Holyrood Curling Club’s 2023-24 season commenced on Monday 23rd October. Later than usual (the season normally begins at the end of September) curling at Murrayfield was delayed by the extensive work taking place to improve the facilities provided by Curl Edinburgh.
And it was well worth the wait. The new upstairs club room is clean and bright with an impressive view over the ice – and has a shiny new bar and fully-fitted kitchen. There is ample space to enjoy a post-game drink while dissecting the game and catching up on the gossip. And the ice hall below the club room has benefitted from a significant smartening up too.
Holyrood Curling Club continues to thrive. We have 18 full members and two reserves. After some discussion we decided to stick at four teams for our 2023/24 League with two teams of four players and two of five. A number of members have seen an interest in curling expressed by non-playing family or friends so it is hoped that we may attract new members by organising a Try Curling session and signing-up those who wish to take things further as reserves for this season and then perhaps expand our league to five teams for next season.
As we do every year, we have re-jigged the League teams so that members don’t end up playing with the same people as last season. Furthermore, we welcome new skip Ken Herd, promoted as a result of winning the Thirds League last season.
Playing Rules and General Housekeeping
During the closed season we held a much-needed AGM. Amongst the many things discussed, we reviewed the Club’s rules of play. We concluded that we would stick with our existing rules which are:
- A player has until the last stone is thrown on the first end to arrive with no penalty. After this three shots will be added to the other team’s score.
- No penalty shots apply to a three person team, providing best efforts were made by that team to find a substitute but were unable to do so.
- However, if a team member fails to turn up on the night without having given notice and not having tried to find a sub, then it is a three shot penalty.
Regarding substitutes, we agreed to adopt the RCCC rule that states: ….a substitute may play in any position in any round but not higher than the position of the curler being replaced.
In term of finding substitutes, reserve members should get first dibs before opening it up to the rest of the club.
Please can skips submit signed score cards to me as soon as possible after the game (either emailing a photo to holyroodcurlingclub@outlook.com, or a WhatsApp to 0775 190 5817) so we can keep the league scoresheet up to date and post the score card here on the website.
Enjoy the season.
John Waterlow
25th October 2023
Holyrood Curling Club 