SCOTTISH CURLERS AIM TO REGAIN STRATHCONA CUP IN 2023

Sixty of Scotland’s curlers head to Canada today to compete in the Strathcona Cup, one of the oldest international curling competitions in the world. The tourists, as the curlers are known, will be led by non-playing captain Mike Ferguson, president of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. They will travel the length and breadth of Canada in three tours known simply as The East Tour, The West Tour and The Central Tour. Each tour comprises 20 curlers playing in five rinks.

The West Tour

Starting in British Columbia the tour’s first stop will be Tsawwassen where the tourists will play the first few games. They will then head over to Vancouver Island for a few days, before heading on to Vernon and Kelowna. Its then on to Alberta for Edmonton, Sherwood Park, Leduc and Sylvan Lake, before heading west to visit Banff and south to Calgary. Saskatchewan is the next stop, with Saskatoon before jumping the border into Manitoba for Winnipeg. The final stop for the west teams will be Ottawa in the province of Ontario.

The East Tour

Travelling via Toronto the tour visit Halifax, Nova Scotia where the teams will spend a few days before moving on to Newfoundland and Labrador for a few days. They will return to Nova Scotia for a further couple of days before flying out to Prince Edward Island and then on to New Brunswick. The final few stops will take the teams to Quebec province where they will visit Quebec City, Montreal, and lastly Ottawa.

The Central Tour

Though the central tour has the shortest overall distance of travel of the three groups, the central teams will take in the greater Toronto area. They will visit Toronto, London, Niagara, Oakville, Mississauga, York, Uxbridge, Donalda, and Kingston before moving north to Montreal and the final stop in Ottawa.

The 2023 competition will be played over 90 games.

The Tours will be captained by well kent curlers, namely: Tom Pendreigh, Dalcross CC (West); Douglas Reid, Stewarton Heather CC (East); and Alan Chalmers, Musketeers CC (Central).

The Strathcona Cup was last won by Scotland in 2013 but reclaimed by the Canadian Tourists in 2018. Canada currently has 12 victories to Scotland’s 10, but the Strathcona Cup is about more than just winning and losing. The very essence of it is to ensure that curlers from Scotland and Canada have the opportunity to meet every five years on one side of the Atlantic or the other and to further the friendship between curlers of the two countries, upholding the traditions of ‘the roarin’ game’.

Having said that, the 2023 Tour are determined to regain the Strathcona Cup and are looking forward to the competition, the friendship, and the hospitality for which Canadian curling is justifiably renowned. The Strathcona Cup is a magnificent trophy measuring approximately 20 inches in height and 14 and a half inches in diameter. The decoration, which is chiefly Celtic in character, is artistically applied. A band of Runic entwined work encircles the upper part and is continued on the handles. On the silver octagonal base of eight panels there are representations of a Scottish curling scene, a Canadian curling scene, as well as views of Edinburgh and Stirling castles. Additionally, other panels show a beaver, a maple tree, and a scotch fir with a thistle in the foreground. Two panels have been reserved to inscribe the winners names and the other the inscription which, coupled with the inscription at the rim of the cup, reads ‘Presented by Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal to The Royal Caledonian Curling Club to Commemorate His Presidency of the Club and of the First Visit of a Canadian Curling Team to Scotland, January 1909’.

For more information on the Strathcona Cup, teams, itineraries and results visit the dedicated website Strathcona Cup Tour 2023.