Taken from the Indoor Grand Match syllabus 2025
"Haddington Curling Club
Founder 1846 - strong community based East Lothian Club
Early curling on ponds near the River Tyne. ~ Now plays at Murrayfield Ice Rink, Edinburgh. ~ Inclusive and welcoming environment for all levels. ~ Runs full season of leagues, internal competitions and friendlies. ~ Occasional outdoor curling when conditions allow (last in 2010). ~ Continues to uphold strong local curling traditions. "
aw shucks, you guys.
With the first round of the Rennie completed, past president Andy Aberdein is gunning to bounce back to the Wingate after only one season. With two convincing wins, team Aberdein managed to hold on to a single shot victory over second placed new skip Keith Anderson. The Anderson squad is also leading the 'most played ends' in the Rennie, but that could have something to do with one 'early handshake' by two of the other teams.
Surprisingly the bottom two places are occupied by a couple of our most successful skips over the past few seasons, with 7 titles over the last 9 seasons, between them. Perhaps Messrs Aberdein and Anderson should take heed that it may not be wise to back the Munro, father/daughter combo into a corner, with still two thirds of the season to go.
All to play for still.
Haddington v the World (but only the part of it that comprises North Scotland)
Mega Congratulations go to the Haddington Team of Andy McDiarmid, Graeme
Maguire, Roy Black and Heather Harpur who in their fourth end managed a
steal of 8 ! The only 8 to be scored in the Grand Match this year and
giving them the highest winning margin (certainly at Greenock)
and winning them a bottle of whisky each.
Haddington alone contributed over 25% of the South of Scotlands winning margin
 | ||||
| The 8 Ender is achieved ! |
East Lothian Province Clubs sent 8 teams to Ice Rinks in Lockerbie, Greenock, Kinross, Forfar and Edinburgh to compete in the 2025 Indoor Grand Match, representing the South of Scotland. Everyone involved had an enjoyable and mostly successful day of curling and socialising.
The various Clubs scores were:
East Linton 1 8 - 3 Verses Kippen
East Linton 2 5 - 7 v Broomhall
Yester 6 - 4 v Broomhall 2
Markle 9 - 5 v Forfar Young Curlers
Athelstaneford 1 7 - 7 v Clunie
Athelstaneford 2 7 - 6 v Forfar 2
Aberlady 8 - 5 v Bridge of Allan
Haddington 20 - 3 v Oban
That is a total of six wins and one peel and one loss. The South were overall winners with a margin of 69 shots up. East Lothian Province Teams provided almost 50% of that winning margin, with a cumulative score of 34.
We welcomed Ella, Fraser and Nick to our friendly (well I thought we were friendly!) challenge game.
The game ended up as 3 v 3 players with the New Stones taking it in turn to rotate positions, in the meantime non-playing graeme helped (well, I think I did) with advice and explanations to the players and with sweeping. With one brand new player in one of his first ever games, the New Stones acquitted themselves well with good length (maybe once sweeping had been applied). Although the score card shows a Haddington win, the newcomers took two ends. However the score was not the point of the game and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
At post match drinks and food, all three agreed to join Haddington's reserves and have been added to our WhatsApp groups.
Last night saw the second Father / Son duel as Morgan and Sandy went head to head for the second time. It was a tight game with Team Nicoll Senior once again taking the win, with the same scoreline of 6 - 5. Despite the loss Team Nicoll Junior took the bragging rights of taking five ends to Dad's three.
The league is slightly out of balance Sandy v Andy McD, still to play their first game. Regardless of this Morgan's squad are still firing at 100% and have yet to concede a single point. After the first round, he will have a lead of two points, assuming Team Andy McD beat Sandy, or 4 points from the entire field, if Sandy's squad take the win.
Congratulations to our High Road Winners Morgan Nicoll and Shelagh Main and comiserations to our Low Road winners, Keith Anderson and Roy Black.
In an exciting final of the Pairs competition, an extra end was needed in which Morgan & Shelagh triumphed over Richard & Jeff 6 - 4. Congratulations to them and to Keith & Roy who beat Sandy & Heather in the Plate. Well done to all 6 teams (including Andy A & John H and Euan & Margaret H) who enjoyed wins and losses in the first rounds and the finalist were determined by ends won and lost and then by shots won and lost! A closely fought competition and great fun too. A final thank you to Graeme for supplying the team sheets and the rules without which the hungover Vice President would not have managed.
Richard Taylor
