23
THE CENTENARY of one of Scotland’s
greatest Olympic triumphs is to be
commemorated with a special sporting
event in Edinburgh on Saturday, 20 January.
While many eyes will be on
commemorating the centenary of Scottish
athlete Eric Liddell’s Olympic gold on the
track in 2024 not to be overlooked is the
achievement of WK Jackson’s rink who won
the curling gold medal at the inaugural
Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, in
January of that year.
CurlEdinburgh, who operate out of the
Murrayfield rink, organise the Jackson
Trophy annually but the 2024 instalment will
be bigger and better according to Ian Keron,
club president, who says: “On January 20
Edinburgh Curling Club is running the
Jackson Trophy Bonspiel, involving 14
invited teams to play a three game Bonspiel.
“We will also have invited guests,
from each of the three families that made
up the WK Jackson team, plus the 2002
women’s team that won Olympic gold in
Salt Lake City.”
They are Rhona Martin, Debbie Knox,
Fiona MacDonald, and Janice Rankin.
It is understood Bruce Mouat’s rink,
who recently won the European title
in Aberdeen were invited but will be
competing in Canada at the sametime as the Capital bonspiel.
Added Mr Kiron: “The Jackson team was
made up of William Kilgour Jackson, his son,
Laurence Jackson, Tom Murray and Robin
Welsh. The first three named were from
Biggar with Welsh from Edinburgh.”
Other events have either taken place or
are in the process of commemorating the
Jackson rink achievement.
In September a blue plaque was unveiled
at the original home of WK Jackson. This was
organised by the current owner of the
house, Lorraine Noble-Thompson.
And, from November 2023 until March,
the Biggar Museum is holding an exhibition
to celebrate the gold medal success called
“From Biggar to Olympic Gold”.
Advertising the exhibition in a flyer, the
museum state: “Curling was initially an
outdoor game, played on natural lochs or
stretches of standing water. The game grew
in the Scottish countryside, the sport of
farmers – outdoor work being impossible
during the time when, as curlers put it, ‘the
ice is bearing’.
“Upper Clydesdale was ideal country
for the game where there were a large
number of ponds in use for curling in
the 19th century.
“In the early 20th century the sport
started to move indoors to ice rinks.”CONGRATULATIONS to
Iona Senew and Ben Carter
on winning the mixed
doubles title at Joppa
Tennis Club.
The pair, who defeated
Heriot Philbrick-Smith and
Poppy Thomas in the final are
pictured being congratulated
by coach Finn McLean.
Ben captains Joppa’s
veteran men’s team.
The competition was
organised by club member
David Greig.The perfect pair
From Biggar to Olympic Gold
Iona and Ben win mixed doubles
EAST OF SCOTLAND tennis ace James
MacKinlay is hoping to extend a doubles
partnership with Derbyshire’s Jay Clarke after
the pair ended 2023 with back-to-back
tournament wins in Antalya, Turkey.
What made the ATP Challenger events
remarkable was not so much that it was James’
breakthrough at this level.
Rather the pair came together in ad hoc
circumstances.
James, 23, who has connections with
Edinburgh’s Barnton Park club, amongst
others, explains:
“Jay put up an instagram story stating that
these two weeks were his last two tournaments
of the year and I happened to see this story and
replied asking if he would be keen to play the
week of the 11th December.
“As it was already Sunday of the week previous
....ever the opportunist I ended up flying out on
the Monday morning after doing Christmas
shopping the day before. It turned out to be a
good decision to message him on the Sunday.”
Although Jay had originally lined-up another
partner the pair stayed together for the second
leg of the Antalya mini circuit and distinguished
themselves by taking out the top seeds 6-2, 6-1
in the semi-final.
They then went on to claim the crown with
another straight-sets win.
But as for that breakthrough win in the first
week of the partnership James says:
“It meant a lot to finally win as I’ve made a
few finals before but haven’t been able to get over
the line and in terms of ranking it will put me up
to about 710 on the ATP rankings.
“I certainly feel like I have been putting in the
off court work in order to be able to get this firsttitle but would also have to say that sometimes
when you’re playing you need a little bit of luck.
But, overall, I have been playing well enough to
win one of these titles for about five months
“I hope we are able to play (together) in the
coming year.”
As for his journey so far, this former four
time ITF junior tournament winner says:
“There’s too many clubs to name but I started
playing tennis at a local leisure centre in Crieff
aged five and progressed through to Edinburgh
aged 10. Barnton Park has always been the best
club in the East.”
A representative of the East county team,
James distinguished himself with the best points
return for that team in Division One of the
UK inter-county championship at Eastbourne
in 2023.
Modestly playing down such statistics he
says matches had a truncated format due to
adverse weather.
“County week was very different as it was
‘Fast 4’ format so it was practically a coin toss on
who was going to win each rubber but I think
Euan Mcintosh and I did well considering” he
says while looking forward to building on
December successes.
Hopefully that will be with partner Jay who, in
2017, on a wildcard entry alongside Marcus
Willis at Wimbledon, defeated the reigning
men’s doubles holders Nicolas Mahut and Pierre
Hughes-Herbert.
Adds James: “I start the year back at my
training facility in Loughborough where there is
a 25k event starting 7 January followed by one in
Sunderland. So, I have a busy January and we’ll
see what tournaments are available to play
within reason and not too expensive!”Tennis aces James and Jay on a winning run
Jay Clarke (left) with
James MacKinlayFinn McLean, Iona Senew
and Ben Carter