The
English Curling Association was formed in 1971. It is a full member of
the European Curling Federation (until this body is disbanded in
2014) and the World Curling Federation and is also a member of British Curling, the organisation which manages
Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic curling programmes.
The
English Curling Association aims to support, promote and develop the sport of
curling in England, to unite curlers throughout England in the brotherhood of
curling, to regulate the affairs of its members and to represent its members on
International Confederations. It also sends teams to major International
competitions.
The
Executive Council of the ECA includes representatives from all areas of the
country though curling can only be played at one location in England, Fenton’s Rink, Dundale Farm, Tunbridge Wells,
Kent, but the Association hopes that further venues will be found as a result
of Britain’s participation in the Olympic Games.
History of English Curling
The sport of curling is more than 500 years old and
its true origin is hidden in the mists of time, but it was in Scotland where it
evolved over the centuries and also where the mother club of curling, The Royal Caledonian Curling Club was formed in 1838. The sport
has of course evolved through the years and the latest change on how it is
played was introduced in 1990 when the free guard zone rule was introduced. In
1998 the sport became a full medal sport at the Olympics.
Early records indicate that curling was first
played in the North of England at the end of the 18th century with a bonspiel
being recorded as having taken place in 1795 between England and the Border
Counties of Scotland. In 1811 a few Scots curled on the New River, a canal in
North London, attracting such a large crowd that the ice was in danger of
breaking and they were obliged to stop playing. A similar thing happened in
1847 when 2 Scottish Members of Parliament played on the Serpentine in London.
The first club was founded in Leeds in 1820,
followed by Liverpool in 1839 and by 1914 there were 37 clubs playing in the
North of England. England’s most important contribution to 19th century curling
was the invention of a means of making artificial ice. In 1877 a rink opened in
Manchester and the World’s first curling match on artificial ice took place in
March of that year. The rink soon closed but another was opened at Southport,
Lancashire in 1879 and survived until 1890.
After the failure of Southport some curling was
played at Prince’s Skating and Curling Club in London and then in 1910 the
Manchester Ice Palace opened and curling was played there until 1962. Following
the closure of Manchester, ice was found at Blackpool between 1965 and 1970,
but there has been no regular curling in the North since then.
Meanwhile, in the South, Richmond Ice Rink featured
curling between 1951 and 1980. Since then a number of ice rinks in and around
London have been used for curling - Streatham, Peterborough, Chelmsford,
Aldershot, and Alexandra Palace in North London where 2 International Bonspiels
and the Triangular International weekend (Scotland v England v Wales) were
staged. Richmond (9 times), Streatham (1982) and Peterborough (1985 and 1987)
have also staged International matches between England and Scotland.
In 1997 curling stopped at Alexandra Palace and for
many years there was nowhere in England to play regularly. Thankfully, in 2004,
Ernest Fenton decided to create a dedicated curling rink in Kent, near Tunbridge
Wells. Fenton’s Rink is now the home of the South of England Curling Club, the Kent and Sussex Junior
Curling Club and the London Curling Club and several other groups who meet there regularly.
Elsewhere in England there is a distinct lack of
places to play curling. To hire ice time at one of the 42 ice rinks around the
country depends on an organisation’s willingness to pay the highest price for a
suitable time slot. Generally, curlers cannot compete with the hundreds of
leisure skaters for prime ice times and the management of the rinks are not
interested in maintaining the level, smooth and consistent ice surface required
for the sport of curling to succeed. Currently the main area of interest is
Sheffield where iceSheffield in Attercliffe offer curling to
anyone who wants to place a booking, but it has no organised or regular curling
sessions.
There have been many plans for further dedicated
curling rinks over the years and one which looks like coming on stream soon is
the Berkshire Curling Centre near Bracknell which is being developed by Stephen
Hinds who has been playing curling for over 30 years.
By comparison, there are around 30 Ice Rinks in
Scotland where curling is played with approximately one tenth of the population
of England. With this imbalance in facilities compared to population, it is not
surprising that Scotland is the dominant force in British Curling and has
provided all the players for the Great Britain Olympic Teams! In 2012 ,however, a member of the ECA,
Angharad Ward, was selected for the Great Britain Youth Olympic Games squad at
the games held in Innsbruck.
Some English curlers outside the London area travel
to rinks just over the Scottish border, such as Lockerbie and Kelso, or to Deesside
in Wales, and many from all over the country travel to weekend competitions
throughout Europe. As well as the clubs mentioned above who play at Fenton’s
there are 2 other clubs which are currently active - Preston (who play at
Lockerbie) and Glendale in Northumberland (who play at Kelso).
Teams have represented the Association in European
Championships (men, women, junior men, junior women and mixed) and World
Championships (men, women, junior men, senior men, senior women, mixed doubles
and wheelchair). The best results have been bronze medals for the women in the
1976 European Championships and in the 2003 World Senior Women’s Championship.
The best results for the men have been 4th in the 1990 European Championships
and the 2005 World Senior Championship while the Wheelchair team came 4th in
the 2004 World Wheelchair Championships.
In recent years, the addition of a B division in
the European Championships has led to further medals, with the women winning a
wonderful GOLD medal in 2007. Other medals have been: silver for the men in
2001 and the women in 2002 and bronze for the men in 2000, 2004 and 2011, and
for the women in 2000, 2005 and 2006
