The Grand Match

The Grand Match was an outdoor curling game arranged between the North and South of Scotland.  An imaginary line is drawn between the River Forth and River Clyde to decide the two sides.  Several Grand Matches have had in the region of three hundred rinks on each side, making 2400 curlers on the ice at one time.  A gun was fired to start the game, which lasted 3 hours, and again to signal the last end.  This number of rinks needed about 20 acres of ice 7 inches thick.  It took 60 men nearly two days to mark the rinks.
 
This is the Grand Match as it once was.  The last outdoor Grand Match took place on Lake of Monteith in 1979.  Due to a very cold winter there was a possibility of another in January 2010 , but this was not allowed to go ahead due to Health and Safety Regulations (although some curling did take place unofficially).   The concept of North v South lives on and the Grand match was revived at the Millennium and  now takes place indoors every five years.   2000 curlers are expected to take part today in around 17 curling rinks across Scotland.  Our team were playing at Ayr and although we were beaten, the South (2,154) defeated the North (1,928). We had a good day, once again making new acquaintances.  

Extra blip - At the end of 4 ends, the brooms are stacked and the players have a "wee dram" (usually called a rusty nail) to heat them up. I suppose they were originally stacked like this to prevent them freezing on to the ice.