Four Nations Report

An action packed Four Nations weekend kept everyone on tenterhooks right up to the last stone of the last end of the last of the thirty games as England’s ladies tried to squeeze one shot out of Ireland to win back the Turnbull Trophy. In a situation typical of the to-ing and fro-ing of the weekend the Irish had fought back from a twelve shot deficit after two games (5-7, 3-13) and, while their men had increased the deficit by losing by three shots following a spectacular triple raise double take-out from England, their ladies were holding a 15-0 lead to tie the match with their match-winning stone well guarded. With no repeat of the final stone on the next sheet forthcoming, an amazing turnaround was complete and Ireland won by 29-28, their third win in five years by the same one shot margin!

Ireland won just one more trophy when they beat Wales, also by one shot (25-24) in a match where, by comparison, all the games were close and two of the games ended up peels, both achieved by the same Irish skip.

It was seven years since Scotland last beat Ireland but they came out fighting this year and after two games (men and women) it was 19-8 in their favour. Unlike England, Scotland managed to hold on to their lead and actually extend it by two shots to win by 30-17.

It is only in the last few years that Wales have managed to consistently beat Scotland and they were the holders of the Big Bertha Curling Stone Trophy. The first session of games showed that they meant to retain the trophy as the scores were 12-1 (women) and 12-3 (men) for the Welsh and an amazing twenty shot deficit faced the Scots as their mixed teams took to the ice. While one team clawed back a couple of shots with a 12-10 win, the other could not find the 19 shots required and in fact lost by one to make the final score 43-24 for the Welsh.

The Welsh also held the Kay Trophy having beaten England on home soil in Kent last year and with three of their teams winning by close margins it looked like they might retain it but having performed heroics against Scotland, the Welsh ladies suffered against England, losing 1-14 and enabling England to regain the Kay Trophy, their only win of the weekend.

Scotland against England is the bedrock on which the Four Nations weekend is founded and the matches between the two retain the old format with men and women playing separately for two trophies and, as Andy Tanner, the Welsh President, pointed out at the dinner on Saturday evening, it has a long history with the Tom Ballantyne Trophy (for men) having been first presented in 1933, though of course matches between the two countries date back to the nineteenth century. The trophy, which the Scots won last year, was absent this weekend but the competition was as strong as normal. Eight games were played and after four it was 30-27 to the visitors. With one score still to come in it was still England leading by five shots but that last game saw the Scots turn that around with a 12-3 victory to retain the Trophy by 55-51.

The Connie Miller Trophy (which Connie originally won for a points competition at Crossmyloof in 1955) had spent the last year in my house following England’s thrilling win last year and after the first game it was on course to stay there as a close fought game ended up 7-7. After five ends of the second game it looked even more certain that it would be coming back South as the English led 5-3 but a late rally by Scotland produced a 9-5 win and an overall score of 16-12 to leave the trophy back in Scottish hands. For a short while!

Once again the staff at Greenacres did a marvellous job producing ice which stood up to two days of almost continuous curling and also a great carvery on Saturday evening at which the speeches were short and sweet. Thanks go to the Welsh Curling Association for the hospitality which should transfer to the Irish for 2013. I say 'should' but the likelihood is that it won’t – but not for any sinister reason.

Bill Gray, the Irish President, announced at a meeting on Saturday that they were hoping that a new ice rink in Dublin would be ready for curling next season and they would love to hold the Four Nations there, but he did not think it would be ready for January 2013. He asked if the Scots would consider swapping their hosting duty of 2014 to 2013 while the Irish took responsibility for 2014, either in Dublin (preferably) or elsewhere if that venue was not ready. The RCCC reps were going back to consult and a decision would be forthcoming soon, but Pat Edington, RCCC President, was fairly sure that the Irish wishes could be accommodated. Watch this space!

Fakery! This is NOT the Tom Ballantyne trophy. RCCC President Pat Edington and ECA President Alison Arthur act out the presentation, as if the real trophy was present. Scotland won the competition though. Well done to the five men's teams.

The Meikle Trophy, between Wales and Ireland, is contested by one men's, one women's and two mixed teams. Ireland won this by a shot. Bill Gray and Andrew Tanner.

England v Ireland play for the Turnbull Trophy, two mixed, one men's, one ladies' match, won by Ireland by one shot, again!

Andrew Tanner and Alison Arthur with the Kay Trophy for competition between Wales and England (one men's, one women's and two mixed teams). England retained this trophy.

The Marshall Millenium trophy is for the Scotland v Ireland competition. Two mixed, one men's and one women's team. Scotland won this.

Alison Arthur presents Claire McLaren with the Connie Miller trophy, played for between Scotland and England by two ladies teams. A Scottish win.

Big Bertha is for competition between Scotland and Wales, one men's, one ladies' and two mixed games. Wales won this again.

Photos are courtesy of Gill Maguire. Captions are by Bob Cowan.

Reflections on the Four Nations

Phew!

In addition to all the reporting from Bob on his blog from Fenton’s here are just a few thoughts from me on what was a successful weekend.

A lot has been written and said about the actions of the RCCC with respect to their selection policy and then the decision (later overturned) to withdraw their trophies from the competition. Ultimately this had no effect on the actual running of the weekend as we still had to deal with four teams curling, eating, drinking, needing transporting to and from airports and hotels.

Obviously it had an effect on how I used my time in the run up to the weekend, at least until the Scottish team had organised themselves, as it meant that I had an additional task of trying to raise a team to fill the gap which had appeared in our schedule.

At no time were the ECA ever intent on showing up the RCCC or causing them or certain individuals to suffer some of the name calling and vitriolic comment appearing on other Fora. Yes, we were disappointed by the RCCC’s late decision not to send a team but with the other countries having already booked flights and hotels, with the ice booked for the whole weekend and with a dinner and band booked, we had to run a viable competition or lose a lot of friends and money.

As president, secretary and competitions convenor of the ECA for many years combined I have often had to struggle to raise teams for the Four Nations when it is held in Scotland because of previous commitments and the time and cost elements so I can appreciate the difficulties which the RCCC had at this busy time of year. The difference may have been what each of us then did when the usual channels were not successful. I am not ashamed to say that in years past I have used Scottish friends living locally to the venue of the event to bolster the English teams (and also to help out the Welsh and Irish teams)!

What this year has done is, and it may be only temporarily, to raise the profile of the Four Nations so that for at least next year there will be a lot more scrutiny about how the teams are selected, particularly in Scotland. What is important is to know that the Four Nations is not one competition, it is simply a convenient way of packaging seven individual trophies into a time and money saving package – but it works. I am sure that the four of us will sit down or hold conference calls to decide on the future of the weekend in the light of this year’s events.

While the happenings of the last month will continue to have a high profile in Scotland, as far as the ECA is concerned what is done is done and we can look back on a very successful weekend. We raised a lot of money for the Make-A–Wish charity from our raffle – approx £1300 I believe and the first prize of the laptop was won by Ross Barr (ENG), the £100 M and S voucher went to Richard Pougher (WAL) and the third prize of a silver necklace to Catriona Cooper of Scotland – all very equitable so far. Unfortunately for the Irish the fourth prize of a bottle of brandy went to Bob Cowan! The Irish team apparently only bought green tickets but only one was drawn out throughout the whole raffle which featured more than 20 other prizes.

The shot of the weekend was undoubtedly Lana Watson’s draw to lie three within the four foot against Scotland which pinched the Connie Miller Trophy back from Scotland, but it is also pertinent to say that in the next session she took seven at one end off an Irish team skipped by…….no that would be unfair – he knows who he is!

My apologies also for the lack of scores on any website owing to an administrative cock-up involving cooks and soup – and not the ones producing the stovies, toasties and breakfast rolls!

As to who won – well all the countries won at least something but interestingly six of the seven trophies changed hands this year and only one was retained by last year’s winners. The Irish were the most successful, winning all three of their contests but only by the smallest margin of one shot against England and Wales and relatively comfortably by seven shots v Scotland. Wales beat England and Scotland, England won one (the Connie Miller Trophy v Scotland) and Scotland won one (the Tom Ballantyne Trophy v England).

So on the whole a successful weekend but one that I am glad we do not have to repeat for four years!