History abstracted from N.C.A., Ardclach C.C. and Nairn C.C. Minute Books

History Abstracted from the Minute Books of the Nairnshire Curling Association, Ardclach CC, and Nairn CC

by Nichol Bathgate

First Games

Following the inaugural meeting late in the 1907-08 season, the first Challenge Match was not arranged until after the “Annual General Meeting of Representatives of the Curling Clubs in the County of Nairn, now designated the Nairnshire Curling Association” held in the Royal Hotel on 8th October, 1908. The Match was to be played on the Glenferness pond, the first ice after New Year’s Day, 1909, with twelve teams forward. Nairn and Auldearn entered three rinks with two each from Glenferness, Ardclach and Cawdor. These Challenge Matches were to be taken very seriously and were even refereed by a neutral curler from a neighbouring county. It is minuted, for example, that “… it was agreed to ask the Dyke Club to provide an umpire” for this first Nairnshire Challenge match. Nevertheless, the new Nairn Club curlers were very enthusiastic and keen to play despite their inexperience and their lack of match practice, because of an absence of ice on their new ponds. We can therefore imagine the embarrassment suffered by the new Nairn Secretary/Treasurer, George Squair, when he had to call for an extraordinary meeting of the Association on 14th January, 1909, to intimate:

“that owing to the want of a sufficient number of playing regular members, the Nairn Club found it impossible to fulfill their engagement ……”

This Challenge Match was duly played the following week with only ten teams participating. Auldearn fielded four rinks instead of their intended three, and the other three clubs had two each. We can only speculate that a very frustrated George Squair and Joseph Mackay, the Nairn representatives to the Association, plus two other Nairn players constituted the fourth Auldearn rink (N.B. It had been agreed from the foundation of the new Nairn club that their expreienced players would retain joint membership with Auldearn and it must be presumed that these curlers turned out for Auldearn rather than Nairn). So the first Challenge Match for the Leven Cup went ahead at the end of January, 1909 without Nairn’s participation. The ice that day at Glenferness was in perfect condition and the Nairnshire curlers enjoyed both a sunny winter’s day and the hospitality of Lord and Lady Leven. The reporter of the match, which was won by Glenferness on their home ice, did make the point that “Glenferness is 1000 feet above sea level, and a veritable curler’s paradise.” Perhaps George Bain, the editor of The Nairnshire Telegraph, was making a subtle point that after all the hyperbole of the new ponds which had just been constructed at Lodgehill, the Challenge Match was always going to be held on one of the large inland ponds and was always going to be dependent on a prolonged hard frost. The expected turnout was for six sheets, so 48 curlers plus stones would require at least 5 inches of ice. This was to prove quite a handicap and the Challenge Match was only played twice again before the outbreak of the First World War.

The subsequent commentary in The Telegraph confirmed that most of the Nairn players were novices, so it is not surprising that these same Nairn curlers were unwilling to embarrass themselves, and the Club, in the first Leven Cup when they had had no match practice. The insistence of Messrs Squair and Mackay in putting forward three teams for the Leven Cup was therefore premature for the new Nairn Club and, in the future, raising this number of rinks was always going to be a major problem for the Club. Furthermore, the winning Club had to have an average “shots-up” score greater than the others so in averaging out “shots up” over three or four teams, the final result was always going to be reduced by the performance of the weaker rinks. On the other hand, those Clubs who entered only two strong, experienced teams were always going to be advantaged.

The 1920's

After the First World War, curling in Nairnshire did not commence until 1920 when the Nairnshire Curling Association reconvened in early January with more or less the same committee; viz. Lord Leven was re-elected President, Messrs. Park, Michael and Mackay (now with the rank of Captain) representing Nairn, William Munro from Glenferness, J. S. Robertson from Auldearn and the McArthur and Fraser clans from Ardclach and Cawdor. It was hoped to have sufficient ice at either Achnatone or Glenferness for the Challenge Match to take place in that 1919 – 20 season with Nairn able to muster four rinks and each of the other clubs contributing two. However, “Jack Frost” decided otherwise and the Challenge Match did not take place until the 1920-21 season. The venue was once again at Glenferness with Ardclach both the winners of the Leven Cup and the gold medallion which was to be presented by Robert Park to the individual rink with the highest number of shots-up. That year Ardclach’s No.1 and No.2 rinks tied on 13 shots-up so the medallion was presented to the Club with the proviso that an internal play-off could be arranged at a later date. Unfortunately that play-off never took place so the medallion was returned to Robert Park for play in the next Challenge Match. This did not take place until January 1929, when Ardclach won for the second time and the medallion was at last won by David McArthur’s rink some ten years late. Since Robert Park’s medallion appeared to have been a one-off presentation, the Association then awarded a replica of the Leven Cup to the highest scoring rink. This prize must have also fallen into abeyance because we have to fast forward some twenty years to the 1955-56 season to find that a “new award” of winners’ badges was to be made by Association Vice-President, Peter Pottie, to the highest scoring rink.

The status of the Nairnshire Curling Association was elevated to that of a “Province” of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club after the Great War, and was put on record as such at the 1921 annual general meeting. The RCCC had evidently invited representatives of the Association to a meeting of the “Inter-Province Challenge Cup Committee” in Edinburgh but the outcome of such a meeting or the possibility of inter-provincial competition was never mentioned again until much later that decade.

The Association raised the question of having a Province Dinner that year in place of the Nairn/Auldearn joint dinner. The latter was held in alternate years in Nairn and was a long standing arrangement from the inception of both the Auldearn and the Nairn clubs. This must have gone ahead and the 1922 minutes record that John Robertson, Donald Michael and bon-viveur Joseph Mackay were to organise the “Annual Dinner of the Association.” However, the dinner was not well attended despite the fact that a highly successful “Curlers’ Court” was held with Robert Park as “My Lord”. Consequently there was no Province dinner in 1923 but the possibility of an all-Nairnshire dinner and court continued to be discussed through the 1924 season. Things must have been resolved by then because a dinner and court were held in 1925 and thereafter the arrangement of the “usual Province Dinner” was a regular addendum to the minutes of the Association. These annual dinners always included a “Curlers’ Court” and from these early beginnings the now much famed Nairn Court flourished.

While the social side of Nairnshire curling was apparently in good health the progress of the annual Challenge Matches was anything but. The Association minutes dutifully record that a draw was made at the start of each season but do not record the outcome. The only historical record of the actual matches held is therefore the list of winners of Lord Leven’s Trophy. We have already mentioned that a Challenge Match was held on only three occasions prior to the Great War and that the cup was won on each of those occasions by the host club, Glenferness. In 1919 expectations were obviously high that an annual competition could and would take place. The reality was that in the following decade only two matches were held, in 1921 and 1929, this time won by Ardclach but only after a crisis from which the Association never really recovered.

At the AGM of the Association held on the 17th November 1927 the usual arrangements were made for the Challenge Match to be played first ice in the New Year at either Achnatone or Glenferness. By this time William Whitelaw’s original concerns about membership of the country clubs were coming into play because Auldearn could only field two teams and Cawdor one. The minutes record that in the circumstances the match could only go ahead if Nairn entered five teams to keep to the usual total of twelve rinks forward. This was too much for the Nairn representatives, Robert Park and Donald Michael. They eventually agreed to enter five teams but they “thought that such an arrangement would tend to weaken their Club’s prospects of successful play at the Bonspiel.” Robert Park, being the forceful character he was, then “took it, that in the altered conditions of entry, the winners of the Challenge Cup should have the highest aggregate of points over their opponents.” The minute cryptically concludes that “this was acquiesced in.” Nairn duly won the Leven Cup that year only to have their win declared null and void at an Extraordinary General Meeting, held on 8th March, 1928, when Ardclach objected to Robert Park’s unilateral changes to the rules. The consequent playing of the Association’s Challenge Match was never to be the same again because of the numerical supremacy of the Nairn Club and the unfairness of the scoring system. This was to be a continual source of rancour between Nairn, numerically the largest club, and the other participating clubs.

In addition to the complications caused by the rules of competition, the need for at least five inches of ice to sustain six or seven sheets of curlers and their stones was just as much a problem. Indeed, this was just as great a concern for the Nairnshire curlers of the early twentieth century as it is today for the RCCC to arrange an outdoor Grand Match. By the time regular curling for the Challenge Cup did take place during the cold winters of the early thirties, the problem of falling membership in the country clubs continued to such an extent that the Nairn club had to put forward an even greater number of rinks. The alternative possibility of other country clubs joining the Association had also been discussed but when the Dyke club applied for membership in 1929 it was turned down despite its long association with Auldearn and Nairn, because this club was not in Nairnshire. The whole issue of RCCC Provinces and local Associations was very confused at this time and it was often unclear which clubs were members of which province, or which were even affiliated to the RCCC. The Nairnshire Curling Association, for example, had apparently been recognised by the RCCC as a Province in its own right but officialdom, and perhaps even the member clubs, were blissfully unaware that the Auldearn, Cawdor and Glenferness Clubs were already founder members of the neighbouring Province of Moray, which had been founded in 1896. (see Alan Stanfield’s “History of Moray Province” ). To make matters worse the records of the RCCC show that Glenferness , Lord Leven’s own club, had allowed its membership of the Royal Club to lapse, and was not re-admitted until 1934. This it indicates the informal and amateurish way in which curling was organised. The reality was that Moray Province at this time only existed on record and was inactive in any real curling sense.

It was perhaps frustration over this inactivity that prompted Dyke, a founder member of the Moray Province, to apply for membership of the Nairnshire Association. This is reflected in the meeting of the Association on the 17th October, 1929, when Dyke’s application was discussed:

“An application by Dyke Curling Club to join the Association could not be entertained in terms of the constitution. It was thought, however, that clubs in neighbouring districts should form themselves into associations similar to the Nairnshire one when inter association matches could be played. This idea to be communicated to Dyke Club”

The members of the Dyke Club no doubt felt aggrieved by this rebuff, considering that they were the mother club of Auldearn and hence of Nairn.

The lack of suitable ice during the decade after the First World War was possibly one reason for falling and irregular membership in the country clubs. Farming was also in deep recession so members were reluctant to pay out an annual subscription of five shillings for no return. This is exemplified in the following extract from the minute of the 1923 Annual General Meeting of the Ardclach Club, attended by only six members:

“The Treasurer reported that owing to the lack of play last year only seven members had paid while two men had paid up on receiving notices of this meeting. The expenditure which included the cleaning of the pond last year as well as this year which was exceptionally costly amounted to £8-15/7 and swallowed up all the club’s funds including balance in hand from Whist Drive and Dance on 29^th December 1922 of £5-18/5, and left a debit balance due to the Treasurer of two shillings and two pence.”

The Ardclach club was insolvent and absolutely desperate to the point where they resolved “that the Club provide refreshments in the form of whiskey only when friendly games are played.” This must have truly been the “slough of despond” for Secretary/Treasurer, and local schoolmaster, Duncan Fraser. His morale was so shattered by this resolution that he even misspelled “whisky” in his otherwise meticulous Club minute book! Things were no better in the following few years when sometimes only four members out of a total of fourteen regulars would turn out for the AGM. The plight of the Ardclach club must have become known to Donald Michael, the successor to solicitor James Lamb as agent of the National Bank of Scotland in Nairn, who wrote to Mr Fraser in 1927 offering assistance from the Nairn club. In an act of unparalleled generosity, no fewer than eighteen Nairn curlers offered to become occasional members of Ardclach at an annual subscription of five shillings each. This not only wiped out the club’s arrears in maintaining the Achnatone pond but also kept the club afloat for the next decade. The Ardclach curlers no doubt repaid their brother curlers over those years by providing many a friendly bonspiel and many a fine dram of whisk(e)y. That strong bond of friendship, which still exists between these two clubs, was formed in those difficult years and culminated in Ardclach appointing Robert Park as one of their Patrons.

The expense of organising and maintaining regular curling competition within the farming communities, not only of Nairnshire, but the whole of the Highlands, was, by this time, so severe that the Nairnshire Association appealed to the RCCC to mitigate the costs of attending the RCCC annual meeting in a rather unique way. At that same meeting to discuss Dyke’s membership, the following resolution was passed:

“Mr. Fraser moved, Mr. Paterson seconding, and it was unanimously agreed that representation be made to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club to hold their Annual General Meeting in future during the week of the Highland & Agricultural Society’s Show when members attending the Show would have better facilities for being present. This was unanimously agreed to as it was felt that the interests of remote Clubs suffered under the arrangements at present obtaining”

Unfortunately, the RCCC turned down Nairnshire’s plea for help "as it was practically impossible to give effect to the recommendation of the Association" However, overall membership did take a turn for the better in 1930 when the new Nairnshire club of Dulsie was entered into the Association and Nairn reverted to entering four teams for the Nairnshire Challenge Match.

In the succeeding years there were occasions, during the “cold” period of the early nineteen thirties, when as many as fourteen teams contested the Leven Cup. No doubt, the regular curling over this decade was a help, but the problem of variable membership was to remain with the Association for the rest of the time the Challenge matches were played. Around this time, Cawdor, were struggling to stay in existence. In 1928 Cawdor could only put one rink forward for the annual Challenge match; their numbers had been so depleted. Lord Leven realised that to keep membership up, curlers had to have regular competition and access to a suitable pond. In the inimitable way of the period, Lord Leven then took matters into his own hands. After presiding at the 1928 AGM the minute records: “In acknowledging a hearty vote of thanks, His Lordship stated that he would approach Lord Cawdor on the subject of a pond for the Cawdor Club.” A year later, the Nairnshire Telegraph reported that: “Cawdor, with an increasing membership of young blood, had several games on the (new) Culcharry pond”. Later that same week, in early January, 1929, Cawdor entertained two Nairn rinks to a friendly match. In his vote of thanks, Robert Park said that they were delighted to see the revival of the Cawdor Club which had come through a very difficult period.

So much for the powers of Nairnshire Lairds - and it was not just in reviving the Cawdor Club that we are indebted to Lord Leven and his aristocratic neighbours. We have already mentioned the moribund state of the Moray Province. This was a source of grievance to Lord Leven who was keen to resurrect the inter-county Bonspiel with Moray. As we have seen, his own Association was represented on the RCCC “Inter-Province” Committee and he was perhaps beholden to take some action on this issue, but was obviously getting no response from Moray Province. However it was the Nairn club’s representatives, Messrs Park and Michael, who raised the issue of resurrecting the Moray and Nairn Province at the 1929 AGM and the minutes record that the secretary should “communicate with the parties interested.” The main interested party was, of course, Sir William Gordon Cumming of Altyre, president of the moribund Moray Province. No doubt on the prompting of the Nairnshire sub-committee set up to pursue the matter, and led by Robert Park, Major Alexander (Alistair) Gordon-Cumming, Sir William’s eldest son and heir to the baronetcy, did indeed hold a meeting in the Forres Court House in January 1930. The reason for Alistair Gordon-Cumming chairing the meeting was that his father, who had presided over the Moray Province for the previous seven years, was now nearing the end of his life. Sir William had called together all interested clubs to organise an inter-county bonspiel at Blair’s Loch, Altyre that year. This was an attempt to resurrect the original Province which embraced the Club’s of the counties of Banff, Moray and Nairn. An ad-hoc organising committee had tried to involve the Banff Clubs, but they were too late for that particular season. Arrangements and a draw were then made for a “friendly” bonspiel to take place earliest ice on Blair’s Loch with all five Nairnshire clubs competing against rinks from Forres, Strathspey, Dyke, Fochabers, Rothes, Elgin and Altyre. Despite the fact that Sir William must have been in very ill health (he died in May of that year) the report of the Forres meeting ends with a statement from Alistair Gordon-Cumming that:

“Sir William Gordon Cumming would be very pleased to assist with the arrangement of the bonspiel as before.”

Major Alexander Gordon-Cumming, or Alistair as he was better known, succeeded to Sir William’s baronetcy only four month’s later, and the last thing on his mind would have been the re-establishment of the Moray Province. Given these circumstances, the 1930 bonspiel probably never took place, at least there is no record of it being played. Nevertheless, the minutes of the annual meeting of the Nairnshire Curling Association for November, 1930, record that the secretary was instructed;

“—to communicate with Sir Alistair Gordon Cumming of Altyre in the matter of holding a Moray and Nairn Bonspiel during the next curling season (i.e. 1930-31) , preferably at Grantown-on-Spey, same as was arranged for last year (i.e. the 1929-30 season)”

This may mean that either the 1930 bonspiel was arranged but never took place or that the 1931 return match should be played at Grantown with the same arrangements for the competing clubs. Because things had obviously not progressed from that promising Forres meeting of 1930, Lord Leven, with scant sympathy for the bereaved new baronet, was even more adamant that an annual arrangement should be made. In making this decision, Lord Leven made two assumptions. Firstly, that Alistair Gordon-Cumming would succeed to the presidency of the Moray Province in the same way that he himself had succeeded his brother to the presidency of the Nairnshire Association in 1913, and secondly that Sir Alistair shared the same passion for establishing a fully fledged RCCC Province for the whole area. There is no doubt that Sir Alistair was a very keen curler but the reality was that, as far as the Moray Province was concerned, nothing happened for the next four years.

In his history of the Moray Province, Alan Stanfield was equally mystified as to why there is no mention of Moray Province in the RCCC annuals between 1930 and 1934. It would appear that, despite the earlier initiative taken by Alistair Gordon Cumming, the Moray Province had indeed fallen by the wayside following the death of his father. Lord Leven knew that if anybody could, the new laird of his neighbouring estate, and hopefully equally keen curler, Alistair Gordon-Cumming should be the man to resurrect the Moray Province. With still no response by the start of the 1932-33 season, Lord Leven decided that more direct action was required. At that year’s AGM of the Nairnshire Association, Donald Michael of Nairn had remarked, presumably with the Dyke Club in mind;

“.......... on the difficulty of an isolated Club in the district becoming affiliated with another Curling Province.”

The minute then goes on to say that:

“..... arising out of this Messrs Park and Swann were deputed to wait on Sir Alistair Gordon-Cumming of Altyre with the view of reviving, if possible, the Moray and Nairn Province (writer's emphasis) and annual Bonspiel. These Gentlemen agreed to act, and the Secretary was instructed accordingly.”

Now this is the first mention of a combined Province with this title so the whole issue appeared to be getting even more confused. Having earned his spurs by sorting out organisational problems at Nairn Golf Club, the ubiquitous Robert Park and Lord Leven’s vice-president (and the new factor for his estate), William Swann were mobilised to action. Consequently, Gordon-Cumming convened and presided over another meeting in Forres in December 1933 to progress matters and, in the meantime, to continue with “friendly” bonspiels rather than official matches for the RCCC District Medal. The outcome of the Nairnshire Association’s private meeting with Gordon-Cumming, as reported back by Robert Park, was that it had been found impossible to revive the Moray Curling Province under the auspices of the RCCC for the simple reason that “several of the Clubs in the area were outwith the membership of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club”. What we do not know is why so many Moray clubs were no longer affiliated to the RCCC. It may well have been for the same reason that Ardclach were struggling a few years earlier. Curling clubs in the mostly farming communities of Morayshire probably could not afford to pay their RCCC membership so continued on an ad-hoc basis during those lean years. Given that there had also been very few really frosty winters with little if no curling, farmers would have been even more reluctant to pay their dues to the RCCC. Whatever the reason for the hiatus in the Moray Province’s membership, Gordon-Cumming did get things going once more by forming a combined Moray, Banff and Nairn Province with himself as president. A new Province bonspiel was held the following year on the basis of East v West, the western clubs being Nairnshire plus Dyke while the east was represented by the Moray and Banff county clubs. It had been agreed that the boundary between the two parts of the new Province would be the River Findhorn so that, at long last, the lonely Dyke mother club, whose members had been regular guests at the Nairnshire Province dinners , was welcomed into the fold of the now combined Moray and Nairn Provinces.

The firm grip that Scotland’s aristocracy had on the management of organised curling of that period cannot be better exemplified than by the above account of the foundation of the new Province and by looking at the office-bearers of the now combined Moray and Nairn Province. Sir Alistair had, as his vice-presidents, three of Scotland’s premier earls; namely those of Moray, Leven & Melville and Cawdor. He also had Colonel Ian Thomson of Burgie on his committee with only Robert Park representing the lieges. While all of the above are listed as Vice-Presidents, the only executive post was that of secretary and treasurer, a menial post awarded to Mr H. J. Munn, the manager of the British Linen Bank in Nairn and a future president of the Nairn club .

Nevertheless, the arrangements for the 1934 bonspiel, to be played for the RCCC district medal, did mark the true beginning of today’s Moray Province.

Post WWll

The downward trend in membership of the County Clubs continued and despite the appeal for new members before the outbreak of World War II, the Auldearn Club never recovered from the departure of its Nairn members. The Dulsie club only existed on its own for a few years and then amalgamated with Ardclach. This had an immediate impact on the Nairnshire Challenge Cup with Nairn, once again, having to put forward an increasing number of rinks. After the war, the Association had reconvened and Nairn were winners of the first post war Bonspiel held on Ardclach’s Achnatone pond in February of 1947, with four rinks forward to the other clubs’ two each. That was the year of excessively high snowfalls and prolonged hard frosts. The following years, from 1948 to 1951, were the very opposite, with no ice available on either the Glenferness or Achnatone ponds. The necessity to have at least five to six inches of ice on the Achnatone or Glenferness ponds, to support six sheets of competitive ice, was therefore proving to be as great a problem in the post second world war period as it was immediately after the Great War of 1914 - 18. Consequently, it was suggested that if suitably thick ice had not formed on the traditional ponds, the Bonspiel should be played at Lodgehill where curling could take place on the thinner ice of the artificial ice-rink. However, a different format was required, since there were only four sheets of ice available in Nairn. Instead of playing one all-day match, it was proposed that the Bonspiel be shortened with one 2-hour session in the morning and a second in the afternoon so allowing up to eight matches to be played. The original format was for all twelve competing teams to commence play at 11.30 and then “stack brooms” for lunch and drams at 1.00pm. Play then recommenced at 1.30 and finished at 3.00pm after three hours of competition. This left sufficient daylight for presentations and speeches – and certainly more drams! The original intention was also to have a rather grand luncheon. For example, hot meals were to be purveyed by the Royal Hotel, Nairn for the 1909 -10 Bonspiel at the per capita sum of one shilling (or 5p in the money of today). Since this match was never played, we do not know if such catering was ever carried out at Achnatone. The fact that the Association minuted for ever after; “- each member to provide their own (lunch)” perhaps speaks for itself. It was difficult enough to arrange these matches at short notice, never mind catering for forty eight hungry curlers, given the vagaries of Nairnshire weather. Since thick ice had not formed on the inland natural ponds by January of 1952, the Bonspiel was played at Lodgehill for the first time under the revised rules and once again Nairn ran out winners, despite having to contribute four rinks. The next year proved to be even more difficult for the Nairn curlers. Following the eventual demise of the Auldearn club in 1953, Nairn were now asked to put forward no less than six rinks, leading to more complaints about the unfairness of the scoring system. However, the format of shortened games meant that Lodgehill was now able to host the event on a regular basis, so giving some advantage back to the Nairn Club, since they were able to play on their own ice.

It was appropriate that the Nairnshire Challenge Cup was played on the Lodgehill ponds at the end of 1958, the Jubilee season of both Lodgehill and the Nairnshire Curling Association. Vice-president Peter Pottie welcomed the newly elected president of the Association, the third Lord Leven of this history, onto the ice to present his uncle’s trophy to Ardclach . As we have already mentioned, the Nairn Club were by now putting forward six rinks to play two each from Ardclach , Cawdor and Glenferness. It was proposed that if once again, there was no ice at either Achnatone or Glenferness, the 1959-60 Match would be played at Nairn with no less than eight Nairn rinks forward. The previous success, in 1952, of playing morning and afternoon sessions at Lodgehill meant that four Nairn rinks could play in the morning and four in the afternoon against three rinks from Cawdor and Ardclach and two from Glenferness. In what was thought to be a final attempt to give some fairness to Nairn, it was agreed that the host club should be allowed an “A” and “B” team of four rinks each so that the averaging system would be over four rinks instead of eight. Despite this initiative and playing on “away” ice, Ardclach won for the second year in succession in a two day bonspiel on 19-20^th February, 1960, play having been interrupted on the first day by a heavy snowfall. The original schedule was to play the two sessions on a Friday afternoon and evening, using the excellent floodlighting at Lodgehill. However the Nairn “A” team took some consolation in being runners up. We do not know if it was then in a fit of pique or forgetfulness but the Nairnshire Association’s post match hospitality that year was somewhat lacking to the extent that Ardclach’s minute book later records ;

“At the next annual meeting, the Nairnshire Association be asked why a bottle of whisky, understood to have been paid for by the Association and which was in the Nairn Clubhouse at the time of the bonspiel was not used for the Ardclach win.”

The Ardclach men felt they had been snubbed because of a "misunderstanding" in the latest set of rules. Ardclach had been publicised as putting forward three rinks for the Challenge as recorded in the minutes of the Association the previous year. The implication from the latter minute was that both Ardclach and Cawdor had agreed (Ed.’s emphasis) to put forward three rinks each. Ardclach, on the other hand, thought that they were only to provide two rinks as of old. The Ardclach Club minutes do record that the Association were once again in the wrong by insisting on Ardclach raising three teams and that:

“– this had not been moved and approved correctly at the Association meeting and therefore the Club should not consider itself bound in any way. The Committee noted this fact”.

The Ardclach Club was so aggrieved by this that, at a Committee meeting immediately after their win in the 1960 Bonspiel, they minuted the above question regarding their treatment after the competition. At the same meeting it was reported:

“- that three rinks had gone forward to the Nairn Bonspiel as it had been decided polite to do so”

The non-appearance of the traditional dram after the bonspiel was therefore taken badly by Ardclach, and only exacerbated the perpetual wrangle over the “unfairness” of the Association’s rules, which the Ardclach men thought were always being manipulated to favour the Nairn Club. It would have been interesting to be a “fly on the wall” at the next AGM of the Association on 1^st December, 1960 at which it is cryptically recorded that:

“After considerable discussion it was agreed that the (three) Nairn Teams competing in the afternoon session be known as Group A and the evening ones as Group B and each group’s score divided by 3 to arrive at the average per Club”

The draw for the 1960-61 Competition therefore shows Nairn with two groups of three rinks and Cawdor, Ardclach and Glenferness reverting to their traditional two each. The 1961 Nairnshire Bonspiel was won by Cawdor for the first time in the 53 year history of the competition and it is interesting that a report from the Nairnshire Telegraph was appended to the Association’s minute of December, 1960 along with a note to say that the Nairn Club:

“- had given notice of a motion to consider, at the next AGM , rule 8 of the Constitution of the Association, regarding rule 8 awarding the cup to the club with the highest number of shots up, as Nairn now enters six rinks to the competition”.

So the AGM of 7^th December, 1961 led to yet more deliberation and yet another format. The six Nairn rinks were to be divided into three teams of two, the first to play as Nairn Curling Club, the second as Nairn Rotary and the third as Nairn Golf Club. With Cawdor, Ardclach and Glenferness all offering two rinks each, this was at least equitable as far as average scores were concerned. No less than fortnight later the same representatives of the Nairnshire Clubs were back round the table at the Royal Hotel for a meeting called at the request of the Nairn Club. They had immediately objected to teams playing under the aegis of the Nairn Rotary Club and the Nairn Golf Club, since neither of these organizations had been registered as Curling Clubs under the Constitution of the Association. Again “considerable discussion” took place regarding rule 8 (which is defined in the constitution replicated in the title page above) and it was finally recorded that:

“- it was eventually agreed nothing would be gained by altering it and that this years match would be on the same terms and conditions as last year”.

In other words, Nairn would once again enter two teams of three to play the three County Clubs who would enter two each. The fact that the Nairn A team won the Leven Cup in the 1961- 62 Bonspiel stopped the acrimonious bickering – at least until the next AGM in November, 1962 . The death knell of the Nairnshire Challenge Cup started to toll at this 1962 AGM when it was proposed to have an alternative competition along the lines of a “Town versus Country” competition. A friendly bonspiel of this type had been held in 1961 and a year later, in 1963, the first “Town versus Country” bonspiel, for the Macarthur Cup, was played at Lodgehill. This “new” cup was an “old” trophy won by David Macarthur (Ardclach), the late father of the Association’s vice-president, the second D. A. Macarthur . Being a simple challenge match, in which six country club rinks played against six rinks from the town of Nairn, the scoring was on a straightforward shots-up basis. When Glenferness were unable to raise a team for the following season it therefore became impossible to play for the Challenge Cup under the original Constitution, so the 1962-63 season was the last in which the Nairnshire Bonspiel was played under those rules . In 1964-65 the last entry for the Glenferness Club in the RCCC annual appeared, their total membership listed as only ten regular members and three occasional so the Club. The last mention of Glenferness in the Nairnshire Curling Associatio's minute book was the entry in December 1966 of two rinks for the Leven Cup. With only two country clubs still in existence it was impossible to continue with the Nairnshire Challenge Trophy and thereafter the “friendly” bonspiel for the Macarthur Cup took precedence. The Leven Cup was not officially contested again until 1977 although the minutes of the Nairn Club record that it was won by Nairn in 1972 in a “one-off.” competition.

Despite all the arguments about the constitution and rules of competition, the success of those floodlit Bonspiels for the Leven Cup certainly gave the Association, and particularly Ardclach, the impetus to install electric lighting on the Achnatone pond. Perhaps they realised that good ice was being wasted because they could not illuminate the whole pond sufficiently with paraffin lamps. Even the gas lighting at Lodgehill would have been an improvement on Achnatone, where Nairn’s country cousins were struggling to curl on dark winters’ evenings illuminated by the universal lighting of the period – the paraffin “Tilley” lamp . These lamps were notoriously difficult to light since they had to be preheated by burning methylated spirit in a cup below the incandescent “mantle”. Pressurised liquid paraffin was then pumped onto the hot mantle, the glow from which provided a very intense light. Now the story goes that in the post war years, whisky was very hard to come by and joy was unbound when Ardclach received a present of a small cask of whisky from Speyside. This whisky was evidently so bad that even the drouthy Ardclachers could not drink it. However, on one cold and windy night, the hardy men of Ardclach forsook their regular tipple on the ice and, having exhausted their supply of meths, used their dreadful dram to pre-heat their Tilley lamps rather than themselves. Thereafter they never had any problems lighting their lamps, until, of course, the cask ran dry! So, in 1964, Lord Leven donated several suitable poles for flood-lights to be erected round the pond. However, on the suggestion put forward by Nairn electrician, Ron Tunstell, that one large pole in the centre of the pond supporting a cluster of arc-lights would be a better solution, this became the preferred option and installation went ahead that year. The electricity was generated on site by a tractor driving a redundant dynamo donated by David Brown from his Nairn Laundry. It says much for Ron Tunstell’s engineering that the pole and lamp-holders are still intact at Achnatone to this day. The centrally positioned lighting did have some draw backs though, especially when it came to changing light bulbs. During one friendly match between Ardclach and the resurrected Dalcross Club, Bill Sinclair of Dalcross attempted to climb the pole to change a fused light but on the way down, he fell through the ice. When thawing out later in the clubhouse, he claimed to be the first curler to have been “above, on and below” the Achnatone ice all on the one night.

Opening of Indoor Rinks until 2007

The 1977-78 season marked the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the Nairnshire Curling Association. David Macarthur of Ardclach was still president of the Association which had not convened since 1966. At that meeting, Lord Leven had tendered his resignation as President and was succeeded by David Macarthur. The committee then unanimously agreed to appoint Lord Leven as Honorary President. David convened a meeting of the Association in May of 1977 with a view to resurrecting the “Town v County Bonspiel” at the Aviemore ice-rink and to include Nairn Ladies Curling Club to replace the now defunct Glenferness club. The Association also tried to revive the Leven Cup to be played as the “The County Championship” at Inverness Ice-Centre. Again Nairn Ladies were invited to participate. The Macarthur Cup Bonspiel was not played due to a clash of club competition dates but an addendum to the minute of 23^rd May, 1977 declares that the Leven Cup for the 1977 – 78 season was won by Nairn Ladies Curling Club. The “official” winners list (see next page) does not include this win nor the previous “one-off” playing of the Challenge Match in 1972, as recorded in the Minutes of the Nairn Curling Club. However, the winners list does indicate that the Challenge Cup continued to be contested through to 1985, with Nairn winning the trophy from 1979 to 1983, Cawdor triumphing in 1984 and the cup returning to Ardclach in 1985. That was the last time that the Challenge Match is listed as having been played under the auspices of the Nairnshire Curling Association and there are no minutes of any committee meetings having been held since June, 1978 when James Craigie of Cawdor was elected president with Harold Forrester of the Nairn club as his vice president. However, the very last item minuted from that 1978 Annual General Meeting does make for interesting reading:

“The secretary (Sam Macarthur, Ardclach) intimated that interest was shown from the Association in the use of Ardclach’s Curling Pond and after careful consideration it was agreed that a delegation would visit the pond and report to the committee before accepting the offer of transfer from Ardclach Curling Club”

It was always the hope of the Association that the Leven Cup would be a challenge match played on outdoor ice, even although all the competitions played during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s were played in Inverness ice-rink. So the transfer of the Achnatone pond to the Association was made with this wish in mind, there being no hope that Lodgehill would ever be resurrected. The “Town v Country” match also changed its format to be more convivial, with mixed rinks being drawn on the day of contest. This proved to be very successful and is the format still being used for this friendly Bonspiel.

The Challenge Match did not fare so well, despite many promptings, principally from Eric Brown of the Nairn Club. Eric once again raised the question of the Nairnshire Association at the Nairn Club’s Annual General Meeting of 1989. Further discussion on the future of the Leven Cup continued within the Nairn Club and during 1990 it was suggested that the format be changed once again - this time into a knock-out competition involving Ardclach, Cawdor, Nairn and Nairn Ladies Curling Clubs. Since this idea never got off the ground, thought once again returned to Achnatone, the last remaining connection with the original concepts of the Association. Under the initiative of president Dr. Alistair Adam, the Nairn Club undertook the resurrection of the Achnatone pond in 1991 when permission was sought from Cawdor Estates to carry out the necessary works. The clearing of the pond was completed by the end of the 1992 season , thanks principally to member Mike Jack providing a JCB digger for a day. The old Ardclach clubhouse was then waterproofed and the club’s curling equipment transferred. A careful inventory of the latter was made and was noted as follows:

Metal scoreboards 4

Metal Rink Markers 4

Crampits 18

Brushes 16

Notice Board 1

Snow-clearing Boards 5

Metal Curling Club Sign 1

Bottles (wooden) 4

Ice Marker 1

Metal Hacks 5

It was almost as if “Jack Frost” was waiting for these works to be completed because, on New Years Day, 1993, a truly memorable bonspiel was held in brilliant sunshine and near perfect ice on the Achnatone pond. With children sledging on the outskirts of the pond and copious amounts of “good-cheer” being dispensed by two anonymous “guizers” from Ardclach, the scene was truly idyllic. Later on the Nairnshire Challenge was once again competed, this time on the McArthur Cup principle of Town v County with the County coming out victorious. Sadly, with ever warmer winters, it was thought that this might be the last time the these matches would be played at Achnatone. After the Nairnshire Bonspiel, one final club competition was played on the refurbished pond that season. This was a District Medal match between Nairn and Huntly when the Buchan men, well versed in the outdoor game, trounced Nairn by 19 shots to 3. Nevertheless, the hope of continuing the Nairnshire Bonspiel at Achnatone lived on and was enhanced when Gregor Munro installed new lighting round the pond. A new format was then proposed at the Club’s management committee meeting the following year. The proposal was that if a suitable thickness of ice had not formed at Achnatone by the end of February in each curling season then the challenge match would be arranged for indoor ice. This was met with approval and the Leven Cup was won for Nairn by Graham Kerr at Inverness ice-rink in 1995 and finally by Cawdor at Achnatone in 1996. So the 1993 Bonspiel was the last Nairnshire Challenge Match to be played outdoors and since then Achnatone has sadly deteriorated once more with only the occasional impromptu games being played such as those noted in 2001.