Press Release January 2012

TUNBRIDGE WELLS GIRLS WIN EUROPEAN BRONZE

The English Junior Girls curling team – all from the Tunbridge Wells district – won the bronze medal at the European Junior Curling Championships held in Copenhagen last week.  The girls played Denmark in the semi-finals and in a tense game just failed to make it to the finals against Italy.   

This is the best performance ever achieved by an English junior curling team and reflects the rapid development of competitive curling at the sport’s only facility in England – at Fenton’s rink, on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells.

The team consisted of Anna Fowler (skip), Hettie Garnier, Naomi Robinson, Lauren Pearce and Lucy Sparks (alternate).

In the boys’ section, the English team won three of their games to achieve fourth position in their section, not quite high enough to get to the medals. 

Nevertheless, the boys played well in a tough competition with close results throughout.  The team was Ben Fowler (skip), Harry Mallows, Ben Alexander, Oliver Kendall and Connor Simpson (alternate).

Junior Curling Update February 2011

Junior England Teams

Junior "elite" group, both boys and girls, which presently form the junior England teams. There is only one team of each gender in this category at present, but we hope for more. Greg Dunn coaches about once a fortnight and more frequently for international competitions.

The next training session with Greg Dunn is on Sunday 13th March 5.00-8.00 to follow on from the Academy session which some of the junior squads are helping to coach

Fussen WCF 13th Annual Curling Camp, Germany (3-9th July, 2011) - three England juniors have applied to take part this year. John Brown is applying for funding.

Sweetlake Curling Camp, Holland (8-13th August, 2011) – both junior England teams were invited to take part and have applied to join the curling camp in August. John Brown is investigating applying for funding.

Junior Training

Every Tuesday from 6-8.
This is the session for keen youngsters to progress – we are currently investigating increased supervision/coaching and would be interested to hear from anyone interested in taking on this role.

Additional training sessions for the Angley boys team in preparation for IJCCB Edinburgh:
Sunday 13 March – 10.00 to 12.00
Sunday 20 March – 10.00 to 12.00

Junior Academy

Organised by Penny Fenton and coached by Forbes Fenton with the assistance of some of the junior England squad. Fully booked at present.

The next Academy will be on 13th March from 4.00 - 6.00

The English Schools Championships

These are run by the rink – the finals take place from 21 to 25 March.

There are currently 17 schools registered to take part. We would very much like to encourage school teams to continue curling after the Championship and invite them to join the teams practicing on Tuesday evenings at Junior training. Contact the rink for more information.

5-week school training courses are currently being held every weekday at 4pm.

Main League/Open League

Some juniors are taking part in the Leagues currently being played at the rink. Please see the website for details. If you would like to be part of a team or have a team and want to take part in future competitions please contact the games secretary, Gary Tapp at curling2009@googlemail.com.

Competitions

26th February: The Great Gordino

4-6th March: ECA Mixed

19-20th March: The Sir Alexander Fleming Trophy

1-3rd April, 2011: International Junior Curling Club Bonspiel, Edinburgh

Two junior teams will fly up to Edinburgh on 1st April and compete under the banner of Fenton's Rink. Team kit, bearing the Fentons logo, is under discussion at the moment. Both teams will stay at a hostel near the rink. The competition starts at 8.00 on Saturday 2nd.