If we are organising another weekend away, we'll try to arrange a date which suits as many of our members as possible. If you have never been before, it is well worth considering.
Our 10 curlers were joined by Isobel and Alan Nisbet to form 3 teams. Isobel is the sister of Andrew Clark who plays at Lanarkshire Ice Rink.
Our teams were: Jim Stewart, Bob Allan, Jenni Allan and Jane Morton
Iain McAlister, John Tough, Rona McAlister and Merle Tough
Davie Haggart, Alan Nisbet, Isobel Nisbet and Diana McDonald
Bob's wife, Fay, and Jim's wife, Lynn, came along for the social side of things and to cheer us on.
As usual we all enjoyed a lovely dinner on the Friday night, played 2 curling games before the dinner and dancing on the Saturday night and then all played one final game on the Sunday morning before the competition final took place. The final was between Jim's rink and Iain's rink and Jim's team won 6-5.
Here are our successful teams with their prizes. All of the men took home beer and the ladies had the cider.
Jenni took the picture of my team and I took the picture of Jenni's team. Not sure if the blurred image of Jim's rink was to do with the amount of alcohol I'd consumed over the weekend or something to do with the fact that they beat us in the final!! I'm not a bad loser..am I?
The ice was challenging because our unseasonal weather was causing problems with the temperature in the ice rink. Water dripping from the roof was forming raised patches on the ice which interfered with the running of the stones and was making us a bit edgy while sweeping stones. Gail MacMillan worked very hard to keep the disruption to a minimum and keep us safe. We've been invited to play in the all winners competition, the Dalrymple Cup, from Thurs 22nd - Sunday 25th March but we've realised that this clashes with our club's prizegiving dinner in 2018. Hopefully something can be worked out to allow us to represent the club at this event.
No pictures this year of Jim with his handbag at the dance but there's always a story to tell!
So......as Diana was reading the description of some of the red wines on Saturday night, one was described as rich, rounded and full bodied. As she thought this could relate equally to the wine and her skip, Davie, he has forthwith been renamed Rioja Haggart.
I've included a picture of Rioja who, by Sunday lunchtime needed a bit of a nap before watching the final. To be fair, I only narrowly missed taking a picture of Mr Tough in a similar exhausted state😀
