Club Trophies

League – Yuill Trophy

The league trophy was presented in 1985 by Walter Yuill (on behalf of his son Gavin) in memory of his late wife Sheona Yuill who was a keen curler.  It was stipulated that the Trophy be presented to the lead player of the winning rink.

The first lead to be presented with the trophy was John Rankin.  Other members of the rink were Jim Cullen, Walter Scott (senior) and skip, Alan Lyall.

The Cowdenknowes Cup

In 1891 the Club President, Colonel Hope of Cowdenknowes announced that “he intended giving a silver challenge cup to be competed for annually among the members by rinks”.  To this day, it remains the most important trophy in the Club.

The Original rules stated the competition was to take place at a date as fixed by the committee, the games to consist of 15 ends and the final 21 ends (phew!).  In the early days of the competition, the weather was the deciding factor as to whether the Cup would be competed for. In 1910, the members debated whether the artificial pond could be used as the Black Hill pond was covered with heavy snow. The committee agreed that the artificial pond could be used at the first suitable frost. No winners are recorded for that year suggesting a suitable frost did not materialise.

Pairs – W C Spence Trophy

The Pairs competition is played out on a Saturday in October.  This trophy was first presented in 1974 in memory of Gary Spence. The winning pair that year was Scott McQuillin and Scott Cannon.

Birlin Broom – Border Chainsaw and Lawnmower Services Trophy

Originally called the New Broom, this competition was established to allow members to experience the game playing in a different rink position.  It has now settled into a rotation format played over seven ends with each player progressively moving through the team positions playing two ends in each.  To make life less harrowing for the normal lead, they only need to play one end as skip.  It’s a fun but keenly contested competition.

Points – The Millennium Points Plate

Donated by the club historian John Burns to celebrate the year 2000, this trophy is competed for individually where each curler attempts different skill shots to score points.  Exotic concepts such as drawing, raising, inwicking and outwicking are just some of the disciplines involved and success in this competition leads to representation (if desired) in the club points challenge.

Club Bonspiel

Ideally, eight rinks take to the ice on a Saturday evening in February to compete for the annual club bonspiel trophy. The competition provides an opportunity to invite non-playing friends who would like to try the game together with a mix of young and more mature members of the club, making for a very sociable and enjoyable night.

Donnie’s Dram

Why play Pairs when you can play a twisted format like this?  Started in 2006, The Earlston Curler described it best….” The idea is to keep the hammer or maybe not, or maybe go first or not or maybe second or not and score a one or maybe none or maybe a two which counted for nought and then concede the hammer or not but if you won the toss, and were not at a loss and they were not at a loss and were giving a toss: they won.”  It’ll hurt your head a bit but everyone says they have thoroughly enjoyed it when the game is ended.