The Times - UK (2022-02-21)

the times | Monday February 21 2022 2GM 3

News

a singular Yat, with their selection de-

signed to reflect how they see them-

selves online. For example, someone

who likes sports, music and animals

might buy a Yat that shows the emojis of

a running man, a music note and a dog.

This custom string of emojis can then

be displayed on the buyer’s social media

page and can also act as a hyperlink,

leading to someone’s personal website

or whatever they wish.

Wales plots path to infinity and beyond

The Welsh government has announced
plans to expand its space exploration
sector and become the first sustainable
spacefaring nation.
Its strategy Wales: A Sustainable
Space Nation sets out areas where the
country hopes to lead growth, includ-
ing the development of greener fuels
and reusable technology.
The UK’s space sector has trebled in
size since 2010 to £14.8 billion a year and
has set a target of achieving a 10 per
cent share of the global market by 2030.
Vaughan Gething, the Welsh eco-
nomy minister, said that Wales hoped
to secure 5 per cent of the UK’s market
by 2040, boosting its economy by £2 bil-
lion a year. The plans include develop-
ing Spaceport Snowdonia on the
former Llanbedr airfield, as well as a

sea-based launch platform operating

from Port Talbot.

There are also projects developing

greener fuels and propulsion technolo-

gies at the Llanbedr site, and at military

testing facilities in Ceredigion, Powys

and Pendine in Carmarthenshire. Else-

where, satellite technologies used to

find water on other planets are used to

monitor Wales’s shifting coal tips.

Gething told the PA news agency

that sustainability was key. He said: “It

is about propulsion, the new fuels that

you might use, as well as having the

things you might want to put into space

already off the ground.” He added:

“Space Forge, who are a significant

Welsh start-up, are expanding at a real

rate and they are looking at reusable

technology. They are looking both at

being able to send equipment into space

and for it to be returned and reused, but

also the potential to manufacture items

while in space.”

He said major space tech companies

already have a base in Wales, including

Qioptiq, which makes 98 per cent of the

glass products used in space explora-

tion.

“Space Forge and B2Space who are

located near Newport are looking at

how you can partially float items and

then have propulsion that is already off

the ground. That would actually save

potentially a significant amount of the

fuel you need to actually make lift-off.”

The British astronaut Tim Peake

said: “I’m delighted to see that Wales is

embracing the exciting opportunities

that the space sector has to offer.”

Yats the way to do it as new

craze updates your emojis

Tom Knowles

Technology Correspondent

The general public may have just

started to get their heads around NFTs,

but stars such as Paris Hilton are spend-

ing money on a new craze: a string of

emojis called Yats.

People are investing hundreds of

thousands of pounds to buy a selection

of emojis to represent their personality.

The emojis are the same as those that

can be found on a smartphone, but Yat

Labs, based in Nashville, has sold

160,000 for a total of $20 million since

February last year.

People can buy one to five emojis as

curler, joked. Her 28-year-old daughter

had reduced her hours as a surgical

nurse to concentrate on curling. When

the pandemic hit Vicky returned to

work full-time at Forth Valley Royal

Hospital, but continued to train.

She has joked that the medal gives

her “bragging rights” after Greg Drum-

mond, her fiancé, won silver in Sochi as

part of the men’s team.

The women gloried in an avalanche

of congratulations. One of the most

treasured came from the Queen, who

wrote: “I send my warmest congratula-

tions to the Team GB women’s curling

team on your outstanding performance

in winning the gold medal at the Beijing

2022 Olympic Winter Games, follow-

ing the silver medal achieved by the

men’s curling team yesterday.”

Success was saving grace of miserable

Winter Games, leading article, page 29

How the game works

The objective is to get

more stones nearer the

centre of the scoring

area — the house — than

your opponent.

Two teams of four

people take turns

curling two 44lb stones

each 150ft over the ice

towards the 12ft bull’s

eye. The team closest to

the centre after all the

stones are curled will

score the points. This

process is repeated for

six to ten “ends” until

one team is victorious.

Stones are delivered

with a predetermined

rotation, so they

actually curl as they

travel. When the team

captain is shouting, they

are advising their

players on brushing the

ice in front of the stone,

which affects its speed

and direction.

The roles

Lead: Throws the first

two stones of the end

and then sweeps the

next six. Must be good

at throwing “guards”,

the stones that stop in

front of the house.

Second: Throws the

third and fourth stones

and should be strong at

hitting an opponent’s

stone off the sheet.

Third (or vice-skip):

Throws the fifth and

sixth stones, must be

especially good at

“draws”, the stones that

stop in the house.

Skip: The captain, who

decides strategy. The

skip also delivers the

last two shots of the

end so must be good at

all types of shots.

Yats are a universal emoji username

Only in Scotland can a hotel boast its
own ice rink. Vicky Wright learnt to
curl at the North West Castle Hotel in
Stranraer when she was still in primary
school.
And the hotel’s bar was packed 16
years later as friends and family of
Team GB’s curling teams drank cham-
pagne until 6am, after Wright and her
team-mates won gold at the Beijing
Winter Olympics. Britain’s first and
only gold came on the final day of the
Games, courtesy of Eve Muirhead and
her fellow Scots, Wright, Jennifer
Dodds, Hailey Duff and Mili Smith, the
alternate.
“Scotland’s ain game”, as curling is
sometimes known, hadn’t seen such a
celebration since Rhona Martin sent
down her Stone of Destiny to seal gold
in Salt Lake City 2002.
“When they won the gold medal, the
manager opened champagne for every-
body,” Wright’s mother, Jackie, said.
She watched the final at the hotel with
about 40 supporters, including Muir-
head’s parents,
Lynn and Gordon.
Wright said that
her daughter had
come a long way
since her first curl-
ing session at the
hotel rink at the age
of 12. “In Dumfries
and Galloway, all
the kids in primary
seven got taken
once a week for four
weeks to the ice
rinks in Stranraer or
Dumfries or Locker-
bie,” she said.
“Coaches there
showed them how to
curl. Vicky loved it.
They all did. I was a
parent helper on the
bus and I remember
they all loved it. A lot
of them stayed on and joined teams
after that. Living in a rural place, there’s
not a lot else for them to do.
“The other thing is they were playing
with grannies of 80 and people of all
ages, so it taught them discipline. I be-
lieve it taught them life skills too.”
In the UK, Scotland is the home of
curling. It has the best facilities, with 21
rinks offering curling sessions, from
Kelso to Kirkcaldy, Ayr to Aberdeen.

Muirhead, 31, from Perth, won her

gold at the fourth attempt, after a series

of near-misses and surgery on an ar-

thritic hip. These Olympics were the

first for the rest of her team. Their fami-

lies know each other well from years of

travelling to the same competitions.

“We were the ones sitting in the hotel

drinking wine when the kids were sup-

posedly in their beds sleeping,” Wright,

57, an NHS administrator and keen

Ice stars who raised the bar for Team GB

ndjoinedt M

Mili Smith, Hailey Duff, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and Eve Muirhead celebrate with their gold medals in Beijing. Before

leaving to compete Muirhead was encouraged by her father Gordon, her mother Lin and her brothers Glen and Thomas

ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA

The curling team’s golds

led to jubilant scenes in

the hotel where it all

began 16 years ago,

Lucy Bannerman writes