{"id":174,"date":"2012-03-10T17:40:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T17:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/?page_id=174"},"modified":"2012-03-10T17:40:40","modified_gmt":"2012-03-10T17:40:40","slug":"ponds-ice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/history\/ponds-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponds & Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Pond<\/span><\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

The 1869 report in the Border Advertiser (see Ye Olde Sports Reports Tab)<\/em> refers to Mr Bayne\u2019s field at the east end of Earlston which is now on Georgefield Farm and the Border Advertiser of 15 December 1871 reports \u201cthe first game of the season\u201d on Grizzlefield pond\u201d which is located between Huntshaw and Grizzlefield. \u00a0The Minutes of the Club do not record when curling moved to the Black Hill pond (on the lane running east from Cowdenknowes Mains) but in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria\u2019s Diamond Jubilee, a Clubhouse was erected.\u00a0 The bulk of the cost of the construction was raised from a Prize Draw which raised \u00a373.19.9d. There was some haggling over the estimates and work was \u201ccurtailed to the amount of funds on hand to proceed with the building\u201d. The clubhouse was insured for \u00a3100 against destruction by fire.<\/p>\n

The Artificial Pond<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In July 1907 the Club built an artificial three rink pond \u201cto cost \u00a3100 or thereabout, with a house for the storage of stones, etc in addition\u201d. The land was granted by Lord Binning and was on the site vacated by the Bowling Club when they relocated to Station Road in 1906. Gas was piped from the Gas Works at the East green and this allowed evening curling for the first time at a charge of 3d (1p) per night for each player.<\/p>\n

The pond measured 142 feet in length and 60 feet in breadth and required only \u201ca quarter of an inch of water to afford the means of enjoying the roaring game\u201d whereas the pond at Georgefield needed \u201ca considerable degree of cold to render it fit for curling\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Georgefield Pond<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A second Artificial Pond was built in the 1930s by R H Grant. The pond was located beside the Turfford Burn at the lane leading from Grizzlefield Loanend to Georgefield and was used regularly when frosts permitted. The floods of 1947 swept away the pipes which supplied the water from the Burn and the pond was not curled on again despite the valiant efforts of the ice master Matthew Wood, a retired policeman.<\/p>\n

Indoor Curling<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Haymarket Ice Rink, Edinburgh opened in 1912 and the following year Earlston curlers started indoor curling for the first time. Many of the Border competitions were played at Haymarket with Earlston joining other rinks in the Border Bonspiel.<\/p>\n

In 1964 the Border Ice Rink opened and this has been the venue for the club to the present day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Pond The 1869 report in the Border Advertiser (see Ye Olde Sports Reports Tab) refers to Mr Bayne\u2019s field at the east end of Earlston which is now on Georgefield Farm and the Border Advertiser of 15 December 1871 reports \u201cthe first game of the season\u201d on Grizzlefield pond\u201d which is located between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":150,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/174\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/network.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org\/earlston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}