Like most curling fans, I browse the internet regularly for out-of-the-way stories about the sport’s people and events.
(Of course, Google Alerts can’t distinguish between curling as in sport and curling as in using a hot iron stick to beautify your hair, but whatever…)
Sometimes a gem will pop up, like this recent article from The Southern Reporter in Selkirk about the changing of the guard at several curling clubs in the Borders region of Scotland:
AT THE AGM, Earlston Curling Club promoted straight-talking David Mitchell to president, following in Wendy Henderson's dainty footsteps.
“Dainty footsteps”? Really? But I love it! (Inappropriate and possibly sexist as it may be). Is this a comment on Wendy’s leadership style? And what about David? “Straight-talking”? Does that mean he has a gift for telling it like it is – not always as “daintily” as he might? Anyone who has served on a curling club executive knows what I’m talking about. The behind-the-scenes story emerging here is fascinating.
And there’s more:
Due to various clinical and orthopaedic bothers amongst the higher echelons of the membership, this past season was not the greatest in the club’s history.They suffered a dismal Border League campaign with one or two hard-luck moments and little good fortune in the Berwickshire competitions.
You have to love it: orthopaedic bothers. Sore knees? Bad back? Wrist? Elbow? What, what? I’m dying to know. Did someone crash to the ice during the all-important last throw to the four-foot? Did a sweeper have to bail? Were drugs of the over-the-counter painkiller variety involved?
We have great curling reporters in Canada, in print (The Curling News comes to mind…) and on TV (TSN’s Vic, Linda and the recently-retired Ray, for example). But this kind of writing is to curling what Danny Gallivan was to hockey broadcasting. I’d love to see more of it.
In the meantime, I’ll be trolling the internet for more Scottish curling reports…
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