Friday 3rd December 2021, saw the return of the British Open Curling Championships after what felt like an eternity due to the pandemic. The British Open was brought back into the curling calendar in 2018 and held as an end of season event on the Scottish Curling Tour. With a busy competition calendar already set for 2021-2022, we moved the event to December and began to organise what we believe to be one of the best curling tournaments in Scotland. This year’s British Open was sponsored by Robertsons Group and Johnston & Robertson consultants.
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Stirling saw 18 teams arrive to compete at The Peak, Stirling’s Sports Village from the 3rd-5th December. Teams from England, Ireland, and Scotland, aging from 18-60+ were all here to compete for the crown. We had a strong field including ex Olympics athletes, World Senior Champions, World Junior Champions, Scottish and English junior and senior teams; all competing against local clubs from Stirlingshire.
The triple knock-out format got underway with all the teams aiming firstly to qualify for the High Road quarter final on Sunday and a chance to win the historic British Open trophy. It was Team Mark Watt and Team Ajax, skipped by 2018 Olympian Kyle Smith, who qualified first out of the A road. Three more teams qualified from the B-Road, recording only 1 loss, they were teams skipped by Duncan MacFadzean, Luke Carson and Cameron Bryce. Qualifying from the C-Road, on two losses, were teams skipped by Craig Waddell, Robbie Stevenson and John Duff. Teams knocked out of the main event come Saturday evening moved on to compete in either the Middle Road or Low Road finals on Sunday.
We were now into the business end of the weekend with the Sunday match-ups set. The four teams who qualified from the quarter finals made an exciting semi-final line up. Team Whyte (MacFadzean), Team Watt, Team Lammie (Waddell) and Team Ajax were all through to the semi-finals of the high road. Team Gow vs Team Brand; and Team Sugden were up against Scottish Senior Team Duff in the two semi-finals of the middle road. While Team Prentice and Team Farnell faced off in the first semi-final of the low load and Team Munro (the youngest team in the competition) and Team Murphy were up against each other in the second.
With all six semi-finals on the ice, it was great to see such a spectacular display of curling. When the results were in, the finals were set as follows: In the High Road were Team Whyte vs Team Ajax; the middle road saw Team Gow vs Team Sugden; and the low road saw Team Prentice take on Team Munro.
In the Low Road, the “oldies” Team Prentice (who is a World Senior Champion) defeated last year’s Scottish Junior Champions Team Munro to win the JB Stewart Trophy, 7-3, which has always been presented to the Low Road winners.
Gold Road Final
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total |
| Whyte T | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | X | 6 |
| Ajax | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 3 |
 Team Whyte Winners Presentation |  Team Ajax Runners Up Presentation |
Middle Road final
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total |
| Gow | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Sugden T | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
 Team Gow Runners Up Presentation |  Team Sugden Winners Presentation |
Low Road Final
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total |
| Prentice T | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 7 |
| Munro | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 3 |
 Team Prentice Winners Presentation |  Team Munro Runners Up Presentation |
Full tournament scorecards can be found on the SoftPeelr website.