Province Origins

Member clubs of Cupar Curling Province have long wondered what were the actual origins of the Province. Unfortunately any records held locally documenting the very beginnings of the Province appeared to have long since been lost to the vagaries of time.

National records, held since the mid 1800's, make reference to the desire amongst curling clubs to not only become more organised on a local (County) level but to strengthen ties with the Scotland wide curling community and the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (established 1838). It was a time of establishing rules and common practices across many sporting activities such as Golf and Football in an effort to promote equity in these sports. In the Victorian mind consistency of purpose and the ability to maintain good practice across all of society was a national obsession.

The local winter sport, established by farming communities who found considerable pleasure in sliding stones towards a peg or circle marked on the ice over a frozen pond or poorly drained field corner to see who's farm or village was the best was becoming organised.

The hunt has been on for some time now to better understand how and when Cupar Curling Province came into being and, finally, one of our number, namely Roy Black of Cupar Curling Club, after many hours wading through various historical records looking for stories from that clubs 250! years of existence came across an article in the Fife Herald & Journal dated 5th February 1880 announcing the formation of the Cupar Curling Province from all the clubs within a recognised geographical area of Fife. This article, reproduced in full here together with a the first record of a Cupar District 'Provincial Match' within the Royal Caledonian Curling Club annual of December 1880 provides proof positive that the 150th anniversary of Cupar Curling Province will be held in 2030.

Our thanks go to Roy Black for his hard work in this endeavour and I'm sure a glass or two will be raised at the celebrations.

 

 

The island of Ailsa Craig and it's link with the 'roarin game'.

Just out on YouTube is this fascinating video made by Ruth Aisling all about the island of Ailsa Craig, off the ayreshire coast, where the granite to make the stones for our sport is quarried.

Ruth also goes into detail on the manufacture of the stones and why we use this particular granite.

Cupar Province Bonspiel 2023-24 season

The Cupar Province Bonspiel was held at Perth Curling Rink on the evening of Thursday 7th December 2023.

10 Province clubs took part and, generally, it was a close run thing on most of the sheets with Ceres and Abdie actually tying on 9 points each. The winner would be decided on points scored and betwen the eventual 2nd placed club and the 9th placed club there was only a difference of 5 points!

The runaway winners, however, were Leuchars who bucked the 'close fought' trend and secured 18 points over their opponents, Cupar.

The scorecards were completed as follows:

Leuchars 18 Cupar 1
Stratheden 11 Pitlessie 9
Forret 11 Falkland 8
Ceres 9 Abdie 9
Rothes 7 Abdie 6
 
Well done all!
 
The record of recent winners and their score is:
2013 winners Rothes CC +15 shots up
2014 winners Rothes CC +17 shots up
2015 winners Forret CC +19 shots up
2016 winners Forret CC +17 shots up
2017 winners Forret CC +27 shots up
2018 winners Rothes CC +17 shots up
2019 winners Abdie CC +13 shots up
2021 winners C’ford Priory +20 shots up
2022 winners Newport CC 15 shots scored
2023 winners Leuchars CC 18 shots scored