The success of the two Women's Tour events at Forfar and Aberdeen has been the result of the work of Judith McFarlane (above) and Kay Adams (below). The demise of the Mini Tour left a void for women's curling which these two had the courage and initiative to try to fill. Well done to them both. The Tour was not an official Royal Club event, although it received financial support from Ladies Branch. The cash prize for the overall winning team was £1000. There were individual prizes for the winners and runners-up of both events sponsored by Black Noir decorative glass.Jeanette and Colin Galbraith travelled to Aberdeen from Durham to support the event and present the trophy (originally given for the Mini Tour, and now for the new Women's Tour) which bears the name of their son, also Colin, who was a promising young curler, no longer with us, but remembered by many. Jeanette and Colin are great company and it was good to meet up with them again!
I'm all for new things, and I think the Women's Tour accomplished much, bringing together junior and 'more senior' teams! I am sure both ends of the age spectrum, who don't often see each other on the ice, benefited from the experience. Helen King's team have said as much on their own blog (here), "The Ladies Tour has been a great competition and we have really enjoyed playing in it over the two weekends. A huge thanks has to go to Judith and all of the organisers for putting together such a fantastic event and we hope that it will continue next season."
I too hope that the Tour continues... and expands. There's lots of room for more entries next year, and even for teams from abroad, of any age!
And the results showed what can be accomplished, as well as highlighting - if I can be so bold - the inconsistency of play that is the particular problem in women's curling, in any age group. In theory, there's no way that a 'gaither-up' (skipped admittedly by the wiley Kay Gibb on her home ice) should have come away from Aberdeen second in their section with four wins, a peel and a loss. But successful the Aberdeen team was, as two National Academy teams in particular found out. Kay's loss came at the hands of the Tour winners. She is a past-president of Ladies Branch and now a Royal Club Board director. Good to see her in there fighting with 'the youngsters' on the ice!
Photos © Skip Cottage. See others in previous posts.
