It was the usual combination of fun and frustration as we wrestled with the variety of curling exercises that comprise the annual Points Competition.

This year’s overall winner was James Mackintosh whose inspired performance gained him 20 points, well ahead the pack. James will therefore be responsible for safeguarding the gargantuan Loving Cup trophy for the coming year.

Fiona Auld was the worthy winner of the handicap competition and takes home the Kettle trophy. Her already noteworthy gross score of 15 points became 22 points after the handicap allowance.

As last year, there were 12 participants. which meant there was not too much hanging around and getting cold.

Rather than run through the RCCC Points Competition Rules and Diagrams from the beginning, we rang the changes so that there was a variety of exercises of varying difficulty. As usual Exercise 1, “Striking”, was the easiest by a country mile as we managed to score a total of 50 point between us. On the other hand, Exercise 6, “Wick and Curl In ” was definitely the exercise that failed to highlight our curling skills with a lamentable cumulative score of just 9 points.

We managed to complete six exercises in our two hours on the ice, exactly the same as last year. This was perhaps surprising given that our session coincided with the Olympic curling semi-final with Great Britain playing Switzerland and being shown on the TV upstairs. It was a tense game and a number of our players were rushing upstairs between goes to keep up with the action.

By the time we finished, Bruce and the boys had won the match so we could repair upstairs for a relaxed drink and the presentation of the silverware by El Presidente, Dougie. The trophies are now at the engravers for the winners names to be recorded for posterity. They will be returned to the winners at our AGM at the end of the season.