Now that really might get the RCCC GM committee moving - having seen just how much the 'grassroots' curlers want the GM to go ahead, if one of their approved sites becomes usable they'd have to be mad to let the opportunity pass by.  Lets all keep fingers and toes crossed for another freeze, although the lowest daytime high that accuweather is predicting for the next fortnight is 1 above.  Nights are due to be sub-zero but not substantially so.  Mind you, if we all concentrate hard enough who knows what the combined will-power of the curling community could achieve!

Just wondering if anyone knows why Lochwinnoch isn't on the list either?  I know there was curling going on there this week and they have both road and rail access - what's the issue there?

Let's be very clear on one thing: having had 31 years to prepare, the RCCC FAILED to organise the Grand Match.

Collectively, we have shown since Friday lunchtime that we can:

get barrel loads of publicity -

http://news.google.co.uk/news/more?um=1&cf=all&ned=uk&cf=all&ncl=d3cziTqW5ojo4gMWYDXuukVl53wMM

rapidly connect, organise and update people -

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=268365730228

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=279076915897&ref=mf

keep them up to date in real time -

http://twitter.com/tourscotland

http://twitter.com/#search?q=grandmatch2010

and even get political support:

"I despair at the world we live in where risk assessment is always a reason to say no, you can't do something. Sorry to have only seen your email this morning - was sledging across a frozen loch with my kids all weekend here in Shetland! I hear that a "match" is being planned for tomorrow - best wishes with that if its proceeding."
Regards
Tavish Scott MSP
 

In the end, the only thing that prevented the People's Grand Match 2010 from going ahead was the weather - and we all know that is the one thing that we cannot change.

The rest we can. We put ourselves into the position where the Match could have gone ahead today. Be vigilant for the remainder of this winter - the thaw may yet only be temporary and the cold could return.  

We do not need the RCCC's Grand Match Committee and its creaking infrastructure to make this happen: if we wait for them, it will be too late. I understand and sympathise - up to a point (they did not create our red tape/health & safety/litigation culture) - with their position re needing the authorities' go-ahead, insurance, etc, but really, if they do not have plans in place to make this happen at short notice when we have the gift of severe and prolonged cold for the first time in three decades, then they are not fit for purpose and we will need a radical overhaul of what/who is there or we do it ourselves.

So, in the short term, if winter smiles on us for a second time this year, be ready to move quickly to make it happen once the ice is safe.

In the mid to long term, if the risks associated with the event are too much for the RCCC, one option for them is to let us continue to organise the Match amongst ourselves and have them recognise the its result. We are curlers and we know what we are doing here, people. We will not take unnecessary risks on the ice.

As others have questioned: why only two venues? Are we really to believe that in the whole of Scotland, there are only two venues capable of hosting the Match? At the very least, expand the number of possible venues to 6, preferably 8.

And finally, to the heretical suggestion (and at least I'm not alone on this one): don't hold the Match on a loch (or lake).

Find a farmer (there must be a few who curl   ) with a few flat, empty fields lying fallow in the winter - preferably with good road access to them and a couple more for car parking. When it gets cold enough, flood them to create the ice. Over to the more technically savvy as to the best way to do this.

Then, call the Match.

After all, we wouldn't want our southern cousins to show us how to do things, would we...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6956964/Speed-skating-on-frozen-Cambridgeshire-Fens-for-the-first-time-in-13-years.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fen_skating

Skating in all its forms was popular in the Fens. When it froze Corporations and landowners would flood their meadows to turn them into skating grounds. In Cambridge, the Corporation pumped water onto Stirbitch Common and there was also a skating ground at Granchester Meadows. Lamp-posts can still be seen in the middle of fields by the river at Granchester Meadows where the old skating ground used to be.

I admit, it would not be as picturesque or as romantic as curling on a frozen loch, but worth thinking about if it enables the Grand Match to go ahead once more, surely?

Folks, I've said enough. Keep an eye on the weather and let us not give up on the Grand Match just yet!

Best,

PG

good piece on david smiths & Bob Cowans History blog

http://curlinghistory.blogspot.com/2010/01/grand-match-of-2010-that-never-was.html

maybe the polis could have read it in regards to fatalities and ice thickness

i reckon it was because it was only waist deep (i think) and they were a bit braver in them days

I found this on the internet, it is from Northern Territories Government in Canada and will probably be on conservative side.  They say 8 inches can take a car.  the difference being a car will have 1-1.5 tonnes over a small area of only a few feet but a grand match will have 1000+ people, stones etc over a much larger area.

Did anyone take ice picks or wear a lifejacket? 

http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/_live/pages/wpPages/IceSafetyInformation.aspx