CURLING SUCCESS

I have been playing curling for nearly 2 years. I started to play at the Flowerbowl in July of 2021 as my friend and I were trying out winter sports at the time. I was lucky enough to be spotted by the former vice president of Preston Curling Club (the now President of the English Curling Association) who put me in contact with a team from Kent and Cambridge who were looking for a fourth player at the time. I went to Junior National Women's Championships in Kent in late March, the second competition I ever played in! My team came second, a great achievement considering I'd never even met the skip (captain of the team) until the start of the competition.

Since the National Championships I have been non-stop curling training and competing in bonspiels (bonspiel is what we call some curling competitions, it literally translates to good play), with several different teams, Team McLoughlin, Team Wodmak (the team I played in for nationals, it's called Wodmak to promote equality within the team as it's all of our surnames together: Ward, Opel, Davies, MacDougall, Kiggel), and other teams that were randomly put together for the competitions. In January 2023, I competed in the Mixed Doubles Adults Championships for 2023 with a boy from Lancaster Royal Grammar School. It was a great experience and I got to play on new ice in Dumfries, and my friend who also plays in the same team as me, won the competition and she is now going to World Championships in South Korea.

At the same time the entries for this year's

31st of March to the 2nd of April. Meanwhile in the Women's section only one team entered which was my team! Therefore, no National Championships are being held and instead we are going straight to World B Championships in Lojha, Finland, in either December this year or January next year. I have been training more and more ever since we found out, but it is extremely difficult for the rest of my team to train now as the Flowerbowl is currently the only dedicated curling rink in the entirety of England.

Recently, in the half term, I competed in Preston Curling Club's Novice Bonspiel at the Flowerbowl with a randomly selected team. The weekend was very tough but we pushed through and won all but one of the matches, putting us in second place overall. We won a hamper each provided by Barton Grange. There were also separate competitions, things like crazy golf, bowling, a quiz, and there's sometimes even karaoke included, along with a meal, so it's always great fun. I also competed in another bonspiel in early December called the Christmas Bonspiel with one of the teams I am part of, Team Mcloughlin. For that bonspiel we all dressed up in fancy dress! The competitions are always fun and friendly and there are lots of juniors and adults alike all enjoying a sport and being sociable.

Marianne Ward, Year 10