I am enjoying Brenda Macintyre's reports of the Canadian Ladies' Friendship Tour, see here. The Ladies Branch President is the tour courier. Here she is, on the left, with Donna Duffett, the Canadian Captain, as the women visited the Lockerbie rink this morning, all looking remarkably fresh despite last night's ceilidh in Hightae!
Here is the new trophy for Scottish/Canadian Ladies' tours - the Muriel Fage Friendship Trophy.This has been presented by the 2005 Scottish Ladies Tour to Canada in memory of their much loved courier who died in 2008 after a long battle with breast cancer. Muriel was a member of the Canadian tour who came to Scotland ten years ago and also visited for the Worlds at Braehead and Paisley.
Anne Malcolm writes, "No matter how unwell she felt she was determined to be our courier and was unstinting in making sure that we had the trip of a lifetime. We will always be grateful for her dedication and regret that she will never be a part of our reunions."
Apologies that my photo fails to do justice to this beautiful quaich.
Donna and Linda Imrie follow piper Emma Harkness onto the ice.
The curlers pose for the 'official' photograph. (Click on the image to see it slightly larger)
It certainly was a colourful scene in the rink this morning.
Sheila Hastings had the honour of throwing the opening stone.
No pressure.... right on the button!
Down to the action. I followed just the one game. Lockerbie's Anne Smith, Linda Smith, Anne Vevers and Sandra Craig were up against Linda Juurlink, Anna Acton, Kathleen McKenzie and Sheila Compton, and soon pulled out a six-shot lead. Then I appeared with my camera!That's Linda S in the head with Linda J and Anna behind.
Linda J delivers, with Kathleen and Sheila at the ready.
I should say at this point that the Canadians are trying to guard six shots, and the eight remains a possibility!
Anne and Linda S discuss how to get out of a 'difficult position'!
Caption competition this one! "Maybe if I wiggle my nose like Samantha used to do in Bewitched, then things might get better."
Not a trace of pressure on Anne's face as she plays her last stone of the end!
I'm going to spare blushes, on both sides, by not telling the full story of the end! But here is the scoreboard at the start of the seventh. I told you it was a 'friendship tour'! Seriously though, everyone looked to be having a fun time, and I hope our visitors will take away some great memories from their Scottish experience.For the record, the various scores, and cumulative score, can be found here. The Canadians changed all their teams around at the beginning of this week, and plan to do the same again next weekend.
The tour will be at Dumfries tomorrow morning, Stranraer on Thursday, Ayr on Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning at Kilmarnock's Galleon Centre. Do go along and see them if you can.
Pics © Skip Cottage
