IT’S the headgear my eyes are drawn to. Nowadays such outlandish Tam o’ Shanters are dismissed as plain silly, but this is the Scotland v Canada curling international match at Glasgow’s Crossmyloof Ice Rink in January, 1950, so the curler, a J. Richardson, was being deadly serious.
Mind you, it looks large enough to hide a hot water bottle inside it, so perhaps he was just keeping his head warm.
Note, too, the large broom for sweeping in his hand, although smaller brushes are now favoured.
The record books show Scotland beat Canada that year to retain the Strathcona Cup.
Crossmyloof Ice Rink is alas no more, and is now the site of a Morrison’s supermarket.
Curling, though, still thrives in the Glasgow area. In fact, the European Curling Championships are coming to the Braehead Arena next month. Old curling hands tell me that when the World Curling Championships were held at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, in the 1980s, a marksman was brought in to keep pigeons at bay in case they despoiled the ice.
So perhaps that’s why Mr J Richardson is wearing such lavish headgear back in the 1950s – he too may have feared a pigeon invasion getting into the roof-space of the ice rink.
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