Eve Wins Sports Personality Award

Eve Muirhead has won the Sports Personality of the Year award at the Perth and Kinross Sports Awards dinner. The award was presented at the Salutation Hotel by Alison Lowson, editor of the Perthshire Advertiser which sponsors the award. The story is here.

Photo of Eve from the Co-operative Funeralcare Scottish Championship final is © Skip Cottage.

Eve and a panda

In the category of 'curling, but not as we know it' have a look at this video, or click on the image above.

I suspect that a lot of fun was had in making the video at the Dewar's Centre in Perth. It is a promotion for the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour, March 31, 2012, see here, starring Eve Muirhead, and other Scots you will recognise.

Not sure who played Tiger!

Hairy Farmers, Frozen Lochs and Eve Muirhead

It's not every day that I would recommend the Scottish Sun newspaper as your reading material, but this article by Matt Bendoris has an interview with Eve Muirhead and is rather fun! 'Big in Japan', indeed!

(Explanation needed for young blogallies? 1984. Alphaville. Listen here. Lesson over.)

Have you bought your calendar yet? See here if you haven't.

That's it from me for a few days. Have a Happy Christmas!

Calendar Girl

Scottish curler Eve Muirhead is to be the face of the 2012 Women in Curling Calendar. The calendar has not had its official launch yet, but it's certainly getting talked about here in the birthplace of the sport. Well done to Eve for getting involved. It's all in aid of charity, in this case Shoot For A Cure Curling, the sport-focussed fundraising and awareness campaign of the Canadian and American Spinal Research Organizations (CSRO/ASRO). Shoot For A Cure, which is also supported by the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA), is committed to finding a cure for spinal paralysis. The campaign also strives to increase awareness of the Paralympic sport of Wheelchair Curling.

The 2011 Calendar featured only Canadian athletes.

Brad Askew took the photos of the twenty-one year old Scot on location at Blair Castle and at the Muirhead family home in Blair Atholl, and in the surrounding woods! Brad is a fantastic photographer and has his own website at Brad Askew Photography. Taking photos of Eve Muirhead is of course a very hard job, but, then again, someone has to do it.

I look forward to finding out Eve's story on how she got involved with the project. As soon as I know who else is featured, and how you can buy the calendar, Skip Cottage Curling will have the details. For one thing, it will solve all your Christmas present problems! Consider today's post just Chapter One of this 'celebrity curler' story, which is a great deal more interesting than the fact Eve got attacked by a wasp earlier this month.

It would seem that this pose might be the calendar cover pic. Isn't it splendid! And if you look closely there's some very nice old stones in the fireplace! Both photos are © Brad Askew, and are reproduced here with permission.

Eve in the news

Eve Muirhead is in the news. No, not because she was bitten by a wasp (see here, and in multiple other places online, and below) but because she is to be an Athlete Role Model for the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games taking place January 13-22 in Innsbruck, Austria.

The International Olympic Committee has today published its list of role models, featuring a number of star athletes nominated by the International Federations taking part in the Winter Youth Olympic Games and members of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, led by Chairman and Olympic sprinter Frank Fredericks. Eve Muirhead and Uli Kapp are the World Curling Federation nominees. The full press release is here.

What is an ARM's role? The release says, "The ARMs will spend time with the athletes, answering their questions and providing tips on everything from healthy eating to training regimens. The ARMs will also participate alongside the athletes in the Culture and Education Programme, which will focus on Olympism and the Olympic values, skills development, well-being and healthy lifestyles, social responsibility and expression through digital media. The ARMs will attend the competitions, visit the Youth Olympic Village and feature in 'Meet the Role Models' forums designed to inspire and educate the participants with personal accounts of their own dreams and experiences, and the challenges they have overcome. In addition, a dedicated Athlete Role Model lounge in the Youth Olympic Village will be available for the young athletes to drop in and ask questions first-hand to their icons."

Great Britain's curling team for Innsbruck is in the process of selection. Shortlisted athletes attended a special session at Greenacres last weekend, and the successful four (two girls and two boys) will be announced soon, once their selection has been ratified by the British Olympic Committee. See a past blog post about the WYOG here. John Brown also talked about the Games in this post.

I note too that the profile of the Youth Olympic Games is increasing. I read this article on Monday about Glasgow's interest in staging a summer YOG in 2018.

Ah yes, the wasp! I am assured that Eve's eyesight is now back to normal as she flies out to Oslo today to compete with her team in the Radisson Blu Oslo Cup.

There is no update on the medical condition of the wasp.

Eve's photo is © Skip Cottage and is from the Scottish Junior Championship at Curl Aberdeen last season.

Live Chat with Eve Muirhead

Fans of Eve Muirhead, above, should note there a live web chat (here) with her at 1.30 pm local time, which by my calculation is 8.30 pm here tonight (Wednesday), from Grande Prairie, Alberta, where she is competing with Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers and Annie Laird in the GP Car and Home Players' Championship.

The organisers have been asking for questions in advance of the Live Chat.

Added later:

Now, this WAS interesting, and really enjoyable. First time I have ever tried to watch one of these live chats live. It was a bit stuttery at the beginning (I don't have the best broadband connection in the world being some miles from the exchange) but it ran smoothly for most of the twenty minutes or so.

The interviewer was George Karrys, Editor of The Curling News, and he has a relaxed informal style. Eve was just herself, and a delight to listen to, answering questions honestly, candidly and humorously! We learned, for example, that she knows thousands of bagpipe tunes, likes Coors Light beer, supports St Johnstone, and (important news this) will be playing with Anna Sloan next season. And she and Anna are still talking about who will be the front end!

Here's the link for further Live Chats from Canada, and to watch a recording of Eve being questioned by George.

Photo of Eve is © Skip Cottage and is from the WJCC2011 final game.

Eve is the face of the World Junior Championships

Eve Muirhead is the presenter of two short videos promoting the World Junior Curling Championships to be held at the Dewar's Centre in Perth, March 5-13, next year. These are on the championships' own YouTube channel. Watch them here and here.

The World Juniors website is here. There are 110 days to go to the opening ceremony!

Nearly for Scots abroad

So near, for two of our teams who were abroad this weekend. Good performances though. Tom Brewster, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow reached the final of the Lucerne Curling Trophy, losing out to Andy Kapp, see here. You can see the team in action in Lucerne on the archived Laola1 TV archive here.

Eve Muirhead, Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers and Annie Laird had beaten the Jennifer Jones team in the qualifying rounds of the Sobey's Slam in New Glasgow. The Scots went on to win their quarterfinal game, then ran up against Jones and her team again in the semi. This time it went to an extra end, with the result in the Canadians' favour after a measure. Results are here.

Team Muirhead in Canada

You might well wonder why I've dug out this old photo, from the 2008 World Junior Curling Championships. That's Eve Muirhead in the front of course. What a lot has happened in Eve's life since then! In the background is Kaitlyn Lawes, who skipped the Canadian team in Ostersund. The two skips met again at the World Juniors in Vancouver in 2009, when Scotland beat Canada in the final.

Forward to 2010, Team Muirhead is doing well at the Sobeys Slam in New Glasgow. I see that they beat Jennifer Jones' side last night to make their place in the playoffs of the event as unbeaten qualifier from the A Road. If you are a follower of the Canadian scene, you will be aware that Jennifer Jones somewhat controversially replaced her long serving third player Cathy Overton-Clapham with the younger Kaitlyn Lawes this season. Anyway, Team Muirhead's win over Jones puts them into Sunday's quarterfinals. Follow progress here or here.

Pic © Skip Cottage

Eve in New Glasgow

I wasn't on the ball earlier when I posted a quick preview of the weekend. Fortunately Kay Adams at the Royal Club is, and she reminds us that Eve Muirhead and her team are in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada, this weekend for the World Curling Tour Sobey's Slam.

Twenty-six teams are signed up for this triple knockout, and as I write this after Team Muirhead's first game this evening, I can already tell you they won that.

NB This is an amended post. If you read an earlier version, online for thirty minutes or so only, I had the girls losing their first game. I had found the incorrect results here. I apologise. I should have checked the official site here, which was correct. Sometimes I just wish that we were back in the days when we had to wait until the Monday morning newspaper to find out what happened! Anyway, good luck to the girls in their next games.

Kay's weekend preview is here.

Scotland's women at the Euro Championship

Team Muirhead will represent Scotland at the Le Gruyere European Curling Championships in Champery, Switzerland, December 3-12. Anna Sloan, who played both games for the team yesterday, will be the alternate. Here are the girls! L-R: Anna Sloan (alternate), Annie Laird (lead), Lorna Vevers (2nd), Kelly Wood (3rd) and Eve Muirhead (skip)

Pic © Skip Cottage

Eve and Anna in Canada

Well done to Eve Muirhead, Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers and Annie Laird on reaching the final of the 2010 Meyers Norris Penny Charity Classic in Medicine Hat. The Scots qualified through the A Road of the thirty-two team triple knockout World Curling Tour event, and had to sit out Sunday, without a game, until Monday's quarterfinals. They won twice more before losing to Edmonton's Jessie Kaufman team 5-3 in the final.

Elsewhere in Canada, Anna Sloan, Claire Hamilton, Vicki Adams and Rhiann Macleod won two games and lost three at the thirty-two team triple knockout Southwestern Ontario Women’s Charity Cashspiel in London.

More details are on Kay Adams' review of the weekend here.

Kinross Curling Trust Raffle

This chest contained all the tickets for Kinross Curling Trust's Grand Raffle. The draw took place today at the Windelstrae Hotel. I was there of course - I really need a new car and I wanted to be on hand when my ticket was pulled out.

Scottish Champion skip Eve Muirhead was asked to make the draw. Here she is with Bob Tait, the Trust's Chairman, and the winning ticket.

Mine?

Sadly not. The lucky winner was Gordon Walker of Glenfarg. Christine Dawson and Alison Young won the 'minor' prizes (two nights dinner bed and breakfast sponsored by the Gleneagles Hotel, and six bottles of ten year old Ardbeg single malt whisky, sponsored by Glenmorangie). The bigger winner of course was the Trust's fundraising efforts, as more than £10,000 has been added to the pot. You can read about other fundraising efforts here.

Here's Bob and Eve again, with other trust members in the sunshine with the star, a little black Fiat Panda Active ECO 1.1 L, thanks to Arnold Clark and Fiat Perth. Happy motoring Gordon!

So good to see the fundraising continuing, although the National Curling Academy project remains on hold meantime, see here.

In the sunshine today it was easy to be optimistic that one day there will be a six sheeter on this site, with the RCCC offices and a world class curling history museum. Well, let's hope so.

Photos © Skip Cottage

Eve Muirhead models in NY

Dressed to Kilt is a Scottish Fashion show, held in New York. This year's event, the eighth, was again hosted by Sir Sean and Lady Connery. The theme of the show was Mad for Scotland, celebrating eccentric style and individuality! And curling star Eve Muirhead was invited to take part. That's her above, arriving for the event. The cult of the celebrity curler is with us! Full marks Eve, I think you look smashing. More photos as I find them!

Added later: Here she is on the catwalk! More here, here, here, and here, and below.

And here's a video. Hold on until right at the end for a glimpse of Eve.

A press release describes the event in this way. "Dressed to Kilt has established itself as the highest-profile Scottish event outside of the UK and the most prestigious Scottish fashion show in the world. This unique show celebrates all aspects of Caledonian culture from fabric and fashion to art, music and whisky. The Dressed to Kilt fashion show showcases a range of fashions from traditional Highland kilts to designer haute couture fit for royalty, to cutting-edge fashion from Scotland's finest young talent as well as some of the world's top designers who have embraced and incorporated 'Scottishness' into their trademark styles. This year's show features looks from top fashion houses from both sides of the Atlantic, including a special tribute to Alexander McQueen and designs from Vivienne Westwood, 21st Century Kilts, Calzeat & Co Ltd, Holland & Sherry, Johnstons of Elgin, Joey D, Spencer Railton, Lochcharron of Scotland, Michael Kaye Couture, Sandra Murray, Gwen Russell and many more."

On the official website (here), Eve is described as "Eve Muirhead, 19 year old Scottish captain of British Olympic curling team and a babe." A BABE! What has our sport come to?

Here's some more of the press release: "Dressed to Kilt is renowned for attracting A-list celebrities and bold-faced names and this year's show is no exception, with celebrity participants including Sir Sean & Lady Connery, Scottish actors Gerard Butler and Alan Cumming, actor Mike Myers, country music singer Kellie Pickler, award-winning actor Sam Waterston, rock icon Joan Jett, renowned journalist Charlie Rose, Miss Scotland Katharine Brown, Scottish rugby team captain Chris Cusiter, Scottish captain of British Olympic curling team Eve Muirhead, Canadian musical group Bowfire, model and actor Marcus Schenkenberg, New York Yankees legend Bernie Williams, Broadway actor Matthew Modine, among many, many more."

To see Eve listed alongside Joan Jett just made my day!

There is a charity aspect to the event, the beneficiaries including the Erskine Hospital, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Wounded Warrior Project.

Talking about fashion, did you see the feature on our World Championship Silver girls in the Daily Record, here?

The photos are by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

Henderson Bishop

Take a good look at my photo above. It's from the Henderson Bishop competition in Stranraer four years ago. The curler in the foreground is one of the most well kent in Scottish women's competition, Kirsty Letton. I think it is safe to say that the curler at the back is now the best known Scottish (and British) woman curler in the world. She's the one that some across the pond this week are already calling 'The Phenom' - Eve Muirhead, skip of the GB women's team.

The Henderson Bishop, the premier competition of the Ladies' Branch of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club outside of the Scottish Championship, has been going since 1929. It is played during the week and this means that few young people usually get the opportunity to take part. All credit then that four years ago Kathleen Scott was able to recruit a young fifteen-year old schoolgirl to skip the Pitlochry entry for the competition, and with Rhiann Macleod, another junior, and Alison Drummond, the four won the Low Road competition for the Cherrystone trophy.

That was the first time that Eve had really been in the spotlight, and, let's just say, a lot has happened in the intervening four years!

Anyway, why mention all this now? As the Olympics continue next week in Canada, the Henderson Bishop 2010 will be underway at the Lockerbie rink. Twenty teams representing seventeen different rinks will participate in four sections. Murrayfield, Lanarkshire and Inverness each fields two teams. The draw is here.

Play begins 10.00 on Monday, and the finals are on Thursday. The team list is here.

It is sure to be a competitive yet sociable four days. And there will be a different winner this year. The beautiful Henderson Bishop trophy will have a new name on it, as Gail Munro, the winner in the past two seasons, did not make it out of Stranraer this time. Kate Adams, Vicky Wright, Debbie Torbet and Alison Bell will represent the North West Castle rink at Lockerbie.

Pics of Eve and Kirsty, and of the Henderson Bishop trophy, are by Bob.

Three faces of Eve

"Expectation"

"Acclamation"

'Realisation'

I enjoyed the opportunity of watching David Murdoch's Team GB at the Edinburgh International last weekend. Eve Muirhead (above) was in action last weekend in Wetzikon, and came home with the money too. Both teams don their Scottish uniforms to compete for the country at the Le Gruyere European Curling Championships which get underway in Aberdeen's Linx Arena on Saturday morning.

I'm blogging from Aberdeen and I'm looking forward to being involved. The Euros are the largest championship event on the curling calendar with 51 teams from 30 different European countries taking part.

The Championships will be staged at the Linx Ice Arena, which will hold the men’s and women’s A teams, with the B divisions at Curl Aberdeen. Aberdeen City Council has invested over £1m in refurbishing the Linx Arena, including the installation of a new refrigeration plant. David Murdoch will be defending the European title that he has won in the last two years. Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, losing finalist in the last two European championships, is back to try again.

As well as representing their countries in the European Championships, both of these teams are bound for Vancouver and the Olympic Winter Games in February (where the Scots will compete as Great Britain), as are the men’s teams from Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. The men’s A division is completed by the Czech Republic, Finland and Italy.

Six of the women’s A division teams are also heading to Vancouver, including Eve Muirhead's side of course, and defending European champion Mirjam Ott from Switzerland and reigning Olympic champion Anette Norberg from Sweden. Denmark, Germany and Russia also have their Olympic teams at Aberdeen. The women’s A division also includes England, Finland, Italy and Norway.

A further twenty men’s teams are involved in the B division, which has been divided into two further sections. One of these includes Bulgaria, England, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia and Spain. The other involves teams from Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia and Wales.

The women’s B teams are also in two groups, one of six teams (Croatia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Wales), and the other of five (Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Spain).

Teams in the B divisions at Curl Aberdeen are looking for promotion to next year’s A division, with the top two B finishers swapping places for next year’s championships with the last two A finishers. The overall B winners in both men’s and women’s events will play a best-of-three World Challenge event against the last qualifiers from the A group. But all the B teams will be looking to stay high enough to avoid relegation to a C Division and needing to qualify for next year's European Championships. Aberdeen will be the last of the big events, where all the European teams compete at one venue.

My take on it all will be on the event blog here.

There are other curling events on this weekend elsewhere. The qualifying competition for the Bruadar Scottish Men's Championship is at the Galleon rink in Kilmarnock, December 4-6. A recent RCCC Events committee changed the published guidelines for what is happening in this, rather unusual, year, because of the Olympics. Now the top two teams will progress from each of the three five-team sections, to the the Scottish Qualifiers which will now consist of nineteen teams. One section of ten teams will have five qualifying to the finals, and one section of nine teams will have with four teams qualifying - this is the section David Murdoch would have been in. The Scottish Qualifiers are held over two weekends - December 18-20, and January 15-17. The first part of the Bruadar Finals are January 27-31. The knockout stages are March 5-7.

I hope I've got all these dates correct. I did say it was an 'interesting' year!

Of course, Scottish teams need to finish high enough up in the standings at Aberdeen for us to have a place at the World Championships.The European Championships double as the European qualifying event for the World Curling Championships. This year, the top seven men’s teams from this event, as well as hosts Italy, will take part in the championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo in April, while the top-finishing eight women’s teams will go on to Swift Current in Canada.

The Stranraer Ice Rink is the venue for the finals of the RCCC Double Rink Championship, December 4-6. I'm not usually biased of course, but I have to support my own club, Reform CC, this weekend!

The Under 17 Slam concludes this weekend with the U-17 event at the Lanarkshire Ice Rink, December 5-6.

And our wheelchair curlers are in Lausanne!

The Royal Club website is your first port of call for the results.

Those of a certain age will remember the captions I've used for Eve's pics. Fry's Five Boys chocolate bar was introduced in 1902, priced 6d and was still being sold in 1971 for 7d, according to here. Hopefully 'Desperation' or even, 'Pacification', will not be needed in Aberdeen next week!

Eve's pics are from the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies' Championship at Curl Aberdeen last month © Skip Cottage.

Eve in Switzerland

It was a good day for both GB teams yesterday. Not only did Team Murdoch win the Edinburgh International, but Eve Muirhead, Jackie Lockhart, Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers and Karen Addison won the ZO competition in Wetzikon, see here. Claire Milne's team reached the semifinals of the Curling Champions Tour event too.

Columba Cream Scottish Ladies' Championship

It's eyes on the Dewar's Centre in Perth this Saturday and Sunday where eight teams are vying for the remaining six places in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Championship. Only two teams, skipped by Eve Muirhead and Gail Munro, are already in the final eight for the first round proper of the competition, at Curl Aberdeen, November 19-22.

Of the eight teams in the prequalifying competition this weekend, four are still juniors. The pre-qualifier will be played in two sections with the top three teams in each section going forward. I can envisage playoffs galore on Sunday!

Anna Sloan (pictured above), Lauren Gray, Gillian Howard and Judith McFarlane skip their teams in Section A, and Jennifer Dodds, Hannah Fleming, Claire Milne and Sarah Reid are in Section B. Hard to say who will be the odd ones out, so I'm not even going to begin to speculate!

First games are at 09.30 on Saturday. It's the beginning of the road to the world championships. The Ford World Women's Curling Championship will be held in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada, March 20-28, 2010. Yes, there will be life after the Olympics!

Elsewhere in the curling world, Eve Muirhead's Team GB are in the draw for the 2009 Colonial Square Ladies Classic in Saskatoon. This is a thirty-two team triple knockout. The results will be here. The GB side is up against Robyn Silvernagle's Saskatchewan team in their first match tomorrow (Friday, November 30).

David Murdoch and the men's Team GB are in Brooks, Alberta, for the 2009 Cactus Pheasant Classic, which gets underway today. The twenty-four team lineup contains the top Canadian sides, see here. The results should be here.

Photo of Anna Sloan practising at Lockerbie recently is © Skip Cottage.

Eve wins in Mississauga

Congratulations to Eve Muirhead, Jackie Lockhart, Kelly Wood and Lorna Vevers who won the Three Nations Cup in Ontario this weekend! The results are all here. Team GB beat Stefanie Lawton in the final, having only lost the one game along the way, against Binyu Wang's world champions.

These are Capital One photos by Anil Mungal, with a big thanks to The Curling News!

There's a great article about the girls here, and George Karrys has another interview with them all, including Karen, here (look for the VIDEOS button, top right of screen).

David Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Graeme Connal and Euan Byers did not fare so well in the Grey Power World Cup. They stole the last end in their final game against John Shuster's USA side to give them their only win in six games. Scores can be found here.

Eve's brother Glen can also be pleased with a good performance at the Meyers Norris Penny Prairie Classic. Muirhead, with Greg Drummond, Thomas Sloan and Michael Goodfellow, lost their first game in the A Road, before winning four straight in B against top teams, before losing two more and exiting the event.

In Oslo at the first of the European Junior Curling Tour events, all five Scottish teams made it through to the quarterfinals of the competitions. Only Colin Dick, Blair Fraser, Lindsay Gray and Thomas Pendreigh made it further, but lost out in the semifinal. The linescores are here.

Words from Canada

That's George Karrys, Editor of The Curling News and fellow blogger (see here) in the photo above, beginning an interview with Eve Muirhead, Kelly Wood and Jackie Lockhart. They are in Mississauga (with Lorna Vevers and Karen Addison) as Team GB to compete in the Three Nations Cup this weekend.

Definitely worth a listen, find it here.