mangling the ice. Our curler appears below a ribbon on which are the words: RAISED BY SUBSCRIPTION. The stone he has thrown is of the older-fashioned variety, single-soled; that is, with its handle permanently fixed to the top surface.

On the reverse are the words which show that the club which subscribed for the medal was that of Springholm in Kirkcudbrightshire. Sadly, although I have applied to some of the oldest and most knowledgeable curlers of that part of Scotland, such as Ramsay Lamont and Tom Rennie, I have been unable to find out anything about the history of this club.

The other medal is also old, and slightly larger. One can tell that it is old by the suspension, which consists of two, crossed brooms of early to mid-nineteenth century shape. My daughter noticed it in an antique emporium in Victoria Street, Edinburgh, long since replaced, as it happened, by my favourite curry restaurant, Khushi’s, sadly, also no more in that location for it burned down some months ago.

The medal to which my daughter drew my attention was blank on both sides; and so it remained for some time. As I found the blankness a bit displeasing, I decided to have the medal finished as it might have been more than a hundred years before.

What better motif for the obverse than a bearded, Tam-o-Shantered curler delivering a stone? I knew just the design: one of the water colours by R.M. Alexander, which belong to the Scottish Curling Museum Trust, fitted the bill exactly. And I knew just the man to do the engraving, John Grant, the superb heraldic engraver in Edinburgh.

I had an important birthday coming up; and I resolved that the beautifully engraved medal should be a present from me to me.

All that remained to do was compose the appropriate donation inscription: just within the rim:

DAVID BUCHANAN SMITH 31 OCTOBER 1996; and within that: GLACIEM AMAVIT ATQUE COTEM.

Quite a number of people have asked me from what Roman author the Latin quotation is taken. I have to confess that, Roman as it may look, it is entirely Scottish, made up by myself. It says: “He loved the ice and the stone.”

David B Smith.

The Grand Match of 2010 That Never Was

2010-01-11T15:46:00.003Z

It was not without some justification that a journalist from The Observer in 1963 described curling’s largest outdoor bonspiel as 'sport’s greatest non-event'. When I wrote about Grand Matches in my Curling: An Illustrated History, published in 1981, I was able to say that since the first and second in 1847 and 1848 there had been only 33 outdoor Grand Matches.

Sad to say, the Grand Total as at January 10, 2010, remains the same.

There are good reasons why such a large event can’t happen with great frequency.

First, the climate of Scotland is not really designed to give us enough ice very often. It is interesting to record – against all the recent statements that SEVEN or EIGHT inches of ice are needed – a piece from The Glasgow Herald of January 17, 1855:

“THE ROYAL CALEDONIAN CURLING CLUB MATCH. – The secretary of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club had reported last night that he would have been able to make arrangements for the national match on Tuesday next, but the reports from Carsebreck rendered that impossible. Ice four inches thick is deemed necessary to sustain the weight of so large a concourse of persons as usually attend the match, and this thickness has not yet been attained…”

This year, however, it was not a lack of thickness of ice, - whether FOUR or SEVEN inches are requisite - it was a lack of polis and emergency personnel to deal with a major incursion of traffic on minor roads already under strain from snow and ice, and all the anticipated emergencies, that caused the abandonment of attempts to put on a grand match at the Lake of Menteith.

Against the 'health and safety' arguments it may be worth saying – and saying loudly – that my researches over many years have disclosed NO FATALITIES AT ALL during the 163 years of Grand Matches.

The second reason for infrequency is that there is a major difference between a proposed match of the present day and all the pre-War events, namely, that now all the participants and spectators would expect to arrive in their own motor vehicles, whereas hitherto the main mode of transport was the railway train. Carsebreck had a railway siding, which, though far from ideal, allowed large numbers of curlers to disembark with their stones from numbers of special trains. An influx of curlers and spectators arriving by road would have been impossible at Carsebreck, just as it has been judged to be impossible to cope with at the Lake of Menteith.

Carsebreck siding 1929. The RCCC pond is to the right. The access was not ideal!

Many a match in the past had to be cancelled after all the arrangements including the marking out of the rinks had been accomplished.

Even when they did take place it was sometimes with difficulty.

The Match of January 29, 1929, was such a one. The report in the Annual says: “The Grand Match at Carsebreck was pulled off…with difficulty and under adverse conditions. Indeed, had the thaw been of a little longer standing or a little more rapid, play would have been impossible. As it was, the Match was played in circumstances of considerable discomfort…” January 29 was the fourth date fixed in that month.

Below are two more surviving photographs of the 1929 Match which give some idea of the uncomfortable conditions.

The busy scene at the pond-side. The reflections give a clue to the conditions underfoot on the ice.

This must be after the Match. Curlers ready to depart.

David B Smith

Clarissa and the Wild Scotsmen

2010-01-06T12:07:00.005Z

This photo was taken on Coodham Loch on January 3, 2010, as a number of enthusiasts were enjoying a great day curling on outside ice (photos here). David Smith is talking to local resident Katrina Tweedie, not herself a curler, but enjoying herself with her family skating on the loch.

The scene reminded me of a story David had written for the Hogliner daily magazine when the World Ladies Championship was held at Paisley's Lagoon Centre in 2005. Here's what he wrote:

"By the 1920s, when the following poem was composed, curling was very popular in Switzerland in all sorts of Alpine places, such as Chateau d’Oex, and Wengen and Kandersteg and St Moritz.

The game was as yet little played by the native Swiss but large numbers of Brits - English as well as Scots - spent a week or more in fine hotels enjoying outdoor curling in what was often clear, sunny weather. The après-curl was very important.

The poem and illustration are from a delightful little volume, Winter Sportings, by Reginald Arkell, published in 1929. Clarissa’s picture is by Lewis Baumer. Both convey the spirit of the times vividly.

The Girl Who Was Torn to Pieces by Wild Scotsmen

Clarissa - isn’t it a shame,
I can’t recall her other name,
I knew it once, but I forget -
Was just a modest violet
Who simply couldn’t stand a crowd.
She only asked to be allowed
To luge or bob or skate or ski
When no one else was there to see:
Avoided carnival and ball -
Was not gregarious at all.

Clarissa, one December day,
Had just arrived at Chateau d’Oex,
When she espied a sheet of ice
That looked particularly nice.
It’s surface was beyond compare,
No single skater skated there -
Clarissa didn’t stop to think,
She skated on the Curling Rink.

Oh me! Oh my! Oh us! Oh you!
There was a Bonspiel overdue,
And fifty lairds had taken pains
To polish up their granite stanes;
And fifty lairds were lurking round
The Curling Rink - that holy ground.

Beginners, please! The stage is set!
Clarissa lit a cigarette.
She puffed it gaily once or twice,
The threw it down upon the ice;
Waved to the Scotsmen standing by
And started in to do or die.

She died! In agony untold!
The dreadful details I withhold,
But, if you see a piece of ice,
That looks particularly nice,
Dear Reader, ere you start to skate,
Ponder upon Clarissa’s fate."

Needless to say, Katrina did not venture onto the curling rink last Sunday. Indeed her presence at Coodham was much appreciated by all the wild scotsmen present on the day - she heated up the lunchtime soup for us all. Thanks Katrina!

Aberdeen and curling

2009-12-01T19:27:00.001Z

The forthcoming European Curling Championships at Aberdeen are my excuse for passing on some facts about the early history of the game in Aberdeen and the north east of Scotland.

The first interesting fact is that there is no early history of the game there. Although golf is well documented from the end of the sixteenth century we have to wait until the middle of the nineteenth for the first reference to a game of curling played in the city. In fact, when The Aberdeen Magazine of March 1831 reviewed Sir Richard Broun’s Memorabilia Curliana Mabenensia it is clear that the game was unknown.

“Curling is a game, of which, even in name, many of our readers are ignorant. The enthusiasm with which it is followed in the south of Scotland passes belief. It is not many years since the Magistrates of Edinburgh were wont to proceed to Duddingston, in all their official robes and insignia, with Town-drummers before and Town-serjeants behind, attended by the Highland bodies of the Town Guard, with Lochaber-axes, to witness the games. Some parts of the Inverury canal would do as well for a rink …

If they [the readers] have never seen a curling stone, we may tell them it is, for all the world, just like the Mechanics’ Institution in King Street, supposing it a little rounded off at the base and flattened at the top, and with the chimney bent at right-angles for a handle. Those used at Dumfries are like a sugar-loaf or a glass-house; some are of the shape of Dutch cheeses; and others of a sort of cheese, of which we do not know the name, oblong and higher than they are broad.

If it should ever be the intention of the gentlemen of Aberdeen to attempt this manly exercise, we recommend the book before us as containing all that need be known on the subject; it is full of animation, and being, as we believe, the work of one of the first curlers in Scotland, if nothing more, it must afford an interesting picture of a game practised in a remote district of the country, and quite unknown in England or Aberdeen.”

The Aberdeen Journal of 28 January 1878 prefaced a report of some district medal matches at Aboyne with these words: “Within the last few years this excellent winter game, which at one time was only heard of in the south, has become a very popular game in the north of Scotland, and almost every year a new club is being added to the list of those already in connection with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, which has for its patron His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, its president the Earl of Breadalbane, and its vice-president the Earl of Glasgow. The Royal Caledonian Curling Club was established in the year 1838, the name of the founder being unknown. Since then there have been no fewer than 495 local clubs initiated into the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (three of which only are in the county of Aberdeen), and it still goes on increasing. The game is generally known as 'roaring game', a name derived from the amount of 'roaring' necessary on the part of the skips in giving directions to the players. It is the national game of Scotland, and one better adapted to the country could not have been devised. It is an excellent game in every respect. It is the best combination of sport, health-giving exercise, pleasurable excitement, and scientific play that has yet engaged the attention of the robust inhabitants of North Britain. Its popularity is then well-deserved.”

The writer quite clearly betrays his unfamiliarity with the game in attributing the 'roaring' of fits popular name to the shouts of the skips: we southerners know that it echoes the rumbling noise of a curling stone as it runs over water-borne ice.

The article then goes on to describe the matches played at Aboyne for four Royal Caledonian Curling Club district medals among the curling clubs of Fettercairn, instituted in 1852, Braemar in 1854, Aboyne in 1867, and Aberdeen in 1874. "All the games were well contested, and yielded a great amount of enjoyment and pleasurable excitement."

It may be of interest to see how the curlers travelled to their goal, Aboyne.

“The Braemar men arrived by first train for Aberdeen at eight o’clock. The Fettercairn were next to arrive, about nine o’clock, in an open brake, in which they had driven about 4 ½ hours from home; and the Aberdeen players arrived by the 9.30 train. All then proceeded to the ice, about half-a-mile from the station, with brooms in hand, each to put forth his skill in attempting to gain the medals.”

The writer of this piece was in error in so far as he seemed to suggest that curling was unknown in Aberdeen until the founding of the club in 1874, for The Aberdeen Journal of 10 January 1849 reported: “The frost which has prevailed during the week, more or less intense, has been taken advantage of by those of our citizens who can enjoy the healthful and exhilarating amusements of the ice. On a small sheet of water in the Old-town Links, the Curling Club have met on several days, - and some excellent and keenly contested ‘bonspiels’ have been played; while around them, bands of skaters, of all sizes, kept skimming along in every direction, with amazing dexterity and beauty of locomotion, and vieing with the wind in speed - the whole presenting a pleasing and animating scene. On Friday, a number of the Curlers, after a keen afternoon’s sport wound up, in characteristic manner, by partaking of ‘curlers’ fare’, in St Nicholas Hotel – among the first occasions of the kind on record in the annals of ‘our northern city cold’. This fine national game, hitherto little known here, is at present quite the rage in the south; it is enjoyed by all classes, and friendly contests of opposition Clubs are going on with great spirit.”

The Old-town Links, or King’s Links, lie between Old Aberdeen and the sea, and have provided ground for golf for the citizens of Aberdeen for more than five centuries.

David B Smith.

The illustration at the top of the page is a late seventeenth century view of Old Aberdeen, looking north. A small portion of the Old-town Links can be seen on the right edge of the woodcut. It is from Slezer's Theatrum Scotiae.

I am indebted to John Burnett for assistance in the preparation of this article. DBS

Curling's High Flyers

2009-10-06T11:16:00.007+01:00

Last August I posted a piece about a game held high in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland but also deep within a glacier (see here). It was, of course, the famous game in the ice palace at the Jungfraujoch above Grindelwald, and it took place at 11,333 feet above sea level.

I suppose that these curlers, like the first conquerors of Mount Everest, did what they did 'because it was there'. When I proposed climbing yet another peak my children when they were little used to chant the song, “Daddy climbed over the mountain, daddy climbed over the mountain, daddy climbed over the mountain - to see what he could see. And what do you think he saw? And what do you think he saw? The other side of the mountain; the other side of the mountain; the other side of the mountain - was all that he could see.”

Mountains do seem to present a challenge to the human race and as curlers are part of the human race they sometimes accept the challenge.

The royal burgh of Stirling lies at the foot of that fine and picturesque but comparatively low range of mountains, the Ochil Hills. They seem to have offered a challenge to a 'knight of the broom', for on February 9, 1866, in the Stirling Journal there appeared this advertisement:

“Wanted seven swells who are game for a day’s curling on Demyat. Apply to Mr Moss, office of this paper. NB Donkeys can be got to carry up the stones.”

Demyat, or Dumyat, to use the modern spelling, is the highest point of the range, but it is only 1373ft or 418m in height above sea level. Sadly, neither history nor the Stirling Journal tells us whether the challenge was accepted. If it was, the curlers would have been able to enjoy one of the finest views in Lowland Scotland over the meanderings of the River Forth to far away Edinburgh.

About twenty years later some curlers in Lochaber at the foot of Ben Nevis, than which there is no higher point in these islands, again felt the challenge of the mountain. Their excuse was the lack of ice at sea level. This time, however, their exploits were fully recorded, and here is the report from the Glasgow Herald of, January 5, 1885.

“FORT-WILLIAM. –The Lochaber Curling Club had an excellent game on Saturday. The knights of the broom, getting impatient that there was no ice to play on the low ground, resolved to ascend to Lochan Meall-an-t-Suidhe 1850ft. above sea level. Accordingly, three horses were laden with curling stones and brooms. These were despatched at 8 A.M., and the curlers left at 9 A.M., arrived at the lake 10.30A.M., and found the ice excellent, of unknown thickness, and any strength. There was no snow on it, but slight snow fell during the game. Play was continued for four hours. The following were the rinks: - Married – D.Macniven (skip), D.Sinclair, T.A.Ainslie, John McCallum, 26; Single – C.Livingstone, (skip), E.Cameron, John Young, A.S. Macintyre, 22. A number of skaters followed the curlers. The whole party arrived at Fort-William at 6 P.M.”

Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe is well up the Ben Nevis massif. This must be the highest match ever played in Scotland.

Top photo shows Dumyat and the Ochil Hills viewed northeast from the Wallace Monument. Photo © Copyright Chuck Schubert and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

This is Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe, viewed from the path to Ben Nevis. Photo © Copyright Stephen Sweeney and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Ben Nevis seen from the south. The tourist path can be seen, and Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe is in the notch on the left. Photo © Copyright Graham Scott and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Partick Curling Club

2009-09-22T09:02:00.002+01:00

Partick Curling Club's new two-rink pond was opened at the beginning of the 1900-01 season. More than one hundred years later, the tarmac is no longer in pristine condition. The fact that it still exists at all is quite amazing!

This plaque records the generosity of two of the Kennedy brothers.

The club house stands next to the pond on the north east corner of Victoria Park.

There's a plaque on the wall in the house which states, "This Clubhouse House was presented to Partick Curling Club by Provost William Kennedy 1902." William was the third of the Kennedy brothers.

Here, Peter Shill describes the famous Partick Bell trophy, on Doors Open Day in 2009.

The scrapbook records club activities in the latter years of the twentieth century, with photos of members on the ice at Crossmyloof, Aviemore, the Summit Centre and Letham Grange, all rinks that are no more! And of course there are many photos of curling on their own Victoria Park pond.

This is a photographic record of the Grand Match on the Lake of Menteith in 1979.

These stones, of an unusual red-brown metal, still bear red stickers indicating they were used at the 1979 Grand Match.

Rare examples of carrying cases of leather and canvas construction. Note the colourful pom poms used to identify stones when playing outside.

The second room of the club house is lined with wooden lockers for members' stones.

Crampets, or foot irons, sit above the lockers.

'Long John' Anderson was the club's president in 1843. It is recorded that he once curled for 36 hours non stop. The Royal Caledonian Curling Club Annual for 1899 has a different photo but the same stones at his feet, and says, "Mr Anderson relates to the writer the most eventful occasion in his curling career. This was when he spent, on one occasion, thirty six sonsecutive hours on the ice. He started at six o'clock in the morning with a few friends just to give them a game before they went to business at ten o'clock. When these departed a fresh lot turned out, who occupied the day until well on in the afternoon; and when darkness set in, and the players were about to depart, a contingent turned up from Govan (their pond having been leaking), and with the aid of a plentiful supply of candles, etc., they curled all through the night and all the following day till six at night, but added Mr Anderson, 'I was a young man then, being a bit under sixty'."

The club house had all modern conveniences!

And the pond had lighting to allow play in the evenings.

Photos are by Bob. We wish the Partick Curling Club every success in their efforts to secure the future of the pond and club house.

Curling's history celebrated in restored Thomson's Tower

2009-08-02T15:02:00.004+01:00

Thomson's Tower, here seen from across Duddingston Loch, was built by the Duddingston Curling Society whose members first penned the rules of curling. It was their 'curling house' where they met and kept their stones. It was constructed in 1825.

The Tower is an octagonal building designed by William Henry Playfair (1789-1857), a famous Edinburgh architect. Duddingston Curling Society was one of the foremost societies of its time, having a membership of eminent men of the day including peers, baronets, judges, and lawyers. In 1804 the society drew up a Code of Laws by which play was to be regulated. These eventually formed the basis for the rules of curling.

The Tower is within Dr Neil's Garden. More on the history of the club and of the curling house is on the the website of Dr Neil's Garden Trust here.

The Tower was completely derelict until 1978 when it was re-roofed by the Duddingston Village Conservation Society, thanks to donations received from various sources, including Rotarian curlers from Canada.

Over the last two years, Dr Neil's Garden Trust has completely restored the Tower with grant aid from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland. Ian Seath, pictured above, has been instrumental in making the project happen.

The restored building was officially opened on Friday, July 31, 2009. That story is here.

The walls of the curling room have colourful, accurate and informative story boards, such as this one. (Click to view larger size)

The centre of the room has a display case with a variety of treasures!

A number of stones are on display and can be examined closely.

Archive video footage can be watched, bringing curling's history to life. Of particular note, is a film of the 1935 Grand Match on Carsebreck.

Ian Seath with curling historian David B Smith at the official opening of the restored Thomson's Tower.

For details of when Thomson's Tower with the curling exhibit is open, see here. And there's a related history blog post about the Rev John Ramsay, a member of the Duddingston Curling Society, here.

Curling at Campsie Junction

2009-07-29T21:05:00.002+01:00

David Smith offers the results of some recent research. He writes:

It is often of extreme interest to see how differently observers of the same event experience that event.

I have recently been working through online nineteenth century newspapers with a view to noting any articles about curling, of which there are some which interest me a little.

I was amused and intrigued to read the following account of the consequence of the cancellation on 13 January 1871 of a much-postponed Grand Match at Carsebreck.

1871, 14 Jan., Glasgow Herald.

“Glasgow Lilybank v. Cadder (Bishopbriggs) and Kingston (Glasgow) clubs.

The above clubs having met, along with many others, at Dundas Street Station, yesterday, with the intention of proceeding to the Grand Caledonian Match at Carsebreck, on finding that it had again been postponed, went to Campsie Junction and enjoyed a friendly game. There were seven rinks of the Lilybank, five of the Cadder, and two of the Kingston clubs engaged. At the close, the game was in favour of the first-named club…”

I quickly discovered that Campsie Junction was the then name of Lenzie, which was on the main line out of Glasgow, and only a couple of stations beyond Bishopbriggs; and so I presume the curlers all went to the Gadloch near Lenzie for their game.

Lilybank, which was formed in 1865, but had only just joined the Royal Club in 1870, had a pond close to Crossmyloof, but it may have been as easy to take all the curlers and their stones to Lenzie as to take them anywhere else.

Kingston was instituted in 1862. I have never yet found the Kingston club’s pond but I presume it was in that part of Glasgow near to where the Kingston Bridge now crosses the river.

Cadder was formed in 1862, and is the only one to have survived to the present.

All the clubs were new members of the Royal Club and their fresh enthusiasm seems to be displayed in their decision to have a friendly game somewhere if they couldn’t have a Grand Match at Carsebreck.

It was with some anticipation, therefore, that I looked into the Lilybankers’ minute book, of which I have had custody for a number of years. What a disappointment.

The clerk, stolid soul, records merely the results of each game as 'Friendly match with Cadder at Lenzie and Friendly match Kingston at Lenzie', without a word of explanation how these matches came about.

For the record Cadder were beaten by 95 shots to 86; and Kingston by 65 to 20.

David B Smith

Museum plea

2009-06-23T08:54:00.005+01:00

At the Royal Club's AGM last Saturday, David Smith spoke about the proposed curling museum in the Kinross National Curling Academy development at Kinross. He said:

"Sister and Brother Curlers and NAEBODIES, of whom I am certain there are some present! You've heard from Matt Murdoch, Bob Tait and Colin Grahamslaw about the progress so far made in relation to the National Curling Academy at Kinross.

Provision has been made in the plans for a museum - not a huge museum but an adequate museum, and among the trustees we have a professional museum man. We must remember, however, that the stage we're at just now is only an application for outline planning permission.

Although curling is 'Scotland's ain Game' its history has not been very well served by museums in Scotland. There are a few stones here and a few stones there; a picture here, some photographs there, some paraphernalia thonder, a medal or two there, but no museum attempts to tell anything like the whole story of our great national game, the love of which brings here today from all quarters of the country, 'united in a game the darling of our forefathers', as the secretary of Peebles Curling Club put it in 1821.

What the trustees of the RCCC Charitable Trust wish earnestly to do is to fill that void and proclaim to our fellow Scots and the whole world what a glorious history curling has had and what an amazing part of Scotland's culture it has been over the centuries. We are trying to formulate plans as to how the story should be told, and we would very much welcome ideas from fellow curlers.

What we will need more than anything is money. We hope that curlers throughout Scotland and beyond will recognise the importance of such a museum and dig deep into their pockets so that what we create is a 'world-class' institution which will delight us and our overseas friends, and be something of which we as a nation can be proud.

When the appeal for money comes please give generously!"

Perhaps prompted by this speech WCF Vice-President Kate Caithness has already made a donation to the RCCC Charitable Trust. It consists of a GB curling kit for the 1998 Olympics. The trustees are very grateful.

Please contact the Trust via the Royal Caledonian Curling Club here.

Curling under difficulties

2009-05-26T18:33:00.006+01:00

My recent journey across Rannoch Moor and its bleak, inhospitable landscape, reminded me of a story from the Scotsman of February 13, 1895, which I had unearthed before going to speak at the 130th anniversary dinner of Lochaber Curling Club in 2000.

The story is best told as it appeared in the newspaper, for the writer of the article has succeeded in portraying the tremendous enthusiasm of the curlers for the game and their resilience in coping with the 'difficulties' they encountered on the Moor of Rannoch.

Curling under difficulties

"The adventures of a party of curlers on Rannoch Moor last week are probably unprecedented in curling annals, and perhaps not unworthy of record in the Scotsman.

At the initiative of the Dall Club, Rannoch, a friendly match was arranged with the Lochaber Club, Fort-William, to be played on Rannoch Moor on Wednesday last, three rinks a side. Dall is one of the foremost clubs in the Highlands. Instituted in 1850, it has shown its prowess at Southport in Lancashire, against the foremost clubs of the North and South, as well as in play with the neighbouring clubs, and has won no small renown. The Lochaber Club was formed in 1870, and during the twenty five years of its existence has not had a period of frost of so long duration as the present, or of anything like the severity which has been experienced during the last six weeks. The club pond is only a few feet above sea level, and whole winters pass without its having bearing ice. The facilities for play possessed by the club are therefore among the most limited of any in Scotland. It has a considerable membership, however, and among its members are some enthusiastic curlers, who (as events prove) can hold their own with clubs which are able to play from November till April. In its young enthusiasm three rinks of the club on one occasion chartered a steamer to convey them to Oban in order to be able to take part in a grand match at Carsebreck. On that, and on a subsequent occasion when they took part in the grand match, had all the northern clubs done as well as they, the victory had not, as it did, gone to the south. Their Oban neighbours credit them with having, on the evening before the last grand match, telegraphed to stop the match because, having entered three rinks, they could not take part in it owing to a block on the West Highland Railway. The Lochaber men say this is a mere canard got up by the Obanites out of spite to the West Highland Railway, of whose success they are supposed to be extremely jealous. They further retort that in the grand match the Oban Club had need of their help, for the three rinks entered by that club were each and all beaten. And so the chaff goes on to the mutual satisfaction of both parties.

If the Lochaber Club failed to get forward to the grand match, they have not been idle at home. In addition to their play among themselves, in which the president’s rink won the late president’s medal, a young curler carried off the points medal, four rinks of the bachelor members of the club beat an equal number of rinks composed of the married men, and the vice-president’s team beat the president’s. They won the Royal Club medal from Invergarry, and defeated in succession Spean Bridge, Ardgour, Ballachullish, and Oban.

On Wednesday morning of last week, at 7.30, three rinks started by train for Rannoch Station to meet the like number from Dall. The morning promised an altogether favourable day, a promise which was not fulfilled. By the time the teams met, the ice had been cleared of snow, on a small lake about half a mile from the station. But those who were employed in clearing it evidently knew nothing of curling, for when the players reached the ice it was found to be altogether unsuitable for their purpose. As often happens in elevated positions, when the ice is soft, or showers of sleet fall instead of snow, the surface was rendered rough and ridgy with the wind, and instead of being true ice, was merely hardened snow and slush. They had therefore to betake themselves to Loch Laidon, fully a mile from the railway station. Here they had to clear rinks for themselves, and the match commenced somewhat later in the day than was intended. This was unfortunate; for before play had long proceeded, snow began to fall heavily. Loch Laidon is 924 feet above sea-level, and a snowstorm upon it, with a strong wind sweeping over its shelterless surface, is, as the curlers found to their cost, something to try the strongest frame. For a time they persevered, hoping the storm would abate. The stones lying at the one end of the rink could not be seen from the other. The direction of the skips could not be heard. The player could merely see a dim outline of a man, seemingly at a great distance, waving a broom and wildly gesticulating, as if he were the very spirit of the storm. In the direction of this shadowy figure the curling stone was hurled. If it did what was wished, well; if not, the other side thought it better.

In this way play continued for some time. At length a consultation was held, and the game brought by mutual consent to a close. When the totals were summed up, Lochaber was found to have won with the narrowest possible majority. How the game would have ended had it been possible to continue it till the appointed close, no one, of course, can tell. On some future day the two clubs may be able to meet under more favourable circumstances.

The hardships of the curlers were only commencing at the close of their play. They had not only to take themselves, but also their curling-stones, back to the railway station. There were no idlers at hand who could be hired to do this work for those who were the less able to do it for themselves, and there will always be among curlers men whose skill as players is greater than their physical strength. For the strongest even to struggle through the deep snow and the blinding drift was no easy undertaking. The very direction in which they ought to go was more or less uncertain. In one place they had to climb a knoll, which might have been avoided. They would next plunge into a hollow filled with snow, where they sank to the waist. The distance seemed interminable, and the struggle almost too much for human strength. But shelter was reached in safety by all at last.

The place thus reached was a wooden hut used as a licensed store for supplying the wants of the workmen while the line was being constructed, and still occupied. Here, fortunately, there was a considerable supply of food, with an abundance of fuel; and it was well for the curlers that such was the case, for they had to make it their home for the next forty eight hours. The supply of water was scanty, but of strong water, in the form of whisky, there was an abundance, and there was a considerable quantity of beer. The usual teetotal drinks were not awanting, but they showed their unsuitability for the climate by getting frozen and having to be thawed, after which they were not found very palatable.

In this refuge in the wilderness the two curling clubs enjoyed themselves for an hour or two together, and fared not badly all things considered. After sufficient rest and refreshment the Dall men set their faces homewards. Seven miles of difficulty and danger lay between them and the head of Loch Rannoch, where they would find rest and food and shelter; and about seven more had to be struggled through before they could reach their homes. The first part of the journey would have to be accomplished through the storm. Of how they fared there is no record yet available, but it is known that all got back in safety.

The Lochaber men were eighteen or twenty miles from the point at which a train could at first reach from the north, and walking that distance on Wednesday afternoon was out of the question. Thursday was a day of fierce, cold wind, which made walking equally impossible, and they had to wait with patience to be relieved. The only consolation they had was that they could communicate by telephone with their friends and relieve their anxiety on their account. On Thursday, engine after engine arrived with snow-ploughs from the south, attempting to clear the line without success. They remained embedded in the snow until at last there were five of them. The last was accompanied with a squad of some 150 men, and effected a clearance. Each successive arrival brought to the curlers’ shelter an additional number of guests in the form of railway officials of one grade or another. For two nights from thirty to forty men were thus crowded together in a limited space, with little in the way of comfort. A good breakfast each morning they were able to obtain, but for the rest of the day they had to fare as best they could. Biscuit, beer, and whisky were the chief means of keeping off hunger. One young man who apparently did not consider his head strong enough to stand drinking undiluted whisky – water was scarce – and did not care to regale himself on thawed lemonade, got possession of a dozen bottles of beer, placed them in a corner, and lay down on the boards beside them to sleep. When he awoke, the bottles were there, but the beer had found other quarters.

There was only one bed in the place, and sleep could be obtained only by snatches. The wakeful ones found a wicked pleasure in disturbing the sleepers’ repose. The principal amusement during the day was watching the engines panting in the snow, and having their work undone before it was well finished. At night some amused themselves playing whist; those who could sing, sang song after song until they were hoarse; those who could not joined in the chorus. Their spirits were not allowed to flag.

On leaving home on their curling tour, the Lochaber men had before them a three days’ programme. On Thursday they were to meet the Cardross Club; on Friday one or two other clubs in the valley of the Clyde; and on Saturday forenoon they undertook to meet the Helensburgh Club. On Thursday a temporary clearing had been effected, and they started on one of the engines to keep their appointment with Cardross, but a short five minutes brought them to the end of their journey. The engine became embedded in the snow.

Friday morning came clear and calm. It was known by telephone that a working train was able to reach Loch Treig side, to a point some fourteen miles distant. Provisions had become reduced to half a loaf of bread and half an ounce of tea. There were still some biscuit and whisky; but, not choosing to subsist longer on such fare, a few of the more venturesome resolved to walk the fourteen miles that separated them from the cleared part of the railway. They set off after breakfast, and reached the workmens’ train without mishap. This brought them safely home. For those who would not undertake to walk, relief came from the other end of the line. The hundred and fifty squad opened the way, and the wearied curlers that night found beds and comfort at Tyndrum.

As proof that their energies had not been exhausted, they agreed to meet two rinks of the Oban Club on Saturday, and they beat them to their hearts’ content. Two of the men who had walked to Loch Treig joined some others of the club next morning, and went by steamer to Corran, where they helped to beat two rinks of the Ardgour Club; and thus the excursion to Rannoch Moor was brought to a triumphant close, leaving none the worse for the adventure.”

The railway line across Rannoch Moor had just been opened. The line was built in two phases; the section from Fort William to Craigendoran was begun in 1889 and completed in 1894 and the extension to Mallaig, begun in 1897 and opened in 1901.

Above: Dall CC medal, from the author's collection.

Top: Rannoch Station, one of the remotest stations in Britain, on a gloomy winter's day in 1981. This photo is © Copyright Anne Burgess and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The RCCC Charitable Trust

2009-05-20T00:00:00.004+01:00

One of the purposes of the RCCC Charitable Trust is to participate in the establishment of a museum of curling. It was expressly to that end that the late Bob Gardner of Falkirk made his very generous donation not long before he died. That gift enabled the Trustees to make a start and buy and save for the curling world the very important collection of prize medals won over the years by WK Jackson and his son Lawrence, including their gold medals won at curling at the first Winter Olympic Games at Chamonix in 1924.

The trustees have been collaborating with the RCCC and the Kinross Curling Trust with a view to the provision of sufficient space for a museum in the proposed Curling Academy at Kinross.

The plans for Kinross are presently being developed and the trustees have formed some preliminary ideas for the sort of displays the museum should hold.

At this stage they would like to hear from anyone who is interested in the museum project and who has ideas or expertise to share; and who would be willing to become involved as a volunteer.

The present trustees are:
Bob Tait, chairman of the RCCC Board.
Matt Murdoch, president, RCCC.
Colin Grahahamslaw, CEO, RCCC.
David B Smith, historian of curling.
John Burnett, curator, National Museums Scotland.

The ways to contact the RCCC are here.

Silver Broom update

2009-05-05T20:15:00.004+01:00

We had a story on the blog recently (here) about the whereabouts of the Air Canada Silver Broom trophy. Here now is a small feature which I wrote for the May 2009 issue of the Scottish Curler magazine.

"The mystery of the whereabouts of the Silver Broom has been solved. The trophy that was awarded to the winners of the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship, was last played for in 1985, in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall. On the final night of the event, my last sight of the iconic trophy was of it sitting in the empty arena, and I had often wondered what had happened to it.

The late Doug Maxwell, the Executive Director of the Silver Broom for many years, was trying to find out the answer to the question before his illness, with no success. I was thrilled to learn recently that the Broom had been tracked down by Canadian curler Jamie Hay who used to work for Air Canada. Apparently it had been in store in a Montreal warehouse. It now has pride of place at the Winnipeg Granite Club.

But there were actually two Silver Broom trophies. The first was awarded from 1968-76 and the second from 1977-85. Both had a silver broom that detached from its base, but the bases were different. The earlier one was a plaque, but the later one, designed by a Canadian artist, was a massive piece of carved walnut.

The earlier one trophy has now been found too. It had been in the care of Air Canada’s public relations director Tony Schoen, who had retired first to Switzerland where the trophy was displayed in his restaurant, and then to Victoria, Canada, where it was in his basement. Tony sadly died last year, but thanks to his family, the trophy has not been lost.

All the world championship trophies were on display at the 2009 Ford World Men’s Championship in Moncton: the Scotch Cup, both Silver Brooms, the Hexagon trophy and the current Ford trophy. Large photos of the winning teams were on the wall behind the trophies, and made a very impressive display.

What of the future? Warren Hansen, the Canadian Curling Association’s director of event operations, was quoted in the Eyeopener, the daily newsletter at the Moncton Worlds, “Ideally, they should be part of a permanent collection and on display every year at the world championship. They should really belong in the hands of the World Curling Federation.”

Top: The Silver Broom, presented 1968-1976. Below: The Silver Broom, presented 1977-1985.
The photos are by Maryel Fitzrandolph from the display in Moncton.

Curling references in old newspapers

2009-04-28T19:25:00.012+01:00

Newspapers are a very important historical source. They include snippets of information about the doings and achievements of ordinary people in their day to day lives, and also the less characteristic and out of the ordinary doings of the great. One of the problems about newspapers has been that until the internet age it has been necessary to travel to the library or archive which houses the run of newspaper which you wish to search. The other is the sheer volume of newsprint.

When large libraries – either alone or in conjunction with other libraries – put entire newspaper collections online the burden is amazingly reduced, for one can use the appointed search engine and be almost certain to find all the references for which one is looking. The reduction in fatigue and eyestrain is immense.

I was therefore exceedingly pleased to discover that recently the British Library has put online its collection of nineteenth century newspapers. Among these are to be found The Caledonian Mercury, an Edinburgh paper, and the Glasgow Herald, both of which might be expected to contain material on curling. And so it proved to be.

I have selected a few of the 'hits' to illustrate the width of material that can be found.

The first report tells of an interesting game taken on by members of the Duddingston Curling Society, and the editor goes on to sing the praises of the National Game of Scotland.

1809, 21 Jan., Caledonian Mercury.
“CURLING.- Upon Thursday the 19th instant, a BONSPEL was played, on Duddingstone Loch, between eight officers of the Dumfries-shire Regiment of Militia, and eight members of the Duddingstone Curling Society. The players were divided into two RINKS, and, after a well-disputed contest, victory was declared in favour of the Gentlemen of the Society.

The game of Curling was first invented in Scotland, and has long been peculiar to that country, in many parts of which it is practised with the greatest ardour, nor is the partiality for this National Game without a reasonable foundation, for it believed, that there are few versant with it, and at the same time with the other games and sports of this country, as well as with these of our sister kingdom, who will not admit, that in point of variety of the judgment, dexterity, and exertion required, the interest, or rather the enthusiasm excited, it surpasses them all.

The motto adopted by the Duddingstone Curling Society, is therefore just and appropriate.- The members wear a silver medal, upon which are represented Duddingstone Loch frozen, where a party of curlers are at play, the old parish Church, Arthur’s Seat, &c. in the background. The motto is Sic Scoti; alii non aeque felices.” The motto, loosely translated from the Latin is, “This is the way the Scots play: the rest of the world is not equally lucky.”

The medal, or badge, of the Duddingston Curling Society, struck in 1802 and worn by members 'to distinguish them from any other gentleman'.

A few miles to the south of the capital and a few years later the curlers of Peebles were displaying the same enthusiasm for the game, not to mention the hardiness of the Scot.

1814, 7 February, Caledonian Mercury.
“CURLERS AT PEEBLES.- Five rinks, consisting nearly of eighty, met on the Tweed on the 2d curt. And after anxiously contesting the game, they dined on the ice, beneath the bridge, on the standard dish of beef and greens, served up from the Tontine. Many patriotic and curling toasts were given by the Provost in the chair, and others, in presence of upwards of 2000 spectators. The bagpipe and merry reels closed the icy scene, and the part proceeded to the Tontine, and spent the evening in the true curling style.”

Dundee Curling Club celebrated its bicentenary in the year 2000, although in the history published to mark the event it was conceded that there was no written minute until 1840. I wonder if the report below means that the curlers of Dundee were a bit premature.

1820, 22 Jan., Caledonian Mercury.
“On Tuesday last the Dundee Curling Club was constituted in due form – Mr William Bisset of Forebank, Preses of the Club, in the chair. Mr Bisset was on the ice in 1740, and partook of an ox roasted, on the Tay, during that memorable season; and, although now within a month of eighty-six years of age, he has played almost every day during this winter with all the hilarity, vigour, and skill of the youngest and most expert curler.”

It was a great thrill to come across the next passage for the medal still exists and still belongs to the curlers of the parish of Morton, of which the main village is Thornhill to the south of Sanquhar. I have had the privilege of borrowing it, and I have pictured winners proudly strutting around the parish with this small, unsophisticated proof of their skill on a ribbon around their necks.

1816, 26 February, Caledonian Mercury.
“On Tuesday the 30th of January, the curlers of Morton met on Drumcork loch, to play for a silver medal, presented to them by Mr John Fingland. The ice being uncommonly fine, a very great number of competitors were present. The rinks were marked out and tickets drawn, when one of the finest displays of skill in curling took place ever witnessed in that neighbourhood. It was not until after several were matched a second time, that the Committee, which was chosen, of experienced curlers, could award the prize, which they at last did to Mr W. Ferguson, Thornhill.”

The very medal!

1820, 22 Jan., Caledonian Mercury.
“On Tuesday last the Dundee Curling Club was constituted in due form – Mr William Bisset of Forebank, Preses of the Club, in the chair. Mr Bisset was on the ice in 1740, and partook of an ox roasted, on the Tay, during that memorable season; and, although now within a month of eighty-six years of age, he has played almost every day during this winter with all the hilarity, vigour, and skill of the youngest and most expert curler.”

In the early part of the nineteenth century most curling took place in late December, January and February. The report below is indeed remarkable as it records a bonspiel taking place on the last day of October. The agricultural comment puts it properly into context.

1836, 5 Nov., Caledonian Mercury.
“It is a remarkable circumstance in the annals of curling that on Monday 31st October a bonspiel was played on the pond at Garvald House between the Dolphinston and Garvald players. The pond is five feet deep, and the ice was excellent. There is still nearly one half of the oats in that neighbourhood to cut, and almost the whole potatoes to dig.”

The next pair of excerpts speak for themselves of a different age.

1847, 20 Jan., The Scotsman.
“ROYAL LUNATIC ASYLUM, MORNINGSIDE.- CURLING.- The inmates of this asylum have recently formed an artificial pond in the grounds, and instituted a curling club amongst themselves; and, through the kindness of the Duddingston and Merchiston clubs, who have presented them with a number of curling stones, these unfortunates are now occasionally enjoying the pleasures of this exhilarating and ancient game.”

1848, 7 Feb., Caledonian Mercury.
“CURIOUS CURLING CHALLENGE.- On Monday last, the inmates of Morningside, through their medical superintendent, Dr Skae, sent a challenge to the Merchiston Curling Club, four against four, either on their pond at Morningside, or any other. Four respectable citizens kindly agreed to humour the lunatics, and play them on their own pond; for which purpose their ‘channel stanes’ were sent out in a cart on Tuesday, but unfortunately John Frost had by that time taken his leave, and the ice was covered with water. Dr Skae’s patients comfort themselves by hoping that “there is a good time coming.”

One of the ways in which curlers could extend the number of curling days was by using rinks made on the Cairnie principle. Another was to substitute something different – indoors and on a much smaller scale. This was the 'curling table' or 'summer ice table'.

The Glasgow Herald, which in the first four decades of the century did not appear to take much interest in the National Game began from 1840 onwards to include lots of 'curliana' – results of matches, advertisements and curious snippets.

For example, the issue of 28 October 1850 contained an advert by Andrew Galloway of 105 Hope Street, Glasgow, which proclaimed:
“The subscriber begs to announce that he has lately introduced an EXCELLENT SUBSTITUTE for ICE, whereby the NATIONAL GAME of CURLING may be enjoyed within doors. It consists of a handsome Mahogany Table, resembling a Billiard Table in form, having a surface of perfect smoothness for the Curling Stones to glide over, and capable of being adjusted by screws to the greatest nicety of level. The style in which the apparatus is finished is such as to render it an ornamental piece of Furniture, suitable for any Mansion.

The Subscriber has furnished his Curling Tables to many Noblemen and Gentlemen, all of whom speak in the highest terms of the excellency of the invention, and of the agreeable exercise and amusement thereby afforded.

A Curling Table in operation, and numerous references may be seen at the Subscriber’s Cabinet and Upholstery Warehouse.
ANDREW Galloway.
105 Hope Street,
Glasgow, 23d October, 1850.”

It was not long before the possibilities were being exploited. In the Herald of 13 December 1850 Messrs. Pattison & Co., announced the opening of their “Magnificent SALOON” in Brunswick Place/ Trongate where patrons could enjoy “GAMES of AMERICAN BOWLING, CURLING, BOWLING, CHESS, DRAUGHTS AND BAGATELLE,” though NO BETTING ALLOWED.

Of the Curling Table they said: “[It] is furnished by Mr. Galloway, of Hope Street, and is one of the finest he has ever produced – being four feet longer than the one built for Eglinton Castle.”

Watercolour sketch by Jemima Wedderburn of a house party of the Earl of Selkirk playing at summer ice.

David B Smith

An Sguabag Bhealaidh

2009-04-02T10:07:00.005+01:00

At page 228 of his monumental history the Rev. John Kerr prints without introduction or discussion or translation seven verses of a Gaelic song by Paul Cameron of Blair Atholl.

Curling has never been an integral part of Gaelic culture and for long I wondered what the poem was about. Many years ago I asked Duncan McRae, RCCC Council member and law agent in Stirling, and native Gaelic speaker, if he would translate it for me, for the Gaelic is not much at me.

I recently came across his version, which he had entitled 'A Curling Ditty', although I could see with my very little Gaelic and my big Gaelic dictionary that the poet had called it 'The Little Broom'.

A search of the RCCC Annuals for the 1880s showed that a Paul Cameron was a member of the large Dunkeld Curling Club, as was the Duke of Atholl.

Curiously while I was working at a version of the poem in both languages a lady from Carrbridge got in touch by email. She was putting together a page of Gaelic terms used in curling and she had based her work on Paul Cameron’s poem. She wondered if I was able to help.

Here’s the McRae version.

Seisd. ‘S i mo luaidh an sguabag bhealaidh,
Chuireas snuadh an graidh nan fearibh,
‘S i mo luaidh an sguabag bhealaidh,
‘S alag mhear nan cuairteag.

Chorus. My favourite is the little broom
Putting colour into men’s cheeks;
My favourite is the little broom
And the lively effort of the circles.

Ged thig oirnne reoth’ ‘us gaillionn,
Chuireas groiceannaich do’n teallach
Theid na crolaich mach le farum
Thun a chath bu dual daibh.

Although frost and tempest may come upon us
Drawing ordinary men to their fire-places
The curlers venture forth merrily
To the battle as was their wont.

Gur e ‘n croladh gaol nam bairean,
Bheireas cail ‘us ceol ‘us carthan,
Slainte cre ‘us speiread aigne
Nach bi lag no truaillte.

Curling is the best loved of games
Providing strength, music and friendship,
A healthy heart and vigorous disposition
Which is neither weak nor defiled.

Thig an t-aodhair thig am baran,
Thig an t-aosda thig an gallan,
Dh’ ionnsuidh eire ghlas na carraid,
‘Togas tlachd mu ‘n cuairt di.

The farm workers will come and the lairds also,
The elderly will come and so will the young
Towards the grey ice of the contest
Giving pleasure to all the surroundings.

“Sios am bacan”, cluinn an sgiopair.
“Seol dhomh clach ri taobh na bioraid”.
Sid air falbh, an eiteag bhinneach,
‘S i air chrith ‘na gluasad.

Drop the “bottle” says the skip.
“Aim a stone beside the tee”.
Away goes the light stone
Shaking as it runs.

‘S ann an sin tha ’n horo-gheallaidh,
Ga toirt suas thar Sgor-na-caillich,
Rang a daimh le stri ga faire,
‘S laigh i ‘m barr na cuairteig.

Then there is great excitement
Echoing across Sgor na caillich,
The teams contesting vigorously
The stone lying on the edge of the circle.

Eadar “togail” agus “dionadh”,
“Sgram an geard” no “sgaile a cliathach”,
Cha ‘n ‘eil sean no og nach miannaich,
Bhi fo riar do bhuareis.

Between “raising” and “guarding”
“Wipe off the guard” or “strike out the shot”
Both old and young earnestly desire success,
All are thrilled by the excitement.

‘S lionar cuach de dh’fhuarag Adhal,
Nitear ol do Bhrod Dhunchaillion,
Bhuaidh ‘us cliu do’n Diuc tha again,
Sar chul-taic na sguabaig.

A cup is filled with Atholl Brose,
The toast is to the Brod of Dunkeld,
Victory and fame to the Duke,
Excellent supporter of the broom.

Seisd. ‘S i mo luaidh an sguabag bhealaidh,
Chuireas snuadh an graidh nan fearibh,
‘S i mo luaidh an sguabag bhealaidh,
‘S alag mhear nan cuairteag.

Chorus. My favourite is the little broom
Putting colour into men’s cheeks;
My favourite is the little broom
And the lively effort of the circles.

David B Smith, Troon, Scotland.
Daibhidh Mac a’ Ghobhainn, ann an t-Sron, Alba.

Silver Broom has a home

2009-03-25T21:21:00.004Z

In July last year, we asked (see here) if anyone knew the whereabouts of the Silver Broom, the trophy that was awarded to the winners of the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship, last played for in 1985. Nobody responded to our plea, but this week a sharp-eyed follower of this blog pointed us to an article in the Winnipeg Free Press, by Paul Wiecek.

The Silver Broom has been found, and has pride of place at the Winnipeg Granite Club! Here are extracts from Wiecek's story (the link is above, but just in case that disappears......)

Broom finds a home
Abandoned for years, curling's rescued trophy now sits in honour at the Granite
Paul Wiecek 6/12/200

It took the long way home. The very long way.

But 23 years after it was retired, one of curling's most iconic symbols -- the Air Canada Silver Broom trophy -- has finally found a dignified resting place right here in the city whose curlers won it three times.

The circuitous route that the trophy took to get here -- and the discovery of a fraternal twin in a tiny club in Switzerland -- is a story of a famous trophy forgotten then rediscovered, and the perseverance of one Winnipeg man in rescuing what was once the ultimate prize in all of curling.

"It had basically been sitting for about 14 years collecting dust in an Air Canada warehouse," says Jamie Hay, who used to work for the airline. "I figured that's no place for it... And so now it's here at the Granite (curling club), because I couldn't think of a better place than that."

Hay's long and twisting relationship with the Silver Broom begins in 1994. Some friends of his were playing in a bonspiel in Switzerland when they walked into the curling club's lounge and saw the Silver Broom trophy hanging on the wall.

They took a picture of their discovery and related the story to Hay, who filed it away in the back of his mind as a bit of an oddity.

And that's where the thought stayed until 1998, when an Air Canada vice-president told Hay that the company was thinking about starting a museum and was trying to reacquire its memorabilia. Hay told the VP of his friend's discovery in Switzerland and urged the airline to try and reacquire the trophy.

It was left at that until six months later, when the VP's assistant called Hay to inform him that the trophy had been discovered in a Montreal warehouse.

Hay wondered how the trophy somehow transported itself from Switzerland to Montreal. And he didn't hesitate to answer when the assistant asked Hay what she should do with the trophy, the museum plans apparently shelved. "Send it to me," Hay said.

A couple of days later, a huge crate arrived in Winnipeg. When Hay opened it, he was shocked to discover a massive wooden trophy with a silver broom attached, but which didn't look anything like the one in Switzerland that he'd seen the photo of.

It turns out that there were actually two Silver Broom trophies. Both had a silver broom that detached from its base, but the bases were different -- the one in Switzerland, which was awarded from 1968-78 was a plaque, but the one Hay was looking at, which was awarded from 1979-85 and was designed by a Canadian artist, was a massive piece of carved walnut.

(The trophy) has been to Calgary for the Canadian senior curling championships and it's been to an Air Canada bonspiel in Saskatoon. It spent a winter being displayed at the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame at the downtown Bay and it spent two winters at the Fort William Curling Club, home of the man who last won it in 1985 -- Al Hackner.

And then last spring, Hay, a former president of the Granite Curling Club, hatched a plan with some fellow club members to put the trophy on display at Canada's oldest curling club.

A beautiful oak case was built by club member Don Supeene and the trophy was put on display in the club's second-floor dining room, sharing space with the club's almost-as-famous massive fireplace.

Don Duguid, who won the Silver Broom in 1970 and 1971, says it's the perfect resting place for a piece of curling history. "Where else would you put it?" Duguid asks. "It's the Mother Club and that trophy belongs there. It's a great spot."

Orest Meleschuk, who made it three world championships in a row for Winnipeg by winning the Silver Broom in 1972, says Hay deserves full credit for rescuing the trophy before Air Canada got into financial trouble a few years ago. "If Jamie hadn't found it, it could have ended up anywhere. Who knows -- it might have ended up at auction."

In the long run, Hay has a more ambitious plan for the trophy. Two ambitious plans, actually. "My opinion is that this thing should be sitting in the Canadian curling hall of fame... or it could be used as the championship trophy again. But there isn't a Canadian hall, and they're using another trophy right now at the worlds.

"So what do we do with it? The Granite seemed like a good place until we figure that out."

The Winnipeg Free Press photo shows L-R Derek Hay, Eric Guy, Don Supeene and Jamie Hay with the Silver Broom.

Memories of Crossmyloof

2009-03-03T18:31:00.016Z

My curling career started at Crossmyloof Ice Rink in the early 1960s when I was a pupil at Hutchesons' Grammar School, just across the road. This photo was taken from Crossmyloof station. The rink closed in the late 80s and the site is now a supermarket. (Photo from this wonderful RAILSCOT Intranet site here)

The first rink at Crossmyloof opened on October 1, 1907, the enterprise of a few Glasgow businessmen. It could accommodate six rinks for curling, and was the first place in Scotland where curling could be enjoyed when it was not cold enough for outside play. This proved to be extemely useful when the Canadians visited in 1909 for the Stathcona Cup matches, see here.
This pic is from an old postcard of the 'Skating and Curling Pavilion, Crossmyloof', and shows the bandstand in the centre of the rink!

Curling in 1907. Pic from a Royal Caledonian Curling Club Annual.
The rink closed at the end of the first world war and was purchased by William Beardmore and Company Ltd, to be used for the manufacture of aero engines. In 1929, a new rink was opened on the Crossmyloof site by the Scottish Ice Rink Company. Some of the walls of the old building were used in the construction of the new arena, which was somewhat bigger than the old. In the 1930s, a seven sheet curling rink was added to the complex, and then in 1961, a further four sheets were added for curling.

This is on the main seven sheet curling rink at Crossmyloof sometime in the early 1960s. The curlers in the centre are playing with the Alley Club on a Saturday morning. The player to the rear, in the cardigan, is Peter Cowan. (From Bob's collection)

This photo was taken in the four sheet annex, and shows Glasgow Ladies CC at play. The pic is from the Club's archives. The pipes ran across the sheets rather than lengthways and were plastic, the first time these had been used anywhere in Europe.

This is a view of the inside of the main arena, with skaters, and curling circles. Date (and source) unknown.

This is curling in the main arena, again date (and source) unknown. In the 1960s, on certain evenings, all the ice at the Crossmyloof complex was in use for curling, seventeen sheets in all.

Now, the next three pics are something of a puzzle. They show young people at play on the main curling rink, before the bar which overlooked the ice, was built. What was the occasion? It could well have been the first inter-school match between Hutchesons' Grammar and George Watson's in Edinburgh which took place in December 1961. Information would be welcome. Anyone recognise anybody?

Note the spectators in the 'hot house'.

There are other photos of curling at Crossmyloof on the SCRAN site here. I would be pleased to learn if anyone reading this has others. I would also like to be able to correctly credit those pics whose source is not indicated.

Ramsay

2009-02-06T21:37:00.008Z

One of the little-sung heroes of Scottish curling history is the Rev. John Ramsay. Like many a man of the cloth he was a keen curler. He joined the famous Duddingston Curling Society in 1808 at the age of 30, but it was publication – anonymously – of An Account of the Game of Curling by a Member of the Duddingston Curling Society that entitles him to a place in the pantheon of Scottish curling.

An Account was, of course, the first printed account of the history and present practice of the game. In it Ramsay proposed for the first time in print the idea that curling had come to Scotland from the Low Countries, but he also firmly placed it in the culture of Scotland of his day.

Ramsay was born in Carstairs in Lanarkshire and went to the University of Edinburgh where he studied Arts and Divinity. Before he got a charge of his own he made ends meet by being a private tutor, co-founder with Sir David Brewster, a fellow student, of The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, editor of and contributor to The Scots Magazine, and after 1805 successively assistant minister to the Rev. George Husband Baird, Principal of the University and minister of the High Kirk, assistant to Sir Henry Welwood Moncreiff of St Cuthbert’s and assistant to Dr Moodie of the Tron Kirk. Principal Baird a member of the Duddingston Society. In 1812 he was called as assistant to the parish kirk of Ormiston, East Lothian, where he speedily succeeded to the ministership on the death of the incumbent. After twenty one years he was called to Gladsmuir and spent the rest of his life in the ministry of that East Lothian parish.

While Ramsay was a member of Duddingston he not only was elected one of the committee to devise the Gold Medal but also wrote his Account and participated in all the usual curling activities. The Duddingston Bet Book shows him joining in challenges by members from Lanarkshire against members from Dumfries and Galloway but joining other clerics to play the lawyers.

When he got to Gladsmuir he was in at the foundation of the curling club there and from 1836 until 1841 was the new club’s president. One of his first acts was to propose that the club “should procure a silver Medal to be worn for the Season by the winner.” He remained a member until, it appears, he resigned the presidency and membership in 1841. What caused the separation of the club and the minister is not known, but for the last thirty years of his life the minute book is silent about him; and even his death went unnoticed.

His parishioners, however, did erect after his death in 1871 a plain, dignified stone above his grave in the kirkyard at Gladsmuir.

During the just-finished tour of Scotland by the Canadian curlers, David Affleck, secretary of the East Lothian Province of the RCCC, and the president, Callum Harvey, arranged for a deputation of two of the Canadians, Barry Greenberg and Bruce Beveridge, to join them to lay a wreath in memory of this important man. The wreath was made, appropriately, of evergreen branches of Scots pine and conifer of Canadian origin.

When the Rev. John Kerr wrote of Ramsay in a piece that is printed in The Channel Stane he said, “If any ‘brither curler’ has a day to spare when the summer sun dispels all thoughts of John Frost and the channel-stane, he will find it refreshing to visit the beautiful spot where our historian is laid, and to read the simple inscription on the marble slab above his grave.”

What a good idea!

by David B Smith.

The small volume that is the Account of the Game of Curling by Rev John Ramsay.

Ramsay's headstone at the old Gladsmuir kirk.

A wreath made up of conifer foliage such as the Douglas Fir and Thuya, both native plants in the Canadian west coast, and Scots pine foliage, all collected from Smeaton Lake, a traditional outdoor curling site, was placed at the foot of the Graveyard memorial. L-R: David Affleck, Barry Greenberg, Bruce Beveridge, Callum Harvey.

Pics by Bob Cowan

Curling in the Footsteps of History: Part 1

2009-01-27T17:30:00.003Z

Robin Copland has written about the Canadian curlers' visit to Scotland in 1909. His booklet, Curling in the Footsteps of History, is reproduced here in four parts.

INTRODUCTION

The pioneering Canadian tour took place in January and February 1909. This important tour set the tone for future tours of Scotland from Canada. Like all tours, true stamina was required of the party – especially at the start of the twentieth century when planes and email were but dreams!

I do hope that you enjoy reading of their exploits while here in Scotland. A fuller version of the whole story is available in the 1910 RCCC Annual and that was my primary source for information. (There is a list of all my sources at the end of Part 4)

Robin Copland

CHAPTER ONE – PLANNING AND PREPARATION

In 1903, after many invitations had been sent and rejected for one reason or another, a hardy party of Scottish curling tourists under the captaincy of the Reverend John M Kerr, toured Canada and the USA during a period of two months in January and February.

Five years later, at the Royal Caledonian Curling Club’s Annual General Meeting in Perth in July 1908, it was “resolved unanimously and enthusiastically to invite a team of Canadians to Scotland and return if possible the hospitality shown by Canada to the curlers from the mother country in the winter of 1902-03”. Although the notice was short for such an undertaking, the invitation was sent out specifically to coincide with Lord Strathcona’s Presidency of the Royal Club, his Lordship being “such a link between Scotland and Canada … and had taken such a keen concern with the advancement of ‘Scotland’s ain game’”.

Sir Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal

When the message was flashed back that Canada cordially accepted the invitation, the news was received with “unmingled delight” in Scotland’s curling communities although some privately feared that the size of the organisational task that lay ahead would perhaps preclude the tour ever taking place. The doubters should not have worried! Within two months a team, with representatives from as far afield as Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Dawson City, Yukon, had been picked and were making plans for their trip – this, mind you, in a time when the phone was a rarity and the only quick way to get a message cross-country was by telegram.

A small committee was put together in Scotland to organise a programme that mixed competitive curling matches with dinners, hospitality and sight-seeing. The programme extended over five weeks. As a sign of the times, it included no curling on any of the six Sabbath days and indeed, Church Services were organised on each of them, including two at Scotland’s great Cathedrals, St Giles in Edinburgh and Glasgow Cathedral in the west.

There was only one covered artificial rink at Crossmyloof in Glasgow. This had been “very kindly placed at the service of the Royal Club in the event of John Frost not having the decency to provide natural outdoor ice for the occasion”. It was just as well and in the event, many of the matches took place in this wondrous new facility on Glasgow’s south side.

CHAPTER TWO – ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL AND THE JOURNEY NORTH

Although by this time, trans-Atlantic liners were driven by steam, there was still uncertainty over arrival times depending on the weather. This was specially the case for winter crossings. The Empress of Ireland was thus listed to arrive at Liverpool on either the 15th or 16th of January. Although she enjoyed a capital crossing from Canada, the tide prevented her docking until the morning of the 16th, so the Scottish welcome party that had travelled down to Liverpool on the 15th had to wait a night before welcoming their Canadian brethren to the shores of their ancestry. They passed “a pleasant evening” in the company of members of the Liverpool Curling Club before marching to the dockside in procession behind Pipe-Major Mackay, carrying their besoms high and wearing their Tam o’ Shanters with pride.

Old friendships from the earlier tour were rekindled and the Canadians, sporting their Dominion heather button-holes, welcomed the visiting party onto their ship where a toast was drunk to the success of the tour. A special train transported the party north directly to Edinburgh’s Waverley station. Interestingly, two ladies accompanied their men on the tour, something that would perhaps not be countenanced in these supposedly more enlightened times one hundred years later!

The train was held up for fully an hour by a fall of snow near Newcastleton on the route north. Meantime “the visitors and their friends thoroughly enjoyed themselves … by singing songs, cracking jokes and spinning yarns”!

During the journey north, a calculation was made: the average number of miles travelled by each of the tourists – just in getting to Halifax to join their ship – was 1200. One hardy soul, the cheery Mr McPherson of Dawson City, would travel something like 14000 miles in total over land and sea during the tour. He used various modes of transport from pony and trap to express luxury liner through trains and automobiles!

CHAPTER THREE – ARRIVAL IN EDINBURGH

The welcoming party of Edinburgh curlers had a long wait at the Capital’s Waverley Station due to the blocked line at Newcastleton. It is not recorded how this time was spent, though looking back over a hundred years, one cannot help but wonder if the proximity of the bar at the North British Hotel might give us a clue!

The stationmaster, Mr Maitland, arranged for fog signals to be placed on the down line to warn of the train’s impending arrival. Sure enough, the loud retorts of their detonation gave the welcoming party due warning and two lines of local curlers stood on the platform. Mr Robert Cousin of Merchiston CC and Mr Mark Sanderson of Duddingston CC had been tourists to Canada and they lead the colourful lines of curlers, both from their own respective clubs, as well as representatives of the Waverley, Northern, Craiglockhart, Balerno, Currie, Corstorphine and Bathgate Curling Clubs.

As the train drew to a halt, the whole party erupted in cheers and each of the tourists was welcomed to Scotland individually and enthusiastically by each of the welcoming party. “A spirit of jollity” prevailed. Pipe-Major Duguid of the Queen’s Edinburgh Brigade struck up on his pipes and soon a large crowd of interested onlookers had gathered to view the procession of curlers as they made their way from the station platform up onto Princes Street and to the tourists’ hotel.

Once in their hotel, a speech of welcome to “the ancient capital of dear old Scotland” was given by ex-Provost Gordon. The Hon Duncan Cameron Fraser, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia and Captain of the tourists gave the first of many “thank-you” speeches on Scottish soil. He finished his first speech thus:

“We, like the Scots, would rather lose every time than win by aught that would lower us in the estimation of the people…”

Brave words that echo down through history to the present day!

Here is a list of the 1909 Canadian tourists:

Captain of the Tour
Lieutenant-Governor D C Fraser

Ontario Members
T J Hamilton, Merchant, Fergus;
Alex Logan, Merchant, Parry Sound;J H Neelands, Merchant, Barrie;
R L Paterson, Manufacturer, Toronto;
Simpson Rennie, Seedsman, Toronto;
J W Ryder, Hotelkeeper, Sarnia;
R S Strath, Real Estate, Toronto;
R M Waddell, Peterborough;
Randolf McDonald, Railroad Contractor, Toronto;
Lieutenant-Colonel McKenzie (Captain), Manufacturer, Sarnia.

Quebec Members
D A Bethune, Contractor, Montreal;
Alex Milne, Contractor, Montreal;
David McGill, Agent, Montreal;
A McAulay, Merchant, St John’s, NB;
James Stewart, Contractor, Pembroke, Ont;
William Stuart, Contractor, Ottawa, Ont;
F S Stocking, Passenger Agent, Quebec;
W L Thom, Merchant, Montreal;
H G Willis (Secretary), Agent, Montreal;
J H Hutchison (Captain), Contractor, Montreal.

Nova Scotia Members
James Dover, Merchant, Truro;
Dalziel Paterson, Customs Department, Pictou;
George E Munro, Merchant, Westville;
Lieutenant-Governor D C Fraser;
H St Clair Silver (Captain), Merchant, Halifax.

Manitoba Members
Alex Fowler, Merchant, Balder;
Dr W J Harrington, Physician, Dauphin;
Henry T Hurdon, Transportation, Duluth, Minnesota, USA;
A D McDougall, Railway Contractor, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA;
Donald McMillan, Accountant, Butte, Montana, USA;
J G McLean, Merchant, Pilot Mound;
C W McPherson, Civil Engineer, Dawson City, Yukon;
J P Robertson, Historian and Librarian, Winnipeg;
William Robertson, Lumber Merchant, Kenora;
A S Ross, Superintendent, Regina, Sask;
W L Parrish (Captain), Grain Merchant, Winnipeg.

Very few of these are the “great and the good”! The tourists were drawn from seven of the Canadian Provinces; almost all were from “middle class” backgrounds. Three of their number were from across the border in the USA and became honorary Manitobans for the duration! We should not be too surprised by this seeming anomaly as the 1903 Scottish Tour to Canada had included some of the northern States of the USA in its itinerary.

Alexander Logan, 1862 – 1944. Parry Sound Curling Club and 1909 Canadian Tourist

• Born 24 May, 1862, South Oakley, Parrish of Saline, Fifeshire, Scotland.
• Emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1883.
• Occupation: Contractor and businessman. He founded Logan's Funeral Home and Furniture Store in 1885. Logan's Funeral Home carries on business in the same location to this day and is managed by Alexander's great grandson, Hugh Logan. He was also responsible for the construction of several commercial buildings in Parry Sound.
• Co-founder, ardent curler and supporter of the Parry Sound Curling Club.
• Corresponded with Andrew Carnegie of Dunfermline, Scotland and was successful in securing his financial support for the purchase of the first pipe organ at Parry Sound's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.
• Fire Chief for the Town of Parry Sound, Church Elder and member of local Masonic Lodge.

Curling in the Footsteps of History: Part 2

2009-01-27T17:21:00.001Z

CHAPTER FOUR– AN UNSCHEDULED GAME AT MYRESIDE

by Robin Copland

That there was a rink to play on at Myreside at all was due to a young groundsman called Scott, a keen, keen curler from the Borders. On his own initiative, he had constructed a concrete curling rink that, although smaller than regulation size, was used for curling until, in 1902, it became the floor of an implement shed. For Season 1902/03, Scott had made two pioneering Tarmacadam rinks at the side of the club pavilion and further, had installed gas lighting. For many seasons, the Watsonian CC played matches with neighbouring clubs when frost permitted.

On the Saturday night of the Canadians’ arrival in Scotland, there was a sharp frost in Edinburgh and a member of the Watsonian Curling Club, founded less than ten years earlier in 1898, took it upon himself to invite a number of the tourists to his club, there to enjoy an informal game of curling. For the next couple of hours, a cheery game was enjoyed before all participants adjourned to the pavilion for drinks and high jinks.

History records a victory on the ice for the Scots, though the games were not official and therefore do not appear in the record books.

It thus appears that the Watsonian Curling Club had the privilege of being the first curling club in Scotland to entertain members of a visiting Canadian team. The 2009 tour will have dinner in the Watsonian clubhouse on Thursday 29th January – the second last night that they will have in Scotland. I cannot help but think it is a fitting place at which to end their tour and hopefully, glasses will be raised in honour of the hardy souls who accepted the informal invitation a century ago.

CHAPTER FIVE – SERVICE IN ST GILES

One of the features of the 1909 tour was the importance attached to Worship. Perhaps this should come as no surprise, though it is somehow quaint to reflect from a century on that it was absolutely expected that every one of the tourists would attend church on each of the Sundays that they found themselves in Scotland. No allowance seems to have been made for the possibility that different faiths may have been represented on the tour, although, to be fair, that is probably because there were none!

Thus the party attended a Service in their honour at noon on Sunday 17th January at St Giles Cathedral. The Reverend John White of South Leith conducted the service and gave “a very powerful sermon on the Responsibility of the Empire”. He spoke of the tour as “evidence of a growing friendship between the Mother Country and her daughter colonies”. The official report notes that, “the visitors were much interested in St Giles” and that each met the Reverend White in their hotel after the service. Indeed he became the first recipient of the official tour badge.

CHAPTER SIX – THE TOUR GETS UNDERWAY

Suitably refreshed after a relatively easy Sunday in the Capital and spiritually revived as they must have been after the thunderous sermon given by the good Minister from South Leith, the tourists were entertained by the Edinburgh Council on Monday morning. They visited the City Chambers and Edinburgh Castle before heading for Peebles by train on a line sadly now disused.

Though the weather in Peebles was dismal with rain falling from a leaden sky, the tourists received a warm welcome from local curlers who raised their brooms and shouted in their honour as their train steamed into the picturesque station. Later, they were honoured with a civic reception in the Town Hall. Flags flapped in the wind and handkerchiefs were chastely waved from the upper-floor windows along the main street.

What is striking about the 1909 tour – Peebles is just the first example – is the way that elected officials went out of their way to welcome the Canadians to their towns and cities. The tour was a huge event in Scotland and the tourists seemed to have caused a massive stir wherever they went.

Later that night, the curlers were entertained to dinner at the Peebles Hydropathic (now known simply as the Peebles Hydro Hotel). Sir Henry Ballantyne, a tourist himself on the 1903 tour, presided over the event and spoke of his pride at hosting the first official dinner of the tour. Many were the speeches thereafter and the toast list, looking back a hundred years, was mind-boggling in its length and complexity. These were different times from those we inhabit today!

The next morning must have been an exciting one for the party – many of whom were of Scottish origin, for a visit had been laid on to Abbotsford House, home of Sir Walter Scott – arguably Scotland’s most famous author. The party was joined by several local ladies and gentlemen and was conveyed in eleven motor vehicles, a rarity in those far-off days, and travelled to Abbotsford via Selkirk. After an hour in Scott’s famous old house, the party proceeded to Melrose where again, they received a raucous welcome from the townspeople. Again, there was a civic reception before the Canadians were given some time to explore the ruins of Melrose Abbey. Everywhere they went, they were feted, though sadly any plans that may have been made for curling had to be abandoned because of the weather.

Interestingly, two Canadian Maple Trees were planted on the site of the artificial curling pond in Melrose and another was later planted in the public park at Peebles. The party was then escorted by the town’s curlers to the train station, where they were given a most hearty send-off, “cheers being raised again and again”.

CHAPTER SEVEN – THE MASONIC CONNECTION

There were about twenty Freemasons in the party – that out of a total of thirty-seven curlers. Freemasonry then was a powerful force and movement and there were a number of events organised specifically for them. The first of these took place in the tour’s next stop, Kilwinning, where they were entertained by the Lodge Canongate, one of the most ancient Scottish Lodges, which at the time boasted of having the oldest Lodge Rooms in the world.

Obviously, we cannot go into what was said or indeed done at the Carlton Hotel that faroff night, except to say that Brother Duncan Cameron Fraser, the Tour Captain, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia and Past M.W Grand Master Mason of Nova Scotia was given the singular honour of honorary membership of the Lodge.

Throughout the tour, the Masonic members were spirited away from time to time to private dinners or entertainment. For example, on 16th February, after dinner in Aberdeen, the Masonic tourists were guests of the Provincial Grand Master at a concert.

Curling in the Footsteps of History: Part 3

2009-01-27T17:20:00.001Z

CHAPTER EIGHT – THE MAMMOTH BANQUET DAY!

by Robin Copland

The 20th January was described in contemporary reports as “the red-letter day of the great tour”, for on that day the National Reception was given for the Tourists in the Music Hall, now the Assembly Rooms in George Street, Edinburgh.

The evening started at 5.00pm and, so as the tourists could gird their loins for the marathon ahead, they were given the day off and used the time to send telegrams back to their families in Canada, as well as taking the chance to visit “Auld Reekie” as normal tourists, as opposed to members of a VIP group.

The company numbered some five hundred and the evening was chaired by Lord Strathcona, the President of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. Suffice to say that there were seven Lords of the Realm present at the evening, as well as the Solicitor-General of Scotland, a number of past-Provosts of Edinburgh, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland and the Reverend J Kerr, the Captain of the Scottish 1903 touring team. Prime Minister A J Balfour sent a telegram of greeting in which he greatly regretted his inability to attend the function.

The toast list was common for the time. Where a curling dinner today contents itself with a guest speaker to toast the health of the club to which a member of the club tends to give a whimsical response, the number of speeches that far-off day was nine. Each of the speakers spoke at some length and the main themes were a warm welcome to the Canadians, the special relationship between Canada and Scotland, the Empire and the Armed Forces.

Looking back, it is strange that the major banquet of the tour was in the first week - before any curling stone had been thrown in anger! A grand night seems to have been had by one and all, mind you and that is all that is important to record.

CHAPTER NINE – JACK FROST DOES NOT PLAY BALL, BUT GLASGOW RISES TO THE OCCASION!

Down through the years, Glasgow has proved herself equal to the challenge that curlers set her. Successful World and World Junior Championships bear testament. Perhaps the first time though, that Glasgow came to curlers’ rescue was in 1909. The Canadian tourists arrived through in Scotland’s largest city on Thursday 21st January. As the RCCC’s report put it in the 1910 Annual, “Other communities in Scotland might arrange to entertain the strangers at their festive boards; but Glasgow, knowing the National weather, had a notion that it would see much of them in the next three or four weeks. In St Mungo’s hand was the magnet that would attract them to the west, and hold them there.”

And the magnet? The newly-built Scottish Ice Rink had been completed in the suburb of Crossmyloof on the south side of the city. By the time the Canadians came to visit, it was already into its second season of business, having opened its doors for the first time in October 1907. Sadly there is no rink on the site anymore. Instead, shoppers walk the aisles of a Morrisons superstore, where before curlers toiled and brushed.

When the Canadians arrived at Queen Street station on George Square in the centre of the city, suffice it to say that they were met by the usual pomp and circumstance to which by now they must have become accustomed. An archway of brushes was formed by the welcoming curlers; pipers led the procession to the square and the party made their way to the North British Hotel beside the station for welcoming refreshments. Speeches of welcome were given and received and pins exchanged with the local dignitaries.

Friday 22nd January was the much-awaited day when the Canadians officially took to the ice for the first time. A series of trial matches was played against local clubs on both the Friday and Saturday and, in fact, let it be reported that the locals gave a good account of themselves – indeed they were up on aggregate, although the games were not “test” matches and therefore did not count in the overall competition. On the close of the first day’s play, the team were entertained to a grand dinner in the city’s St Enoch hotel, a railway hotel beside the station of the same name.

Much was made of the fact that the local rinks won because they were familiar, indeed comfortable with the ice conditions at Crossmyloof. Many ventured at the time that it would have been a useful exercise if the Scottish test teams had practised on the artificial ice before the official test matches later on in the tour.

On the Sunday morning, the party worshipped at Glasgow Cathedral. After the service, the visitors were shown round the Cathedral – a singular honour as it happens. Each of the tour party was presented with a copy of the sermon given by the Reverend Dr Cooper, Professor of Church History at Glasgow University.

CHAPTER TEN - THE 1903 SCOTTISH TOURING TEAM MATCH

Although some members of the 1903 Scottish team were unable to take part, most of them travelled to Glasgow on Monday 25th January so that the two teams could meet together in friendly competition. This time, the Canadians got into their stride – perhaps the practice sessions at the end of the previous week had helped them become acclimatised – and in beating their Scottish counterparts, gave a good account of themselves. The RCCC annual reports as follows, “Each Scot gave a neat memento to his Canadian opponent when they met on the rink, and a pleasant interlude for luncheon, with sundry adjournments to the bar to see if Riddell’s blend was up to the mark, made up a most delightful day.”

That evening, the memory of Scotland’s National Bard, Robert Burns, was celebrated at a dinner at the Windsor Hotel and a lusty rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” brought one of the most enjoyable evenings of the tour to a close.

Curling in the Footsteps of History: Part 4

2009-01-27T17:18:00.001Z

CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE TEST MATCHES AND THE STRATHCONA CUP

by Robin Copland

From the outset, it was understood that although friendly competition against the Provinces and Clubs of Scotland, whether outdoors or in, would provide the tourist with most of his curling, there would be a series of three “test” matches in which “Greek would meet Greek”. These three test matches would decide “who held priority in curling fame” between Canada and Scotland.

Lord Strathcona presented a magnificent Challenge Cup, made by Messrs Sorley, Glasgow, Silversmiths to the Patron of the RCCC, His Majesty King Edward VII. There follows some pictures of the cup and of details thereon.

The Crest of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club

The Coat of Arms of Lord Strathcona

Sir George Harvey’s “Curlers”

Stirling Castle

As can be seen from these pictures, the Cup is a magnificent example of the silversmith’s art. The slight oxidising of the picture panels really “throws” the pictures out and shows them off to best effect. The Cup is now 100 years old and is still in tremendous condition for its age. Currently, it is housed in the vaults of the famous Edinburgh jewellers, Hamilton and Inches and is only "allowed out” for important occasions.

Interestingly, the records show that the Canadians were allowed to take the cup back to Canada with them after the first tour, and to keep it in Canada until 1st December 1909, by which time it had to be returned to the RCCC for safe keeping. Nowadays, the practice is for the cup to stay in the RCCC’s care at all times.

In order to select the Scottish rinks for the test matches, the Provinces were invited to put forward rinks for consideration. More rinks were offered than were needed, so the simple expedient of the ballot chose who was in and who was out! The following eighteen Provinces sent a rink of four players each to defend Scotland’s honour: Glasgow, Dundee and Perth, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Scottish Central, Caledonian Club (England), Dumfriesshire, Biggar, Stirlingshire, Border, Peeblesshire, Midlothian, Loch Leven, Tenth, East Lothian, Cupar, West Lothian and West of Fife.

It is easy to be wise after the event, but this was hardly scientific and the result, with the benefit of one hundred years of hindsight, was in all probability a foregone conclusion!

In any case, the first Test Match took place at Crossmyloof on Thursday 28th January. The Scots only managed to secure two victories, though Renfrewshire’s James Y Keanie, a late substitute for the indisposed William Logan, scored an emphatic win by 24 – 8 against the hapless Colonel McKenzie of Sarnia, Ontario. The score after this first match was 112 – 70 in favour of the Canadians. The Scotsman newspaper reported that the Rev J Kerr exclaimed almost despairingly, “Mercy on puir auld Scotland if in the succeeding games of this important series we get on no better than this.”

Unfortunately for the Scots, things did not get any better! The second Test Match took place at the same venue on 1st February when the Scottish deficit was 29 and the third Test Match on Monday 8th February resulted in a Canadian triumph by 30 shots.

Needless to report the matches were played in the best of sportsmanship and the services of the umpire were never once required! After each Match there was a banquet when “with the knees under the mahogany, the fight was forgotten, and song and sentiment whiled the social hours away.”

Mr William Henderson, Vice President of the RCCC, presented the Cup to the winning team on the ice at Crossmyloof and, in so doing, paid tribute to the team and especially to its Captain, Lieutenant-Governor Duncan Cameron Fraser, “a man of fine masculine build”, as he put it!

In his reply, Lieutenant-Governor Fraser said something that rings down through the ages. “I never heard a man suggest that his stone ought to be in or out, as the case might be; not a single issue has been raised, not one unkind word, nor, I believe, one unkind thought. I tell you that the game that can educate men up to that point is a game which we should think good.”

CHAPTER TWELVE – THE PROVINCIAL MATCHES

Throughout the tour, the various Scottish Provinces came to Glasgow to play the tourists in the Scottish Ice Rink at Crossmyloof. Each curler doubtless travelled in expectation; by the end of the Canadians’ visit in February, one imagines that the later players travelled more in hope!

In truth, the Scottish curlers were vanquished by what must have been a very talented group of curlers who would, of course, have got better and better the more practice they had and the more they became used to the artificial ice at Crossmyloof. Bear in mind too that many of their Scottish opponents might literally not have had a game all season if the weather in their region had not allowed it.

The die was cast when the Scoto-Canadian team came visiting on 25th January for a match that the Canadians must have fretted about in their quieter moments. The Scots were accounted for by 67 clear shots and that set the pattern. On four other occasions, the Canadians won by more than 60 shots over a day’s play and in the last match of all against the tenth Province, they won by an astonishing total of 91 shots!

The team played a total of twenty six matches (each match comprised a number of individual games – either 6 or 12) and they were on the losing side on only three separate occasions. Many of the individual players remained undefeated throughout the tour.

The overall statistics were as follows:
Matches played: 26 Won: 23 Lost: 3
Shots up on matches won: 947
Shots down on matches lost: 16
Net shots up over the tour: 931

Disappointingly, only three matches were played in total on natural ice. The Scottish Ice Rink in Crossmyloof was a busy place as the balance of matches was played there.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – PROVINCIAL ENTERTAINMENT

Let it not be said that the tourists did not get out and about in Scotland! Apart from the long-distance journeys to Inverness, Aberdeen and Balmoral – these were the only occasions during the tour when outdoor ice conditions made the journey inevitable – the party did repair to various curling centres, there to enjoy hospitality and, perhaps, share the odd dram and tall tale.

The tourists were obviously based for the large part in Glasgow and there were many formal and informal dinners and occasions in the Second City of the Empire as it then was. For the most part, the Provinces would come to Glasgow, curl and then host a luncheon in the Canadians’ honour.

Exceptions to this rule there were though. For example, on 29th January (not February as the RCCC Annual would have it – the tourists had already departed for home shores by that time), David Gordon, ex-Provost of Bathgate and, much more importantly, a member of the 1903 Scottish Tour party to Canada, arranged for a “special” train to be laid on to take both the tourists and the team members of the West Lothian Province from Crossmyloof railway station at the back of the ice rink directly to Bathgate, there to host a dinner on his “home patch”! The evening was one of the highlights of the tour. Let the scribe in the 1910 Annual take up the story!

“…and what a night they made of it can never be described in the sober pages of the Curling Annual, with its (the West Lothian Province) committee watching its increasing bulk and weighing the question of expenditure.”

The report continues, “The gallery was occupied by a galaxy of ladies” and the local press wrote of “an epoch-making event in the history of Bathgate”! The whole evening seems to have enchanted the tourists and, given the excess of hospitality to which they had already been subjected, it says much for ex-Provost Gordon’s preparations that such a night amongst nights was so memorably enjoyed by one and all.

Other forays furth of Glasgow were made to Perth, to Coupar Angus, to Blairgowrie, to Crieff, to Dunkeld where the famous Cathedral received a visitation, to Blair Castle, to Dirleton in East Lothian and to Lanarkshire.

One supposes that another real highlight of the tour was the swing north from 12th – 15th February to Inverness, then east to Aberdeen and west to Balmoral. By this time, the tour was well underway and the results had all gone Canada’s way – so much so that, when snow began to fall on the games at Balmoral, McPherson of Dawson City, another of the many characters of the tour, remarked, “we have played you indoors and out of doors in all conditions – what we want now to complete this tour is to play you in mud…!”

Overall, the entertainment provided by their Scottish hosts seems to have varied from the sublime set-piece banquets, like the Welcome Reception in the Music Halls, like the luncheons hosted in City Chambers and Town Halls and like the formal evening in Inverness to less formal “smoker” evenings, visits to the theatre, a Curlers’ Court and what seems to have been an uproarious night in Bathgate. There was plenty of singing – indeed various tour songs were published and the Canadians were not scared to rise to their feet and tell a tall tale or two when the occasion demanded!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN – FAREWELL AND SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

These Canadians impressed all with whom they came in contact. They were obviously talented curlers – their record speaks for itself – and although some might uncharitably say that they had the advantage of Crossmyloof as almost their home rink and that they had huge amounts of practice where their opponents would have been rusty and unsure of themselves, the fact remains that they won the first iteration of the Strathcona Cup by a massive margin of 101 shots over 18 games – an average of over 5 shots advantage on average per game played. Overall, including non-counting and Provincial matches, they routed the Scots by 931 shots, an average of just under 4 shots per game played.

But this 1909 tour was about much more than mere statistics. It was about forging genuine bonds across an ocean. It was about setting out some traditions that have travelled down through the years and that still hold true to this day. What shines out to me is the genuine affection that team mates felt for each other as the tour progressed and the real camaraderie of the rink that enabled strangers to get together and over the course of twelve or thirteen ends of curling have such a fine time in each other’s company that, come the lunch or dinner afterwards, they could sit down together and talk as if they had known each other all of their lives.

Many were the tributes paid this way and that by tourist and host alike. The Captain of the tour, Lieutenant-Governor D C Fraser, noted that, “He (the Captain) had never met with a better body of men in his life than those Canadians who came over to Scotland under his charge…”

The party departed Scotland by train on Wednesday 24th February and made its way to Liverpool where R.M.S Empress of Ireland awaited them. Bon Voyage telegrams were forwarded on 26th February by Provost Gordon, Mr Davidson Smith, the Secretary of the RCCC and the Rev J Kerr to the Captain and his party aboard the liner.

In a summary of the tour written by the Honorary Secretary, Mr H G Wills, on board the liner approaching Canada and dated 4th March, he wrote of their Scottish hosts, “It would be impossible to meet with men who could show so much real enthusiasm, and who could cheer just as generously for our own success as for their own…”

Here is a list of all my sources:

· Season 1909 – 1910 Royal Caledonian Curling Club Annual for tour details
· www.clydebuiltships.co.uk for the picture of the Empress of Ireland and for ship’s dimensions and launch date
· 2009 Canadian Tour to Scotland website www.strathconacup100.ca/ for the picture of Lord Strathcona and the picture and details of Alexander
Logan
· Malcolm Patrick, member of Watsonian Curling Club and fellow member of the East Team on the 2003 Centenary Scottish Tour to Canada for details of the informal outdoor game at Watsonian CC
· Ahoy – Mac’s Web Log for details of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland
· Ian Mackay for the picture of the tour badge
· Ainslie Smith, Captain of the West Team and team mate on the 2003 Centenary
Scottish Tour to Canada for the copy of the Banquet Menu
· Lindsay Scotland, webmaster of the Centenary Tour to Canada, 2003
www.ccct2003.fsnet.co.uk/ for photographs of the Strathcona Cup
· David Smith, for his ‘Curling Places of Scotland’, version June 2008, which is
available on the Royal Caledonian Curling Club website:
www.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org under ‘About RCCC > Origin & History’

Curling in the Footsteps of History: Appendix

2009-01-27T17:17:00.000Z

CHRONOLOGICAL TOUR ITINERARY

January
Friday 9 R.M.S Empress of Ireland departs Halifax en route to Liverpool.
Saturday 16 Arrival at Liverpool Docks on Empress of Ireland; train journey north to Edinburgh and informal match versus Watsonian CC at Myreside
Sunday 17 Church service at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh
Monday 18 Peebles; dinner at the Peebles Hydro Hotel courtesy of Peeblesshire Province.
Tuesday 19 Abbotsford House and Melrose by car. Masonic Dinner at Lodge Canongate, Kilwinning
Wednesday 20 Free day and National Reception Function in the Music Hall, Edinburgh
Thursday 21 Luncheon in the City Chambers, Edinburgh hosted by the Lord Provost. Evening train to Glasgow and welcome reception.
Friday 22 Practice day against local curlers in the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Dinner as guests of the Scottish Ice Rink Club at the St Enoch Hotel, Glasgow.
Saturday 23 Practice day against local curlers in the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Sunday 24 Church service at Glasgow Cathedral.
Monday 25 Special Match against the 1903 Scottish touring team at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof, followed by dinner in the Windsor Hotel, Glasgow.
Tuesday 26 Match versus Midlothian Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Dinner in Ferguson and Forrester's Restaurant, Glasgow.
Wednesday 27 Match versus Glasgow Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Dinner in Ferguson and Forrester's Restaurant, Glasgow.
Thursday 28 First Test Match at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Friday 29 Match versus West Lothian Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Dinner in Bathgate.
Saturday 30 Match versus East Lothian Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Dinner at which Rev J Kerr gave the principal address.
Sunday 31 Church Service.

February
Monday 1 Second Test Match at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Tuesday 2 Matches versus Stirlingshire and Forth and Endrick Provinces at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Wednesday 3 Match versus Upper Strathearn at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Match versus Scottish Central Provinces called off due to thaw.
Thursday 4 Match versus Strathmore Province and Dundee and Perth Province called off due to thaw. Tour in motor cars to Murthly Castle by way of the giant beech hedge, to Birnam, to Dunkeld and finally Blairgowrie.
Friday 5 Perthshire Curling Association
Saturday 6 Scotland v Wales football match.
Sunday 7 Church Service in St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh.
Monday 8 Third Test Match at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Tuesday 9 Matches versus Biggar and Peebles Provinces at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Dinner in the Grand Hotel and a show at the Empire Theatre.
Wednesday 10 Match versus Lanarkshire Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Thursday 11 Match versus Loch Leven Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Grand Reception and Court chaired by Sir Basil T Montgomerie, Bart.
Friday 12 Outdoor Match versus Inverness Province at Moy. Dinner hosted by Inverness Province.
Saturday 13 Outdoor Match versus the North-East of Scotland Provincial
Curling Association, West Cults, Aberdeen. Dinner in the Palace Hotel, Aberdeen.
Sunday 14 Various church services attended informally in Aberdeen. Rest day.
Monday 15 Visit to Balmoral and outdoor match on the rink in the grounds
Telegrams exchanged with King Edward VII in London.
Tuesday 16 Matches versus Galloway Province. Luncheon in the City Chambers, Glasgow, hosted by the Corporation of Glasgow, Lord Provost McInnes Shaw in the chair. His Grace, the Duke of Argyll, former Governor General of Canada entertained to dinner by the tourists at the North British Hotel, Glasgow.
Wednesday 17 Visit to Burns Country and tour in thirteen motor cars especially provided for the occasion. Luncheon in the Tea Gardens. Afternoon visit to Culzean Castle and dinner in the Council Hall, Ayr as guests of the Corporation. Smoking concert in the Town Hall.
Thursday 18 Matches v English and Dumfries Provinces at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Friday 19 Matches v Twelfth Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Canadian Team Presentation Night at the North British Hotel, Glasgow.
Saturday 20 Match v Borders Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Sunday 21 Church Service at Glasgow.
Monday 22 Match v Ayr District at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Tuesday 23 Matches versus Tenth Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof.
Wednesday 24 Matches versus Scottish Central Province at the Scottish Ice Rink, Crossmyloof. Depart Scotland.
Thursay 25 Sail for Canada on R.M.S Empress of Ireland.

Curling in the Footsteps of History: The Empress of Ireland

2009-01-27T17:15:00.001Z

by Robin Copland

When the tourists travelled to Scotland, they did so on the Empress of Ireland, a new trans-Atlantic steamer built in Fairfield’s yard on the River Clyde in 1906 and launched in Govan, Glasgow, on Saturday 27th January that year.

The Empress of Ireland was a large and well-appointed ship of some 14000 tons, 550 feet long and with a breadth of 66 feet. It is not recorded in which class the Canadian curlers travelled, but suffice to say that, as was common at the time, she offered first, second and third class accommodation, the latter situated deep in the bowels of the ship.

A mere five years after her voyage carrying the Canadian curlers to their great Scottish adventure, the same Empress of Ireland had departed Quebec and was on her way down the St Lawrence river towards the open sea and her ultimate destination, Liverpool. The weather was alternatively fair and foggy. It was 2.00am in the morning of 29th May 1914. She had just dropped off the pilot at Farther Point, and was still close to the shore line. Her Master, Captain Henry Kendall spied a collier, the Storstad, laden to her Plimsoll line with coal on an inbound path up the river towards Montreal and also sailing close to the shore.

In Captain Kendall’s judgement, the collier was some eight miles distant, so he ordered his ship to starboard and to the centre of the river. Immediately after making the move, both ships were swallowed by an incoming fog bank – this, mind you, in pre-radar days and in confined waters. Captain Kendall fretted about the lack of visibility so decided to put his engines astern to take the way off his ship, this action taken in accordance with the Rules of the Road at Sea when maneouvering in the company of other ships. When he ordered the engines astern, he sounded three blasts on the ship's siren. (1 blast indicates a ship is turning to starboard; 2 blasts indicate a ship is turning to port, and 3 blasts indicate a ship is going astern).

The Empress slowed almost to a complete stop, but still had some forward way on. Suddenly, out of the murk, two masthead lights appeared to starboard. Storstad was heading straight for the Empress. Captain Kendall quickly ordered a sharp alteration of course to starboard, but alas it was too late to save his ship.

The sharp bows of the Norwegian ship sliced into the Empress amidships between her two funnels. The fully loaded Storstad punched into the Empress below her waterline, entering her for about 25 feet, and opening up a gaping hole some 14 feet wide. Water rushed into the starboard side, and Empress of Ireland quickly took on a list to starboard. Open port holes which should have been closed at sea, allowed the ingress of even more water. The damage precluded the closing of water tight doors, compounding the problems the ship faced. Within 10 minutes the liner lay on her side, some passengers who had managed to escape perched on her hull. One passenger commented, “It was like sitting on the beach, and watching the tide come in.”

There was only time to lower four of the lifeboats. Many of the passengers were trapped below in the lower decks, unable to escape in time.

Within 14 minutes the Empress was gone and she lies to this day 150 feet below the surface on the muddy bottom of the Saint Lawrence River. 1,012 souls perished that night. Strangely, for in those days, the Captain traditionally went down with his ship, Captain Kendall was one of the survivors and, on being hauled aboard the Storstad, was heard to mutter in a masterpiece of understatement, “You have sunk my ship.”

He was exonerated of all blame and later survived a torpedoing in the Great War.

The Prince of Wales's Stones

2009-01-22T21:02:00.006Z

When David McFarlane, president of Scottish Central Province of the RCCC, asked me during the recent Ramada Perth Masters whether Central Province was the oldest I had to confess that I had not the slightest idea. Moreover, I said, since provinces were permissive when they began and did not form part of the organisation of the Royal Club, that is, groups of clubs could form one if they wished, and organise themselves, there was very little in the Annuals about the early history of provinces.

Anyway, the query set me off on a search through many an early Annual, and I found a number of items of interest which had escaped me in the past.

We all know that the first royal connection with the RCCC occurred when Prince Albert agreed in 1842 to be the club’s patron; and that permission to change the name from Grand to Royal followed the next year.

The agreement of Prince Albert was marked by the presentation to him of a silver-handled pair of curling stones. My rediscovery of the stones after a long search and a description of them are to be found in my article in the Scottish Curler of October 2003.

On the death of the first patron the club solicited the patronage of his son, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, and this was readily granted. This honour to the Club was also marked by the presentation of a pair of curling stones.

The Scotsman of 7 February 1863 reported the stones thus:
“…At the same meeting [last AGM] it was resolved to present His Royal Highness with a pair of curling stones, and it was remitted to the Secretary, Mr Cassels, to take steps accordingly. The stones will be forwarded in a few days, and are at present lying at the shop of Messrs Mackay, Cunningham, & Co., goldsmiths to the Queen, Princes’ Street. They are made of green serpentine, found near Crieff, Perthshire, and generally known to curlers by the name of Muthill stone. The handles, the wood of which is of oak from Linlithgow Palace, are richly mounted in silver. The plates which screw on to the stones are elaborately chased with thistles, forming shields in the centres which bear the following inscription:-“Presented by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Patron, 1863”. The handles are wreathed with thistles, engraved, and the mountings on each end of the wooden part have a wreath of oak-leaves and acorns executed in the same style. They have been beautifully designed and executed by Mackay, Cunningham, &Co.”

When I was looking for the 1842 stones, which many royal functionaries were unable to find in any of Her Majesty’s palaces, castles and houses, I was eventually told that a pair of presentation stones had been traced at Sandringham, the Queen’s English summer residence. When I sought to have them photographed I was told that they had been transferred to Balmoral, and when I was next passing the Queen’s summer residence in Scotland I found the 1863 stones in the factor’s office, where they were in use as a pair of bookends supporting some large volumes sitting on a window sill. I was disappointed that I had not found the stones of 1842 but I was pleased to see a pair of considerable grandeur.

So significant were the stones that an illustration of them appeared in the Illustrated London News of 8 April 1863. Her Majesty graciously allowed this pair to be borrowed and displayed at the exhibition, held in Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, when the Silver Broom Men's World Curling Championship was being played in the Kelvin Hall, in 1985.

The discovery which prompted this article appears in an abstract of the RCCC Treasurer’s Account for 1862-3. It was the bill for the 1863 stones.

“…Paid for Curling Stones presented to the Patron ….£25 13 8”.

This was a very large sum to expend on curling stones.

Almost contemporary with this pair are the earliest surviving financial records of curling stone manufacture. Andrew Cowan made stones at Barbieston near Drongan in Ayrshire, and his account book survives for the period from 1865 until about 1889.

Stones were generally sold by him by the pair without handles. The price depended on the sort of stone and the degree of finish. About the cheapest price was twenty four shillings for a pair of Burnock Water. One can get some idea of what that price represents when one sees elsewhere in Cowan’s account book that he paid workers two shillings per day. The price of his cheapest stones, therefore, was the equivalent of the wages of a working man earned in two weeks of six days. Curling stones have always cost a fairly hefty price – but they did last for ever.

Below is an account from Cowan’s book for stones with handles sold not long after the making of the Prince of Wales’s stones.

Curling Stones Sold
1865 To
Nov. 28th. The Hurlford Curling Club
To 8 pair Marble Polished Curling Stones with handles fitted in
@ 33/- per pair ... £13/4/-

(For the benefit of those not familiar with pounds, shillings and pence, before decimalisation in 1971 there were twenty shillings per pound. The shilling was subdivided into twelve pennies. Thirty-three shillings (33/-) was one pound thirteen shillings.)

In 1876 a special pair of handles of silver and buffalo horn sold by Cowan cost One pound sixteen shillings.

From the above figures it will be very apparent that the stones presented to the Prince of Wales were very expensive indeed.

David B Smith.

Captions:
1. Photograph of the Prince of Wales’s stones.
2. Drawing of the stones from The Illustrated London News.

The Daily Graphic 1890

2009-01-05T13:42:00.004Z

Despite numbers of curling clubs in England, particularly in the northern counties of that country, the popular press - or, in fact, the press in general - treated the game as a peculiarly Scots pastime and every time there was a considerable frost regaled the readers with anecdotes of the peculiar doings of their northern neighbours.

The Daily Graphic newspaper was founded in January 1890 as Britain’s first, illustrated daily paper. The illustrations were much sketchier than those in The Illustrated London News, The Graphic and some other weekly papers, because the artists had much more time to produce finished work for them.

In December 1890 there was a great frost. The Thames froze over from bank to bank at Twickenham for over a mile from Eel-pie Island to Crossdeep. The curlers of Crystal Palace Curling Club were able to play for the first time for several years. Back home in Scotland the Scots curled too, as was evidenced by the plethora of reports of matches for district medals, and local medals, and provincial medals, in the subsequent Annual of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

The new illustrated daily was not to be outdone. Page 7 of the edition of December 25 carried an argument FOR curling in England, and page 14 a small article and a sketch of 'The Roaring Game' at 'Dudingstone near Edinburgh.'

Here is the sketch:

The caption is: CURLING IN SCOTLAND: THE 'ROARING GAME' AT DUDINGSTONE, NEAR EDINBURGH.

The artist obviously knew the place. Not only are the Scots attired like Scots - one is wearing the kilt - but the octagonal curling house, built by the Duddingston Curling Society in 1826, is clearly recognisable. (A scheme for its refurbishment is underway at present.)

And here is the article:

“The frost had long held London in its grasp before being felt in Scotland, but now its spell has been cast over the whole of the north country. In anticipation of the icy touch, curlers and others had made due preparation, and they are enjoying their favourite sport. Several bonspiels of considerable importance have already been played with the enthusiasm which invariably animates the brethren of the broom. The game, which has been sung by the poets and painted by the artists of the land, has drawn all sorts and conditions of men around the sticks. In the excitement which prevails as well-aimed stones dash across the hog-score to the broughs or (culminating triumph!) to the tee, social, political, and other differences all disappear. A story is just told of a nobleman who after a poor attempt was greeted by his skip, the local blacksmith, with the curiously-mixed remark, 'That’s na shot ava ye idiot – my lord.' The utmost good fellowship, however, pervades the ranks of the curlers; and after a dinner of 'beef and greens', their traditional fare, they pledge each other heartily in the white wine of the country."

The other passage argued for the 'acclimatisation' of the game in England, just as had been achieved with golf by 1890.

“CURLING IN ENGLAND

If curling can flourish in Scotland in spite of the fact that sometimes winter passes winter without giving a single chance of playing a really great match, why should it not also flourish in England, where there is a greater chance of frost than in any part of Scotland? For, curious as it may appear, the mean temperature of December and January is lower in the English Midlands, and even in the country between the Thames and the English Channel than in any part of Scotland, except the coldest of the central counties or the tops of the Highland hills. This winter, indeed, the normal difference between England and Scotland has been greatly intensified. It may be that in spite of the continuous winter frost it is not possible to acclimatise the game in England, but, just as the game of golf has found a home in the south as well as in the north, so it ought to be quite possible to carry to the south the game which for generations has been the favourite one of the north when the days are at the shortest and the frost of the keenest.”

Can anyone suggest why, more than a hundred years later, the game has achieved scarcely a toe-hold in England?

David B Smith

What shape are your handles?

2008-12-02T11:40:00.010Z

The open-ended handle is now so common that one sometimes wonders why there ever was a desire for a different design. But in some parts of Scotland and at some periods there was.

I suppose the earliest form of the closed handle was that of iron permanently fixed with lead into the top of the stone, but even in the earliest periods it appears that the L-shape was by far the most popular. In parts of Perthshire some, but by no means all, curlers liked a handle that was closed at each end and therefore attached to the stone in two places.

This very large triangular, or 'three neukit', stone from Coupar Angus weighs about 112 lbs.

It might appear that a closed handle would ease the carrying of a weighty stone but if the stone was balanced, as it needed to be for skilful play, neither form of the handle gave any advantage; and one finds examples of both types of handle on very heavy stones.

The heaviest stone of them all, The Jubilee Stane, has an L-shaped handle and tips the scales at about 117 lbs.

It was from original handles like these that the more sophisticated designs of the second half of the nineteenth century were developed.

This picture shows a very elegant, and expensive, handle for use with a single-soled stone. The basic handle is of cast brass but it has been very skilfully encased in thin silver plates which in turn bear engravings of thistles. It was located on two posts of iron permanently fixed into the top of the stone. At each side was a screw which when tightened made sure that handle and stone did not part company.

From the introduction of the double soled stone the basic form of the handle has consisted in a (roughly circular) plate into which the bolt is screwed. From this plate emerges in a curve the neck of the handle, often called the 'goose neck' because it resembles that part of that farmyard bird, and the grip is an extension of that, made of wood or ivory or bone or horn, embellished variously with rings of different metals and ivory and bone, and with plaques of silver, which could be engraved.

A small proportion of curlers liked closed handles even for their double-soled stones. The earliest example which I have come upon has been made from iron presumably by a local blacksmith, and it was connected to the stone by means of a central bolt.

Thereafter a number of variants upon this basic design found their way onto Scottish ice, but they were never common. One problem for the historian is that very few handle makers marked their products with a stamp or even initials, and so it is difficult to discover who made the handle, and when, and where.

This appears to be the simplest form, but the question arises – and perhaps some curler with engineering knowledge can answer it. "How is the wooden grip fixed to the brass of the handle?"

The question is still unanswered even with this sophisticated example.

This is the only handle stamped with the maker’s name and town; J SCOTT MELROSE.

The screw at the right hand side of this handle unscrews to allow the whole to come to pieces.

Curling spirits

2008-11-17T23:15:00.002Z

This from David B Smith:

Charles Doyle, the father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was an accomplished artist, member of a family of accomplished artists. His father was a hard-headed political cartoonist, John Doyle, each of whose publications was eagerly awaited by queues of devotees in the street outside his London publisher’s.

Charles and his brother Dickie drew and painted in a wide variety of styles. For some reason both brothers developed a penchant for depicting fairies. Although Charles created quite a number of lively curling scenes he was not always successful in keeping fairies away from them. In John Kerr’s History of Curling there is an end piece by Charles which consists of a fey young lassie speeding over the ice, her diaphanous stole billowing behind her, apparently standing barefoot on the handle of a curling stone. She is said to be The Spirit of Curling.

The same young lady appears on a New Year card by him in water colour.

Against this background I thought it might be apposite to place a couple of mentions of actual fairy curling.

Robert Heron, in his Observations made in a Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland in the Autumn of MDCCXCII, which was published in Perth in 1793, writes of the beliefs of the people around Gatehouse of Fleet: “The Fairies are little beings of a doubtful character, sometimes benevolent, sometimes mischievous: On Hallowe’n and on some other evenings, they and the Gyar-Carlins are sure to be abroad, and to stap those they meet and are displeased with, Full of butter and bear awns; In winter nights they are heard curling on every sheet of ice…”

The next comes from the pen of James Hogg, The Ettrick Shepherd, friend of Scott and Christopher North, and very keen curler. I have mentioned it in a former Scottish Curler.

In 1807 he published The Mountain Bard, a small book of Borders stories and legends, turned into ballad form by himself, and accompanied by notes. From a note on the ballad, Willie Wilken, a famous warlock, comes the following:

Willie Wilkin’s funeral procession was interrupted by the arrival of two dreadful bulls, each of which “put each of them one of their horns into the (ropes) of the coffin, and run off with the corpse... and when after many miles, they came to Loch Ettrick, on the heights of Closeburn, the bulls were seen to plunge into the lake with the corpse.”

“He was, when alive, very fond of the game of curling on the ice, at which no mortal man could beat him; nor has his passion for it ceased with death; for he and his hellish confederates continue to amuse themselves with this game during the long winter nights, to the great terror and annoyance of the neighbourhood, not much regarding whether the loch be frozen or not. I have heard sundry of the neighbouring inhabitants declare, with the most serious countenances, that they have heard them talking, and the sound of the stones running alongst the ice and hitting each other, as distinctly as ever they did when present at a real and substantial curling.”

The spirit of curling had another and perhaps final outing in a poem composed by W A Creelman for his book, Curling Past and Present, published in 1950. The author was a member of Sydney Curling Club, Nova Scotia, a Canadian, who nonetheless wrote his wee poem in quite broad Scots.

The title of the poem is, curiously, The Spirit of Curling.

On the sheen o' THE GRIP a wee sprite frae the air
Rides awa down THE ICE wi' her hear a' aflame
In the path o' the wind gleams the goud o' her hair
Wha is she? Mon, Mon, she's the SOUL O' THE GAME.

She sway and she swings on her gossamer wings
Her twa een intent on the braw arms that SWEEP
Fore the front o' THE STANE as it enters THE RINGS
Thru' a narrow bit PORT like a ship frae the deep.

She kens ilka laddie o' CURLING maun learn
How to play on THE BROOM wi' the hand and the ee;
How to lay doun A GUARD wi an OOT - or IN TURN;
How to WICK and curl in on the face o' THE TEE.

In a rollicking vein the spunkie wein stands
On her curling ROCK speeding another to greet;
Tho the CHAPPIN' ha hurled her a doun on her hands,
In a twinking she's back on the tips of her feet.

Her youth is eternal, and auld is her fame;
She's lithesome, she's bonnie, she's canty, she's gleg,
She lo'es ilka move that belongs to the game,
From plain KNOCKIN OOT to CRACKING AN EGG.

So toast HER ye sons o' THE STANE and THE BROOM!
She a poem in motion as swaying and swirling
She rides on undaunted to victory or doom
THE VERRA SOUL O' THE GAME, THE SPIRIT O' CURLING.

The Glasgow Stones

2008-11-05T20:50:00.006Z

This feature appeared in the October 2008 Scottish Curler magazine. David B Smith tells the story:

Late last year I got a phone call from a dealer in Perthshire about a pair of curling stones which were about to appear in the catalogue of a Perth saleroom. Nothing unusual about that, I hear you say. They were in their original box. Again, nothing very unusual about that. The box was lined throughout in crimson velvet; the circular holes into which the stones were placed were also lined in velvet. It was beginning to sound as if these were rather special stones. The handles were of a most unusual design and were cast from solid silver and the grips were made of horn. These were really special stones.

I had to wait until the description of the stones appeared in the sale-room catalogue. When I looked there was more. There was a plaque attached to the box, which bore this inscription:
‘OAK, Original Old Stockwell Bridge, Founded above the year 1335’ And the handles bore this inscription. ‘RESPECTFULLY PRESENTED To the Right Honourable Robert Stewart, LORD PROVOST OF THE CITY OF GLASGOW, This Pair of Curling Stones Chiseled out of the Boulders Found IN THE FORMATION OF Kelvin Grove Park By John Murray Contractor, 1853’

At this point I decided that a closer look was necessary and I applied to the auction house for photographs. The stones were indeed particularly splendid. The estimated price, however, was daunting: £800-£1000. I decided that the best course would be for me to be sure that the National Museums of Scotland and Glasgow Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery knew about them, for they were of museum quality.

In the meantime I sought out more information about Robert Stewart. It was clear from the inscription that he had been a Lord Provost of Glasgow. I discovered that he was born in 1810, had inherited and expanded the business of iron and coal master of Omoa in the parish of Cleland, and had joined the town council in 1842. He became Lord Provost in 1851 and became responsible for the purchase by the council in 1852 of the estate of Kelvin Grove, from the grounds of which the West End Park was created to provide recreational space for the citizens of the city which was rapidly expanding to the west away from the only other green space, The Green. The old bridge referred to in the plaque was demolished in 1851. He also led the successful campaign for the provision by the city of fresh water for the city from Loch Katrine in opposition to the plan of the Glasgow Water Company to supply it privately from Loch Lubnaig.

Robert Stewart is commemorated in the Kelvingrove Park by a vast ornate fountain (which, ironically, is not now permitted to run because it is fed by the public water supply). See here.

It appears that the curling stones were the result of the West End Park venture. Since it seems reasonable to suppose that the recipient of a gift of curling stones was himself a curler, further research in that area was necessary. The Annuals of the Royal Club provided only one Robert Stewart in the whole of Lanarkshire at the correct dates, and he was Robert Stewart, member and latterly secretary of Chryston Curling Club. The president of this club was Mark Sprot, advocate and ironmaster, and it may well be that their community of business caused them to be members of the same club.

The sale came and went. I saw on the internet that the stones had been sold for a hammer price of £3000! To this, of course, falls to be added buyer’s commission and VAT on the commission. I contacted the dealer who had first spoken to me about the stones. He was the under-bidder but did not know who had bought them. In vain I asked other dealers whom I knew.

On my way to Perth in February 2008 I looked in at an antique shop in Auchterarder. The owner said at once: “The stones you’re looking for are at Scone Palace today; there’s an antiques fair there.” And so, having looked in at Dewar’s Rinks I sped off to Scone and discovered the stones in their box at the stall of Nicholas Shaw, a dealer from Petworth, West Sussex. They were every bit as magnificent as their description had suggested them to be but by then even more expensive. Nick Shaw promised to send me good photographs and this he did, along with permission to use them for this article.

Whether I have found the correct Robert Stewart in Chryston CC or not, the recipient of these stones might as well have been a non-curler for all the play they have seen. The striking band, which is of a very unusual sort of stippled pattern, shows no sign of use whatever. The stones are in their pristine state.

The handles, made in Glasgow, are indeed cast from silver and hall-marked accordingly. They are of a unique design. The base of the goose neck is decorated with acanthus and vine leaf; and the entire edge is embellished.

This pair of stones is not only important from the point of view of design and execution but from their association with a very important citizen of Glasgow.

The photos are courtesy of Nicholas Shaw

Medals with a message

2008-10-19T22:54:00.005+01:00

When Sir Alexander Boswell, the laird of Auchinleck in Ayrshire, gave a medal to the curlers of Kyle he caused very precise instructions for how it was to be played for to be inscribed on it.

The following description of the medal appeared in the Ayrshire Express of 1 January 1870:
"On one side, on a shield, in the centre, is the figure of a sturdy Caledonian, partially robed, with a stout club in his right hand, surmounted with a knight’s helmet and crown, over which is written in old English letters, 'Old King Coil,' and, above all, is the motto, 'Non Timet Hostiles Jam Lapis Istemenas.' Underneath the figure, in a garter, are the words, 'Kyle for a Man,' surrounded with a wreath of thistles and oak leaves, &c."

On the other side are the following instructions:
"This medal may be challenged for by any curlers of Kyle, and shall be played for by single matches, each playing six stones, and allowed a person to direct the game. Twenty one the game, and the distance forty yards from brough to brough. The winner not to be obliged to play more than one match with the same person, nor five matches, in whole, in one year. The man who challenges must stake a crown, the holder of the medal nothing. A contest for the medal not to be construed into a parish play, and all the matches to be played on the 'Whirr Loch' in the parish of Auchinleck."

Several explanations are necessary. The medal must have been presented before 1822 because on 26 March of that year Sir Alexander Boswell was shot dead at Auchtertool in a duel by James Stuart of Dunearn. (He was tried and acquitted in the High Court of Justiciary on a charge of murder.) Sir Alexander was a keen, keen curler; a member of the Duddingston Curling Society, and a poet who wrote some notable curling poems.

The Latin is a quotation about a stone from the Roman poet Martial. It means: 'This stone does not fear hostile threats.'

Kyle is that part of Ayrshire that lies between the Rivers Irvine and Doon. The old rhyme characterises the different parts of the county by what they were best at producing.

Kyle for a man; Carrick for a coo; Cunningham for butter and cheese And Galloway for woo’.

'Brough' is an old Scots word for 'circle', and a crown was a coin worth five shillings, a large sum at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The play for the medal was to be single-handed, each curler throwing six stones, with someone in the broughs to hold the brush. Six stones is a very great number when one considers that at that period in and around Auchinleck the rink in ordinary curling matches consisted of nine men each throwing a single stone.

I have in my collection from the same bit of Ayrshire another medal that contains instructions.

It is of silver and engraved round the rim are the words: OLD CUMNOCK CURLERS SOCIETY MEDAL 1831.

On one side appear the words:

Whoever plays for me Must of this Parish be Fortyfive Yards from tee to tee.

And on the other:

At 2 days notice play for me or delivered up I must be to the Rink that challenges for me

These two are the only medals I have so far come across that contain the rules of play. I would be delighted to hear of any others.

David B Smith

In the house

2008-10-05T21:35:00.005+01:00

In one of the earliest poems about curling, by the Lanarkshire poet, James Graeme, and first published in 1773, we find:

The goals are marked out; the centre each
Of a large random circle; distance scores
Are drawn between, the dread of weakly arms.

In Thoughts on the Seasons, (1789), David Davidson the Kirkcudbrightshire poet wrote, when describing the play at a bonspiel between Glenbuck and Bentudor:

Then Fotheringhaw, a sidelin shot,
Close to the circle played.

And in the next year Alexander Wilson wrote:

To the ice of Loch Tankard, our buirdly braw callans
First bare the big whin-stane, and marked out the tee;
Syne drew down the dread hog-score, the hack and the circle,
Around which our Fathers oft sported wi’ glee.

The first badge or medal of the Duddingston Curling Society, which was struck in 1802 “to distinguish the members from any other gentleman” shows a circle inscribed in the ice of the loch.

The Rev. John Ramsay in his An Account of the Game of Curling, by a Member of the Duddingston Curling Society, 1811, page 4 states: "The place for the rink being chosen, a mark is made at each end, called a tee, toesee, or witter. It is a small hole made in the ice, round which two circles of different diameters are drawn, that the relative distances of the stones from the tee may be calculated at sight, as actual measurement is not permitted till the playing at each end be finished. These circles, in the technical language of the game, are called broughs."

Sir Alexander Boswell sang the following song to the Duddingston curlers at a dinner in McEwan’s Tavern on 11 December 1816:

"Soop the rink, lads, wide enough;
The hogscore mak’, and mak’ ilk brough;" (make every circle.)

The curlers of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries clearly played their stones into a circle round the tee.

It is therefore a bit surprising that in the Annual for 1838-9 in which the first rules of the Grand Caledonian Curling Club were published there was no explicit provision in the Rules of the Game for circles, or broughs, or a house.

Rule 16th stated: “No measuring of shots allowable previous to the termination of the end.”

When rules were first promulgated for district medals for points in the Annual for 1839-40 it was provided “3d, A circle eight feet in diameter shall be drawn round the tee…” and the circle was an important part of the scoring system, for one point, drawing, demanded that a stone be put into the circle and others demanded that a stone be struck out of it.

The 6th rule in the Annual for 1840-1 was: "...In cases in which each party has a stone equally near the tee, neither to be counted, and the winning party of the previous end is again to fill the ice. Measurements to be taken from the centre of the tee to that part of the stone which is nearest it."

In that for 1841-2 in Rule 6 we find this addition to the rule, printed in italics: “No stone to be counted which does not lie within seven feet from the tee, unless it be previously otherwise agreed upon.”

After the first thorough revision of the rules, which contained 'great improvements' according to the editor, we find in the Annual for 1854-5: “Rule 1….A circle of seven feet radius, to be described from each Tee as a centre, and no stone to count which is wholly without this circle…”

The revised Rules clarified when a stone was in or out of the circle. “10…No stone shall be considered within or without a circle unless it clear it; and every stone shall be held as resting on a line, which does not completely clear it; - in every case, this is to be determined by placing a square on the ice, at that part of the circle or line in dispute.” This was the first mention of a circle but it must have been part of the game from its beginning.

The new Rules were accompanied by a “Diagram or Plan” called “The Rink”, which set out a number of dimensions including those of smaller circles within the seven foot, of 2 and 4 feet in diameter, which were not obligatory.

The seven foot rule lasted until the AGM of 27 July 1938, when after much discussion involving the fact that in Canada they had been playing for years with a six foot circle in contravention of the Rules of the mother club, a compromise was reached. Rule 47 now read: “The Tees shall be 38 yards apart – and, with the Tees as centres, Circles having a radius of not less than 6 feet nor more than 7 feet shall be drawn. Additional inner Circles may be drawn.”

On 24 July 1963 the rule was changed to 6 feet, since all the other curling associations in the world, as well as all the Scottish ice rinks, used that measure.

The only change from that to the present is the decimalisation of the imperial measurements, which took place at the revision of 1980. The present rule is: “Section A.
3. The tees shall be 34.75m. (114 feet) apart and, with the tees as centres, circles having radii of 1.22m. (4 feet) and 1.83m. (6 feet) shall be drawn. Additional inner circles may also be drawn. ..”

Can you kiggle-caggle?

2008-09-13T12:57:00.007+01:00

At a time when - for reasons that are obvious: there are so many more of them than us - Canadian terms are beginning to oust the old, indigenous Scots ones, perhaps we should take a little time to remind ourselves of some of the older terms, and add them again to our vocabulary.

If younger Scots can take to using 'rock' for stone - and even some middle-aged Scots television commentators are guilty of that grave fault - perhaps they can pick up expressive words like 'kiggle-caggle'.

It may be that 'to kiggle-caggle' has fallen out of use because ice has got better, for I see that it is defined in my notes under the date 1991 as 'to throw the curling stone with a rocking motion on the ice, designed to reduce friction when ice is wet, or even under water.' (I suspect that the definition is my own.)

In this example from a poem, Scotland’s Ain Game o’ Curlin’, sung at the Annual Dinner of the Kinross Curling Club in January 1889, and printed in the Annual for 1892, pp. 421-2, the poet, having celebrated the actual game, then deals with the apres-curl drinking, and uses the term to describe the unsteady gait of some curlers on their way home. My wife, who is a bit posher than me, has suggested I should explain some of the other Scots words. I have put a translation of each line in italics below the line!

And when we at nicht in the Public sae couthie
And when we at night in the publichouse or hotel so friendly
Sit drinkin’ for fellowship, - no that we’re drouthie -
Sit drinking for fellowship - we’re by no means thirsty -
We weel ken that 'Heath’ry' will drive us a’ hame,
We know well that Heathery (a nickname) will drive us all home,
If his dog-cart’s at hand, and his powney’s no lame.
If his pony and trap are to hand and his pony is not lame.

It is true that he may, as he ance did afore,
It is true that he may as he once did before.
Clap us down at a place that’s no’ just our ain door;
Drop us off at a place that’s not exactly our own door;
But what does it matter? - a’ doors are the same
But what does it matter? - all doors are the same
To a curler when he’s kiggle-cagglin’ hame.
To a curler when he’s kiggle-caggling home.

In Keen Curler’s Troth, from the Annual for 1936, p. cxxvi, it is obvious that 'kiggle-caggling' was part of the ordinary curler’s armoury.

I’ll aye a curler keen abide,
And ne’er a challenge shirk.
I’ll draw the tee straucht doon the slide,
And fickle ilka quirk.

I’ll kiggle caggle to and fro,
Tak wicks, and draw the port,
Ne’er be a hog, nor eke owre slow
Tae chip the brittle shot.

I’ll soop the rink frae score tae tee,
I’ll keep ma language clean,
Dae what I’m tell’t, treat courteouslie
Ma foe, forbye ma free.

I’ll mind ma feet, and slide ma stane,
No drap it, wi’ a dunt,
A gawky gommeril is a bane,
His neebors bear the brunt…

Top photo: A clear case of the kiggle-caggles. New Farm Loch, Kilmarnock, beginning of the twentieth century, from the author's collection.