Penicuik’s campaign in the Province League Division 3 came to an end last night, Tuesday 7th March.

During the season the rink of Iain Scott (Skip), Dave Anderson, Kirsty McWilliam and David Gillespie played against rinks from Edinburgh Rotary, Merchiston, RBS and Clydesdale Bank, winning three of the four games and finishing on equal points and ends won with Clydesdale Bank who were placed top of the league by dint of their superior shot difference of 3.

However, in this competition the top two teams are required to play-off to ascertain 1st position so the rink, with Liz Anderson standing in at very short notice for unavailable David Gillespie, played this game against CB which we managed to win by 7 shots and 4 ends to 4 shots and 3 ends.
Iain and Dave stood very nervously in the head as we suddenly realised that if the opposition skip playing his last stone had managed to nick out our only counting stone and lie he would have achieved an 8. Fortunately for us his shot drew more than he expected and clipped our guard leaving them with only 1 shot. Relief beyond belief!

The upshot is that both rinks under current rules are promoted to Division 2 for next season.

Report by Dave Anderson

Penicuik’s trip to Kinross for the District Medal match against Dunfermline CC was a lot of fun – even though we didn’t win. Team Gillespie (David, Kirsty, Reg and Graeme) realised early on what they were up against when Kirsty noticed the Strathcona Cup brooms of the Barr brothers. However, Penicuik played as best we could, were quite chuffed to win a two in the first end, put in our place firmly by six against in the second, won a couple of singles but the final end was four against us. Result: Barr 12 – 4 Gillespie

Team Scott ( Iain, Dave Anderson, Stuart and Roger) were also up against a strong team skipped by H Geyer. Alternative singles traded in the first 3 ends before Team Geyer took a four, then another couple of singles. Team Scott came back with a single in the last end, but result finished Geyer 7 – 3 Scott.

Overall result, Dunfermline win the District Medal 19-7.

The Dunfermline hosts were always welcoming, sociable, and good fun, and with soup and sandwiches and a few more drinks enjoyed after the match, Penicuik accepted their loss with good humour, before departing on a very late journey home.

Report by David Gillespie

On Saturday 18^th February, the Anderson and Scott families represented Penicuik to compete for the Pate Trophy, an annual competition between Midlothian and Border Provinces played alternatively at Murrayfield and Kelso curling rinks.

Dave Anderson, Iain Scott, Liz Anderson and Roger Scott played against a rink from Duns skipped by Colin Martin. Lying 4 shots against in the 1^st end we managed to cut it to 2 shots. We found our way in the 2^nd and 3^rd ends scoring consecutive 3s but then conceded 1, gained 1 and conceded 1 in ends 4, 5 and 6. In the 7^th we gained an impressive 3 shots and finished with 2 shots against the hammer so with an 8 shot advantage we, along with SIAE, DAFS and a President’s select, helped Midlothian to + 18 shots for part 1 of this competition.

Three more games are to be played to complete the fixture.

Report by Dave Anderson

Vic, Jim, Reg and David Gillespie ( Skip) represented Penicuik in an enjoyable BHF Bonspiel on Friday 10th February, playing against BMA Ladies.
The format was two ends of “quick curling” – both teams scoring points for stones in the house – followed by “normal” ends until the bell.
Penicuik did well in the first two ends, scoring in the mid-teens, before winning 9-3 over the remaining ends. The result is that Penicuik CC have the Lennie-Brown Trophy to look after again for the year as Winners of the BHF Bonspiel.
Congratulations!

Report By David Gillespie

Penicuik Curling Club fielded two teams for the Province Bonspiel held on Monday 30th January.

Craig Brown skipped his rink of Roger Scott, David Gillespie and Mike Mauchline. Unfortunately they were drawn against a strong Carrington rink, and lost by 11 shots to 5, i.e. – 6 shots.

The other rink of Dave Anderson (Skip), Jim Ramsay, Dave Carr and Reg Dunbar won their game against Merchiston by 15 shots to 3, i.e. +12 shots.

The overall score for Penicuik was therefore +6 shots with an average for the 2 teams of +3.

Carrington, with 3 teams entered, were declared Bonspiel Winners with an average score of +8.67 Barbarians, with 2 teams, were runners up with an average of +7, whilst Gogar Park CC, with 3 teams, finished third on average +6.67.

On Friday 9th December, Penicuik played SIAE in the next round of the King George 1V Competition. SIAE took an early lead which the Penicuik team managed to claw back, but the end result was Penicuik 4 – 7 SIAE. David Gillespie as Skip reported that it had been an enjoyable game in good company but SIAE proved to be the better team. They will go on to meet Holyrood in the next round.

Commiserations to David and his team of Dave Carr, Reg Dunbar and Kirsty McWilliam.

Two rinks stepped up to the hack to take on Oxenfoord in this well-liked double rink competition. Craig Brown, Jim Ramsay, Roger Scott and Graeme Cassie faced Trevor Dodd’s rink and Dave Anderson, Dave Carr, Stuart Blackwood and David Gillespie took on Calum Harvey’s rink.

Penicuik got off to the worst possible start losing 5 shots and 4 shots respectively. Team Brown got on the board with a single in the 2^nd but lost 2 then a further 3 in the next two ends. 3 shots were then gained by Craig’s rink before conceding a 1, then 3 in the last two ends, the final score being 14 – 4

In the meantime, team Anderson conceded 1 in the 2^nd by way of an unintended raise by Calum to nudge our shot stone. We came back with a single in the 3^rd but lost 1 in the 4^th. We got a well deserved 3 in the 5^th followed by 1 in the 6^th. Penicuik needed 10 shots to win in the last end but with only 7 stones in play it was a lost cause. We took 1 against the hammer to peel the game, 6 – 6

Overall Oxenfoord scored 20 shots to Penicuik’s 10.

As always with our games against Oxenfoord, they were played in very good spirits, and we retired to the balcony for a bit of fellowship and refreshments. Thanks to all who played, especially Graeme and Stuart who enjoyed the challenge of playing in this competition.

Report by Dave Anderson

Penicuik was drawn against Currie & Balerno in the Rink Championship.

The rink of Dave Anderson, Jim Ramsay, Dave Carr and David Gillespie got off to a good start with a single followed by a 3 in the second. We conceded 3 in the 3^rd but increased our lead with a last stone draw in the 4^th. Unfortunately, the wheels came off for Penicuik in the 5^th and 6^th when we conceded consecutive 4s to lose the game 11 shots to 5

Good luck to Currie & Balerno in the next round.

Report by Dave Anderson

In this year’s Inter Club Medal (previously known as District Medal) two sides representing the President and Vice-President of Penicuik played in a tough draw against Musketeers.  

President’s Team – Iain Scott, John Jacobs, Keith Morris, and Barbara Gillespie were simply outclassed on the day after an uphill struggle from losing heavily in the first, and only managing to score in a single end late in the game.

Vice-President’s Team – Jim Ramsay, Dave Anderson, Kirsty McWilliam and David Gillespie put up a respectful fight holding a slim lead for the majority of the games, up 6-4 after the 6^th end. Unfortunately, their valiant effort to keep the overall score respectable came undone at the last end when the opposition took a 5 to win.

Musketeers won both games (11-2 and 9-6) and will be awarded the Inter Club Medal, although the opposition Secretary has since indicated that the matches were much tighter than the scorecard suggested. There’s always next year!

Report by Iain Scott