Karen strikes gold - again

Copyright - Kinross Classic website

October seems to be a great month for Karen.  For the last 2 years her team, skipped by Rebecca Steven, has been the winners of the Dunvegan Trophy.
This year, assisted by Jennifer Paul and Claire Dagen they have gone on to win the Kinross Junior Classic.  Previous winners have included numerous World and Scottish senior and junior champions, so no pressure there Karen.  Congratulations from all in the club.

Its a Knock-out

Congratulations to Morgan and his team of George, Sheena and Pauline who collect the first trophy of the season.
In a tight game against Graeme, Barbara, Sandy and the ever smiling Rosie they took the title 8 shots to 5.  The Fifth end was decisive with the score at 3 all Morgan was lieing with a well guarded 4.  Despite their best sweeping efforts Graeme's wide draw kept straight on the slow side of the sheet and only managed to cut the score down by 1 to 3 shots.  The final ends were traded with 2 shots a piece, leaving Morgan the deserved victor.

The View from the Hack

Following the sad retirement of Bob Cowan and his excellent skipcottage blog site at the end of last season, Ted Edmunds, has decided to try and step into Bob's very large shoes.  He has started The View From the Hack blog.
This site has some interesting items and contains a lot of links to other curling and curling related sites.  We would like to wish Ted every success, so why not visit the site and have a look round.
The more traffic that sites like this generate shows the demand for this type of information.

And we are off ........

Our season got underway with the Knockout competition on Tuesday night.
In a hard fought game Morgan edges out Mike's team 6 shots to 2, while on the other sheet John Good's team looked to have the edge over Graeme's squad with a 5 - 1 scoreline after 4 ends.  Thanks in part to Sandy's double takeout and raise a comeback was mounted and Graeme ran out the winner 11 shots to 5.
With all 4 teams playing there was a chance to compare notes on who had the wettest summer and to meet Pauline Alexander, our newest player, over supper.  This also gave us the opportunity  to try out and welcome the new caterers at Murrayfield, Lorette and Bruce.

The competition result is, as usual posted on the results page.

Letter from our President

Dear Sister & Brother Curlers,
It gives me great pleasure as President of Aberlady Curling Club to welcome you all to the new season. It is hard to believe it is coming round so soon and we will be curling before the end of this month. Hope you all managed to find some sunshine over the summer, you may have had to venture further afield!
We start the new season in a healthy position regarding membership. We welcome Pauline Alexander as a new full playing member. We also have a few more reserves than last season, including new member; Raymond Preston. Hopefully we will maintain this position for the duration of the forthcoming season. Thanks to all our members for your commitment to the Club.
Circulated with your syllabus is information about 'Come & Try' session for beginners, as you will see it is being offered at the very start of the season, so please feel free to encourage/invite any friends/colleagues who may be interested in trying out the game. If you could let John Smail or myself know any names asap.
Also, please note we have included some 'social' opportunities, supper after one or two of the games;when all four rinks are playing. We will assume everyone will be staying, unless they advise otherwise. There is a change to the Bonspiel this year, it is being played on Monday 17th December, to maximize the number of members who can play & give it a Christmas theme. We propose eating prior to the game that evening.
The Pairs competition is also being played at a different time, it is November. Hopefully you can all put it in your diary early and we can have a full complement playing. The thirds medal is the only competition where you will change rinks, the other three competitions;you will be in your main rink (1-4).
Congratulations to one of our members- Cathy Maclean on her appointment to the board of the RCCC. In the voting process at the AGM in June Cathy was voted for and appointed. We wish her well in this and know that she shall carry the name of Aberlady Curling Club with her.
Also, I would like to send best wishes on behalf of the club to Morgan and Graeme who;as you know were selected to play in the Scottish Strathcona Cup team in Canada in January 2013. I'm sure they will have plenty to share with us on their return. Again, the Aberlady Curling Club name will be carried to rinks abroad.
Score Cards should be returned to Graeme for inclusion on the website, this can be done via email or left on the Aberlady board at Murrayfield,if he is not about (this is very rare as Murrayfield becomes his second home in the winter!!). Please ensure all names of players are clearly written on the cards, this helps when identifying 'reserve' players for payment at a later stage. Information regarding payment for all members is with you, please note the deadline date, payment should be sent to Mike or directly into the Aberlady a/c.
Finally, I look forward to our first game and meeting up with everyone again. Wishing you an enjoyable and successful curling season.
Sincerely yours, 
Liz Nicoll, President

Welcome to Season 2012 - 13

Preparations are well under way and its only about a month till we kick off with a new season.
The Welcome & Subscription Pack  has now been issued for a while and I would urge everyone to respond quickly to the subs requests.
The season's fixture list, together with details of the individual rinks and a copy of the full Syllabus can be found by clicking on the Fixtures Tab

The Waldie Griffith in East Lothian

Following last years win of the Waldie Griffith Trophy by East Lothian Province, which included three Aberlady players in the squad of 16, the Sir Richard Waldie Griffith Trophy is now on public display.  This is as part of the exhibition at the new John Gray Centre in Haddington by East Lothian Council Celebrating Sport.
For over 100 years, curlers from around Scotland have competed for the honour of taking this huge silver trophy back to their home area. East Lothian first won it in 1911, the second year of the competition. It has not been seen in public in East Lothian since that date although East Lothian won it again in 1965 and 2010. In February 2012,  East Lothian won it again for the second time in 3 years.  The sixteen curlers from six East Lothian Clubs took the competition with the highest average shots-up, more than twice that of the runners-up !

It is planned to have a further exhibition on two aspects of East Lothian’s Curling history in the John Gray Centre in the autumn.


This is an extract and adaptation from the press release by David Affleck.  The full press release can be found by clicking here