WHEN the presidency of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club moves from Andrew Stevenson to Ken Scott halfway through the governing body's annual meeting in Perth on Wednesday, circumstances have contrived to ensure that Stevenson will be handing on a poisoned chalice.
Never in its 160-year history has the worldwide ''mother club'' of the sport found itself at such a crossroads, as crises on the domestic and international fronts pile up on this most traditional of sports.
In what may yet prove to be a bodyblow to the heart of the sport at club level, within the last fortnight 1500 club curlers in Glasgow and the west of Scotland have been left homeless. This is the result of management of Glasgow's Summit Centre declaring that the doors of one of Scotland's top curling venues - home to a host of world and Scottish championships - will never open again.
As a result, next season's Scottish championships, which will determine who represents Scotland at the World Championships, is as homeless as the 80-odd west of Scotland clubs that till now have used Glasgow's only curling venue as their base. With no alternative within the city boundaries, the question is: how many of these curlers will be lost to the sport forever?
This is only one difficulty the sport faces. Despite the exposure of curling's debut at the Nagano Winter Olympics, Scotland's and Britain's top level performers ended the season medal-less - the first time in the '90s that no medal has been won by Scottish teams at senior world championship level. A silver by Garry MacKay's team at the world juniors and a bronze by the ultimately discredited Dryburgh rink at the European championships was the sum of Scottish achievement.
Meanwhile, the doubts and criticisms about the effectiveness of support given to the top performers remains a strong topic, particularly as the British Curling Association looks to reorganise its personnel this summer. This is the body that was set up to manage British curling's Olympic effort which has been roundly criticised.
At the same senior level, the sponsorship cupboard is bare. Having enjoyed the support of many of the Scotch whisky industry's top brand names for the past 10 years and more, the Royal Club does not have a supporter for either its national championships or senior national teams. Worse, despite months of trying, there is no news of any company being prepared to take up either mantle. Apart from the lack of kudos, this situation places a real strain on Royal Club finances. Unless a white knight company appears, ultimately the ordinary club curler will, no doubt, be asked to subsidise the top teams - a recipe for friction.
By contrast, at junior level, the Royal Club's sponsorship situation has never been healthier, with the Bank of Scotland agreeing to expand its support of both top level national competitions and the grassroots ''Curling is Cool'' introductory programme.
In this scenario of doom and gloom, there is one shaft of light as the Royal Club struggles to reorganise itself.
At this week's meeting a presentation will be made outlining the thoughts of the special ''Looking Ahead'' group that met earlier this year in Stirling.
While this group has clearly recognised many of the shortcomings of a structure that has remained static for a century and more, it now faces the substantially more difficult task of persuading delegates and officials at the annual meeting to agree to dilute their own powers for the good of the sport.
This move has been likened by some members of the group as asking turkeys to vote for Christmas, but this year's meeting is only being asked to consider the possibilities of change, giving the delegates and clubs a year to consider whether they want to approve the blueprint. Ken Scott will no doubt be relieved that the Royal Club will only be asked to make some painful decisions after he, too, has remitted office.
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