Day 12 - Kinross

The Tourists departed the Doubletree by Hilton North Queensferry at 8:30 am for the short 20 minute ride to Kinross.

The bus was driven by Gary, the owner of the bus company and former Tourist himself, to give Steve and Kevin a break from us.

Today was a bittersweet day for the Tourists.  Unfortunately, it is our last full day with Tour Courier Bill Arnot who has been absolutely fantastic and has set the bar extremely high for the next Courier David McIntyre.  On the upside, we were reunited with Keith’s laundry which never got returned to him in Inverness.  

Here is the view upon departure of the bridges across the Firth of Forth:






The city of Kinross is famous as the city in which Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in 1567 and escaped from in 1568

The Tourists arrived at the Kinross Curling Club and were met with a bagpiper and guard of honor.










The Kinross Curling Club was founded in 1668 on Loch Leven.

The current Kinross Curling Club facility was built in 1979 and at that time was owned by a hotel.  Years later the ice plant needed replaced and the hotel wasn’t willing to fund this.  So a bunch of curlers established the Kinross Curling Trust and raised £1.25m to acquire the club and make the necessary repairs.

The Kinross Curling Club was used by the Scottish high performance teams while the National Curling Academy in Stirling was being built.

There are 50 clubs that play out of the Kinross Curling facility and it is the home club of Debbie Knox from Rhona Martin’s Gold Medal team.  

The morning results:

Team Beadle  (USA/ Red vs. Team Rutherford (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 13  Scotland - 2

Team Jackson (USA/Red) vs. Team Silvera (Scotland/Yellow)

Scotland - 8  USA - 5

Team Wright (USA/Red) vs. Team Walls (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 13  Scotland - 2


Team Rich (USA/Red) vs. Team Hay (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 8  Scotland 4


The Tourists gained 23 points in the morning. 

The Tourists were treated to soup, sandwiches and fellowship over lunch.




Over lunch, Keith Schreiber’s laundry arrived from Inverness. Just 5 days late. Keith was especially excited because the laundry arrived unlaundered.  


The teams returned to the ice at 2:30 pm.

Afternoon results:

Team Jackson (USA/Red) vs. Team Dougal (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 9  Scotland 3


Team Wright (USA/Red) vs. Team Lindsay (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 11  Scotland 7

Team Rich (USA/Red) vs. Team Laird (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 9  Scotland - 2

Team Anderson (USA/Red) vs. Team Millar (Scotland/Yellow)

USA - 16  Scotland - 7


The Tourists gained 26 shots in the afternoon for a total of 49 shots up for the day.

Cumulative Score:

USA: 431

Scotland: 351

After drinks with their opponents, the Tourists dressed in their formal attire and took the coach to Loch Leven Larder, a farm restaurant owned by the Niven family, curlers from Kinross.

Dinner was amazing and was followed by some toasts and a bagpiper performing a number of Scottish tunes.  One of the local curlers also composed a poem about the Tourists visit and read it for the Tourists. The Tourists also performed their “entertainment” which paled in comparison to the piper.  At the end, our hosts raffled off 3 bottles of whisky.  Our courier Bill Arnot won one bottle and donated it to the Tourists for their morning bus rides.







Tomorrow, the Tourists head out in the morning for a tour of Paisley Abbey and then on to Greenock to play one game at the Waterfront Leisure Complex. 



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