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From
over 200 applicants a team of 25 curlers were selected to represent Scotland on
the inaugural Canadian Tour led by the Rev. John Kerr of Dirleton.
The itinerary for first tour was that the team would arrive in Halifax, Nova Scotia
around the end of December 1902 and travel through Montreal,
Quebec, Ottawa,
Toronto and Winnipeg
before crossing the border to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Chicago and New York. The
whole tour would take 40 days but allowing for ocean and railway travel it
was anticipated that the team would be absent for about two months! "It will be
seen that the programme is an ambitious one, but
the committee felt strongly that if things were worth doing, it was worth
doing well, and they have every confidence that the members of the team will
prove in every respect worthy of the high trust committed to them, namely,
that of upholding the reputation of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club".
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The
success of the tour was reflected in a letter sent from Peterboro
in Ontario to the Royal Club which stated, "I congratulate you in the
Royal Caledonian Curling Club that this long expected visit has been so
happily carried out, and I trust that in the years to come it may continue to
be a fruit on both sides of the Atlantic..."
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Encouraged
by such comment, the Royal Club at its Annual Meeting in July 1908 decided to
"unanimously
and enthusiastically to invite a team of Canadians to Scotland and to return
if possible the hospitality shown by Canada to the curlers from the mother
country in the winter of 1902, it was felt that notice given was very short,
but the eager desire on the part of all concerned was that such a visit
should come off during the year which Lord Strathcona was President of the
Royal Club, his Lordship being such a unique connecting link between Scotland
and Canada, so much honoured by his countrymen on both sides of the
Atlantic."
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Once
news returned from Canada
that the invitation had been accepted there was
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"...unmingled delight as there was a general expectation
that the visit of the Canadians to Scotland like that of the Scots to Canada
would not only still further strengthen the bond of friendship between those
who are kinsmen but... would handsomely avenge any defeat sustained by the
Scots in their visit to Canada, which by some strange system of perversion
had been very much exaggerated!!!"
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That first
visiting Canadian team was gathered in the space of two or three months and
included representatives of every district in Canada
from Halifax to Dawson
City in the Yukon.
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In Scotland invitations were drawn up and issued
to Clubs and Provinces and "a most gratifying response to this
communication was received by the Committee, for virtually the whole of Scotland was
prepared to receive and offer hospitality to the Canadians". The organising
Committee had its main difficulty in the form of whether the matches would be
played in the open, or in the covered artificial ice-rink at Crossmyloof in Glasgow
which had been placed at the services of the Royal Club in the event of John
(not Jack!) Frost not having the decency to provide natural outdoor ice for
the occasion.
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Apart
from visits to the various districts of Scotland
it was "in the trio of test matches arranged by the Committee
that Greek would meet Greek, and the momentous decision be given on the
blackboard as to whether Canada
or Scotland
held priority in curling fame. To this great arbitration keen zest was
added by the presentation of the noble President, Lord Strathcona, of a
handsome Challenge Cup... and which it would be averred is without a
superior among curling trophies at home and abroad. This splendid trophy,
which was selected in competition from a number of designs, is cup shape in
form, with two handles. It measures about 20 inches in height and 14
and a half inches in diameter.
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The decoration, which is chiefly Celtic in character, is
artistically applied. A band of Runic entwined work and circles the
upper part, and is continued on the handles, whilst round the top is the
wording in applied letters: 'Presented by Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal
to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club'. On the silver octagonal base
of eight panels there are representations of a Scottish curling scene, a
Canadian curling scene, and also views of Edinburgh
and Stirling castles. Additionally
other panels show a beaver, a maple tree and a scotch fir with a thistle in
the foreground. Two panels have been reserved to inscribe the winners
names and the other the inscription, which coupled with the inscription that
the rim of the cup reads 'Presented by Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal to
The Royal Caledonian Curling Club to Commemorate His Presidency of the Club
and of the First Visit of a Canadian Curling Team to Scotland, January 1909'."
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John
Frost did not oblige and the three test matches against Scottish Provinces
were held at Crossmyloof Ice-rink with six rinks
playing on each day. The first test match gave a score of 112 to 70 in favour of the Canadians and they followed this up with 29
shot and 30 shot victories in the remaining two to enable the Canadians to
win the coveted cup by 101 shots. Philosophically, one of the defeated
Scottish hosts remarked, "it micht have been
better, but it micht have been waur".
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Scots
returned to Canada
in 1912 with the Canadians successfully retaining the cup although it was
noticed that in the test matches, the loss per rink by the Scots was only on
average one and a half shots per game. The Scottish team captain,
Colonel Robertson-Aikman, further reported that in his opinion "this was a
record that, I contend, after the performance of the Canadian curlers in
Scotland three years ago we need not be in the least ashamed of". He further claimed that
the Scots were at a disadvantage in that the Canadians played short games of
only 12 heads when normally the Scots would expect to play 16. The test
matches however were over 18 heads but again the Scots wanted more -
21! Further handicaps noted were that they had to play on a 6ft. radius
circle rather than a 7ft. circle! Other excuses used at the time
included the fact there was a tremendous borrow sometimes as much as 8 feet,
which in his opinion "the consequence of such a
borrow is that the game is altered in its character. You cannot guard
a stone as you do here".
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The
final excuse used for the tour was "...but the strongest man on a tour
of two months must be below his best when continually travelling and
banqueting!!!"
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The
First World War prevented any further tour that decade but in 1921 the
Canadians returned to Scotland
and on this occasion Scotland
lifted the Strathcona Cup for the first time by a score of 3-2 over the 5
test matches. However two winters later Canada regained the Strathcona
Cup, winning 5-0 in the test matches and by an emphatic 210 shot margin.
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Canadian
curlers returned to Scotland in 1926 where the home country were victorious
by 4 to 1 in the test matches but that was the last tour for some 12 years
until 1938, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, when
Scotland crossed the Atlantic once more.
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The War
prevented any further visit until 1949 when Scotland
won the Strathcona Cup in Canada
for the first time. On this occasion there was a change from the normal
format whereby all games in the tour, not just nominated test matches,
counted to the overall result. One game was reported as "keen
interest was shown in all our games and at Nelson, B.C., we had a crowd of
2000 spectators watching us, although play did not start until 8.30 p.m. and
continued until 1 o'clock in the morning!"
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Subsequent
tours reverted to the format of test matches deciding the destination of the
cup with the home nation being victorious on each of these occasions.
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However,
this format was changed when the Canadian tourists came to Scotland in
1979 and from that tour onwards all games have counted equally to the
eventual outcome of the trophy.
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Canada regained the trophy on their
last visit to Scotland in
1998 and currently have 10 victories to 8 of Scotland
but the Strathcona Cup is more than about winning and losing. The very
essence of it is to ensure that curlers from Scotland
and Canada have the
opportunity to meet every five years on one side of the Atlantic
or the other to further the friendship between curlers of the two countries
and to uphold the traditions of the roarin' game.
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With
these objectives in mind 56 curlers from Scotland
will, unlike their forefathers, touch down rather than step ashore in Canada on the
8th January 2003. The East Tour under the Captaincy of Donald Whyte, President
of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, will similar to those on that first
tour, start in Halifax, whilst the West Tour will start in Winnipeg, another
of the cities on that original itinerary, under the Captaincy of Ainslie
Smith, Past President of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.
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For all
curlers it will be an opportunity to mark the Centenary of the first ever
Scottish Curlers in Canada
when 412 games are played across Canada
from Halifax in the East to Victoria in the West.
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ALL
TOURS:
(CANADA LEADS
SERIES 11-10 OVERALL – FIRST TOUR NOT INCLUDED.)
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* Number in brackets indicates number of tour
participants.
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YEAR:
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TOURISTS [*]:
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TOUR #:
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WINNERS:
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TEST
MATCHES:
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 SHOTS:
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 SHOTS:
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OVERALL:
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1902/03
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Scotland [25]
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1
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0-4 with 1 tie
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not known
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not known
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50 shots
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1909
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Canada [37]
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1
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not known
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not known
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not known
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101 shots
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1912
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Scotland [26]
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2
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0-4
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312
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467
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155 shots
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1921
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Canada [36]
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2
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3-2
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not known
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not known
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not known
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1923
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Scotland [28]
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3
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0-5
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468
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678
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210 shots
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1926
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Canada [36]
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3
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4-1
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not known
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not known
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not known
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1938
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Scotland [21]
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4
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0-8
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359
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576
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277 shots
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1949
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Scotland [50]
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5
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ALL GAMES
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4237
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3576
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661 shots
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1950
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Canada [30]
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4
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not known
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830
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800
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30 shots
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1957
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Scotland [26]
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6
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7-13
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944
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1140
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196 shots
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1960
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Canada [29]
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5
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not known
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757
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590
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167 shots
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1965
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Scotland [30]
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7
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6-13 with 1 tie
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1138
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1389
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251 shots
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1970
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Canada [22]
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6
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not known
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not known
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not known
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not known
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1975
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Scotland [25]
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8
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8-7
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606
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641
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35 shots
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1979
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Canada [33]
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7
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ALL GAMES
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1520
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1246
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274 shots
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1983
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Scotland [60]
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9
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ALL GAMES
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2725
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2759
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34 shots
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1988
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Canada [40]
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8
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ALL GAMES
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1462
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1560
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98 shots
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1993
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Scotland [56]
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10
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ALL GAMES
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2690
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2283
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407 shots
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1998
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Canada [40]
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9
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ALL GAMES
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1125
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1498
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373 shots
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2003
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Scotland [56]
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11
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412 GAMES
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2600
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2492
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108 shots
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2009
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Canada [40]
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10
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ALL GAMES
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1133
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1459
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326 shots
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2013
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Scotland [61]
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12
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ALL GAMES (427)
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2876
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2620
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256 shots
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UPDATED February 1, 2013: ALL GAMES
COMPLETE - SCOTLAND
WINS STRATHCONA CUP!!
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