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ENGLISH CURLING

ASSOCIATION May 2012

NEWSLETTER

There seems to be a lot more participation on the

ECA’s Facebook page which is creating quite a com-

munity of curlers

John has also written an update on the politics go-

ing on behind the scenes in World and European

curling administration. Worth a read as it could

have an impact on ECA funding.

This will be the last newsletter now until Septem-

ber when we start gearing up for the new season.

Have a great summer!

Editor

John Sharp and Lorna Rettig

representing England at the

World Mixed Doubles at

Erzurum, Turkey

Photo courtesy of WCF

Volkan Atar

So curling has finished for the season though some

of the juniors are heading off to summer training

camps. It seems to have been a busy year with very

few weekends with no competitions going on.

In this issue we have numerous reports from John

Brown who seems to attend most of the bonspiels

and championships. He has even ventured into

Blogging:

http://toothytalescurling.blogspot.co.uk/

keeping us up to date with, sometimes, hourly re-

ports from various European curling rinks.

Inside this issue:

President’s Message

Competition News

Fleming Trophy

Hugh Brown Trophy

Mixed Championship Playdowns

World Curling News

World Senior Championships

Junior Jottings

Club News

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ALISON ARTHUR

PRESIDENT

ENGLISH CURLING ASSOCIATION

Sister and Brother Curlers

As this season draws to a close, there is so

much to reflect on but most has been said al-

ready, particularly if you read John’s blog and

these newsletters!

I have just booked my flight for my first event

of next season, but more about that anon!

Where has the season gone? I could swear

that time is on fast forward with us now at the

start of May and AGM season upon us!

I have tried to go to as many Championships as

possible but haven’t managed everything. I

would so have enjoyed going to Copenhagen to

support our Senior Men’s team but my diary

would just not allow that. However as this clos-

es (full reports can be read in Toothy’s Tales)

with Ireland’s men winning a fantastic gold and

Scotland’s women winning a silver medal, my

thoughts turn to Turkey and Lorna Rettig and

John Sharp who are representing England in

the World Mixed Doubles. John is an experi-

enced veteran at this event but it is Lorna’s

first appearance. I wish them every success.

But there is no rest for the wicked because

even though the season is ending, it means that

it is AGM time! I will be taking my instructions

from Secretary John in relation to the exten-

sive preparation that has to take place ahead

of the ECA AGM. I have said it before but I

am going to say it again –

YOUR ASSOCIATION NEEDS YOU!! –

so please do make the effort to join us on Sun

day 10 June in Sheffield? It would be

great to see you there.

I mentioned above that I had just booked my

flight for my first event of next season – to

Glasgow! From there I shall travel to Turnberry

where the first ever World Curling Congress is

going to be held in October. This congress has

been initiated because curling was the only Win-

ter Olympic sport that didn’t hold one. The idea

is that all representatives will be able to focus

on the meetings as opposed to being lured away

to watch curling games! I will then go directly

from Turnberry to Dumfries where the 3rd Dun-

can Stewart trophy weekend will take place on

20 – 21 October. Once again I trust you will sup-

port this fun event in the memory of ECA stal-

wart Duncan Stewart.

Thank you for all your support this season and,

in particular, I would like to thank your Council

members and to single some out – Rosaleen for

this newsletter and all the other things she

does tirelessly; Sandra for counting the pennies

and John for doing so much on all our behalves

most of which you never see! Thank you too to

Ernest Fenton and his team for all their co-

operation and support.

Finally thanks to each and every one of you for

being a member of this Association – I really

look forward to seeing you at the AGM!

Best wishes,

Alison

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THOUGHTS FROM THE COMPETITION CONVENOR — PHIL BARTON

Start thinking about your rinks for the Playdowns – we want to increase the

number of entries.

World Seniors

There is a full report of this competition in later pages but our great victory was against the USA where I think we hardly made an error and we were also very strong against Russia. A five against Finland made it difficult –but we got five ends back! And when we played the Irish we did not know we were playing the 2012 champions!

John Summers and I enjoyed meeting curlers from Canada – in preparation for the Strathcona Cup Tour in Jan 2013.

We all enjoyed spending time with the USA men’s team and supporters – all swapping shirts – one of the emerging traditions at the Senior World Championship

Taarnby CC did a great job and showed what a relatively small curling community can achieve

Next year (2013) the World Seniors will be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The I’Anson 16th—18th November

has received a full set of 16 entries but we can have a reserve rink. We are very pleased to have our ladies’ Champions using the event as final preparation for the European Champion-ships.

Preston Curling Club

Preston CC has had a good end to the season

with the first Pairs competition, won by Richard

Hills and Lynda Clegg. Richard was our player of

the year, accumulating more points (awarded for

results) than anyone else.

Duncan Stewart Trophy

Will be held over weekend of 20th/21stOctober at Dumfries Curling Rink.

A great chance to play on a new facility that is getting great reviews.

We are looking for 24 ECA curlers.

If you have played before you will know that we select the rinks at the event and we play four games..

The first match will be on Saturday afternoon with

another in early evening. We will have a meal to-

gether (and a few drinks) and then two more

games to decide the winners on Sunday.

If you are interested please let your club secre-

tary know, or contact Phil Barton directly.

More information about possible hotels and

accommodation will follow.

ECA AGM

ECA Open Meeting and AGM will take place at IceSheffield on Sunday 10th June beginning at 10:30am. Papers will be sent out to club secretar-ies for distribution to members.

PLEASE COME ALONG AND HELP PLAN THE DIRECTION OF ENGLISH CURLING.

Apologies but no curling this year as no ice avail-able.

Click here for the ECA Facebook

Page

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Competition Reports

Sir Alexander Fleming Trophy

This year's winners - Ivan Zadorozny (skip), Neil Maycock, Charles Murphy and Henry Carter

One thing that always fascinates me is the long history of the trophies played for in clubs around the country – you can look at the piece of silverware and realise that 100 or so years ago this very same trophy was being contested in a long lost ice rink or on an outdoor pond. For example, the Preston Curl-ing Club’s magnificent I’Anson Trophy was first played in 1897 according to the names on the trophy and was won by the Carlisle Curling Club – no team member names on the trophy but where did they play I wonder? The London Curling Club’s Sir Alexander Fleming Memorial Trophy is not quite so old having been pre-sented to the club in 1957, but a history of almost uninterrupted play of 55 years is impressive. The tro-phy was first seen at the AGM of the London Curling Club in May 1957 and was specially made for Wil-lie Fleming, a club member, to present in memory of his cousin, the famous Sir Alexander Fleming, dis-coverer of penicillin. While the competition was originally held in Richmond where the club had regular ice between 1951 and 1981, it went on the road following the closure of Richmond and the ’Fleming Weekend’ became an established event on the London calendar. Trips to Kinross, Pitlochry, Forest Hills, Lochgoilhead, Leth-am Grange and Greenacres all have their own set of memories, but what is astonishing and, hopefully coincidental, is how many of the venues visited (those in italics) have now closed since they were visit-ed by the London members!!! Since Fenton’s rink opened it has found a home there though the size of the rink has restricted the number of possible entries to 6, though even that has proved difficult to achieve on a couple of occa-sions. And so to this year’s competition and the whole point of the above introduction was to emphasise the history of the event which was brought home to me with the realisation this year that we had past win-ners from 5 different decades participating.

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Competition Reports

From the 1970s – Ernest Fenton (winner in 1970 and 1971) From the 1980s – Forbes Fenton (1987) and James Gibb (1988) From the 1990s – John Brown (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995), Jean Robinson (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995) and Mark Wilkinson (1992) From the 2000s – Lana Watson (2005 and 2008) and John Brown (2009) From the 2010s – Neil Maycock (2010 and 2011), Ross Barr (2011) and John Brown (2011) And so what would happen this year – would Ernest Fenton win it again 41 years after his last win? Would Neil Maycock make it 3 in a row, each time in a different team? Would Hetty Garnier lead her team of Juniors to victory? There were no well established teams so it was all very open. The first session produced the first shock when Ivan Zadorozny with 6 stones of his own in the house failed to draw for the 7 which would have been only the second recorded in the last 30 years of Flem-ing play. A 6 would have to suffice, in itself a rare beast with just 6 previously recorded in 30 years, the last in 2000. The victim of this one was John Sharp who, although he won the majority of the ends, fell by a score of 4-11. In other games that first session, John Brown recovered from going 0-5 after 2 ends to peel with Hetty Garnier while Mark Wilkinson came from 3 behind with 2 ends to play to win 6-5. As the only 2 winners from that session Ivan Zadorozny faced Mark Wilkinson and lo and behold Ivan did it again with another 6 on his way to winning 10-5. This was the first time 2 sixes had been rec-orded at a Fleming weekend since 1984 when unfortunately the same team was on the receiving end of both of them (to my regret I was the skip of that team!!). John Sharp defeated John Brown 6-4 after losing 4 singles in a row while Ernest Fenton beat Hetty Garnier in a close tussle by 8-6. Into session 3 on the Sunday morning and Ivan showed that his Saturday form had not deserted him racing into an early 8-1 (just a 4 end – no 6s) lead against Ernest Fenton and finally winning by 8-5. Hetty Garnier won her first game of the weekend by beating John Sharp 7-6 and Mark Wilkinson de-feated John Brown 7-5 to become Ivan’s nearest challenger and in fact the only team which could take the trophy away from him. As Ivan had played Mark earlier in the weekend he played the team in third, Hetty Garnier, while Mark had to beat John Sharp to have any hope of winning overall and only if Ivan lost. As well as the one game win behind he was only 1 end behind but had a far inferior shots difference. After 3 ends of the final session things were indeed going Mark’s way as he was leading 3-1 while Ivan was losing by the same margin but after that the balance swung and Mark lost 4 ends in a row while Ivan unleashed another big end (a 5 this time) to take victory in the game by 7-6 and in the competition overall, thus providing Neil Maycock with his third Fleming triumph in a row, each of them with a totally different team – queues are forming to join him for next year’s competition!! So congratulations to Ivan Zadorozny, Neil Maycock, Henry Carter and Charles Murphy on a great performance. The runners – up on ends won were John Sharp, Nigel Patrick, Ian McDonald and James Gibb with Mark Wilkinson, Lana Watson, Gary Tapp and Mike Robinson in third.

John Brown

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The Hugh Brown Trophy was played for by the London and SECC clubs at Fenton's at the end of

February. This was only the second time that the trophy had been contested, the first being at Kelso in

2009 as part of the ECA Inter-Club Championships (when London had won by 26-14). Hugh Brown was a

farmer from Chichester who, along with his wife Pam and son Gavin were long time members of the Lon-

don club. Sadly both Hugh and Pam have passed away in recent years and the Trophy came about be-

cause Hugh had joined the SECC in his later years and had played regularly at Fenton's with the rest of

his friends from the Chichester area.

This year we had 7 players representing each club and so one of the games was played between teams

of 3. In the first session London made the early running and were 10-7 up after 5 ends, but then at end 6

Doug Andrews scored a 7 for SECC against James Gibb and along with a 2 for Gary Tapp against John

Brown the tables had turned and it was now SECC that led by 16-10. A mini-comeback by London over

the last couple of ends left the half time score at 17-14 for SECC.

In the second session after lunch the scores were finely balanced at London 8, SECC 9 after 5 ends so

that overall SECC were now 4 shots up but, as in the first session, it was the London club that came on

strong towards the end and a total of 5 shots at the 6th end gave them the overall lead by 1. The last 2

ends were played amid increasing tension and when the scores were finally tallied the afternoon session

had been won by London by .....17-14, a total reverse of the morning scores and thus the overall score

was tied at 31-31 and London retained the Trophy as the existing holders.

John Brown

100 CLUB

March

£40 Peter Bowyer

£30 Keith Wilson

£20 Vicky Hinds

Reminder: The more shares you buy the more chance you have of winning!

Contact Susan Young at susankyoung@hotmail.com for more information and to set up a

standing order.

Competition Reports

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Mixed Championship Playdowns March 9—11

Bryan Zachary, Lauren Pearce, Kerr Alexander, Naomi Robinson and Angharad Ward won the ECA

Mixed Championships after beating all 3 of the other teams over the weekend.

Four teams were in contention:

Lorna Rettig, John Sharp, Alison Hemmings, Nigel Patrick

Anna Fowler, Ben Fowler, Hetty Garnier, Sam Fowler

John Brown, Susan Young, Jean Robinson, Charles Murphy

Bryan Zachary, Lauren Pearce, Angharad Ward*, Kerr Alexander, Naomi Robinson

*Lauren played third in the first two games with Naomi at lead but a clashing gymnastics competition on Sunday meant that Naomi was unavailable and Lauren moved to lead with Angharad coming in at third. No final was needed as John Brown beat Lorna Rettig who beat Anna Fowler who beat John Brown and so with only 1 win each they were all 2 wins behind the winners. It was a very tense weekend with all bar one game going down to the last stone, and two of them needing extra ends to decide the winners. Results were: Bryan Zachary 6 John Brown 4 Lorna Rettig 6 Anna Fowler 3 John Brown 7 Lorna Rettig 6 after extra end Bryan Zachary 8 Anna Fowler 2 Anna Fowler 8 John Brown 6 Bryan Zachary 7 Lorna Rettig 6 after extra end All through the last session any of the three possible options of no final, a straight final or a tiebreak and a final were possible right up unto the last stone in each game. It took a hit from Anna to beat John and avoid an extra end, while the last stone of normal time from Lorna was just a couple of inches away from getting the 2 she needed to give herself another chance against Bryan. It is a long time since I experienced such a tense atmosphere in an ice rink - quite a weekend. John Brown

Are they worried?

Smiles at last for the winning team

Competition Reports

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Competition Reports

WORLD SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

England was represented by just a men’s team at the World Senior Championships in Copenhagen this year, the same team who had reached the quarter –finals in St Paul in 2011 and hoping for at least a simi-lar finishing position this year. The team of Michael Sutherland, Tommy Campbell, John Summers, Phil Barton and alternate John Brown had an extra weapon this year – Loudmouth trousers to dazzle the oppo-

sition – seen here with the Scottish Senior Women following a pre-Championship practice match.

After the shortest of short opening ceremonies England started their campaign against Slovakia, a new na-

tion in the Championships. The game was successfully negotiated with a 6-3 win and that was it for Day 1.

Day 2 began with a 9 am game against Switzerland, a country that England has had some success against in the past, including a win the last time they met in 2007. This time, however, the score was reversed and Switzerland won 5-3. A few hours later and Ireland were the opposition. This was a new Ireland team skipped by Johnjo Kenny who, like the rest of the team live and curl In Scotland (just like the English team

then!!).

After a good start a couple of errors let the Irish in for a 4 at the third end and later on a 3 at the 6th end and we eventually lost 6-8. So not a great start but who knew then what the Irish would go on and do by the

end of the week.

The next game was not until 7.30 pm the following day and so some of the team wandered around Copen-hagen and Michael and Tommy were spotted looking in a hole – maybe they were wondering if it was big

enough for the rest of the team!

But eventually the evening came and the opposi-tion was the USA. In 6 previous championships we had failed to beat the Americans including a semi-final defeat by them in 2005 by 2-4, but this was not the best US team sent to the Championships and England won surprisingly easily by 7-2 to get back onto a 50% record of 2 wins and 2 losses. As the top 3 of 8 teams qualified for the play-offs

hopes were still high.

Day 4 was another one game day with a match against the Russians at 1230. The Irish had only beaten the Russians at the last stone and so we anticipated some difficulty but in reality a score of 10-3 reflects the relative play of the two teams and

we were back on a charge for that third place.

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WORLD SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (cont’d)

The final day of play in the round robin began for us with a 9 am game against the big hitting Finns who had been in an amazing game against Switzerland the previous day. After blanking the 7th and 8th ends to keep last stone advantage the Finnish skip failed to draw to an empty house at the last end and then hit and rolled out at the first extra end – 4 blank ends in a row. The Swiss seemed to think the at no more ends were allowed but were rightly told to carry on playing whence the Finnish skip with a hit and stick won

at this second extra end.

The turning point in this game was when the Finns took a 5 at the 3rd end after England had taken one with the hammer and then Finland had blanked. A brave fight back by England saw them get back to 5-4 down before another 2 killed their chances and Finland won by 7-4. And so to the last round robin game against Latvia. If England won and the winless Slovakians defeated Switzerland then there would be a tie breaker required between England and Switzerland for the 3rd place in the group. Alternate John Brown got a game

in this one as John Summers went off on a hot lunch date – at £250 per head it was VERY hot!!

This game swung both ways but eventually a draw to the button by the Latvian skip sealed their victory by 6-4. So England finished tied on points with Latvia and the USA but their draw shot challenge score was much better and their final ranking in the group was 4th. When their draw shot challenge score was then compared with the 4th place teams in the other 2 groups it was also the best and so England’s final position

was 10th out of 23 teams (compared to 8th out of 21 in 2011).

Ireland topped the group with 7 wins out of 7, with Finland and Switzerland the other 2 qualifiers. In the quarter-finals Ireland were drawn against Finland again. Their round robin game had gone to an extra end before Ireland won but this one went Ireland’s way more easily when a steal of 4 at the7th end broke the deadlock. This meant that Ireland would play Norway in the semi-final – the Norwegian skip is one of the greats in curling, Eigil Ramsfjell, a hero of Johnjo Kenny’s as he grew up and his team from his Champion-

ship winning days were together again.

This one swung back and fore with nothing much between the teams, so that an extra end was required, when Ireland scored and they had now reached the final. At this point the Irish flag was seen to fly high over the hotel, helped by a certain English player who shall remain nameless, but is the short one in the

team!!!

Playing Canada in a World Championship final and winning is not something you would get good odds for from a bookie, but when Johnjo made a double take-out to score 4 at the 4th end and lead 4-1, mira-cles were on the horizon. However, the Canadians did not panic and in the 8th end they forced Johnjo to draw to stay in the game and it was another extra

end, Ireland’s third in 4 games.

When Johnjo then played the shot of his life with a raised triple take-out to lie 2, a shell-shocked Canadi-an skip overthrew his last draw, Bill Gray gave it a few sweeps to make sure and Ireland were World

champions. Begorrah!!!

Meanwhile in the ladies Championship an unheralded Scottish team, skipped by Barbara Watt, mother of Olympic gold medallist Janice Rankin, had reached the final – hence the Scottish flag in the above photo. However they found the vastly more experienced Canadians from New Brunswick much too good and went down 2-12 while Wendy Becker’s surprising New Zealanders lost out for the bronze to Sweden (who

also took bronze in the men’s Championships). John Brown

Competition Reports

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As many of you will know from previous articles or from my blog, your president, Alison Arthur, and I are your representatives at the World and European Curl-ing Federation meetings where policy on the sport that affects all the member associations is discussed

and set.

Your editor has asked me to try and explain what has recently been happening and we shall be presenting much of this at the AGM in June, but in case you want

to arm yourself with questions…….

In 2008 an Englishman called Andrew Ferguson-Smith, resident in Andorra and an active curler, was elected as President of the European Curling Federa-tion. He had spent a lot of time encouraging the growth of curling in Eastern Europe and many new Member Associations joined the ECF. The one prob-lem with the ECF has always been its lack of money. With no pot of money to be passed to it from the Olympics it depends upon income raised from its Members and from selling the rights for its Champion-

ships to host committees.

So in 2009 AFS asked the WCF for $1million to be used to develop the sport in Europe – at least we think that was what it was for as he never told anyone and never produced a plan to show how he was going to spend the money. When the WCF rightly refused he took umbrage and began a campaign of aggres-sion against the WCF. Many of the Member Associa-tions were not supportive of this but in 2010 he was re

-elected unopposed as President for another 2 years.

In March 2011 at the ECF meeting in Esbjerg he cas-ually announced that the first European Centre of Ex-cellence for curling would open in Champery in Swit-zerland and that he would be its first chief executive – cue outrage as this was sprung on the Members and a number of them raised valid points about transpar-ency and accountability and after a number of months of disquiet he resigned as President and disappeared

from the scene almost as quickly as he had arrived.

When the fallout between the ECF and the WCF be-gan, the WCF reacted quickly to try and nullify the very raison d’etre of the ECF – the organisation of the European Championships which are a qualification

event for the World Championships and subsequently, through points gathered at the Worlds, the Olympics. To counteract any implosion of the ECF the WCF needed to ensure that it was in control of all its Cham-pionships and so it proposed to organise a World Qualification tournament (2 in actual fact) to take place in November each year, obviously in direct op-position to the European Championships in December

each year!

Following AFS’s departure this idea was gradually dropped and a new co-operation emerged between the WCF and the ECF which is pointing towards the WCF having more of a hand in the running of the Eu-ropean Championships, in fact probably organising the whole thing which will mean that there will be no

entry fee to pay.

Alongside this the WCF set up a Governance Com-mission to look at its constitution compared to other International Sports bodies and also its own Mem-

bers, including the ECA constitution.

As a result it is proposing a revised governance for the WCF which will include a Board which will have 3 Continental Vice Presidents – one for Europe includ-ed. That VP will head up a European commission which will have a seat for every European Member Association – which would seem to nullify the need for the ECF!! One advantage of this Commission com-pared to the ECF is that it would be able to have ac-cess to funds held by the WCF for specific projects chosen by the WCF Board or by the Member Associa-

tions themselves.

One particular advantage to the ECA would be that we would not have to pay an additional Membership Fee or Entry Fees for the European Championships, thus saving us 2000 Euros per year and enabling us to spend more money in what we want to do, but

which we cannot do owing to a lack of funds.

The next step is that there will be a meeting of the Eu-ropean Member Associations at the first World Curling Congress in October and I believe that a motion will go to the AGM of the ECF in December to dissolve the ECF, or at least to put it into cold storage till it

needs to be revived again. John Brown

What is happening in World Curling?

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British Curling Performance Programme

I received the email from John Brown, along with most English curlers, regarding the British Curling Performance Programme back in January. It was not until a practice weekend in Fenton’s that I really thought about it. Andrew Reed told me of his experiences when he applied a few years ago and recommended I do the same. The English Curling Championships, held at Fenton’s, had some additional spectators; one in particular was Soren Gran, the head male coach for the Performance Programme. This was good to see from English Curling perspective, with all the teams putting in good performances in the European Curling championships and Junior Curling championships, we are being noticed.

The application date was from the 1st Feb to the 14th. I filled out the form and awaited an email with further infor-mation. The selection weekend was on the 17-18 March and you needed to turn up for one day only. I selected the 17th, along with Ben Fowler. (Anna Fowler attended the women’s session later in the month) The trials were held at the Dewars centre in Perth where the majority of the training days would be held if you were successful. Prior to the trials you had to complete an ‘Athlete Questionnaire’ which gave the coaches some information about your perceived strengths and weaknesses. The group of hopeful athletes were split into two groups of ten; one group went straight on the ice and carried out the drills whilst the other group were in the classroom learning about the programme itself and being tested on tactics. The programme was explained by Nancy Murdoch and a lecture was given on ‘talent’ by a former Scottish rugby player. We then had a tactics session which consisted of 18 scenarios and three possible shot selections: we had to put the shot selection in order of preference and explain why.

After lunch we were on the ice ready to prove our ability. We were faced with three skills stations, timing, delivery and sweeping. The timing station was both delivery speed and hand timing; you were given a specific time to play and were electronically timed for accuracy. Whilst you were concentrating on this the other two people in the group were hand timing your shots. The idea of this station was to see how accurate you are at providing a given time; initially the timings were linearly ascending and then descending. At the end of the session you were given random times simulating playing a peel for your first shot and then having to draw for your last. All in all a tough test. The sweeping drill tested your hand/body position, power, speed/frequency, footwork and how you were sweeping over the running band. One person delivered a stone at either peel or draw weight and it was swept for the whole distance. The coach recorded your sweeping, firstly as a pair, then individually. At the end of the session you were shown your technique along with a few observations. The final session for me was your delivery tech-nique. The two coaches set up cameras from the front and the side; you were given two different shots to play, peel weight and barrier weight. They then positioned the camera at either end of the 8 foot on the tee line and in the centre. After the session you were shown your delivery from the front and given tips from Soren. This was the most useful session I felt because usually only your skip can see what you actually do with your stone during the delivery. Seeing it for yourself makes you realise what you are doing incorrectly.

After the selection day you were free to chat to the coaches in the performance programme about information you were unsure of or just to make them aware of your current situation. Two weeks passed and I received an e-mail asking me what my thoughts were on the day and on completion of the forum you were forwarded your results from the selection day. The scores were broken down through the different sessions and scored out of six, one be-ing at development level and six being world class. I was very surprised with the results I received, scoring a lot higher than anticipated. The next part of the process is the waiting game. The coaches from the programme held a meeting on the 25th April and the results from that meeting will be made available the following week.

So from my limited experience of the programme and selection process, I can highly recommend going along and giving it a try. The coaches are willing to offer free advice about the programme and even tips on your performance. Hopefully we can get more people along to represent England at future programmes.

Andrew Woolston

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International Junior Curling Club Bonspiel

All of us were very excited to be offered the oppor-

tunity to go to Geising in Germany for our first inter-

national bonspiel as a team. Even though the final

score was quite disappointing, we all had a great

time and felt we really improved throughout the

weekend.

The competition lasted 3 days, where we played

teams from Scotland, Germany, Italy and Switzer-

land. They were all good matches, however, victory

escaped us on each of them but we did gain a lot of

experience. The hostel we stayed in was very nice

and within walking distance to the rink which was

convenient.

The opening and closing ceremonies were very en-

tertaining and provided a great framework to the

tournament. They included a march from a group of

German miners and the lighting of the torch. As part

of the cultural element of the weekend, all the teams

were given the opportunity to tour an old German

mine and visit the local museum where we learned

about the production of tin.

The boys’ team, Ben Fowler, Harry Mallows, Conor

Simpson and James Pougher (Welsh Curling Asso-

ciation) did very well and came 5th in their league

and just missed out on going to the finals. Conor

Simpson won the Allister Boyd Memorial Award for

league A for good sportsmanship throughout the

competition which was a great achievement.

Many thanks to Ernest, Tracey, the ECA and our

parents for enabling us to have a great weekend. It

was fantastic to meet new people and gain some

competition experience. We are really looking for-

ward to seeing all the familiar faces next year when

this bonspiel takes place at Fenton’s!

Sarah Decoine, Becca Watts,

Niamh Fenton, Louisa Partridge and Lucy Sparks

End of Season Roundup

This has been an exciting year for all the juniors.

Many have gained competition experience at local

level through the efforts of Forbes Fenton who has

given them places on the Academy team in the Lo-

cal Leagues. Some of the more experienced juniors

have taken part in European and world level compe-

titions raising the profile of English curling on the in-

ternational stage.

The dedication of the junior coaches has been para-

mount to this new success. Tuesday night practice

sessions have seen a great improvement in curling

standards thanks to John, Charles and Tracey’s en-

couragement and instruction. It has been great to

see the first timers gain confidence on the ice and

see the smiles on their faces when they make a hit.

Ernest’s efforts with the schools competition has

helped promote junior curling across the region and

introduced many youngsters to the sport. Hopefully,

we’ll see even more teams compete next season.

It is sad to see Anna Fowler and Harry Mallows age

out of the England Juniors as they have been an in-

tegral part of these teams for a number of years.

Another face leaving the junior circle is Greg Dunn

who has coached the national juniors for the last

couple of years. A very grateful thanks to him for his

dedication and input. Hopefully you will all be able

to help out at the rink when possible.

Kerr Alexander has been a great addition to the

coaching squad this last season and not just be-

cause he brings Jaffa Cakes to the training sessions.

His happy disposition, even after a 2 hour drive to

the rink, creates a fun atmosphere for everyone.

Lastly, a big thank you to the parents who have act-

ed as chauffeurs and fundraising cooks whilst juggl-

ing work and sibling commitments. Your behind the

scenes dedication makes the whole curling experi-

ence a team effort.

Rosaleen Boardman

Junior Jottings

13

Junior Jottings

14

NEWS FROM THE RINK The doors have now closed on the 2011-12 season and will re-open in early October. It was another busy

season with a number of special features.

The ECA Men’s and Women’s English Championships were held at the rink this year, as were the Mixed,

Mixed Doubles and Junior Championships. All of them produced exciting and highly competitive curling

and the winners of each of the categories went on to represent England in Europe.

The English Schools Championships took place again in March. Fewer schools participated this year, no

doubt as a result of the funding constraints many of them are suffering. We hope that we will be up to full

strength with 24 teams competing next season.

This year the competition was split between novice players and those who have played for a number of sea-

sons. The results were:

Novice Cup:

1st Place - Cranbrook School

2nd Place - Maidstone Grammar

3rd Place - Wilmington Grammar.

Main Cup:

1st Place - Walthamstow Hall

2nd Place - Judd

3rd Place - Weald of Kent

4th Place - St. Gregory’s

The winning team, Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks, was skipped by Angharad Ward; they beat last year’s

winners, Judd School, Tonbridge, skipped by Ben Fowler.

In the Novice section, the winners, Cranbrook School, were skipped by Jake Barker.

Councillor Alex King presented the cups.

Club News

15

Club News

The regular Leagues were held every Tuesday throughout the season and were fully sub-

scribed. Many thanks are due to Gary Tapp for organising the fixtures and working out the ta-

bles. We will be contacting all members shortly to ask for their curling intentions for the forth-

coming season. If more ice time is needed for leagues, we may need to use some Monday

evening ice as well as Tuesdays. The winners were:

Main League: Ivan Zadorozny, Henry Carter, Ian McDonald, Laura Cooney

Mixed League: Forbes Fenton, Hettie Garnier, Naomi Robinson, Niamh Fenton

Open League One: Forbes Fenton, Gary Tapp, Charles Murphy, Ben Dobbs

Open League Two: Lance Baron, Jo Ostermeyer, Alison Hemmings, Glenn Welch

The Juniors had a good season with more players moving ahead and achieving a high stand-

ard of play. The numbers attending the training sessions on Tuesdays and Sundays have

been good and we are now seeing improving results from the representative teams in Europe.

As ever, the rink depends on the large number of private bookings from a wide variety of

sources. Many of those are repeat bookings from those who want to play once or twice a year.

We look forward to welcoming them all again in 2012-13.

Finally, the rink would not work at all without the dedicated efforts of its staff. A big thank you

to Simon, our ice man, Tracey, Derek, Richard, Kim and all those who help us with

coaching.

Ernest Fenton

Hope to see many of you at the AGM June 10th.

Next edition of the Newsletter will be in Sept/Oct.