season 2018-2019 news
AGM held on 24th April Forthbank Performance Centre, Wallace Suite, 7:00pm
12 people attended the Annual General Meeting in support the work of the club and were involved in decisions affecting its future. We celebrated another successful season that built on the wins achieved in 2017-2018 and we confirmed plans to continue that expansion and success into season 2019-2020.
One of the main topics discussed was the change in discount that will impact us next season. This will see the amount of money we need to pay increase to £9.00 per per person per game, up from £8.50. This is a reduction of discount by 5% and this reduction is planned to continue over the following two years to bring the discount for a chartered club down to 10%. A payment plan suggested by the treasurer was discussed and it was agreed to keep the payments the same for next season and to review the impact at the next AGM. Norman Ainslie, the Development Officer notified everyone about the club introducing Mixed Doubles curling in a trial to let everyone experience it. The club will also sponsor a TryCurling evening with ice for coaching as well before the season starts.
The biggest change in personnel was President Graeme Anderson handing over to John Brisbane and Alan Watt stepping up from the committee to become Vice President. Alan Hadden will take his place in the committee. At the end of the meeting, new President John Brisbane, presented trophies to the winners of the competitions for the season.
One of the main topics discussed was the change in discount that will impact us next season. This will see the amount of money we need to pay increase to £9.00 per per person per game, up from £8.50. This is a reduction of discount by 5% and this reduction is planned to continue over the following two years to bring the discount for a chartered club down to 10%. A payment plan suggested by the treasurer was discussed and it was agreed to keep the payments the same for next season and to review the impact at the next AGM. Norman Ainslie, the Development Officer notified everyone about the club introducing Mixed Doubles curling in a trial to let everyone experience it. The club will also sponsor a TryCurling evening with ice for coaching as well before the season starts.
The biggest change in personnel was President Graeme Anderson handing over to John Brisbane and Alan Watt stepping up from the committee to become Vice President. Alan Hadden will take his place in the committee. At the end of the meeting, new President John Brisbane, presented trophies to the winners of the competitions for the season.
Above is the minutes of the AGM. Please download if you wish to read them.
|
Nailbiting finish to Closing Bonspiel
Four teams competed for the Miller Trophy on Wednesday 3rd of April in the National Curling Academy. On rink two both teams were short of a player but that didn't dampen the competition any as they traded steals to keep the ends won level after 4 ends. On rink one , after exchanging scores it looked like one team were going to run away with it, winning 4 ends in a row. On rink one, both teams traded single shots to win ends, with team 4 edging the ends at 4 v 3. A look at the other scoreboard saw teams 1 and 2 scoring 2 v 4 and team 1 lying a counter and two stones remaining. It looked like a tie might be on the scorecards as both teams 2 and 4 with 4 ends also had the same shot total. However as fate would have it, team 1 blew their chance of winning the end by moving their own stone after wicking off a red and so team 1 took the end without playing their last stone and hands were shaken. Disappointment for team 4 who were hoping for a chance to win on an extra decider. Well done to Alan Watt, Alan Hadden, Derrick Douglas and Rory MacKenzie.
Muirhead Final won by Team Watt
The Muirhead Trophy FINAL was played at the Main Ice Rink on the 18th March at the unusual time of 5:45pm. The final will be between Team Watt (Alan, Graeme and Caroline Anderson and Jim Kerr, subbing for Joan Anderson) and Team Marshall (Jim, Derrick Douglas, Iain Gwynne and Ian Mackie) had a close match. Both teams won ends, Team Marshall scoring a 3 to keep their hopes alive but Team Watt came back with a 2 in the next one, enough to see off Team Marshall who could only take a single at the last. Well done Alan, Caroline, Graeme and Jim.
Jim Neilson wins Hendry Trophy, welcome back Jim.
Jim Neilson agreed to play in this trophy once more after a long absence from the club due to ill health and it was good to see him back on the ice once more. Each skip in this tournament went on to win a game each so it came down to who won big in the shots up count and Jim Neilson scored the biggest win at +7 shots to have an aggregate score of +5 overall. Iain Gwynne broke even at 0 and Joan Anderson was -5 to balance it all up. Welcome back Jim, good score and a trophy once again. We look forward to you playing a few more games next season.
Corrieri concluded and shots counted to pick the winner.
The final match of the Corrieri was played on the 25th March at 6:15pm in the main ice rink. Team MacKenzie (Rory, John Brisbane, Ian Mackie and Joan Anderson) against Team Marshall (Jim, Joe Kincaid, Jim Kerr and Alex Frew). Rory had it all to play for as Team Marshall couldn't win it as they didn't have enough points to overtake Team Watt, who had 5. With it all to play for, Rory opened with a 3 and a steal of 1 before then losing a 4 to be all square. However, Rory got his mojo back and won 3 out of the last 4 ends to win 7 v 5 overall. This shot total was enough to beat Team Watt's shot total and so with the same number of points, takes the cup. Well played.
Mitchell/Wilson finally decided
On Thursday night at 8:45pm on 7th February we replayed the final match of the competition to clear up the substitution mistake that led to Norman Ainslie's rink unfairly penalised and ultimately losing the match and the competition. It certainly looked one sided at the start with Jim Marshall taking a 3 to a 1 reply before winning the next three ends for 4 shots. However Norman's rink came storming back with a 3 of their own and lying 4 in the last end with Jim still to play, they had enough to win if Jim didn't make the shot. So no pressure then as Jim played a draw through a narrow window to cut Norman's final score to a 1 and so win the match. So Jim Marshall's rink take the trophy. Thanks to all who played.
Swanswater Trophy back in our hands
The annual match with Torbrex for the Swanwater Trophy took place on Friday 1st February at 6:30pm in the NCA, with 2 teams a side. Both teams got off to a flying start, Team 1 scored a 4 in the first end and team 2 won the first three ends with a score of 2 each time. Then both side went through a patch trading the same scores back and forth before team 1 stole an end with a single shot and then Torbrex replied with 3s in both rinks and then it was game on. Team 1 came back with a 3 of their own but team 2 then lost a 4 and finally a 2 in the last. Team 1 scored to go 9 v 4 in front. Torbrex played a couple of great shots but could only score a 2 to level the match at 17 shots each, but because team 1 stole an end we won the trophy on ends, what a game, well played everyone. We had a meal up the restaurant together for a very sociable end to the night.
A late recovery in the SCCA League.
A few late fine wins in the Small Curling Clubs Alliance league lifted us off the bottom of the pile and balalnced out our shot score at zero rather than a negative number to make up for the first half of the competition. We had a 9 v 3 win against Bonnybridge, 7 v 1 against Dunblane, a really good result of 7 v 4 against Falkirk and 7 v 3 against Larbert. The full season's results are on the SCCA League page. Grangemouth won the trophy this season for the first time. Well done To Malcolm Duncan and this team after 18 years of SCCA competition after being the runner-up on four occasions and now champions.
Province Aitken Trophy won for a change
A kind draw in the Stirlingshire Province Aitken Trophy gave us an ideal opportunity to win this trophy for a long time. The first game was against Falkirk Ladies and the score finished up at 8 v 2 and 6 ends to 1. The second team was drawn against Falkirk Ice Rink and managed to achieve a white wash of 14 v 0 in shots and 7 ends. This gave us an aggregate score of 13 ends won, a shot difference of +20 shots and 22 shots scored overall. The next nearest club was Borestone and Stirling with 11 ends won. A great result and it puts the club's name back on the trophy at last.
Norman and Caroline win the Pairs Final
The Hope Pairs competition proved to be very competitive right from the start and it was great to see almost the entire club taking part. The play continued to be aggressive right through the tournament and the final was no exception with Norman and Caroline getting off to a flier with a score of 3 in the first end and then a steal of 1 in the next one. Jim and Alan managed to win the next two ends with a score of 1 each to come back into it but a 2 for Norman and Caroline in the 5th end steadied the ship and they saw out the match as winners by 7 v 3. Well played both teams, Norman Ainslie and Caroline Anderson, Jim Kerr and Alan Haddon.
Best Christmas Bonspiel for years.
This year we played two sheets of ice for two matches and sixteen players on the ice together. It was a great sight, with a number of christmas jerseys on display. We continued with the rotations within each of the four teams and it kept the play keen as ends had to be won. There was lots of fine shot making on display despite the fast ice. Jim Marshall, Graeme Anderson, Iain Gwynne and Alex Frew won overall taking six ends, with Rory MacKenzie, John Brisbane, Joan Anderson and Ian Mackie just unable to clinch the final end to force a shot count, winning just five ends.. The meal afterwards was fantastic, great value and well served by the staff in the kitchen.
Jim Marshall wins joint Points event
We played our Points competition with our neighbouring Stirling clubs, Borestone & Stirling and Torbrex on Monday 12th November at 6:15pm. We agreed to try this out as a way of cutting the cost of this event as so few people turn up for it. 13 players took part overall, we supplied the most with 7. Only 6 disciplines were completed on the night and we rotated who went first on each discipline to provide a fairer test for everyone. Jim Marshall had the highest score on the night with 29 with Graeme and Joe equal third on 25. Alan Lee of Borestone was second with 26. So Jim Marshall is the winner of the John Cairns cup and sadly no ladies from our club took part so no ladies winner. Hope you are feeling better Joan, we know you like taking part. Our club scores and analysis for those interested.
Bottom after half the SCCA league games
It makes sorry reading this season after our glorious triumph last season, but as of now we are the bottom club in the SCCA League having won only a single game out of the seven played. We have -15 shots on aggregate and only 3 points on the board for our solitary win against Bonnybridge. Still the other half of the season to go, can we make a move up the board?
Better result in the Dunn Trophy, retained.For the third time in a row we have won the Dunn Trophy against Fintry and Kilsyth, which is better news of late. The game was played on the 7th of November at 6:15pm. Both teams won their games to ensure victory on the night, with scores of 10 v 5 against Kilsyth and 8 v 5 against Fintry. Well done to Graeme, Jim M, Jim K, Alan H, Joe, Norman, Ian and Rory. There was a meal up the restaurant afterwards and it was very good. Most of the players went upstairs to eat and the trophy was presented to our President, Graeme Anderson after the meal.
Polmaise Trophy remains elusive
This trophy was almost officially the club's property as we had won it so many times in a row but now it is in danger of becoming a stranger as Borestone and Stirling have now won it three times in a row. Unfortunately, we had a spate of call offs for the Friday night game and we had a scramble to make two full teams with Jim Marshall bringing along his son Daniel to complete the sides. As for the games themselves, both teams began by losing a three followed by a two so giving Borestone a ten shot start. We didn't really recover ending up losing both games, 2 v 12 and 4 v 9. So the wait till next year to see if we can once again win it back. We will try to avoid a Friday night as that certainly didn't help the availability of players.
Alan Watt's rink win McWattie Trophy
The final match in the McWattie was played on Thursday night 18th October. It was a rearranged match and a couple of people failed to keep track of the arrangement so we ended up playing three a side. It was still a very good game with Jim Marshall's team winning the first two ends, before losing a 5 in the third. Heads didn't go down though and it was all square after the fourth end and then Jim sneeked into the lead by a single shot. Joe managed to get his act together in the final two ends to score 2 shots in each to eventually win 9 v 6.
Buchlyvie stop us again in Area KO
Buchlyvie are fast becoming a bogie team in the Forth Valley Area Knockout as they won a tight game against us 5 v 8. A few pickups at critical times didn't help but peeling 5 v 5 into the last end and against the hammer we couldn't produce a steal.
Cairns Elder Cup win against Crossmyloof
The two teams line up at the start of the game, Joan holding the trophy and obviously didn't want to hand it over as we won both matches 10 v 5.
Into Second Round Forth Valley KO
Played against Buchan in the Forth Valley Area Knock Out competition on the 5th of October and came out of a very competitive match the winner by 7 v 3. Buchan got off to a great start by winning the first two ends by single shots. Then the next ends the sides traded single shots before our team of Graeme Anderson, Jim Marshall, Iain Gwynne and Alan Hadden took control and won the next three ends by two shots, one shot and finally three shots. Well played everyone, your opponents in the next round will be Buchlyvie.
Off to a great start at Opening Bonspiel
Despite the main ice rink at the Peak being out of commission due to a plant failure we still had a full turnout at the National Curling Academy for the opening bonspiel. Two teams of five players contested the match with everyone (well nearly everyone) rotating through all the positions over the course of seven ends to decide the winner. There was a bit of rust to be shed as this was the first game this season, because we had no coaching due to a shortage of available ice. The winners overall with 5 ends to 2 were Alan Watt, Alan Hadden, Jim Marshall, Norman Ainslie and Joe Kincaid.
Four teams competed for the Miller Trophy on Wednesday 3rd of April in the National Curling Academy. On rink two both teams were short of a player but that didn't dampen the competition any as they traded steals to keep the ends won level after 4 ends. On rink one , after exchanging scores it looked like one team were going to run away with it, winning 4 ends in a row. On rink one, both teams traded single shots to win ends, with team 4 edging the ends at 4 v 3. A look at the other scoreboard saw teams 1 and 2 scoring 2 v 4 and team 1 lying a counter and two stones remaining. It looked like a tie might be on the scorecards as both teams 2 and 4 with 4 ends also had the same shot total. However as fate would have it, team 1 blew their chance of winning the end by moving their own stone after wicking off a red and so team 1 took the end without playing their last stone and hands were shaken. Disappointment for team 4 who were hoping for a chance to win on an extra decider. Well done to Alan Watt, Alan Hadden, Derrick Douglas and Rory MacKenzie.
Muirhead Final won by Team Watt
The Muirhead Trophy FINAL was played at the Main Ice Rink on the 18th March at the unusual time of 5:45pm. The final will be between Team Watt (Alan, Graeme and Caroline Anderson and Jim Kerr, subbing for Joan Anderson) and Team Marshall (Jim, Derrick Douglas, Iain Gwynne and Ian Mackie) had a close match. Both teams won ends, Team Marshall scoring a 3 to keep their hopes alive but Team Watt came back with a 2 in the next one, enough to see off Team Marshall who could only take a single at the last. Well done Alan, Caroline, Graeme and Jim.
Jim Neilson wins Hendry Trophy, welcome back Jim.
Jim Neilson agreed to play in this trophy once more after a long absence from the club due to ill health and it was good to see him back on the ice once more. Each skip in this tournament went on to win a game each so it came down to who won big in the shots up count and Jim Neilson scored the biggest win at +7 shots to have an aggregate score of +5 overall. Iain Gwynne broke even at 0 and Joan Anderson was -5 to balance it all up. Welcome back Jim, good score and a trophy once again. We look forward to you playing a few more games next season.
Corrieri concluded and shots counted to pick the winner.
The final match of the Corrieri was played on the 25th March at 6:15pm in the main ice rink. Team MacKenzie (Rory, John Brisbane, Ian Mackie and Joan Anderson) against Team Marshall (Jim, Joe Kincaid, Jim Kerr and Alex Frew). Rory had it all to play for as Team Marshall couldn't win it as they didn't have enough points to overtake Team Watt, who had 5. With it all to play for, Rory opened with a 3 and a steal of 1 before then losing a 4 to be all square. However, Rory got his mojo back and won 3 out of the last 4 ends to win 7 v 5 overall. This shot total was enough to beat Team Watt's shot total and so with the same number of points, takes the cup. Well played.
Mitchell/Wilson finally decided
On Thursday night at 8:45pm on 7th February we replayed the final match of the competition to clear up the substitution mistake that led to Norman Ainslie's rink unfairly penalised and ultimately losing the match and the competition. It certainly looked one sided at the start with Jim Marshall taking a 3 to a 1 reply before winning the next three ends for 4 shots. However Norman's rink came storming back with a 3 of their own and lying 4 in the last end with Jim still to play, they had enough to win if Jim didn't make the shot. So no pressure then as Jim played a draw through a narrow window to cut Norman's final score to a 1 and so win the match. So Jim Marshall's rink take the trophy. Thanks to all who played.
Swanswater Trophy back in our hands
The annual match with Torbrex for the Swanwater Trophy took place on Friday 1st February at 6:30pm in the NCA, with 2 teams a side. Both teams got off to a flying start, Team 1 scored a 4 in the first end and team 2 won the first three ends with a score of 2 each time. Then both side went through a patch trading the same scores back and forth before team 1 stole an end with a single shot and then Torbrex replied with 3s in both rinks and then it was game on. Team 1 came back with a 3 of their own but team 2 then lost a 4 and finally a 2 in the last. Team 1 scored to go 9 v 4 in front. Torbrex played a couple of great shots but could only score a 2 to level the match at 17 shots each, but because team 1 stole an end we won the trophy on ends, what a game, well played everyone. We had a meal up the restaurant together for a very sociable end to the night.
A late recovery in the SCCA League.
A few late fine wins in the Small Curling Clubs Alliance league lifted us off the bottom of the pile and balalnced out our shot score at zero rather than a negative number to make up for the first half of the competition. We had a 9 v 3 win against Bonnybridge, 7 v 1 against Dunblane, a really good result of 7 v 4 against Falkirk and 7 v 3 against Larbert. The full season's results are on the SCCA League page. Grangemouth won the trophy this season for the first time. Well done To Malcolm Duncan and this team after 18 years of SCCA competition after being the runner-up on four occasions and now champions.
Province Aitken Trophy won for a change
A kind draw in the Stirlingshire Province Aitken Trophy gave us an ideal opportunity to win this trophy for a long time. The first game was against Falkirk Ladies and the score finished up at 8 v 2 and 6 ends to 1. The second team was drawn against Falkirk Ice Rink and managed to achieve a white wash of 14 v 0 in shots and 7 ends. This gave us an aggregate score of 13 ends won, a shot difference of +20 shots and 22 shots scored overall. The next nearest club was Borestone and Stirling with 11 ends won. A great result and it puts the club's name back on the trophy at last.
Norman and Caroline win the Pairs Final
The Hope Pairs competition proved to be very competitive right from the start and it was great to see almost the entire club taking part. The play continued to be aggressive right through the tournament and the final was no exception with Norman and Caroline getting off to a flier with a score of 3 in the first end and then a steal of 1 in the next one. Jim and Alan managed to win the next two ends with a score of 1 each to come back into it but a 2 for Norman and Caroline in the 5th end steadied the ship and they saw out the match as winners by 7 v 3. Well played both teams, Norman Ainslie and Caroline Anderson, Jim Kerr and Alan Haddon.
Best Christmas Bonspiel for years.
This year we played two sheets of ice for two matches and sixteen players on the ice together. It was a great sight, with a number of christmas jerseys on display. We continued with the rotations within each of the four teams and it kept the play keen as ends had to be won. There was lots of fine shot making on display despite the fast ice. Jim Marshall, Graeme Anderson, Iain Gwynne and Alex Frew won overall taking six ends, with Rory MacKenzie, John Brisbane, Joan Anderson and Ian Mackie just unable to clinch the final end to force a shot count, winning just five ends.. The meal afterwards was fantastic, great value and well served by the staff in the kitchen.
Jim Marshall wins joint Points event
We played our Points competition with our neighbouring Stirling clubs, Borestone & Stirling and Torbrex on Monday 12th November at 6:15pm. We agreed to try this out as a way of cutting the cost of this event as so few people turn up for it. 13 players took part overall, we supplied the most with 7. Only 6 disciplines were completed on the night and we rotated who went first on each discipline to provide a fairer test for everyone. Jim Marshall had the highest score on the night with 29 with Graeme and Joe equal third on 25. Alan Lee of Borestone was second with 26. So Jim Marshall is the winner of the John Cairns cup and sadly no ladies from our club took part so no ladies winner. Hope you are feeling better Joan, we know you like taking part. Our club scores and analysis for those interested.
Bottom after half the SCCA league games
It makes sorry reading this season after our glorious triumph last season, but as of now we are the bottom club in the SCCA League having won only a single game out of the seven played. We have -15 shots on aggregate and only 3 points on the board for our solitary win against Bonnybridge. Still the other half of the season to go, can we make a move up the board?
Better result in the Dunn Trophy, retained.For the third time in a row we have won the Dunn Trophy against Fintry and Kilsyth, which is better news of late. The game was played on the 7th of November at 6:15pm. Both teams won their games to ensure victory on the night, with scores of 10 v 5 against Kilsyth and 8 v 5 against Fintry. Well done to Graeme, Jim M, Jim K, Alan H, Joe, Norman, Ian and Rory. There was a meal up the restaurant afterwards and it was very good. Most of the players went upstairs to eat and the trophy was presented to our President, Graeme Anderson after the meal.
Polmaise Trophy remains elusive
This trophy was almost officially the club's property as we had won it so many times in a row but now it is in danger of becoming a stranger as Borestone and Stirling have now won it three times in a row. Unfortunately, we had a spate of call offs for the Friday night game and we had a scramble to make two full teams with Jim Marshall bringing along his son Daniel to complete the sides. As for the games themselves, both teams began by losing a three followed by a two so giving Borestone a ten shot start. We didn't really recover ending up losing both games, 2 v 12 and 4 v 9. So the wait till next year to see if we can once again win it back. We will try to avoid a Friday night as that certainly didn't help the availability of players.
Alan Watt's rink win McWattie Trophy
The final match in the McWattie was played on Thursday night 18th October. It was a rearranged match and a couple of people failed to keep track of the arrangement so we ended up playing three a side. It was still a very good game with Jim Marshall's team winning the first two ends, before losing a 5 in the third. Heads didn't go down though and it was all square after the fourth end and then Jim sneeked into the lead by a single shot. Joe managed to get his act together in the final two ends to score 2 shots in each to eventually win 9 v 6.
Buchlyvie stop us again in Area KO
Buchlyvie are fast becoming a bogie team in the Forth Valley Area Knockout as they won a tight game against us 5 v 8. A few pickups at critical times didn't help but peeling 5 v 5 into the last end and against the hammer we couldn't produce a steal.
Cairns Elder Cup win against Crossmyloof
The two teams line up at the start of the game, Joan holding the trophy and obviously didn't want to hand it over as we won both matches 10 v 5.
Into Second Round Forth Valley KO
Played against Buchan in the Forth Valley Area Knock Out competition on the 5th of October and came out of a very competitive match the winner by 7 v 3. Buchan got off to a great start by winning the first two ends by single shots. Then the next ends the sides traded single shots before our team of Graeme Anderson, Jim Marshall, Iain Gwynne and Alan Hadden took control and won the next three ends by two shots, one shot and finally three shots. Well played everyone, your opponents in the next round will be Buchlyvie.
Off to a great start at Opening Bonspiel
Despite the main ice rink at the Peak being out of commission due to a plant failure we still had a full turnout at the National Curling Academy for the opening bonspiel. Two teams of five players contested the match with everyone (well nearly everyone) rotating through all the positions over the course of seven ends to decide the winner. There was a bit of rust to be shed as this was the first game this season, because we had no coaching due to a shortage of available ice. The winners overall with 5 ends to 2 were Alan Watt, Alan Hadden, Jim Marshall, Norman Ainslie and Joe Kincaid.