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Showing posts with label Grand Match at Lake of Menteith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grand Match at Lake of Menteith. Show all posts

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all blogallies! Skip Cottage Curling will be back next week.

This image is from the Lake of Menteith Grand Match in 1979. The late Johnny Hibberd is the curler throwing the stone. © Skip Cottage.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Photo of the Month

I'm looking forward to seeing curlers on the ice this weekend, and in short time the new season will be well underway!

Today though I've been thinking of one of the greatest experiences I've ever had (on the ice). That was in February 7, 1979 - the Grand Match on the Lake of Menteith! I was delighted with myself last week when I stumbled upon a photograph that I knew I had somewhere, but hadn't been able to find when we were all in Grand Match mode last January.

It's an unusual photograph, so much so that I've made it the 'Photo of the Month' for September. See the POTM page on the menu bar, or go here. Perhaps you can identify who is in the photo.

Right, now to get the camera dusted off for tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Grand Match Report

A report, signed by Jim Paterson, Convenor, Grand Match Committee, and Colin Grahamslaw, the Royal Club CEO, has been posted on the Royal Club website, as a pdf file for download, here. The report looks at the events of the first ten days of January 2010, and addresses some of the contentious issues, such as the confusing information that was distributed as to why the event had been cancelled. I have reprinted the whole content below:

Grand Match Report
This report outlines the process and issues relating to the decision not to go ahead with the Grand Match at the Lake of Menteith earlier this month.

The Lake of Menteith was removed from the list of potential venues back in 2000/2001 for a number of reasons including issues with car parking. On Monday 4th January it became known that the local landowners were willing for their car parking to be used again, representatives of the Grand Match Committee met on the Tuesday and agreed that it was worth investigating the possibility of using the Lake again.

Representatives of the GMC met with various local interested parties and the police on the Wednesday and although some concerns were raised it was believed that these could be dealt with. The main areas appeared to be issues with access to car parking and the logistics of getting buses in and out of the site. Work continued to try and resolve these issues and continue the planning over the next day or so until another meeting was arranged at the Lake of Menteith on Friday 8th.

At this meeting not only were there representatives of the GMC, the hotel, the local landowners and the police but also the ambulance and fire services, the national parks authority and Stirling Council, including the Lord Provost.

The meeting began with the Police outlining their concerns about the lack of a formal plan for the Grand Match being held at the Lake. In particular they had major concerns for public safety linked to the access to and from the site for both players and spectators and were concerned that without the correct plans the road infrastructure would not cope and we could find ourselves gridlocked. This led to additional concerns re provision of access for the emergency services. Additionally they felt that there should be clear contingency plans for the site and crowd management plans. They also expressed concerns re the condition of the car parks and that although cars could get in they would not get out.

The police and other blue light services did make comment about what proof was there that the ice was safe and noted that without the right kind of proof they would not go on the ice but this was not the main that was they did not feel they could get people in and out of the site safely.

The police and other blue light services then gave a clear and unambiguous recommendation not to proceed and made it clear if we did go ahead it was without their support. At this point we made contact with our insurers who confirmed that the insurance was not available if we went ahead without the support of the emergency services.

The police and other services were questioned if plans could be put in place to deal with their concerns but they were clear that they did not think it would be possible to do so in the timescale but that they were happy to work with us to develop robust plans for the future.

Those members of the GMC present felt that there was no option but to follow the recommendation of the police. A joint statement was then agreed between the GMC, Police and National Parks Authority.

It is important to be clear that plans are in place for both Loch Leven and Piper Dam which have previously been discussed with the local police. The GMC are now revisiting these plans to ensure the local police remain committed to supporting them.

One of the suggestions raised was that all the players could sign a disclaimer thus allowing the match to go ahead without insurance. There are differing opinions on this but it would seem that a player signing a disclaimer would not prevent their family from suing the organisers of the match if they felt they were liable for the injury or death of the participant. It would also not be possible to have every spectator sign a disclaimer and as organisers the Royal Club could potentially be liable for any loss which could be proved to be due to the hosting of the Grand Match.

There has been a large amount of correspondence since the announcement of the decision not to go ahead with the Match. The majority of it has expressed disappointment but understanding, a small portion have been angry with the anger directed at the Royal Club for not ignoring the Police advice and one or two have been anonymous and abusive. We are working through all the emails from members and will respond to them all in due course.

In terms of whether the level of optimism for the Grand Match could have been better controlled it is difficult to see how once the story had been run on BBC on the 4th / 5th January that anything could be done to dampen expectations. On the 5th the Royal Club issued an update to say attempts were being made to with local partners to make it happen early the following week. The meeting on January the 6th did nothing to change that expectation so the procedures were posted as a news item and we continued to take names for the reserve list. It is difficult to see what kind of statement could have been made before the 8th based on what was known at the time which would have done anything but increase the optimism.

It should be noted that on the Saturday following the decision not to go ahead there were conversations with the First Minister’s office to see if there was anything he could do to help.

In hindsight the easiest thing to have done was when the Lake was again proposed as a venue it could have been rejected outright immediately, however although that may have been the easiest decision it would not have been the right one. The correct decision was taken ie. to see if it was possible to stage the Match at the Lake. On reflection what would have been useful was if more of those who attended the meeting on Friday the 8th had attended the meeting on Wednesday 6th.

The following matters are being taken forward by the GMC:

· The documentation supporting the Grand Match going ahead on 7 inches of ice is to be rewritten in a format that can be handed to the police and emergency services.

· The plans for Loch Leven and Piper Dam will be reviewed and written up in a format consistent with the ‘Purple Book’ which is a reference book for hosting large events.

· A list of criteria will be drawn up that will allow the GMC to assess any other potential venues which may be able to host a grand match.

Jim Paterson, Convenor, Grand Match Committee
Colin Grahamslaw, CEO
15th January 2010

My photo of the Lake of Menteith was taken far out on the loch on Friday, January 8, 2010.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Last thought on the Grand Match

Nine Dumfries curlers went up to the Lake of Menteith yesterday and met opponents from the Airleywight club, maintaining the North-South tradition. Thanks to Mark Stoddart for this pic of the conditions. It's not every day when you see stones coming down the ice with bow waves! Mark says, "Tremendous fun despite the conditions and we were all glad to have made the journey."

Do you remember this post, when George Wills was encouraging us to 'do something'! Well, I wrote to David Mundell who is my MP. He has replied, and says, "I do share your thoughts on the Health and Safety culture which is suffocating us. A Conservative Government will give priority to restoring personal responsibility as a cornerstone of our society which I believe is the best way to counteract the worst excesses of the nanny state."

It's a while since I've heard a politician say something that I support so wholeheartedly!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Thaw

I've just been watching a BBC Scotland report from the Lake of Menteith, with reporter Sally McNair on hand to witness a few hardy souls playing through a fair bit of surface water! Sadly, the thaw has arrived. But I'll not be taking my stones out of the boot of the car yet. Who knows what lies ahead for us over the next eight to ten weeks of winter. Not the forecasters, certainly. It was just a few days ago that the outlook looked rather promising for today, according to them.

I can look back on a fantastic start to this year. I've thrown stones outside in a number of different places, as you will have seen if you have been following the blog. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the origins of our great sport, and participate in the fun and fellowship that outside curling brings. Hopefully those who have enjoyed the experience will give their support to the efforts to establish a museum of curling history within the Kinross National Academy setup. There is such a lot of history to be documented and researched. Have a look at what David B Smith has written about the 1929 Grand Match on the Curling History blog here. What wonderful old photographs. Being a train enthusiast, I was knocked out by the pic of the curlers disembarking from a 'special' at the Carsebreck siding.

Of course I was disappointed that there was no Grand Match last week. There could have been one. This is not the place for recriminations, but I have no doubt that there will be much discussion within the Royal Club in the months ahead, and a full assessment made on how the events of the past couple of weeks could have been managed better. And whether there will ever be an official Grand Match again.

Interesting, for me the winner has been Facebook. Not only have huge numbers of great photos found their way on to the social networking site, but it has been great to learn of many of our young curlers appreciating outside curling for the first time. And there's no question that any unofficial bonspiel could have been organised through the efforts of those who set up pages to promote that concept. Indeed, to find exactly what the conditions were like this morning, and whether it was worth making the trip north, it was to Lake of Menteith Hotel's Ian Fleming that I turned, eg here.

OK, just a few more photos which I hope you will find of interest, before skipcottagecurling returns to some sort of normality. The traffic to the blog has been the most ever over the last few days. Thanks to all for your support.

First of all though, if you would prefer to see moving images, Stable Recordings made a video on Saturday, see here.

Above is the helicopter on the Lake of Menteith in 1979. I believe it delivered the RCCC President to the venue.

Thanks to Paul Stevenson for sending me photos to show what the Lake of Menteith looked like yesterday, from about 1500 feet!

And here's the Lake of Menteith on Sunday when thousands turned up to enjoy the spectacle. Thanks to Ewan Chesser for this pic of the Landrover on the ice!

Here we are at Coldstream Mill Pond, not far from Greenacres, on Sunday. There's something missing from this pic! Mark with an X where you think the curlers should be!

Here they are. Some of my own club, Reform CC, ready for action.

I like the little ramp for offloading the stones from the road to the ice!

Tony Tierney in the head.

Recognise anyone? Yep, that IS Richard Harding on the right.

Thanks to David Robertson for the photos above.

This is Craichlaw Loch near Kirkcowan in stunning conditions at the weekend. Galloway Province clubs were in action.

These are members of Glasserton CC who took on Penninghame CC on Sunday.

Louise Kerr about to show how it should be done!

I wonder what Billy Thomson has said to offend Louise?

Liz Forsyth gets a helping hand from Elsie McKillop after failing to master the crampit delivery!

Thanks to Louise and local photographer Billy Broll for the pics above. Wonderful!

And a POSTSCRIPT:

Sandy Morton sends this pic to prove that not all elfin safety are bad people! Members of HM Coastguard Search & Rescue joining in the fun at the Greenan Loch on Bute last Saturday.

Thanks everyone!

Monday, January 11, 2010

The REAL reason why the RCCC can't sanction a Grand Match

I don't actually recognise the person in the photo above. I do know that he was taking part in the Grand Match on the Lake of Menteith on February 7, 1979, when the pic was taken.

I know too that he's become guillible in recent years. He tends to believe what he's told. He's naive, trusting. He tries himself to be plain speaking, and abhors when people refuse to say things clearly, and mean what they say.

I was not at the Grand Match Committee meeting at the Lake of Menteith last Friday. I met some of the committee afterwards and came away fully believing that it wasn't any problem with the ice that had caused the Royal Club to cancel Tuesday's competition. Rather, I was given the impression - or I misinterpreted what was told me - that it was concerns over access, for example getting ambulances to the site in case of emergency.

Turns out though, that the basic, fundamental, key difficulty, is indeed the ice. The Royal Club cannot find an expert who is willing to guarantee that seven inches (or more) of ice over the extent of the lake is indeed safe for curlers to play on. No 'expert', or academic is willing to take the risk of saying, "Of course, it's safe. You can drive a bus over it.." or whatever. And without that expert, the Health and Safety people won't give their approval, and that means no insurance can be obtained, and that means no Grand Match.

Read what Bill Marshall has written on the Royal Club website here. He hints at the above, but skitters around it somewhat. He says, "...the facts are - if we cannot guarantee that the ice is safe for the numbers the blue light brigade will not give their authorization. We have been in touch with various sources to try and get this information but have unsuccessful so far. If we do not have the authorization we would not be able to obtain insurance."

I spoke with Bill yesterday. I asked what the key concern was. I've summarised the answer above. Now, why could that not have been said clearly before, I don't know. I apologise if I misled anyone by claiming that the main problems were to do with access. Evidently they are not.

Now, Britain has led the world in polar exploration. They make television programmes based around driving over ice. Don't tell me that there are no consultants on 'Ice Road Truckers' who don't know what they are talking about. Where are the experts? Can they be found? Would any be brave enough to give guarantees?

Of course, if the absence of the ice thickness expert, and the lack of technology to test the evenness of the ice buildup, is really at the heart of things, then there will be no Grand Matches organised by the Royal Club on Loch Leven or Piper Dam, or anywhere for that matter. The problem is not confined to the Lake of Menteith.

There will be no 'official' Grand Matches ever again.

My best wishes go with everyone who plans to play on Tuesday regardless. Have fun, be safe, enjoy yourself, as that hairy character in the photo above did in 1979!

Friday, January 08, 2010

On the Lake of Menteith

I'm sure you will have shared my disappointment to read the Royal Club's announcement that the Grand Match on the Lake of Menteith, hoped for next Tuesday, will not take place.

The Loch looked beautiful today. I walked way out, reminiscing on how it looked just like this in 1979.

There was just a light dusting of snow over the main surface of the loch. Just as there had been in 1979, there were big cracks, as happens when a body of water of this size freezes solid. And solid it is!

There were a few skaters, some playing ice hockey. I encountered a number of walkers with their dogs!

Then there were these professional photographers, freezing their ***** off to get a worm's eye view. Of what?

Of the curling, of course!

Two rinks had been marked out. One group was made up mostly of Gogar members from Murrayfield, who kindly allowed me to play a couple of stones down their rink. It was not bad at all - a little slow if one wanted to be critical, but eminently playable.

I arrived at the hotel just as the Grand Match Committee had finished their meeting with representatives of the police and the emergency services. Colin Grahamslaw was preparing a statement, which undoubtedly you will now have read here.

The disappointment was palpable. There were lots of sad faces, eg President Bill Marshall, second right. Let's be clear about this. I doubt the Royal Club could have done more than it has to facilitate the Grand Match on the Lake of Menteith next week, even though this venue is not on the list of recommended sites. But if the police and ambulance say no, as happened, then there was no other decision the Royal Club could make.

And without knowing details of the discussions, I can see the problems. Even today with relatively few cars on site, idiots parking selfishly were threatening to block the little road that runs aside the loch, heading south from Port of Menteith. Given the hype in the media (which I'll perhaps return to in another post), huge numbers of spectators would have headed for the Lake of Menteith next week, tying up lots of police in traffic management. But the key problem would be accidents. Even getting on and off the loch beside the hotel today was not easy! Broken bones are one thing, but if ambulances cannot reach more serious incidents ...

There is a lot more to it than the above, but having familiarised myself with the area around the Lake of Menteith, I can see myself now just how unsuitable it is for a repeat of 1979, in terms of access.

But see below!

I've come home this evening to an email inbox full of messages indicating disappointment. Many are critical of the Royal Club. Some of those who have contributed to the thread on the Scottish Curling Forum are misinformed. Let's be clear, there's no question that the ice itself is unsafe. It is as safe as it was in 1979.

I believe that it is other concerns such as those I've touched on above which lead the emergency services to say 'no' this time, with such a short lead in time.

There is talk of a 'breakaway' big bonspiel which could be held unofficially! There's a Facebook page here.

Come on guys, get off your butts. There is absolute no reason why you cannot get a few friends/club members together, and if you have your stones, crampits, a tee-ringer and a byre brush and scraper, then there are lots of opportunities to play outside, as I've tried to indicate on this blog over the last week or so.

Indeed, if you are an enthusiast, why weren't you playing on the Lake of Menteith today? And enjoying yourself, as those in the pics above were.

The hotel had a barbecue going on the deck, with homemade soup and hamburgers. Excellent too. Complain all you want about the Royal Club and the GM committee if you must, but if your game is curling, then you should have been on the loch today. Maybe you will be tomorrow, or even next Tuesday? What's stopping you? Get organised, and do it.

It should be all about playing outside, not just about the Grand Match! Having experienced a game or two from the crampit, then you might be better prepared when the call comes again for a Grand Match, as it may well do, perhaps even next month.

If you don't fancy travelling to the Lake of Menteith, there's going to be a bonspiel on the Kirk Loch, Lochmaben, on Sunday, 11.00 - 15.30, organised by local curlers headed up by David Hamilton. Teams of four or six can play, and must have their own stones, hack or crampit. It is of course at everyone's own risk. There will be a collection for prizes and for charity. Help is needed to clear snow on Saturday morning.

If there are other opportunities for outside curling, please let me know.

Get out there! Stop complaining about the lack of a Grand Match, just enjoy the opportunity to play outside. Today was perfect. Where were you?

Added later:
1. The lake at the driving range, Castle Kennedy, Stranraer, 11.00 Sunday.
2. Castle Semple Loch, Lochwinnoch, tomorrow (Saturday)

Pics above are © Skip Cottage

Monday, January 04, 2010

Grand Match 2010?

There's been one question in many minds for the last ten days or so, "Is there any possibility of a Grand Match in 2010?" There have only been three since the war, in 1959 on Loch Leven and in 1963 and 1979 on the Lake of Menteith. The story of the last is well told here.

Bill Marshall, the RCCC President, posted a short note on the Royal Club's website on December 29 which said, "We are conscious that, with the current spell of cold weather, people will be keen to know about the possibilities for a Grand Match. There is not much snow at present on Loch Leven but more is forecast for today. It is beginning to freeze but must reach 7 inches. There is no information at the moment regarding Piper Dam."

The post concluded, "We will post further News Items here when we have more information."

Well, Bill, yes, we are keen to know. And I for one think it is a failure of the Royal Club that you haven't been updating us daily on these possibilities (and perhaps explaining the difficulties, which most will be unaware of). I know the Royal Club doesn't pay much attention to the Scottish Curling Forum, but perhaps someone on the Board might just look at the strength of feeling in the thread here. It's the lack of information from Cairnie House over the holiday period that is the main concern, although lots of other questions have been raised.

Communication has never been the strongpoint of our sport's governing body. We are but four days into a new year and already the Royal Club seems to have spectacularly shot itself in its foot. I had hoped things were changing. "Yes, Bob, communication with our members is top of our agenda," was what I was told last year and the lesson I had hoped the Club had learned.

But apparently not.

I was fortunate to have played in 1979 with the Carmunnock and Rutherglen Club. These are two of the photos I took then. I wish I had taken more!