The Grand Match, also called The Bonspiel, is an outdoor curling tournament, or bonspiel, held most recently on the Lake of Menteith in Stirling, Scotland, when the weather is cold enough. Traditionally it is a match between the north and south of Scotland.
The last tournament was held in 1979. From then until 2010, a loch never froze to the required depth of seven inches [1] of ice to allow the tournament to take place. It can attract thousands of curlers when it is held. [2] The Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC) stated in December 2010 that the Lake of Menteith is no longer suitable for holding a Grand Match due to the logistics involved, with Loch Leven and the Piper Dam in Dundee now the preferred sites. [2]
In total, the Grand Match has taken place on 38 occasions, of which 33 were on outside ice: one in November, nine in December, 16 in January, and seven in February. The five indoor matches were held at the Edinburgh and Glasgow ice rinks.
On 5 January 2010, following weeks of freezing weather conditions throughout the UK, the RCCC met to discuss holding the event for the first time in 30 years. [3] However, just days later, the plans had to be scrapped as Health & Safety issues could not be resolved in the short time available. [4] Nevertheless, upwards of 20,000 people turned up over the weekend in defiance of the police, and numerous matches were held on the ice. An unofficial tournament was planned for a few days later, not sanctioned by the RCCC. This had to be abandoned due to warmer weather making the ice dangerous. [5]
To celebrate the millennium, an Indoor Grand Match was inaugurated in 2000, and this proved so popular that it became a regular event, being held every five years since. It is spread across several indoor ice rinks across the nation, with the last Indoor Grand Match in October 2015 being won by the south. [6]
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Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet toward the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.
Loch Leven is a fresh water loch located immediately to the east of the burgh of Kinross in Perth and Kinross council area, central Scotland. Roughly triangular, the loch is about 6 km (3.7 mi) at its longest. Prior to the canalisation of the River Leven, and the partial draining of the loch in 1826–36, Loch Leven was considerably larger. The drop in water level by 1.4 m reduced the loch to 75% of its former size, and exposed several small islands, as well as greatly increasing the size of the existing ones.
Lake of Menteith, also known as Loch Inchmahome, is a loch in Scotland located on the Carse of Stirling.
A bonspiel is a curling tournament, consisting of several games, often held on a weekend. Until the 20th century most bonspiels were held outdoors, on a frozen freshwater loch. Today almost all bonspiels are held indoors on specially prepared artificial ice.
The World Junior Curling Championships are an annual curling bonspiel featuring the world's best curlers who are 21 years old or younger. The competitions for both men and women occur at the same venue. The men's tournament has occurred since 1975 and the women's since 1988. Since curling became an Olympic sport in 1998, the World Junior Curling Championship of the year preceding the Olympic Games have been held at the site of the curling tournament for the upcoming Games.
The Grand National Curling Club (GNCC), founded in 1867, was the first National Curling Organization encompassing the entire United States. It remained the national organization until it created the United States Curling Association (USCA) in the 1950s, which split the GNCC into 10 Regions to compete in a U.S. Men's National Curling Championship. The champion would represent the United States in the newly created Men's World Curling Championships.
The Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC), branded as Scottish Curling is a curling club in Edinburgh, Scotland. It developed the first official rules for the sport, and is the governing body of curling in Scotland. The RCCC was founded on 25 July 1838 in Edinburgh, and granted its royal charter by Queen Victoria in 1843, after she had witnessed a demonstration of the sport played on the polished ballroom floor of Scone Palace the previous year.
The Bemidji Curling Club is a curling club located in the city of Bemidji, Minnesota. It is notable for its long line of champions in many competitions, including men's and women's rinks which represented the United States in the 2005 World Curling Championship and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Pete Fenson skipped the men's rink, which won the Olympic bronze medal, the first-ever medal in curling for the U.S. Cassandra Johnson skipped the women's rink, which lost to Sweden in the final match of the 2005 World Women's Curling Championship. Another of the club's members, Scott Baird, played as an alternate on the Olympic men's rink.
Evenie Water Curling Club was formed in 1872 and has been active in Angus curling circles ever since. The original curling pond is on the estate of Middleton of Gardyne close to the village of Friockheim, Scotland. The club currently curls at Forfar ice rink and the club is a member of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club and actively compete in RCCC competitions.
The 2010 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships were held in Champéry, Switzerland from December 3–11, 2010. The Group C matches took place from September 24–28 at the Greenacres Ice Rink in Howwood, Scotland. The winners of the Group C matches advanced to the Group B playoffs in Monthey. The Group A round robin matches took place from December 4–11 at the Palladium de Champéry in Champéry, while the Group B matches took place at the Verney Arena in Monthey.
The Potomac Curling Club is a curling club started in 1961 and currently curling in Laurel, Maryland. Operating out of the National Capital Curling Center, a dedicated curling ice facility at The Gardens Ice House operated under a long-term lease since 2002, the group maintains four sheets of dedicated curling ice, the only dedicated curling ice in the Washington, D.C., area. The club operates during the main curling season, although social events for the membership occur during the summer.
The Edinburgh International is an annual bonspiel, or curling tournament, that takes place in late November at the Murrayfield Curling Club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The tournament is held in a round robin format.
Stephanie "Steph" Mumford is a Canadian curler from Sarnia, Ontario. She currently plays third on Team Shelley Hardy.
The 2013 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic was held from October 11 to 14 at the Calgary Curling Club in Calgary, Alberta. The event was the first women's Grand Slam of the 2013–14 World Curling Tour. The event was held in a triple knockout format, and the purse for the event was CAD$50,000. The winning team received $14,000.
Carsbreck railway station was a private station opened on the Scottish Central Railway near Carsebreck Loch, the Royal Caledonian Curling pond, between Stirling and Perth for the use of the curlers belonging to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. It was first named by the Scottish Central Railway as 'Royal Curling Club Station, a host of later names being Caledonian Curling Society's Platform, Curling Pond Halt, Royal Curling Club Platform, Royal Curling Club Station, Netherton Halt and finally as Carsbreck Station. It is unclear how many of these were official names. The site lay in the parish of Ardoch, Perth and Kinross with the villages of Braco, Greenloaning and Blackford nearby. The Scottish Central Railway line had been opened in 1848.
Aboyne Curling Pond railway station, Loch of Aboyne Platform or Curlers' Platform was a private station opened on the Deeside Extension Railway for the use of the curlers, who played on the nearby Loch of Aboyne close to the old Deeside Railway that ran from Aberdeen (Joint) to Ballater.
Drummuir Curlers' Platform railway station was a private station opened on the Keith and Dufftown Railway for the use of the curlers belonging to the Drummuir Curling Club who played on the nearby Loch Park in the parish of Botriphnie. The GNoSR line ran from Keith to Dufftown.
Morgan Muise is a Canadian curler from Cochrane, Alberta.
Billy Howat is a Scottish curler.
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