September 01, 2008

New season begins at Aberdeen

The ice is ready at Curl Aberdeen! These photos were taken yesterday at the city's curling facility, being used by some of the National Academy teams, those of Hannah Fleming, Alan Smith, Kerr Drummond and Claire Hamilton, under the watchful eye of RCCC Performance Development Coach Rhona Martin. Above is Neil McArthur with Rebecca Kesley and Hannah Fleming in a practice game.

Hannah delivers with sweepers Abigail Brown and Alice Spence.

The British Olympic squads were also using the rink for on-ice training. I'd tell you all they were doing but then I would have to kill you! The Vancouver Olympics are fast approaching and curling fans can be assured that the squads are putting in the effort. Performance Director Derek Brown was on the ice with Nancy Murdoch and David Hay (the team coaches) as well as some of the back up team, and all the curlers of course. It was great to see Ewan MacDonald (above), sidelined last season with a knee injury, back throwing the stone again.

Here Pete Smith (right) explains to his skip David Murdoch some of the nuances of the art of sweeping! (Other captions are available)

With the logo for next year's European Championships embedded in the ice, there will be no excuse for any of the club curlers not being aware of the big challenge looming large for the facility! Manager Tom Brewster confirms that ice bookings for the season ahead are good. The first club ice was in use last night.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And the new season has come to an abrupt halt for a week. The rink was hit by lightning just over a week ago causing tha plant to shut down, and damage to the ice. The rink is closing for a week for the ice to be brought back up to scratch. www,curl-aberdeen.co.uk is reporting a 'technical fault'