He writes, "Entries for the championships are coming in now from all over Europe and eight teams, including Joel Retornaz’s Italian team and Markku Uusipaavalniemi, the former Olympic Silver medallist, have already signed up for the event. They will join Scottish teams skipped by the likes of Scottish runner-up, Sandy Reid, Logan Gray and Stranraer’s Frazer Hare. All the top finishers in last season’s Scottish Championships were invited and have a deadline of July 8 to reply. Teams that are knocking on the door, like former Scottish Junior Champion Ally Fraser, Blair Fraser and Graham Shedden, have also applied and are keen to play in the event in the event of spaces being available.
This year’s competition will run from November 25-27. We will continue to webcast the event live from Murrayfield and plan to have some cameras situated in the ice hall this year. Hopefully, quality will be further improved for the armchair viewer.
The popular seniors event is now over-subscribed and late entries will be put on the reserve list. Again, there is a strong field, headed up by three-time Scottish Senior Champion and former World Champion Keith Prentice. Murrayfield’s own Colin Hamilton will want put down an early marker for the season’s Scottish Senior Championships. The draw for the event will be published presently. Round-robin games will take place on November 23 and 24 with the semifinals and finals coinciding with the Edinburgh International on Sunday, November 27.
It promises to be a great week of curling and hopefully this year we will not be afflicted by the weather in the way that we were last season!"
Robin Copland, having walked and ridden public transport to get to Murrayfield through the snow, was behind the microphone in the commentary booth for the Edinburgh International Final 2010. Photo © Skip Cottage.
