Wheelchair Curlers Success

Our wheelchair curlers overcame a number of problems on their way to finishing on the podium at the Danish International Wheelchair Cup last weekend. Ten teams, from Scotland, Russia, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Finland and the Czech Republic, took part in the event at the Taarnby Club. A four game competition was used for ranking and then the teams played off, 1 v 2, 3 v 4, 5 v 6, 7 v 8, 9 v 10, in their fifth game.

Scotland 2 defeated the Czech Republic in the gold medal game and Scotland 1 defeated Denmark in their ranking final.

It was a good weekend for our new Head Coach, Tony Zummack, who reports, "The squad was quite enthused about starting the season on a positive note. We had some challenges with luggage, transport and even an injury to squad member Jim Gault that caused him to come out of a game and miss the remaining two games on Sunday.

At a squad meeting on Saturday night the Gold team (Aileen Neilson, Tom Killin, Gregor Ewan and Angie Malone) decided that they would play with three curlers for the final two games, and that Gregor would move over to the Silver team (Michael McCreadie, Jim Gault, Ian Donaldson, Gill Keith) due to Jim being unable to finish the event. This squad first attitude allowed us all to realize a podium performance by all eight athletes in the Wheelchair Performance Program."

Thanks Tony, and a 'well done' to all.

The next event in the wheelchair curling calendar is the Kinross Wheelchair Curling International, October 18-20.

The organisers report that this competition will have a full complement of ten teams, two from Canada, one from Norway, one from Switzerland, one from Latvia and two from Russia. Three Scottish teams will take part including two teams made up from the eight members of the Wheelchair Performance Squad.

Archie Bogie writes or behalf of the organising committee, "This line up should make for a good competition and we look forward to a great display of wheelchair curling and competitive games on the excellent Kinross ice conditions.

L-R: Gregor Ewan, Ian Donaldson, Gill Keith, Jim Gault and Michael McCreadie, with coach Tony Zummack behind. Thanks to Aileen Neilson for this pic from Denmark.

A World Class Insight

The ice is down and today I headed for the Greenacres rink.

I had been invited to see some of the country's top teams in their squad training. I'm talking here about the teams that are in the Royal Club/British Curling World Class Performance Programme (see here) and the World Class Wheelchair Curling Performance Programme (here).

In this cycle that leads towards the Sochi Olympics and Paralympics in 2014, there have been significant changes in the way Scotland's 'performance programme' is being organised. Yes, many of the curlers are well kent faces, but much is new.

For the first time, all the various strands that make up 'performance' are being knitted together. For example, there's a new Talent Programme, and the Royal Club Academy Programme. More about the latter (probably on Monday) as I'm off to see these teams in training tomorrow at Stirling! Good to see the wheelchair curlers were on the ice, and in the classroom, alongside the ABs today.

It's important, I think, to emphasize that the divisions of the past between the Institute and the Royal Club - with 'Institute teams' and 'National Academy' teams - are history. There's ONE performance pathway. The role of the sportscotland Institute of Sport is to be the support network for the delivery of the World Class Performance Programmes. Indeed, there were many Institute staff involved today. It may seem perhaps to some to be just window dressing, but I do think that the changes, which have evolved from critical reports post Vancouver, are very much in the right direction, and good luck to all in taking it forward.

Let's put the politics aside. I enjoyed my day. I was made very welcome. It was fun being a 'fly on the wall' with the opportunity to see top curlers and their coaches in action. (Especially at Greenacres, where I did spent many of my own coaching years in the 80s. How things have moved on since then!)

Here are just a few pics - not comprehensive - to give a flavour of what was going on, and to show some - again not all - of those involved.

Colin Campbell and David Edwards here are working with Soren Grahn.

Here's Soren, the Men's Head Coach. A Swedish National Champion as a player, he certainly seems to be enjoying working with Scots curlers.

Scottish Champion skip Tom Brewster sweeping is not something you see every day! Here he is with Greg Drummond, working on a Scott Andrews stone.

They were being videoed by Simon Lovelock, here with Nancy Murdoch in her role as High Performance Coach (men), with the other member of Team Brewster, Michael Goodfellow, behind.

A more usual pic of Tom!

So much of the training I saw today was about technique, whether that was of delivery, or of sweeping. And that's as it should be, of course. Whose fingers are driving this camera?

They belong to Rhona Martin, the Head Women's Coach. That's Jackie Lockhart behind. Cate Brewster is the High Performance Coach (women).

Here's Jackie, and team coach Isobel Hannen, with Sarah Macintyre and Kay Adams doing the hard work!

This is an interesting piece of equipment being used by the wheelchair curlers to show the accuracy of their delivery line.

Tony Zummack is the Head Coach in the Wheelchair Curling Programme. I think here he is explaining two different options!

Tony was being helped on the day by Joan Reed and Albert Middler.

Tom Killin is one of eight curlers in the Wheelchair Curling Squad 2011-12, see here.

Team Murdoch were working hard. Here David delivers with Ross Paterson and Richard Woods in this pic.

Glen Muirhead is in the head, with coach David Ramsay keeping them right, even if it does look like he is holding up the Bellhaven advert for me to photograph!

And yes, I certainly approve of the team's new uniforms, unveiled this weekend!

Keeping a watching eye over everything was Dave Crosbee, the Performance Director of the World Class Programmes. Good to talk to him today. He gave a presentation to the athletes about Sochi, having already visited the venue. The curling arena there is expected to be completed next year, and he reminded me that it will host the World Junior Curling Championships and the World Wheelchair Curling Championships in 2013, as test events for the Games the following year.

Photos © Skip Cottage

Who is Tony Zummack?

Most of us not involved in wheelchair curling are unlikely to have heard of Tony Zummack, the Canadian who has been appointed as the Head Coach for Wheelchair Curling, see here.

Eric Eales has an interview with Tony on his Wheelchair Curling blog here, and there's more about him here. I note that he will move to Scotland soon with his family to take up his appointment in January.

Tony's first challenge will be to complete Team Scotland's preparations for the World Wheelchair Curling Championship, in Prague, February 22 - March 1. The announcement of that team was described here.

I asked Michael McCreadie, who is currently taking a sabbatical from competitive curling, what he thinks of the new appointment. Michael writes, "I encountered Tony and his Alberta Team at the Richmond International in Vancouver in 2008. Alberta won the competition beating Jim Armstrong's team in the final. Tony comes to Great Britain with knowledge and experience of coaching wheelchair curlers at high level - his record speaks for itself. I am excited and feel sure he will bring his own methods, strategies and coaching expertise to enhance the skills of present and future players. This is a fresh start for all a journey which I hope again to be part of. The selection panel should be congratulated in their choice of coach."

Photo of Tony is courtesy of the Wheelchair Curling Blog.

Foreign faces in top coaching jobs

The coaches who will head up Scotland's and Britain's elite curling programme have been named today by British Curling, the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, sportscotland and UK Sport. The full details are here.

It is good to see the implementation of the recommendation of Simon Timson's independent review of the last Olympic cycle that 'the world's best coaches' should be recruited for the next three years! The coaches will work under Dave Crossbee, the programme's performance director.

The appointments are:

Men’s Head Coach, Soren Grahn from Sweden. He has competed himself in worlds and Olympics, and has been Niklas Edin's coach in recent years.

Women's Head Coach, Rhona Martin. Could not be better. She's been there, and done it.

Head Coach of Wheelchair Curling, Tony Zummack from Calgary. I don't know much about Tony yet, other than he has coached the Alberta team in the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships.

Cate Brewster continues as High Performance Coach based at the sportscotland Institute of Sport in Stirling. Good call. Cate has done a power of work, often unrecognised, over the last years.

Derek Brown and Tom Pendreigh will finish up their contracts at the end of the year.

Nancy Murdoch, former GB Women’s Coach, will take on the role of High Performance Coach with the Royal Club, the job which will be vacated by Rhona, and similar to that which she carried out successfully before taking on the Olympic job.

Soren Grahn, back left, with the winners of the 2009 Le Gruyere European Championship.

Pic © Skip Cottage