Torphins

Torphins Curling Club (Est 1871)

At that time, each year, the tennis courts at Torphins would be flooded in the fond hope of a hard frost making a suitable curling pond; when that happened the Roaring Game would be indulged in by the locals, and played at night by the light of acetylene flares set on high stands. Now there are is a dedicated Curling Rink, with Tennis now played on an all year, all weather court.

The president and vice-president of the curling club at that time were Colonel Innes of Learney and Captain Gordon of Craigmyle respectively, the major landowners of the village. Another name appearing in the Minute Book was that of J. Skinner, the butcher

The secretary and later on a Skip of the Curling Club was James McLaggan, agent with the North of Scotland Bank, Ltd. His son, Murray, was killed in World War 1and had been awarded a Military Cross.

Curling is a very old traditional Scottish pastime. It isn't known exactly when scots began playing, but in the Smith Institute in Stirling is a rock with the year 1511 engraved on it. The first reports about a Curling match were between two monks coming from Paisley Abbey, near Glasgow in February 1541.

If you are not farmiliar with the game, it is played on an ice rink (historically a frozen pond or river). Large flat circular "stones" are slid by players towards a target circle some 30 - 50 yards away accross the ice.

The object is to get the stone as close to the centre of the circles as possible. The centre of the circles is known as the "tee." A team scores a point for each stone that is closer to the centre circle than the opponent's best stone, provided that the stone is within 6 feet (1.83 metres) of the tee. This circular area is known as the "house." It is the scoring zone in curling.

One game consists of 10 "ends." During each end, each team delivers eight stones - two stones per person. The team members deliver the stones in a set order presented to the officials before the game. The first player is known as the "lead." He is followed by the "second," then the "third" (also known as the "vice-skip") and finally the "skip," who is the leader of the team.

Each end starts with the leads alternating throws until they have each thrown their two stones.

They are followed by the seconds in the same manner, and so on.

The score for the end is determined when all 16 stones have been delivered. The team that scores in an end shoots first in the next end.

The team with the most points at the conclusion of 10 ends is the winner.