david kelly

OldDavid@TCNN

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aged out

Not so much a "has been" more a "never was"

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Another season...

Only a few weeks away from another curling season. How will it unfold for me? I shan’t be playing. Again. Putting that aside, which does not get easier with time, I expect to continue fulminating about the homogenisation of “my” sport with the entertainment industry. I just want to watch curling. As such my perfect TV viewing is a Canadian provincial championship taking place at a club rather than an arena, with commentary from expert curlers with no entertainment industry profile. During the close season, my former teammate Rebecca Morrison announced she was standing down from the Scottish professional curling squad and leaving Scotland. When my late chum Willie Jamieson and I decided to play seniors curling together and needed practice together, we joined the local super league in division 4, but needed two players.  I found a couple of youngsters, and Rebecca joined our team. Fourteen years old, we knew immediately she was going to be a great player. I learned how to curl, rather than just how to throw, by sparing for men old enough to be my grandfather, and then being sought out by them as my ability improved. I humour myself that although I can no longer play, I did complete the virtuous circle. Since stepping back from the rink, I have only seen Rebecca once, at the launch of the fund to support junior curling set up in Willie’s name.  Lovely event. I am not sure how the subject came up, but a group of us including Rebecca were discussing the use of language while playing. Now Willie and I were hardly in the league of Ben Hebert, but our language was often indelicate. I turned to Rebecca and asked “Did you ever hear Willie or I swear?” Quick as a flash she replied, “No, but that’s alright, I picked it up elsewhere”.   I expect with Rebecca’s focus and concentration she will succeed whatever she does, wherever she goes. I read in this website, that Eve Muirhead will be back playing this coming season. I don’t know Eve, but I shared a room with her dad when we were at the ’97 Olympic trials, and enjoyed our M&M breakfasts. That’s a Marlborough and a Macallan for the uninitiated. This return will be to play Mixed Doubles, a discipline I have conscientiously avoided, never seen it, don’t know the rules, and feel purer for that. This may strike readers as an outbreak of Old Man Syndrome. Playing curling in the late sixties, only a few years after the last visit of the most important team ever to play in Scotland, Ernie Richardson’s, I remember overhearing middle-aged opponents murmuring under their breath that hitting every stone they put in the rings was not curling. Now it’s my turn.  O Tempora, o Mores! I am reluctant to pay to watch curling. It’s an age thing. I did pay to go and see the Canadian Curling trials in 1997, after a brief conversation with my brother, we agreed it would be the best competition of the century – so we went. Ironically, it was on the same sheet he  lost the final of the worlds to Kerry Burtnyk a couple of years earlier. Last season, TSN made one game available per session from the Canadian championships free of charge, outside of Canada. Great work. The Scottish Championships, both of which are now pay to view, no longer decides who goes to the worlds. So why bother? I expect with a bit of YouTube searching, and keeping an eye on our chums at CurlingZone I can continue to watch good curling, free of charge. Enjoy this season everyone!                  1w

The Curling News

2026 stuff

Another season almost over. I miss playing. No amount of watching makes up for not playing. I didn’t watch the Olympics as is my habit. The Olympics is part of the entertainment industry, and I am, you know, a curler. I was rather bemused reading about the stushie between Canada and Sweden at the Olympics.  In the 1980 WJC, our Andrew McQuiston touched the handle of his stone after he released it. He called it himself although no one else saw it. His sweepers took the stone off, as the rule about allowing the opposing skip to see the result and decide if a burned stone should be removed was not in place. That’s good curling as I understand it. Mark Kennedy’s, let’s call it whining, that it is not a rule in Canada, did make me smile. Read the rules before the competition starts, maybe? Can there be any doubt that the Edin Team is the GOAT? Last Swedish champion I shared am ice pad with was Bob Woods, not yesterday. Same day I played Don Duguid. A star-struck teenager didn’t know where to look. Disappointed that Ross Whyte lost his draw weight in the last half of the semi-final with Matt Dunstone. I first saw him play when I umpired the Scottish school’s championship. He wasn’t in his last year of school, his team was never going to win, but he was the one player who looked like he meant to own all of this. He will be back.      4mo

The Curling News

Brier 2026

The 2026 Brier was a delight. Great curling, great commentary. Big shout out for TSN who made it available to the world outside Canada free of charge. It wouldn’t be a post from me without a complaint about something, so might as well get on with that. All television coverage of curling concentrates too much, IMNVHO, on the face of the person who has just thrown, and a very small patch of ice just in front of the thrown stone. This is unhelpful. Kevin Koe’s huge range of emotions, from not very happy all the way to not very happy, hardly needs a close-up lasting half the transit time of the thrown stone to communicate with the audience. Yes, I am keen to know the path of the thrown stone, and focusing on a small patch of ice immediately in front of the stone does not do that. I want to see the path of the stone against the whole planned trajectory of the stone, as If I was standing behind the thrower or the skip. Surely, we have enough camera technology to allow that. I always start watching Canadian championships without supporting a specific team, it is a huge advantage, that way I never “lose” and enjoy every shot. But after watching Kevin “circus” Koe nail a skinny triple without batting an eyelid, it was hard to stay dispassionate and impartial. And he lifts the stone! I guess Matt Dunstone’s team was the best. I am looking forwards to the worlds. I well remember the most hyped Canadian junior team since Paul Goswell getting owned by Bruce Mowat in the world junior championships. I expect a player of Mr. Dunstone’s calibre is looking forwards to some unfinished business.  5mo

The Curling News

Why is ice slippy?

Can I post a link here? Looks good! Never thought about it much, it is a prerequisite of curling. 5mo

The Curling News

Who won?

Once upon a time, we decided who the national, or world, champions were at curling by assembling say, 8 (in Scotland) or 11 (in Canada) teams that represented a geographical spread of where they played, and then complete a league where everyone plays everyone. If you were top of the league, you were the champion. If there was a tie, you kept playing whole games of curling until the tie was broken.  Simple. And also, true.  Did anyone suggest that after Matt Baldwin won 10 games to nil in 1957 that he should play another couple of games against teams he had already beaten, before he was declared champion? No, it was not televised. I note that Yannick Schwallier won nine straight at the Olympics in a field so strong that would seem almost impossible.  That would be all I require to give them the gold medal. That methodology certainly identifies the best team, but not the best television. The woman’s competition delivered a different, but to my mind just as neat a solution. With one round left to play in the league, nobody could match Anna Hasselborg’s 7/2 score.   That’s enough for me. Give them the gold, and let them watch the fight for silver. The Olympic games is about show business, not sport.  I just can’t get my head round that. Happy to have missed the games, and won’t watch Bruce and Brad this evening.6mo

The Curling News

Sporting Integrity? How many tickets does that sell?

Sporting Integrity? How many tickets does that sell?   Why Curling? Is a question I was often asked in my prime by my peers whose dedication to other sports matched mine to curling. I had two answers; I don’t know any other team game where the whole team is involved in every shot. This is the ultimate team game At the start of every season, every curler has exactly the same chance of becoming world champion – the anecdote I used to support this referred to the fabulous Al Hackner rink, whose defence of the world championship failed when they lost at his club the next year. Season over. This is sporting integrity in 80-point headlines, but an entertainment industry disaster. I’m on the side of integrity. This has not aged well.    6mo

The Curling News

More sweeping nonsense

More sweeping nonsense One of many changes in the game in the last 60 years, is that nobody smokes while playing any more. I loved the ash trays provided in the bench seats between sheets in some older Canadian rinks. It seemed ungrateful not to have a seat and light up. These facilities were never replicated in Scotland, but my home rink did try and keep up. Like most teenage curling addicts, I spent the maximum amount of time at the rink. One of the chums I hung out with was Ernie Dunbar, who must have been about 80 when I met him. Ernie had been one of the best players in the country in the late 40’s, but a WWI injury meant he could no longer play. He lived close to the rink, watching curling and making mischief were the limits of his social life, so he was really easy to bond with for my teenage self. On the first day’s play of the Queen Elizabeth Coronation Bonspiel, the premier competition in Glasgow, the rink was looking good in its new paint job. Ernie and I were waiting to watch the Alex Torrance rink, runners up to Lyall Dagg in the ’64 broom, play their first-round game against a team of elderly Glasgow Ladies. An extraordinary mismatch, but seeding wasn’t a thing then. We were in the ice hall, standing behind the barrier where drinks and score cards could be placed. At the ice-side of the barrier, each sheet had a new wooden trough, about 1 meter long and 20cm high and wide, filled with 5cm sand. Perfectly placed to throw your cigarette butt should you need to. We had not seen this new piece of ice rink furniture before. “What is this for?” asked one of the hapless ladies of Ernie “You put your feet in it to help with grip while you are sweeping” Ernie responded with a completely straight face. The ladies complied. I don’t recommend it. Alex was not very impressed. Indeed, Ernie was barred for the rest of the season. I hope my eyes twinkle like Ernie’s when I reach that age. Not long to wait.  6mo

The Curling News

Random Scottish Sweeping Notes

Random Scottish Sweeping Notes It would 1967 or ’68 that I practised sweeping. Keeping schoolboy hours, I could be at the rink before the men’s leagues started and it was almost empty, so you could get a sheet to yourself. Although a 100% pay-as-you-play environment, schoolboys practising for a lifetime’s addiction to the sport were not discouraged, or charged. I would set the 16 stones up in two rows 15” apart, and see how fast and hard I could sweep, without hitting a stone. False modesty aside, I swept very well. I would hang around in the evening, and spare for random teams who were a man short. I was good enough to play with competent older curlers, which is the only coaching any of us got. I vividly remember Bob Gardner with whom I beat Hammy Macmillan’s grandfather in the final of the Dewar Cup in 1971, insisting in the late sixties, that you must only sweep at right angles to the direction of the stone, because otherwise you would change the direction of the stone, which would be cheating. Not sure if I have changed my mind about this. When I played the first Uniroyal u21 in East York in 1971, there were only three non-Canadian teams, and the USA and German/Canadian Airforce teams used corn. I well remember one “Rink Rat” sweeper whose other hobby was wrestling, snapping the broom as he swept, the head hit the wall two sheets away. We were using hair brooms, of course, still a few years away from sweeping pads. The first sweeping pad I saw was a one-off custom made by Alex Glassard (sp) a circular pad on a universal joint, which Leslie Ingram-Brown tried out about 1969. In order to get the cheapest transatlantic flights, we had to stay in Canada for three weeks. Not a hardship! We played a LOT of curling; my count was 20 games in 21 days. The competition schedule was three games for each of three days, no nonsense about having a knock out stage after the completion of the league, which only exist so that the crucial games can have a television schedule. It was very interesting comparing the sweeping. It struck me you had to be very good indeed to be effective with corn or one of the new synthetic options. I came away with the impression that while expert corn was ok for hits, the push broom was clearly superior for draws, especially in the head. Corn mush was a whole new hazard that we had no experience of. It was manageable after a lot of practice. While corn mush was omnipresent, the rare occasion of interaction with a single hair shed from a broom was typically terminal for the shot that picked. Moving from hair to pad was a major improvement in our game here. Fast forward decades, and I am part of the team administering the European championships in Aberdeen in 2009. When not involved in my duties, my badge allowed me access anywhere. The revelation was when sitting at the side, rather than behind the sheet, I could judge how much sweeping has improved. The distance that, say, Edin’s team could drag a stone, was way beyond what any of the men’s teams I had played with could have managed 20-30 years previously. I think the impact of this is considerable, especially as it affects the women’s game relative to the men’s. If we allow that when I was a contender in the men’s game, 5% of the game was good sweeping, that figure is much bigger now. You can put your own number on it, but even Joanne Courtney is no Bobby Lammie. No matter how true Rachel Homan throws, she doesn’t have the sweeping that needs a “y” chromosome and lots of gym time. This is disappointing, I watched the women’s game start to catch up on the men’s, why should throwing have a sex-based skill differential? – but dramatically increasing the influence of sweeping has reversed that. Why should there be a separate division for Men? I understand a Junior division, a Seniors division, but why should men need a separate division? The only argument I can think of is in order to prevent women improving by competing against the best. Modern sweeping technology and rules has secured the differential. George Lindsay Senior won the old Scottish Championships in the early sixties three times in a row with the awesome Betty Law playing third. He refused to take part in the playoffs to go to the world championships, because it was male only.  Rant over. Now, what else can I complain about?      6mo

The Curling News

Curling at the Winter Olympics a (very) alternative opinion

I note that the winter Olympics is about to start. I love curling, so I shall not be watching.  The purpose of the International Olympic Committee is to isolate the elite from the merely excellent, and sell them to the entertainment industry.  This has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with sport. The only sanction I seem to have against this egregious organisation is not watching. This is more than a little disappointing.  One of the competitors in the so-called “British” team is a former team mate, whose appearance at the pinnacle of sport I expected when she was 14. Once a teammate, always a teammate. Almost sixty years since I learned the game at Crossmyloof in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city has no ice rink. Curling is in a perilous state in Scotland, yet we will be encouraged to wave our Union Jacks as “Britain” almost certainly medals in curling, and we will be told that this is a measure of success, which is supposed to sustain us for the next four years.   To my old-fashioned way of thinking, success in sport is measured by how many people enjoy taking part at the highest level they can. When I was a young man more than one hundred teams entered the Scottish Men’s curling championship, all of us thinking we might just win – this year the figure is five. As far as I can tell two of those are junior teams, already in “the program” entered for experience and to make the competition seem relevant. It is not. The winner of the national championships does not automatically qualify for the world championships as was the case for sixty years, selectors choose who will represent Scotland. Shocking. In simpler times, you had to take two Fridays off your work to become champion, now that figure is a week. The level of support given to the very few professional curlers, a category that did not exist until we joined the ranks of Olympic sports, is such that an amateur team could not win now. Why take a week off work to get hammered by the pros, for no reward? We are told, regularly, that Olympic exposure on television encourages people to take up the sport. I call this the “Torvill and Dean” effect. How is that working out, Ice Dancing? It is certainly true that now there are Olympic Medals available, dozens of countries have taken up the sport and created jobs for nutritionists, physiotherapists, sports psychologists and a few professional athletes.  For fifty years I competed at national level in all the age groups from school boy to pensioner.  Best I ever did was second. And all of us went back to our job on Monday, enriched for a lifetime by the experience. There was no “us” and “them”, as there is now, it was just all of us.   Winter Olympics? 1.7 billion Euros, to sell more Coca Cola, and no ice rink in Glasgow. But enough, grumpy old man will stop now. But not before wishing Rebecca, good curling!  7mo

The Curling News