I’m probably not the only one who is excited about the European Mixed Curling Championships coming to Edinburgh in September this year – it’s great to see my home rink hosting a major tournament.

Well, it’s time to start planning because the official list of competing teams and the playing schedule have been released.

25 nations will be taking part – that’s around two-thirds of all the federations in Europe.

They have been split into three groups:

Group A (Red): Belarus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Scotland

Group B (Blue): England, Estonia, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Wales

Group C (Yellow): Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey

As you can see, all four ‘home’ nations will be taking part and we are guaranteed some local rivalry with England and Wales in the same group.

Here’s the list on the event website where a full rundown of team players will appear nearer the time.

The playing schedule can be found here. Ireland and Scotland feature in the first session against Austria and Germany respectively on 14 September while England and Wales play Russia and Norway the next day. The Wales v. England clash is on the last day of group play.

14-21 September 2013 at Murrayfield Curling, Edinburgh. Get it in your diaries!

If you want to get involved at the event as a volunteer, contact Margaret Nicol.

Some RCCC news now.

The Royal Highland Show gets underway on Thursday and the Royal Caledonian Curling Club will be opening the doors to its head office for visitors to come and have a look. Full details are here.

I went along to the RCCC’s AGM in Perth on Saturday where Alan Durno was confirmed as President for the coming season. There was an interesting display of curling artefacts on show as well as a free commemorative pin badge for all attendees to celebrate 175 years of the RCCC.

One of the most interesting pieces of news is that Scotland has formally made a bid to host a World Curling Championship. If memory serves, this is for the men’s competition in 2016. Edinburgh and Glasgow were the two places in contention and the decision has been taken to put Edinburgh forward to host the event.

It was great to see Scotland’s international champions being honoured at the meeting and it reminded me that I must do my 2012-13 season review before the new season comes around. All in good time…

I came across this next piece of news in the Arbroath Herald. It seems that a local curler has made good down under and become Australian national champion. Read all about it here.

It appears that the Canadians are taking a scientific approach when it comes to their pursuit of gold medals in Sochi next year at the Winter Olympics. See what they have been up to here.

And finally, our sport is set to receive some TV coverage over the summer. Today (Tuesday), Sally Magnusson and the Songs of Praise team were at The Peak in Stirling to film a feature for an episode due to be broadcast in August. Find out more here.

Are you a male curler over the age of 55 in the Stirling area? If so, then you might like to consider joining Old Fellows Curling Club.

Club Secretary Eric Begbie got in touch to let me know what the club is all about:

Old Fellows Curling Club is the largest and fastest-growing curling club at The Peak, Stirling. It provides specifically for men over the age of 55 who wish to play curling in a social atmosphere during the day. At present we curl on Thursdays at 12:30 but, for next season, hope to extend this to provide optional additional curling on Mondays at the same time. Most of our members meet for soup and sandwiches before games.

Our main competitions are an autumn league and a spring league with, currently, 10 teams in each. We also have several bonspiels, a pairs league, a points competition and a number of friendly games with a variety of ladies’ clubs.

Our annual subscription is £15 plus an RCCC fee of £19 for those members who do not already have a Mother Club. As a Chartered Club, we currently pay ice fees of only £6.50 per game.

If you would be interested in curling with us next season, all I need from you at this stage are name, postal address, e-mail address, home phone number and a note of your RCCC Mother Club (if you have one). I would then add you to our circulation list so that you received all communications in preparation for the coming season. Contact me through our club website – www.oldfellows.org.uk

Do take a look at their website – it features some nice pictures and all the club information.

In the latest edition of Your Curler, I read with interest that there are plans to introduce a new Under 21 Slam for the 2013-14 season. This is designed to improve the current pathway structure for junior curlers with the already established U14 and U17 Slams proving popular RCCC events.

£1,000 prize money will be on offer for winning male and female teams – further details are expected soon.

Finally, competition entry forms for next season’s RCCC events are now available through the RCCC Members’ Database – the closing date for most events is Sunday 30 June so you don’t have long to get teams together if you fancy a crack at the big events in Scotland. Find out more here.

That’s all for now. I hope you have been enjoying the fine weather of late even if it means that curling is a long way off…

First of all, the RCCC has announced who has made it onto their Talent Programme for the 2013-14 season. You can find out who the 63 lucky young curlers are here. Will we be seeing some of these names winning medals for Scotland in years to come?

Staying with the RCCC, the winners of the 2013 Scottish Curling Awards have been revealed. Here are the results in full:

Young Curler of the Year – Hannah Fleming
Grassroots Coach of the Year – Andrew Barr
Ice Diamond Award – Norman Cathcart
Team of the Year – Team Scotland (Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton, Lauren Gray, David Hay)

Congratulations to all the winners – you can read more about their achievements here.

Some sad RCCC news to report next and that is the passing of former President Donald L. Whyte. You can read his full obituary here on the RCCC website – Donald was President for the 2002-3 season and the Strathcona Cup captain in 2003.

The final piece of RCCC news for this roundup is that their website now features two new sections – Past Champions and Archive Scores. Details and links to these useful resources are here.

The WCF has had cause to celebrate recently after its Olympic Celebration Tour received a donation of $50,000 from a US charitable foundation. Find out more about the tour and this cash boost here.

We are rapidly approaching just 250 days until the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and today, Thursday, the organising committee has unveiled the medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games – take a look here.

Finally, you may recall that Anette Norberg, arguably the greatest female curler of all time announced her retirement from international competition in April – see my post about her here.

Well, it seems she has been enjoying her retirement as a competitor on Sweden’s answer to Strictly Come Dancing. Together with figure skater Tobias Karlsson, they were eliminated third from the show Let’s Dance – you can watch them perform a tango here.

Suggestions for Scottish curlers and dances they could perform on Strictly to the usual address please – theviewfromthehack@gmail.com

Equally, any curling-dancing puns can be tweeted @tvfth.

Who says off-season has to be boring?

Well here’s something I never thought I would be writing about…

Curling on a cruise ship.

The gentleman pictured above is Tom Hemenway from Phoenix, Arizona, USA and not long ago he got in touch with me about a very special event called Waterspiel 2014.

Cracking hat too, Tom.

It all sounds like a great way to spend those off-ice months relaxing on a cruise holiday while still being able to play our sport.

Here’s what Tom had to say:

Have you ever thought of curling on a cruise ship? I have, so I tried it! In fact, it went so well we are doing it again.

We would love to invite curlers from everywhere to join us. That includes curlers (and non-curlers) across Europe! Even better, two weeks after our cruise in The Bahamas, the same ship will be in Southampton, UK. I would love nothing more than to leave everything on the ship and host another Waterspiel over there!

It should be stressed that this is a fun bonspiel. It is designed to enjoy a little off-season curling while on a fabulous vacation. The sheets are only 10 feet wide by 50 feet long and we are playing doubles with only six rocks per team. (There can be more than two players per team, but only two may play per end.) Eight-end games will only take about an hour so everyone can enjoy the ship as well.

Two weeks after this cruise returns, the same ship will arrive in Southampton, England. We have had a few people request that we host a Waterspiel in Europe. We would like to invite everyone to join us in the Caribbean. Anyone interested in curling on a ship in late May, 2014, please email us. We already have permission from the ship to host one in Europe. We can also leave all of the equipment on board during the ship’s voyage to England, but we need at least 48 cruise passengers in order to make it work.

Here’s a copy of the official flyer:

If you want more information including pictures and videos then I recommend you visit the official Waterspiel website, their Facebook page and their Twitter account.

It would be great if this event could take place over here in Europe so if you are looking for holiday ideas for the near future then why not give the Waterspiel a try – if you do, then I would love to see pictures of the games and a report of your experiences curling on the ocean.

I assume calm seas are a must…

Photos are © Tom Hemenway / Waterspiel 2014

By the way, did you see this interview with Eve Muirhead in Tuesday’s Daily Record?

The Curling History Blog is continuing its theme of World Juniors nostalgia with a post about the 1981 tournament. Have a read and enjoy some old footage here.

Robin Copland has a new post on his blog about big events being held in Scotland in the near future – you can find his latest thoughts here.

Fans of Norway’s Team Ulsrud should check out their Far From Home video here. I especially liked the Led Zeppelin-soundtracked intro.

For those of you unfamiliar with Buzzfeed, it is a website that collects viral content that is currently being viewed online across the world. Curling doesn’t feature too often but I had to share picture number 29 on this post with you.

One of the questions about our sport that frequently crops up is Why do curling stones curl? Well, it would seem that some researchers in Sweden have a new theory – have a read here.

The WCF have announced that the 2013 European C Group Curling Championships will be held in Tårnby, Denmark in October. Full details are here.

Continuing with news from the WCF, our sport’s governing body has announced a new Green facilities initiative which is designed to help curling nations reduce their carbon footprint – find out more about the scheme here.

The latest WCF Newsletter (May) is now available to read here.

Finally, a reminder of a date for your diaries. The 175th RCCC AGM will take place on Saturday 15 June at 1400 in Perth. Members are encouraged to attend this significant AGM as commemorative pins will be available as well as a drinks reception and a display of curling artefacts. Full details are here.

I will run down each list in full – as we get ever closer to Sochi 2014, I am sure these selections will cause debate and intrigue. Why not take a look at what people are saying about these squads on the Scottish Curling Forum?

2013-14 British & Scottish Performance Programmes

MEN

Podium
Scott Andrews, Tom Brewster, Greg Drummond, Michael Goodfellow, David Murdoch

Performance
Logan Gray, Grant Hardie, Hamilton McMillan Jnr, Jay McWilliam, Billy Morton, Glen Muirhead, Thomas Muirhead, Ross Paterson, Cameron Smith, Kyle Smith, Kyle Waddell, Richard Woods

LADIES

Podium
Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton, Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Jennifer Dodds, Alice Spence

Performance
Mhairi Baird, Jennifer Martin, Sarah Reid, Hazel Smith, Lorna Vevers, Vicki Wright, Rebecca Kesley, Rachel Hannen

WHEELCHAIR

Ian Donaldson, Gregor Ewan, Jim Gault, Gill Keith, Tom Killin, Angie Malone, Robert McPherson, Aileen Neilson

These selections are valid from 1 May 2013 to 31 July 2014. The RCCC have the list here along with links to information about the programmes.

2013-14 Royal Club Academy Programme

WOMEN (Gold)
Gina Aitken, Naomi Brown, Rowena Kerr, Katy Richardson

WOMEN (Silver)
Hailey Duff, Ellie Fraser, Sophie Jackson, Jodie Milroy, Heather Morton, Katie Murray, Laura Ritchie, Maggie Wilson, Alison Wood, Lesley Young

MEN (Gold)
Angus Dowell, Duncan Menzies, Bruce Mouat, Derek Sloan

MEN (Silver)
Robin Brydone, Gregor Cannon, James Carswell, Ross Fraser, Calum Greenwood, Thomas Halder, Alasdair Schreiber, Stuart Taylor

The RCCC page announcing these selections is here.

2013 Winter University Games Team Nominations

Women – Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Jennifer Dodds, Abi Brown, Alice Spence

Men – Kyle Smith, Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Waddell, Cameron Smith, Grant Hardie

More details about the Unviersity Games and the team chosen are here.

In the near future I plan to have a month-by-month review of the 2012-13 season online for you to enjoy as well as a look ahead to next season.

For now, here’s what has been going on in the last week or so.

Robin Copland has a new post on his curling comment blog about young curlers balancing our sport with studying. Have a read here.

The organising committee for the 2014 World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Curling Championships are hosting a volunteer open day at Dumfries Ice Bowl this Saturday. If you want to get involved with these two big events that are coming to Scotland next year then this is your chance. Full details are here.

It may be five years until Pyeongchang, South Korea hosts the 2018 Winter Olympics but they have just released the official event logo – it features a minimalist design incorporating the Olympic colours and you can take a look here.

Finally, the Curling History Blog has a new post about the origins of the World Junior Curling Championships. Take a look at this informative article here.

Curling history enthusiasts will enjoy David B. Smith’s article on Southport’s Glaciarium here on the Curling History Blog.

Robin Copland has posted some final thoughts on the season here on his Behind the Glass blog.

If you are feeling flush with cash then I will point you in the direction of this magnificent trophy that has appeared on eBay recently.

Alex Salmond met Scotland’s medal-winning curlers from 2012-13 last week – read what the First Minister had to say about our sport here.

The shortlist for the 2013 Scottish Curling Awards has been announced. Find out who you can vote for here.

Those of you who follow Canadian curling will probably have heard that John Morris is leaving Team Kevin Martin after seven years, a world title and Olympic gold. Read the full story here.

The World Curling Federation has announced who is to sit on its two new commissions. Scotland’s Michael McCreadie is on the Athlete Commission while England’s John Brown and Scotland’s Hew Chalmers feature on the Competitions and Rules Commission. Find out more here.

The RCCC has announced details of its adult curling camp for 2013. Taking place in Stranraer, you can find out all you need to know here.

The Scottish Curling Tour has confirmed that all eight events from this season will take place again in 2013-14 – check out their calendar page here.

Finally, some dates for your diaries.

RCCC Ladies Branch AGM – Tuesday 7 May, 1400, Murrayfield Curling
175th RCCC AGM – Saturday 15 June, 1400, Dewars Centre, Perth
Royal Highland Show* – Thursday 20 June to Sunday 23 June, Ingliston Showground

*The RCCC will open its doors at the show from the Thursday until the Saturday so if you want to see inside the governing body’s head office, this is a great opportunity.

The weekend saw the conclusion of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and the World Senior Curling Championships in Fredericton, Canada.

None of the ‘home’ nations made it to the podium at the end of the week.

Here’s a rundown of what happened.

In the Mixed Doubles gold medal game, Hungary won their first ever world curling title as they defeated Sweden 8-7 in an extra end.

The bronze game was won by the Czechs, 8-1 against Norway.

Hungary – World Mixed Doubles Curling Champions 2013: Zsolt Kiss and Dorottya Palancsa

There were 27 teams competing in the Mixed Doubles – here’s how the ‘home’ nations fared:

7th – Scotland (W6 L3)
25th – England (W0 L8)

In the Seniors, it was a Canadian double on home ice as the men beat New Zealand 6-4 in the gold medal game and their counterparts in the women’s event saw off Austria in style, 13-1. This was Canada’s sixth Senior Women’s gold in a row.

For the trivia fans, Tom Brewster’s mother-in-law, Carolyn Morris, was Team Canada’s third.

The men’s bronze was won by Switzerland, 7-2 against Sweden and the women’s bronze was taken by Sweden, 9-8 against Christine Cannon’s Scotland after an extra end – we were so close to seeing a Scottish medal in Fredericton.

Canada – World Senior Men’s and Women’s Curling Champions 2013: Team Robert Armitage and Team Cathy King

There were 20 teams competing in the Senior Men’s – here’s how the ‘home’ nations got on:

5th – Scotland (W6 L3)
9th – Ireland (W5 L4)
14th – England (W3 L6)

And in the Senior Women’s where 14 teams were playing:

4th – Scotland (W6 L2)
11th – Ireland (W1 L5)

Overall, a good if medal-free week for the teams especially for young Bruce Mouat and Gina Aitken – what an experience and I hope we see them again in the future.

The Curling Champions Tour came to an end this weekend in St. Gallen, Switzerland with the European Masters.

The event was won by Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson. Scotland’s Team Brewster finished fourth out of eight with three wins and two losses.

Team Muirhead saw their season out at the Players’ Championship in Toronto, Canada and they couldn’t have finished an already excellent season in more style.

Eve and her World Champions Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton beat Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson 8-5 in Sunday’s final, four weeks on from defeating the same Swedish team in the World gold medal game.

This result makes Eve’s team the first world champions to win the Players’ Championship and the first European team ever to win a Grand Slam event – they have had quite the season.

Not a bad way for Eve to celebrate her 23rd birthday on Monday either.

One final piece of event coverage that I have been meaning to get up for a while is from a competition that took place earlier this month – the Scottish Student Sport Universities Open.

I was kindly sent a report and pictures by Eoin McCrossan, Secretary of Edinburgh University Curling Club:

The traditional season-ending event for all the university clubs took place on the weekend of 5-7 April at North West Castle Hotel in Stranraer. 12 teams took part from six universities – Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Strathclyde and Robert Gordon.

The competition took the form of a Schenkel with two groups of six and when all was said and done the teams were split into a high road and low road.

In the high road, Heriot-Watt overcame Strathclyde 2 and Edinburgh 2 to reach the high road final. There they would meet Strathclyde 1 who beat Strathclyde 4 in their semi-final. The final was conceded by Heriot-Watt’s Colin Howden after five ends when Strathclyde’s Grant Hardie took an unassailable 8-3 lead.

In the low road, Edinburgh 3 beat their club mates Edinburgh 4 to set up a meeting with Glasgow who mounted a superb comeback to beat Aberdeen in their semi-final. This final was a much tighter affair and came down to the last stone with Edinburgh 3 eventually prevailing 6-5, having come from 4-1 down after four ends.

A big thanks to everyone at Stranraer and SSS for making the weekend such a success.

Scottish Student Sport Universities Open Champions 2013 – Strathclyde 1 (L-R): Mark Munro, Andrew Ballantyne, Billy Morton, Grant Hardie

Scottish Student Sport Universities Open Low Road Champions 2013 – Edinburgh 3 (L-R): Jayne Stirling, Eoin McCrossan, Rory Williams, Emma Wheeldon

So that’s it.

Curling is over for 2012-13 and I plan to write a review of the season in the weeks to come.

It has been an absolute pleasure to spend my time photographing and writing about our sport for the past eight months or so and I intend to carry it on for next season with lessons learned and a tremendous amount of excitement as the Winter Olympics get ever closer.

Like I said, I will officially round off TVFTH for the season with a look back on the high and lows, things you can expect to see from me next season and, hopefully, ways to keep those curling cravings at bay over the summer.

Until then, goodnight and good (summer) curling

Photos are © Richard Gray / WCF, Scott Gibson and Hilary Nigrosh 2013

As we enter the finals weekend of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and the World Senior Curling Championships, here’s how things are looking.

Bruce Mouat and Gina Aitken (above) have had a great week in Canada and finished their round-robin campaign in joint first place on a W6 L2 record.

This gave them a quarter-final place against Sweden who they had already beaten 8-5 earlier in the week.

Unfortunately, it was revenge for the Swedes who came away with a 6-4 victory ending Team Scotland’s run in Fredericton.

Meanwhile Team England, Anna Fowler and Ben Fowler, couldn’t find that elusive victory on the last day of group play and finished their tournament on a W0 L8 record.

This means that the World Mixed Doubles title will be fought for in the semi-finals by Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Czech Republic on Saturday.

At the World Seniors, ‘home’ interest will continue into the last days of competition.

In the men’s competition, England finished their round-robin on W3 L6, Ireland on W5 L4 and Scotland on W6 L3.

The Scots came closest to a semi-final berth but just missed out – Saturday’s knockout stage will feature New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada and Sweden.

In the women’s draw, Ireland finished on W1 L5 while Scotland had a clean sweep and finished on W6 L0 to make the semi-finals.

They join Sweden, Canada and the winner of the Austria v. Japan tiebreaker.

Best of luck to Christine Cannon and her team.

The Mixed Doubles site is here and the Seniors site is here.

Things are going well for Team Brewster at the European Masters in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

They have played four games so far and won three – against Marcus Hasselborg, Rasmus Stjerne and Peter de Cruz. Their defeat came against Sven Michel.

Scotland’s representatives in Switzerland currently occupy second place out of eight.

Follow their progress here and enjoy some streamed games on Laola1.tv here.

Team Muirhead are at the Players’ Championship in Toronto, Canada.

They have currently notched up two wins against Shannon Kleibrink and Anna Sidorova and taken two defeats to Michele Jaeggi and Stefanie Lawton which has given them a quarter-final spot.

See how they get on here.

Photo is © Richard Gray / WCF 2013