outdoor ponds played upon before 1940
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Up until well into the twentieth century all curling clubs had a recognised body of water that they claimed as their curling pond. It could have been a natural body of water, but more likely a man-made loch on an estate like Airthrey Loch that was used by other members of the public to skate and curl on or it could have been a purpose built pond specifically for that curling club such as Wauk Mill was for Sauchie and Bannockburn. Some locations had artificial rinks, either as additions to their existing pond such as with Stirling, Borestone and Dunblane clubs or on their own, such as Bridge of Allan. These artificial rinks were not water borne ice, but ice created on a suitable surface by spraying water on it and allowing it to freeze. All clubs had small houses beside their ponds where they kept the members’ curling stones and other equipment to lay out the rinks and play upon the ice.
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When a club met another to play on their ice or on neutral ice, they had to transport their own curling stones and brooms as well as the players to these locations. For local journeys, this would be by horse and cart direct from one curling pond to the other. In 1899 a vote of thanks to all the members who carted all the club stones for the season was recorded in the club minutes. For longer journeys, the railway had to be used, with horse and cart taking everyone to and from the stations as required. All this had to be done to allow play in daylight as few ponds had lights even in the 20th century. This restricted where it was possible to play. For the RCCC District Medal for example, when drawn against clubs which were some distance away, agreement to meet on a third party curling pond mid-way between them made these matches possible. So for example, the club played Buchlyvie on Cardross ice in 1881 and played Aberfoyle on Port of Monteith pond at Blairhoyle in 1887. Most matches were much more local. The number of rinks able to play was normally restricted to either 2 or 3 per side, depending on the size of the pond and the availability of players. Only a few local estate ponds, such as Cardross, Airthrey, Ardoch and Larbert House were large enough to have many more rinks for area wide or province matches. The largest matches of them all were the Grand Matches, bonspiels involving clubs from all over Scotland and some from England as well. These nearly always took place at Carsebreck, east of Braco in Perthshire, a pond purpose built by the RCCC for these events and first played on in 1854.