Glasgow Curlers Take Prague by Storm

Between the 2nd and 9th of January, Prague's Roztyly Curling Hall played host to the 2015 European Junior Curling Challenge in which various European countries would compete for one of the last remaining spots in the World Junior Curling Championships, to be held in Tallinn, Estonia this year.

Eighteen men’s teams and fourteen women’s teams, more than a hundred and fifty curlers and coaches, each came along to fight it out over the course of a week. Among them were three Glasgow curlers.

Ben Fowler and Jim Whittle represented England finishing on a record of two wins and three losses, two of which were at the hands of the finalist teams, Spain and Russia. They also had two comfortable wins against Romania and Poland. The degree of Jim's Englishness - and indeed now his Scottishness... - remains in dispute.

Cristina Marin, who learned to curl at G.U.C.C., represented Romania in the women’s competition. Whilst they were unable to win any of their games it was the first time a Romanian junior women’s team has played at this competition.

The competition provided some excellent experience in the forms of some really top level games, experience that our G.U.C.C. curlers will hopefully be able to apply throughout their careers – especially in the upcoming SSS fixtures.

In other news, Alasdair Schreiber has been selected for Team GB’s curling squad for the 2015 Winter University Games to be held in Grenada, Spain from the 2nd to the 15th of February. We wish him the best of luck and will provide a full report on his (hopefully triumphant) return.

With recent alumni success in Lauren Gray at Sochi and current international representation, it is clear to see that curling at Glasgow is only getting stronger.