Let’s face it, there’s virtually no chance I’ll ever get to play in a Grand Match.
The last time curlers from across the country congregated for a big north v south battle on a frozen loch was way before I was born in 1979.
Even if we got the depth of ice that you needed, can you imagine what health and safety officials would have to say in this day and age?
The prospect of folk drinking too much whisky and falling over would keep them up at night!
So the nearest I’m going to get to one is getting a few stones out on a frozen field on the family farm near Crieff a few days ago.
First time for everything…!
Think I’ll stick to indoor 🥌🤣 #outdoorcurling #freezing @NobisInc @GoldlineCurling pic.twitter.com/Dy2WMT9ymi— Eve Muirhead MBE (@evemuirhead) January 9, 2021
Glen even brought his proper curling shoes out. Mind you, if we’d done it up at dad’s he’d have probably got an old corn broom out from somewhere!
You can see why those brooms were used back in the day because outside curling is more about sweeping sticks and leaves off the ice than getting a stone to drift on target.
A video I put on Twitter has had tens of thousands of views so maybe there is still an interest in the old-style sport.
One thing I will say is that the noise of the stones across the ice is amazing. That’s why it’s called the roaring game.
I’ve seen footage of Canadian curlers trying to do some proper practice outdoors because of Covid restrictions over there.
Thankfully for us Scots, our national academy in Stirling is still open and curling on a Perthshire farm is just a bit of fun and nostalgia.
The mood music for the summer Olympics has changed for the worse since I wrote last week’s column.
My gut instinct that Tokyo would go-ahead but with no spectators is now starting to look optimistic rather than pessimistic.
Floating the idea of queue-jumping for athletes hasn’t gone down well and it looks like a definite non-starter, as I suspected.
That’s doesn’t need to be a fatal blow but the news that the majority of people in Tokyo don’t want the Games to happen could well be.
An Olympics in a host city that isn’t getting behind it is a pretty grim prospect.
And when you hear somebody like Sir Matthew Pinsent, with the contacts he’s bound to have at a high level, say that 2021 should be abandoned, it does feel like it’s on a knife-edge.
As always, my heart really does go out to all the athletes who are in limbo.
It’s one thing people like Adam Peaty, who has already achieved great things, saying that he’s able to focus on training and is taking everything in his stride but it’s a different matter entirely for first-time Olympians who will feel that they may never get another shot.
What’s more, the idea of the Olympics being a level playing field has been blown out of the water.
The discrepancies between who is getting facilities to train or practice and who isn’t will be huge. And the same goes for athletes who are getting support from psychologists and who aren’t.
Nobody wants to see something as big as an Olympic Games called off prematurely but it does feel as if we’re getting very close to decision time and bringing the on-off-on-off torture to an ending, even if it’s not a happy one.
