1985: The icemen cometh

IN the Montreal offices of Air Canada, on March 19, 1985, lastminute checks were being made on the plans for a huge uplift of North Americans into Scotland. More than 2,500 players, spectators, officials and VIPS were heading for Prestwick, and then to Glasgow, for the Silver Broom, the world championships of curling.

Across at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall, meanwhile, Willie O’hagan (pictured) was among the workers who were readying the ice for the showpiece tournament.

The Silver Broom had been staged in Scotland on only one previous occasion, at Perth, in 1975. The “Mother Country of Curling”, Jack Webster wrote in these pages, “is determined that the worldwide fraternity will go away with lasting memories of the 1985 one.

“And fraternity is what it is. For the Silver Broom is a rare mixture of dynamic sport and a carnival of fun and entertainment which forges such friendships that total strangers find themselves making dates to meet at the next one.”

The Kelvin Hall was specially laid out in ice for the occasion. The show would be organised from the Holiday Inn; the media centre was at the Albany Hotel; and the multi-national competitors would stay at the Pond Hotel. Nearly 20 other hotels had been fully booked.

In the words of Ken Meek, Air Canada’s community affairs boss, the Silver Broom was “a very good tourist ploy and a marvellous way of showing off Glasgow to the world”.

Indeed it was. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had hired a helicopter to film scenes of the city, while the championship would receive eight hours of prime-time TV coverage in Canada, and comparable coverage in the US and other countries.

The Canadians took the Silver Broom, beating Sweden in the final on March 31.

The Scottish rink finished fifth overall, a remarkable achievement for a team that had only played together twice since winning the Scottish title in mid-february.