This was the first chance for a long lie for some of the tour, who weren’t curling in the first session anyway. Many took advantage of this and went to breakfast before returning to their rooms or going for a wander round the local shopping centre.
Raymond, who had partaken in whisky and vodka sampling the previous evening and practiced his Russian to those that were willing to listen, was one that decided to head off to bed. On waking he found that the house keeping staff had been in and serviced the room. A panic soon came over him when he found that cash and cards were no longer in his “purse”. News travelled so fast that those at the curling club soon heard of his predicament, and worried for a moment and then went shopping!!!
A session of bin-hoaking thereafter followed and he found the contents of his purse in the trash can. In order to catch up with us he took a taxi to the curling club at a cost of $51 – an expensive lesson learned.
Anyway, onto the curling and why we are here…..
After a journey through rush hour Montreal we arrived just in time at the curling club which is 200 years old and the oldest club in the Americas having been established in 1807.
The club could only raise four rinks to compete against us so the first session took to the ice with two Scots rinks, one skipped by Alex Dickson and supported by 3 women. The second was skipped by Alex Bryden . The remaining sheet was occupied by two Scottish teams skipped by John McDermott and Gordon Gilchrist.
After a slow start to the game, Alex Dickson and his team of Kirsty Harrison, Lena Carmichael, and Linda Dickson pulled ahead finishing with a great result of 10 – 3.
The opposition in this case are blaming their loss on the new ice as the club, during the closed season spent $180,000 replacing the complete floor of the ice rink. They also purchased new rocks.
Although it was the coldest curling rink we have played yet, the constant temperature, which was helped by air-locked doors, meant that the ice remained consistent throughout the entire game.
Alex B, with Kenny Crookshanks, Bill Alexander and boy wonder, the youngest member of the tour, Chris Batty, weren’t quite so lucky was unable to secure a win on this occasion finishing at 4 – 8 to the Canadians.
Raymond was meant to be there for the second session but due to the above incident he failed to turn up and we had to get a sub.
Thursday was the first day that we were able to hit the shops, so hit the shops I think everyone did. Montreal is home to a massive underground shopping centre which I know that Kirsty, Susan, Muriel, Greg, and Chris, didn’t manage to get the whole way around because of eating crepes and sitting on massage chairs – they are recommended for a couple of minutes relief and a laugh at the faces getting pulled! Due to this we don’t know what happened in the second session as no-one has told me and I was too busy with other activities…..
There was a street nearby the curling club, St Catherines, which had a huge number of restaurants and shops, and basically you could buy anything you want. Many of the group sampled a few of these with the younger ones keeping Chris happy and taking him to McDonalds. Apparently there was a 7 course meal in a local Italian………
Thursday’s on Crescent , as recommended by Myrna from the RMCC, proved to be an excellent choice for eating, with plenty of well cooked food, attentive staff, and reasonable prices.
Don’t know if anybody ate at Jacques Villeneuve’s new restaurant across the road.
An excellent day drew to a close with a couple of drinks at the RMCC under the watchful gaze of the two rams head trophies that adorn the stairs.
