In Memory of Duncan

When Duncan Stewart (pictured left) died in January of this year he left a void in English curling which will prove hard to fill. In order to keep his memory alive the ECA in discussion with his widow, Mary, proposed that a new trophy be played for and thus was born the idea of the Duncan Stewart Memorial Trophy.

The first running of the event took place at Kelso last weekend and in the spirit of the friendship of curling which Duncan always propounded, the teams were drawn out of a hat. While the aim of 8 teams proved just too ambitious, enough players were found to enable 6 teams to participate.

While 15 of the players were able to play all 4 sessions, the other 9 positions were filled by a variety of members from the local (English) Glendale Club including some who were also playing for their Scottish clubs in the Double Rink Championship in the in-between sessions!

The draw was predetermined and so there was no juggling of position in a Schenkel like system, but even so the whole competition came down to the last session when it just so happened that the top two teams were drawn to play against each other, and the destiny of the whole competition came down to who won the last end!

But that is jumping ahead of ourselves. Games in the first draw were all close, none more so than the one in which Glynnice Lauder beat Michael Sutherland by 4-3. In the other games there were wins for John Brown and John Sharp. After a meal at the Rink, the second session saw a further win for John Brown but the other two first round winners both lost, notably John Sharp who lost 2-12 to Phil Barton, a result which would become very significant the following day.

Play on the Sunday began at 0930 and John Brown won his third straight game, but only after coming from 1-6 down to beat James Dixon. Meanwhile John Sharp recovered to take his second win, against Glynnice Lauder, playing two shots in particular which turned potential big end losses into shots for himself, especially the one that managed to get one of his stones beating 5 opposition stones all in the 4 foot!

And now with just one game left John Brown led on 3 wins from John Sharp on 2 wins and everybody else on 1 win. He also had 2 more ends and 8 more ends than John Sharp and so it must have seemed all over bar the shouting. But no, after 6 ends it was 13-4 to John Sharp and he had won 4 ends to 2 and so whoever won the last end would win the trophy. Quite a finish and it seemed strange to be trying to get one shot to lose by 5-13 and thus win the competition!

The head was kept pretty clear and when John B put his first draw just around a guard and John S was just a little heavy the game was over, and the first Duncan Stewart Memorial Trophy went to John Brown (London), Harvey Curle (Glendale), Doug Andrews (SECC) and Caroline Cumming (Glendale). Also in the team was John Robertson who played the first two games in place of Caroline and Megan Runciman played one game instead of Harvey.

In a moving presentation, Mary Stewart presented bottles of wine to all 24 players and then the new trophy and mementoes to the winning team. Next year the Trophy will almost certainly be played at Fenton’s in Kent so that those in the South can have their chance to win the ECA’s newest trophy.