Curling - Ben Rankin

This week’s speaker was Ben Rankin who gave a very positive, confident and well organised presentation on his experiences over the last year as an elite junior curler with Team Rankin. The Club has assisted the team over the past year with sponsorship which has been used in connection with travel and other costs relating to the team’s participation in various competitions.

Ben, who is a pupil at Elgin Academy and is now 16, comes from a strong and accomplished curling background and has been a member of the Moray Junior Curling Club since he was 9 years old.

Last year he left his former team to create a new team - Team Rankin - which consists of his brother, Fraser, and friends James Gorman and Elliot Cullerton, both from Edinburgh. Alan Campbell assists and coaches the team. The team played all over Scotland in a number of competitions -

The U17 Slam Series - winning the bronze medal overall and being the only team to top all of their qualifying sections.

The U21 Championships - to gain experience against older competition with matches in Aberdeen, Lockerbie, Greenacres and Stranraer.

The Scottish Junior Championships - playing for a chance to represent Scotland over a week’s competition in which the team reached the semi-finals.

The team has spent a lot of time together travelling, gelling as a team coping with both wins and losses and has fostered a real team spirit with a desire to improve and learn from their experiences.

Ben also attends the National Curling Academy in Aberdeen and has played in the Scottish Junior Mixed Double Championships. He also plays for his school team which won the Curling Edinburgh Crabbie Trophy and reached the semi-finals in the team’s defence of its Scottish Schools Championship title. He also plays in local leagues - the Moray Super League and Moray Province and has been selected for the Scottish Curling Regional Academy programme.

Ben hopes that Team Rankin will go from strength to strength and is very grateful for the support received from the Club and local businesses.