Markinch Curling Club
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Markinch Curling Club is a
curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...
club in
Markinch Markinch (, Scottish Gaelic: Marc Innis) is both a village and a parish in the heart of Fife, Scotland. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the village has a population of 2,420. The civil parish had a population of 16,530 (in 2011).Census ...
, Scotland that was instituted in 1842.Markinch
, 1861 Parochial Directory of Fife and Kinross


Membership

Its members were formerly composed largely of employees of John Haig, the
whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...
blend whose bottling plant and offices used to be situated in Markinch, workers for Tullis Russell, a paper-mill on the banks of the nearby River Leven - in fact, Mr. Tullis was one of the founding members in 1842 - and a mixture of farmers and local Health Service professionals. With the closure of John Haig, one source of members was stopped; however, the club survives.


Venues

Curling is known to have taken place in Markinch on "The Common", an area in the centre of the town now used as the car park for Markinch Bowling Club, Markinch Town Hall, Markinch Primary School, and the local library, prior to the Club’s founding but there is little known about this. The Club possesses a complete set of hand written minutes from the inaugural meeting to the present day. There have been three curling ponds in the Club’s history. The first, opened in the winter of 1842, was on the North edge of the town on "the low lying ground at the foot of Archibald’s Park". It was only played on for five years. It had to be closed in 1847 when the
North British Railway The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, ...
Company’s line to
Cupar Cupar ( ; ) is a town, former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland. It lies between Dundee and Glenrothes. According to a 2011 population estimate, Cupar had a population around 9,000, making it the ninth-largest settlement in Fife, and the ...
was built over the site. The Club received £15 in compensation. The second pond at Balfarg farm on Balbirnie estate was the most successful of the Club’s ponds, being played on during the great days of outdoor curling in the cold winters in the latter half of the 19th century. It was opened in 1850 with a match against Stratheden and curled on every winter for 64 years. This pond was the venue for club games, district medals and inter club challenge matches. A fine stone
curling house A curling house was used to store curling stones, brushes and other equipment used to maintain a curling pond and play the game of curling in Scotland and elsewhere. Introduction The houses were often purely functional in character, being rela ...
was built with three rooms, the Laird’s room (the Laird being Mr. Balfour, of
Balbirnie House Balbirnie House is an early 19th-century country house in Glenrothes, in central Fife, Scotland. The present house was completed in 1817 as a rebuild of an 18th-century building, itself a replacement for a 17th-century dwelling. The home of the B ...
), the west room and the curling stone room. However, in 1914, the club was again forced to move as the coming of electricity to Balfarg farm saw the mill lade drained and the source of water for the curling pond lost. A site for a new rink was found on "the common" in
Markinch Markinch (, Scottish Gaelic: Marc Innis) is both a village and a parish in the heart of Fife, Scotland. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the village has a population of 2,420. The civil parish had a population of 16,530 (in 2011).Census ...
town itself, and it was opened on 6 January 1914, thus formalising the arrangements which had taken place before the Club's foundation. The days of outdoor curling were beginning to draw to an end, and the opening of Haymarket Ice Rink in 1912 confirmed that outdoor curling was becoming less popular. This rink eventually closed in 1938, bringing to an end 96 years of outdoor curling in
Markinch Markinch (, Scottish Gaelic: Marc Innis) is both a village and a parish in the heart of Fife, Scotland. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the village has a population of 2,420. The civil parish had a population of 16,530 (in 2011).Census ...
. Club games are now played at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink and at Kinross Curling Rink, the ice rink which was previously the property of the Green Hotel,
Kinross Kinross (, ) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth, Scotland, Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the Counties of Scotland, historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinro ...
, but which has been refurbished, and is now run, by Kinross Curling Trust.


Competitions

The Club's main internal competition is the Balbirnie League, contested between the constituent rinks, which are named after historic
Markinch Markinch (, Scottish Gaelic: Marc Innis) is both a village and a parish in the heart of Fife, Scotland. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the village has a population of 2,420. The civil parish had a population of 16,530 (in 2011).Census ...
place-names,
Balgonie Balgonie is a town in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada. Situated at the intersection of Highways 10, 46, and the Trans-Canada Highway, the town is part of the White Butte region and neighbours Pilot Butte, White City, and McLean. As well ...
,
Stob Cross Stob may refer to: People * Verity Stob (since 1988), pseudonymous author of IT satirical articles * Ralph Stob (1894–1965), U.S. academic, president (1933–1939) of Calvin College * Henry J. Stob (1908–1996), U.S. academic, namesake of the ...
, Dalginch, and Sweetbank. The Club's annual fixture with Glenrothes Curling Club is for the Davie Napier Trophy An annual game for the Mounie Trophy against
Meldrum & Daviot Curling Club Meldrum was a multinational heavy metal band formed by ex-Phantom Blue guitarist Michelle Meldrum. History American guitarist Michelle Meldrum started her first band Wargod with Strapping Young Lad drummer Gene Hoglan, later going on to form ...
means that the Club may also play at
Forfar Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town ...
Ice Arena,
Curl Aberdeen cURL (pronounced like "curl", ) is a free and open source computer program for transferring data to and from Internet servers. It can download a URL from a web server over HTTP, and supports a variety of other network protocols, URI schemes, m ...
, or
Perth Ice Rink Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
.


Swiss Tours

The Club has been involved in three Swiss tours, the first in 1963, the second in 2003, and the latest from 19 to 26 January 2013. These "tours" have all been based in
Zermatt Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...
, where the local ice rink holds an annual
Scottish Curling Week Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
.


References


External links


website
{dead link, date=June 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes on Royal Caledonian Curling Club
Markinch Curling Club » History
1842 establishments in Scotland Curling clubs established in the 19th century Sports clubs and teams established in 1842 Curling clubs in Scotland Sport in Fife