1925

3rd March 1925

All Match Secretaries should read the following article, transcribed from The Nairnshire Telegraph of March 3rd, and thank their lucky stars they now have e-mail rather than being dependent on the old Post Office Telegraph Service, although the latter was probably more reliable. The guest speaker at the Nairnshire Dinner was from the Dyke Curling Club, which begat the Auldearn club which, in turn, begat Nairn Curling Club.

"THE TROUBLES OF A CURLING CLUB SECRETARY.

Mr. C. C. Calder, Darnaway, Secretary of the Dyke Curling Club, who was a guest at the dinner of the Nairnshire Curling Club last week, made a very humorous speech in replying to the toast of " Neighbouring Clubs." " I have sometimes," he said, " visions of what the curling secretary should be. I am convinced that he requires a combination of gifts more diverse and more rare than those of a Cabinet Minister. (Laughter.) He must be a profound optimist, or they will not believe him. (Laughter.) He must have a wonderful and intimate knowledge of weather conditions, and nothing short of a genius for prophecy. He must be vastly methodical and prepared for every emergency, as he will spend part of every winter with his eye on the thermometer, and all his pockets full of telegraph forms. He must have infinite patience, and a deep knowledge of the instability of the " best laid plans of mice and men." (Laughter.) Above all—if he would not grow old before his time—he must have that priceless gift, an equal mind, so that he can sleep soundly in his bed with a heavy programme on hand for the morrow, and a temperature differing between 32 and 34 degrees. (Laughter.) It is not when there is an inch of water on the ice that the secretary has a difficulty in postponing a match. It is when there is a thaw for an hour or so, and has probably started to rain that the secretary dispatches a wire that the game is off, when, lo and behold! within an hour the sky clears, frost sets in, the ice dries and is soon quite good. The poor secretary meets the Sheriff or probably the Poacher, Club members, and who declare with a flare, " why the deuce did you put off the match ?" (Much laughter.) The secretary must be mute.

Dyke Curling Club is one of the oldest in the Province of Moray, having been first instituted in the early part of the 19th century under the name of "The Banks of the Findhorn," and in my early days I often heard of the tussles they had on the Loch of Blairs and Logiebuchany Loch, where the members played their matches alternately. About one-half of the members of the club resided at Altyre, and the others at Darnaway, and thankful they were when the Findhorn was frozen, and the curlers were able to cross from one side to the other, and so save the journey round by the Bridge. Several of the old stones in possession of our Club can testify to its age, some of them similar to those exhibited in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum. How the old curlers were able to chip the winner with these, it is somewhat difficult to say. Other curling stones of a more modern type, which belonged to The Hon. John Stuart, afterwards 12th Earl of Moray, I have often played with, and found them quite good on keen ice.

After I was invited to this dinner, I met an esteemed friend, and asked him to become a member of our club, and to accompany me to this function, so that he would be initiated. I expatiated as much as possible on the attractions of the game. It was such a great leveller of all grades of society. You find the Duke, the Marquis, the Earl and their factors, the farmer, crofter, cottar, poacher, bishop, priest and parson all in the same game, if not in the same rink. He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye, and says, " I'm no' gaun." I says., " Fu that ?” " Oh! I have heard of the Nairn curlers afore noo'." (Laughter, and applause.)"