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Strathcona Cup competition heats up the ice at White Rock club

114-year-old contest has Canadians, Scots compete at curling clubs across Canada
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Peace Arch Curling Club curler Dave Warren competes in the Strathcona Cup in White Rock Friday Jan. 13, as Alex Fleming from the Avondale Heather Curling Club from Scotland watches. (Leo LeCoutour photo)

The scores were close at Peace Arch Curling Club Friday (Jan. 13), when a 114-year-old competition – the Strathcona Cup, the oldest international curling competition in the world – took place.

Featuring three groups, each of 20 Scottish curlers, who will compete for the coveted trophy on tours in Western Canada, Central Canada, and Eastern Canada, the Western leg saw Scotland’s Avondale Heather curling club play at the White Rock club.

“It was phenomenal! It really was,” said PACC curler Stan Turner, who previously had the privilege to travel to Scotland to participate in the Strathcona Cup.

“There was Scottish heather around the windows, a tartan runner on the table, some people were wearing tartan sashes – it looked like an evening banquet and it was our luncheon.”

READ ALSO: B.C. curlers tangle with Scots

Final scores were three ties: 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7, with one team losing 8-2, giving the Scottish teams a six-point lead at the Peace Arch Curling Club.

Three ties is almost unheard of, Turner noted, as the competition is always fierce.

But the Cup itself is based on total accumulated points from all the curling teams, and the Western Canadian team leads their Scottish counterparts by 12 points currently, Turner noted.

The Central Canadian team is currently more than 60 points ahead of their counterparts, and the Eastern Canadian team is currently up by 40 points.

“This is a shocking lead for the Canadians,” Turner said.

After their weeks-long curling tour and series of games – some 400 in total – all three groups will convene in Ottawa where, on Feb. 2, the winner is declared.

The winner is determined by comparing the scores from all games between Scotland and Canada.

Canada has won the competition 12 times to Scotland’s 11 times.


@Canucklehedd
tricia.weel@peacearchnews.com

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Tricia Weel

About the Author: Tricia Weel

I’m a lifelong writer, and worked as a journalist in community newspapers for more than a decade, from White Rock to Parksville and Qualicum Beach, to Abbotsford and Surrey, from 2001-2012
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