Frozen out… 700 curlers hit as axe is poised over ice rink
IT has been graced by international curling superstars such as former world champion Eve Muirhead.
But now more than 700 Scottish curlers will be left without anywhere to train after a Glasgow ice rink announced it is to close next year.
Regulars at intu Braehead, where more than 40 clubs train and compete, were told on Friday that the current curling season, which runs until March 2020, will be their last.
The announcement has caused uproar in some of the country’s oldest curling clubs, such as Dumbarton.
Club president William Deans said yesterday: ‘We were all shell-shocked. This will have a major impact on all of the clubs and the hundreds of curlers.
Braehead has been used by Scottish international teams – Eve Muirhead herself was an ambassador.’
There are 22 curling rinks around Scotland, but many clubs are concentrated in the Glasgow region.
The intu Braehead rink is the joint largest facility in Scotland, with eight lanes, and has hosted the prestigious Glynhill Women’s international competition for the last six years.
To add insult to injury, it will close same week as the World Men’s Curling Championships comes to a temporary rink in the city’s Emirates Arena.
Alan Hannah, Braehead Curling Development Group chairman, said members were disappointed as there was no other permanent rink in the Glasgow area. He added: ‘We asked if we could come in as a tenant of the rink but that was not possible.’
Clubs are set to appeal to Sport Scotland and Scottish Curling for funding, as the nearest rink – Greenacres, in Renfrewshire – is 13 miles away.
Scottish Curling’s chief executive Bruce Crawford: ‘It has been a huge shock that such a significant facility as Braehead is ceasing operation.’
Intu Braehead centre director Peter Beagley said: ‘With the declining numbers involved in the sport, we have had to increasingly subsidise the rink over the past 20 years, which we can’t continue to do.’