News from the Rink - April 2006

The Winter Olympics prompted many newcomers to try their hand at curling in the past few weeks. In addition, the rink held two major tournaments.

Firstly, the first English Schools Championship took place from 21st to 23rd March. Ten teams from local schools took part, including Bennett Memorial, Hayesbrook, Judd School, Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls, Angley School and Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys. In an exciting final, Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys beat Bennett Memorial by 5 shots to 2 to take the championship. The English Curling Association hopes to encourage the participants of this tournament to go forward and join the squad to represent England in the next Junior European Championships.

For experienced curlers, the Ramada English Masters tournament was held on 24th to 26th March. This is the first "cash bonspiel" to be held in England and we are indebted to Ramada Jarvis, Tunbridge Wells for donating the first prize of £1,000. We would also like to thank the supporting sponsors, The Complete Lunch (our regular caterers), AXA/PPP Healthcare and M&G for donating the second prize of £600. Fenton's Rink provided the 3rd prize of £200.

After a fiercely contested round robin stage, the two finalists were Michael Sutherland's team form the north of England and Michael Opel's Cambridge University side , current English national champions.

The Cambridge boys repeated their earlier success by coming out 5-2 winners. The third spot was taken by Alan MacDougal's team who beat Cathryn Guthrie's side 6-4.

The rink is now closing for the season and will re-open in mid-October.

A provisional date has been set for the next Anniversary Bonspiel - 10th to 12th November 2006. Make a note of it now!

Many thanks for your support over the season and have a wonderful summer.

February 2006 - English Curling Championship 8 - 12 February 2006 winners

Ladies - Joan Reed (skip), Lorna Rettig, Claire Grimwood and Kirsty Balfour.

Men - Michael Opel (skip), Jamie Molton, Andrew Woolston, Kenneth Molton and Tom Sutherland (reserve).

The winners go on to represent England in the year's European Championships in Basle.

January 2006 - News from the Rink

We took a break from Christmas Eve through to January 3rd so the level of activity was lower in the past few weeks. A number of local organisations used the rink for a staff outing in the run-up to Christmas and we were pleased to welcome three of the local National Farmers Union branches for their annual parties. We have also had regular bookings from local bowls clubs who enjoy curling as a change from indoor bowls.

Some of the local schools are now doing 6-week curling courses. Bennett Memorial (Tunbridge Wells) are nearly through their sessions and Hayesbrook (Tonbridge), Angley (Cranbrook ) and St Gregory's (Tunbridge Wells) are just starting. We hope to have a tournament for the schools after the six-week sessions are all completed.

Club nights have re-started after the break and numbers are continuing at the same level as before. We still need more people on Wednesday nights to enable us to have a greater variety of games. Unfortunately, Province of London had to cancel the "Double Decker" competition to be run on January 14th and 15th for lack of support. Very few teams had entered - although there were others who had not got round to sending in their application forms. It just shows the importance of applying on time!

Fortunately, the level of ad hoc bookings continues to be at a healthy level and it is the income that this generates that enables regular curlers to continue to enjoy their curling.

On the international front, congratulations are due to both the English Men's and Ladies' teams for their performance at the European Championships in Garmisch where the ladies gained bronze medal position and the men were a creditable fourth in the B Sections. Both teams had members who regularly curl with us here in Kent.

Congratulations also to Rhona Martin and Debbie Knox for being selected to represent Great Britain at this year's Winter Olympics . Both players came to Kent in November and were highly complimentary about our rink!

9/12/05 - News from the Rink

A steady stream of newcomers has been coming along to try their hand at curling. A particular feature this year has been the growing interest of schools - both teachers and pupils. As a result we have started a regular weekly session for one school on Tuesday afternoons and a number of other schools are intending to begin similar sessions in the New Year. A schools tournament is planned for later in the season.

The number of "corporate" booking has also risen considerably this year with curling becoming popular both for entertaining clients and team building for staff - as well as Christmas parties! Fortunately, we have held two "coach the coaches" sessions and we now have 20 newly qualified curlers to help the never-ending job of introducing the game to novices. I am grateful to Stephen Hinds for running the coaching sessions.

We were delighted to welcome Rhona Martin, Debbie Knox and Janice Rankin, three of our curling Olympic Gold Medal winners, to the rink at the end of November. They were here for two days as part of a corporate curling event run by Easynet, a major sponsor of Team GB. The girls took time out on the evening of Thursday 24th November to meet some of the local curlers - including a number of our juniors and school children - who enjoyed being coached by the Olympians - and wearing their medals. The evening was captured by BBC News and shown the South East news bulletins next day.

As to club curling, the London clubs continue to hold regular competitions on Tuesday evenings and it is good to see some new faces appearing. It's still a struggle to fill the rink consistently, though. The local club night is suffering this year with few people prepared to commit to regular curling. Most nights sees only one sheet being used. The Ice Melters have changed their club meetings to every second Sunday morning (following the Saturday league) and they welcome any other curler who wants to come along. The extended session runs from 10am to 1pm.

We have a number of day-time "semi-regulars" who come about once a month, mainly local bowling clubs - plus a dedicated group of farmers from Chichester who make a fortnightly curling pilgrimage to Kent.

The next event on the calendar is the Province of London Double Decker Bonspiel on January 13th to 15th. Application forms are now available from John Brown - jmbroons@ntlworld.co.uk . He is looking for 12 teams to participate - book your place now!

15/11/05 - New season updates...

The season started in early October and the first major event was our Anniversary Bonspeil, attracting 14 teams, including curlers from Canada , USA and Iceland - plus a good helping of Scots to keep the party going! Winners were the Home Team, comprising Alan MacDougall, Gordon Lyon, Ernest Fenton and Jules Fowler - plus Jo Wilson in the earlier rounds. Many thanks to all who made the effort to participate.

ECA Area Championship will be held on 12th and 13th November, with six teams competing. Next year the London Clubs are hosting their "Double Decker" Bonspiel in January and the ECA national playdowns will take place at the rink in February for the Men's and Women's events and March for the Mixed. Details of all of these can be found on the Events page.

We are enjoying a greater number of private bookings compared to last year, but it remains difficult to get local people to participate regularly; too many other commitments and not enough time! Even the POL club night is not fully utilised and the Wednesday evening local night is still only half full. On the brighter side, local schools are about to start regular sessions and we might be able to have a school tournament later in the season.

One of the Olympic sponsors has booked the rink for two days and it's expected that Olympic Gold Medalists, Rhona Martin and Debbie Knox will pay their first visit to Fenton's Rink on 24th November in support of this event.

26/08/05 - Curling's cool! Beginners please

We're running a six week course for beginners on Thursday evenings, starting on November 3rd and running each week until December 8th. Why not join us?

Each session will start at 8pm and finish at 10.15pm. All equipment is provided. All you need is some warm clothing, like a track suit and fleece. Stones, brushes and shoes (not skates!) are all included in the package.

A fully experienced coach will be on hand every week to show you the ropes - and by the end of the 6 weeks you should be fully up to speed on how to play and enjoy the game; after that it is just a question of practice!

It's not difficult to get going - you will have fun right from the start, and get stimulating exercise at the same time. You do not have to be super fit, and it's a game played by all age groups. Remember, this is the only curling rink in the whole of England , so why not try something completely different? You might even make the winter Olympics one day!!

The course costs £78 (£13 per session), payable in advance. Space is limited, so don't delay in booking your space. Contact us now.

01/07/05 - The new season gets closer!

The 2005 -6 curling season starts on 10th October.

Preparations are underway to provide a full and varied programme of curling for curlers of all abilities at Fenton's Rink - England's only curling venue!

Following last season's highly successful Opening International Bonspiel, we are holding a First Anniversary Bonspiel this year - on 27th - 30th October 2005. We hope that many of our friends who joined us last year will come again to Kent!

New features of the forthcoming season include an evening club league competition aimed at those who took up curling last year - and are spoiling for some friendly competition. It is intended to run this on Wednesday evenings. It is also hope to get a day-time league going for the several groups of bowlers how have now tried their hand at curling. Thursday evenings will be for training/coaching and introducing newcomers to the game. The fortnightly 'Super-League' for experienced players will be run again; the exact format is still to be finalised.

Full details of the anniversary bonspiel, together with the season's diary of curling are shown on the Events page.

27/04/05 - Curling Season Ends with a Bang!

Curling has now finished at the rink for the season as from 7th April.

The final event was the first national event to be staged at Fenton's Rink - The ECA Mixed Championship sponsored by Clydesdale Bank, held on 2nd and 3rd April. The winners were former junior world champion, Alan MacDougall, current ladies and senior ladies champion, Joan Reed, Chris Robinson, winning his first ever English trophy and Claire Grimwood, also a member of the English Ladies team. Competition between the four teams was fierce, but Alan's team ran out worthy winners, dropping only one game on the way.

It was pleasing to host this event and to be able to demonstrate that the ice and other facilities are up to the standard needed to host national events.

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