Day 11 - Kirkcaldy

The Tourists departed the Perth Mercure Hotel at 8:30 for the 50 minute drive to the Fife Ice Arena in Kirkcaldy (pronounced “Kur - “Koddy”).






On the drive, the Tourists passed through Falkland, Scotland and passed Falkland Castle. The town of Falkland was one of the towns used in the shooting in the TV show “Outlander”. 







The picture below shows the progress of the Tourists to date.  Today they arrived in Edinburgh from the circle just above it (Perth) and you can also see the trip made to St. Andrews.


You can follow the Tourists progress in real time here:
Follow my trip ‘2022 Scot Tour’
https://www.polarsteps.com/CraigFischer/6333246-2022-scot-tour?s=0A7D2614-845D-46BC-BD52-DCDB847951F2

Upon arrival, the Tourists were met with a guard of honor and bagpiper.  Coffee and tea were provided and a speech was made by some of the region’s curling dignitaries. 

The ice at Kirkcaldy was a bit challenging.  The ice had been used for skating the day before so conditions were not the same as they had experienced in Perth.

Our hosts outfit themselves by producing a program for us that included bios of our opponents.  Kirkcaldy was the first club to do this for us.


Morning Results:

Team Jackson (USA/Blue) vs  Team Waddell Inverkeithing (Scotland/White)

Scotland - 11  USA - 4


Team Anderson (USA/Blue) vs  Team Crabb (Broomhall and Dunfermline) (Scotland/White)

USA - 10  Scotland 4 


Team Beadle (USA/Blue) vs. Team Baker Boreland (Scotland/White)
Scotland - 16  USA - 1


Team Rich (USA/Blue) vs. Team Nicoll (Bank of Scotland and Raith & Abbottshall) (Scotland/White)
Scotland - 6  USA - 3



The Scots picked up 19 points in the morning. 

The afternoon games were:


Team Anderson (USA/Blue) vs. Team Wilson (Scotland/White)

Team Wright (USA/Blue) vs. Team Perras (Scotland/White)

Team Rich (USA/Blue) vs. Team McCabe (Scotland/White)

Team Beadle (USA/Blue) vs. Team Thompson (Scotland/White)

Unfortunately, as I was at St. Andrews, I did not get pictures of each of the scoreboards and don’t yet have individual team scores.  However, overall the Scots and USA tied in the number of points in the afternoon session.

Total Cumulative Score:

USA:  350
Scotland: 319

USA leads by 31 points

While socializing after the game, Alistair from Team Inverkeithing pulled out a couple of amazing items.  It turns out that his grandfather played against the USA in the inaugural USA Curling Scot Tour in 1952 and he was able to find the program from that day and the pin:







The Tourists were over the moon to be able to see items from the inaugural USA Curling Scot Tour.  The Tourists and the Scots realized that the date of this dinner, January 15, 1952 was just 3 weeks before Queen Elizabeth became queen after the death of King George IV on February 6, 1952.

During the games today, two teams (Team Wright and Team Jackson) had the bye and were given the opportunity to visit the St. Andrews Gold Course.







I thought this street name found in St. Andrews was especially interesting:


After drinks after the afternoon game, the Tourists checked into the Doubletree by Hilton North Queensferry on the outskirts of Edinburgh.  The hotel overlooks 3 bridges across the river the Firth of Forth.  The new bridge, the old bridge (currently used only for public transport) and the railway bridge.  The railway bridge was not lit up, but we had some great pictures of the other 2 bridges from the hotel.  The Scots tell us that they were promised that the new bridge would never need to close for weather, but in fact it has already needed to close for doubledecker busses due to high wind and for all vehicles due to ice dropping off the cables onto the vehicles below.





After a short break to refresh and get dressed, the Tourists headed to an informal dinner at Scotts, a local restaurant.  This meal provided many Tourists with their first opportunity for a proper fish and chips (newspaper not included).




Today, Peter reached 61 different single malt whiskies that he has had since arrival.  He is quickly closing in on the record of 91 set on the 2012 USA Curling Scot Tour.  He intends to leave that record far behind him.

Tomorrow the Tourists head to Kinross for two matches.

The photos taken by many of the Tourists can be viewed here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/d5uWGEjqgF93FQWA8



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing the Teams

Image
With less than a week until our departure for Scotland, excitement is building among the Tourists, our Scottish hosts and the friends & families of the Tourists. For the benefit of our Scottish hosts and for our friends & families, we would like to introduce the teams that will be representing the United States on the 2022 Scot Tour. As a reminder, the 2022 Scot Tour is a friendship tour through Scotland where the Tourists will be competing against our Scottish hosts for the coveted Herries-Maxwell Trophy.  The country that scores the most points over the 3-week tour will retain the Trophy until the Scots visit the United States in 4 years and we compete for the Trophy again.  That means winning games is not as important as scoring as many points as possible while simultaneously seeking to minimize your opponents points.  And for that reason the game strategies may be a little different than normal. Happy New Year to All!  We can't wait to cross the pond. Without further a
Read more

Day 24 - Edinburgh Redux and Departure

Image
The Tourists boarded the coach at 11:00 to depart the Leonardo Hotel for a coach tour of Edinburgh.  The tour of Edinburgh started with a visit to South Queensferry to view the three bridges. Then a tour of New Town Edinburgh (started in the 1750s) and Old Town Edinburgh (founded in the 8th century). The Tourists returned to Curl Edinburgh at Murrayfield for lunch and their final game in Scotland.  Having already won the Herries-Maxwell Trophy, this game was a fun exhibition match with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club including previous Tourists.  Fun was had be all and the Americans won all the games…and lost all the games. To improve the fellowship, this game featured 2 Scots and 2 Americans on each team with names drawn from a hat to pick the teams.   Before the games, Tourist Steve Shaffer accidentally misplaced his broom. The Tourists returned to the hotel to get dressed in their F-1s for the final time for the closing night reception. Tour Couriers Bill Arnot and David McIntyre
Read more

Day 13 - Greenock

Image
The Tourists departed at 8:30 am from the Doubletree by Hilton North Queensferry and bid a fond adieu to Tour Courier Bill Arnot.  They will meet up with Bill again at the closing night party on January 29th, until then the Tourists will miss him daily. In the meantime we are excited to get to know Tour Courier David McIntyre better.  We got some more pictures of the bridges on the way out of town, this time in the morning light.    The Tourists headed for Paisley Abbey.  On the way, they got a view of “The Kelpies”.  The Kelpies are 98 ft high horse-head sculptures depicting kelpies (shape-shifting water spirits). They also drove past a statue of “The Angel of the Nauld”, known locally as Arria.  We had another interesting sighting on the bus. I was not sure this was possible (for those that don’t know us, one of the Scots commented today the Doug seemed to be “six foot twenty”) Paisley Abbey Paisley Abbey was initially constructed in 1163 with ongoing construction and additions occur
Read more