Pairs Competition The Annual Pairs Competition resulted in a win for John Phillips and Eddie Redman over Mike Jackson and Des Burt.

The final rounds of the Henderson Bishop Trophy took place in Stranraer from 24 to 27 February 2003. Club members Margaret Falconer and Ann Roy played in a team skipped by John Phillips' daughter Jane McLaren of Buchlyvie.

The annual Ballikinrain Cup match against Balfron and Fintry Curling Clubs took place on Friday 14 February 2003 at Forest Hills. This Cup was presented in the 1890's to be played for annually between Strathendrick, Balfron, Fintry and the now defunct Ballikinrain Clubs. In those days the competition took place on outside ice. After a gap of many years, the competition was resurrected some thirty years ago as an indoor competition.

The Strathendrick teams were :-
 

The Cup was won by Balfron for the second year running with 3 points, Fintry were second with 2 points and Strathendrick took the wooden spoon on 1 point.

The results were :-

A friendly match between Strathendrick and Partick Curling Club took place on Tuesday 7 January 2003 at Forest Hills. Strathendrick Team One of Bob Glass, Ron Tosh, Jim Paterson and Fiona Glass, won 15:4. Strathendrick Team Two of Steve Holden, Walter McGowan, Jim and Betty Meikle, also won by the slightly smaller margin of 11:6 to complete a successful evening.

The Points Competition was held on 18 December 2002 at Forest Hills. Unfortunately, due to an unavoidable clash with the Shareholders' Evening at Stirling and the proximity of a certain Winter Festival, the numbers were considerably down on last year. Only 11 intrepid souls braved the fog and ice on the road to find appropriately icy conditions at Forest Hills - the heating had broken down!

The evening had its usual mixture of near misses, hopeless failures and despairing cries of "sweep" which were ruthlessly ignored by the other participants. The end result was a tie between Mike (not played for 6 weeks due to trip 'Down Under') Jackson and Margaret (played several times a week since October) Falconer. Which only goes to show that practice has no relevance in this event! Jim Paterson had been reading the Rule Book (again) and said that Mike and Margaret would have to draw to the head to decide the winner, luckily their indignant protests at this were cut short by the Forest Hill staff turning out the lights - although some of the other participants did not see why this should bring a halt to the proceedings.

No scores are given to avoid embarrassment to all concerned. Thanks are due to Jim Paterson for his organisation, and to Jim, Steve Holden, Maurice Rennie and Fiona Glass (and anybody missed out) for scoring.

Five rounds of the Forest Hills Knockout were played. Our team of Margaret Falconer, Helen Watson, Allan Watson and Gill Smith lost their first match against Balfron on 30 September 2002 by 6 shots to 11.

However, the team of Margaret Falconer, Helen Watson, Betty Meikle and Gill Smith, won our "last chance" match against fellow first round losers Loch Ard on 28 October 2002 by 9 shots to 7 to go through to the next round.

The team, this time of Margaret Falconer, Marshall Falconer, Betty Meikle and Gill Smith, were again successful on 11 November 2002 when we won against Port by 8 shots to 3.

On 18 November 2002, the team of Margaret Falconer, Marshall Falconer, Margaret Brown and Gill Smith won a close fought match against Buchlyvie by 8 shots to 4.

On 2 December 2002, the team of Margaret Falconer, John Phillips, Betty Meikle and Gill Smith won a high-scoring match against Thornhill by 13 shots to 8. The match finished after the seventh end, when we scored a six, courtesy of the opposing skip.

Our run in this competition came to an end in the final on 16 December 2002 against Balfron. The team of Margaret Falconer, Marshall Falconer, Betty Meikle and Gill Smith managed to hold Balfron to peals at the end of the fifth end but unfortunately lost the next two ends by three and four to go down by 4 shots to 11 after the seventh end.

Forest Hills Trophy - Province Weekend took place on Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December 2002. We had two teams competing.

Team 1 - John Phillips, Margaret and Marshall Falconer and Stan Moore (Sat)/Norman Robertson (Sun)- won both their matches on the Saturday to go through to the High Road on Sunday. The results on Saturday were wins against Kippen by 8-6 and against a Fintry team, including Helen and Allan Watson and Gavin Scott, by 12-4.

Team 2 - Steve Holden, Maurice Rennie, Margaret Brown (Sat)/Pauline Holden (Sun) and Gill Smith (Sat)/George Harris (Sun) won one match and lost one on the Saturday to go through to the Low Road on Sunday. The results on Saturday were a win against Loch Ard by 8-6 but a loss against a strong Balfron team by 1-12.

Unfortunately, our High Road team did not do so well on Sunday. In the morning, they had a close match against eventual winners Buchlyvie, which they lost, and then lost again in the afternoon, this time to Drymen

Our Low Road team were a little more successful. They lost in the morning to Fintry but won against Castle in the afternoon.

National Masters Mens' Districts We had a team competing in this competition which was held at Greenacres from 19 to 21 November 2002. The team appeared in the draw under Steve Holden's name and the other members of the team were Maurice Rennie, Ron Tosh and Jim Paterson. Our president, John Phillips, also competed in a team entered by Duncan McGregor of Thornhill.

Unfortunately, neither team made it through into the finals. Steve Holden's team won one match and lost four (see report) and Duncan McGregor's team won two matches and lost three.

The annual friendly match between Strathendrick and Forest Hills Trossachs Curling Club took place on the afternoon of 26 October 2002 at Forest Hills. A closely fought match resulted in Strathendrick successfully defending the trophy by 13 ends to 11.

The match was followed by afternoon tea at which the trophy was presented to our president, John Phillips.

The Strathendrick teams were :-
 

President vs Vice-president This first event of the season was won by the President and was followed by a most enjoyable supper at the Vice President's house. Those members attending were grateful to Ros and Walter McGowan for their most kind and magnificent hospitality.

The RCCC Website has now been re launched and the Strathendrick section is now live. We will add to the content over time but do not intend to have a very large presence. There are a number of interesting additions to this site, including the draw and in due course the results from National competitions such as the Henderson Bishop in which the club has two teams taking part.

As the results for the Henderson Bishop are not yet on the RCCC site, here are the results for our teams to date :
Fiona Glass's team narrowly lost to a Balfron team in the first round;
The other team, skipped by Jane McLaren (John Phillips' daughter) and including Margaret Falconer, have beaten a Loch Ard team and a Drimsynie team to get into the Forest Hills district final. On 9 December 2002, they won the Forest Hills final to go through to the National Finals which will be held in Stranraer in February 2003.

Canadian Tour Our president, John Phillips, obtained a place on the RCCC Mens tour to Canada. John played for Team 4 of the West Group.