The weekend clashes with the Scottish Ladies tour to the USA, involving twenty women, as well as the Glynhill Ladies and the Aberdeen Ladies invitation, involving both curlers and volunteers. Iain Baxter, Claire McLaren and Robbie himself have led the effort to raise teams for this long-standing event, even posting a 'call for help' on the Royal Club website, see here.
Robbie says, "I am very sorry to be the first president not to be able to field a team in the Four Nations. Kathleen and I both curled in the early 90s in Alexandra Palace in the '3 Nations'," adding, "There was very little support from the web site notice."
The reasons for the failure notwithstanding, there is no doubt that this is hugely embarrassing for the Mother Club. English, Welsh and Irish curlers travel regularly to Scotland to play. Scotland has some 14,000 registered curlers, whereas the other home countries have relatively few participants. It is disappointing in the extreme that not even a handful of Scots could be found to represent us at the Fentons Rink.
John Brown is the English Curling Association secretary. His response is awaited, once the matter has been discussed by the ECA Council.
