The Grand Match, also called The Bonspiel, is an outdoor curling tournament, or bonspiel, held most recently on the Lake of Menteith in Stirling, Scotland when the weather is cold enough. Traditionally it is a match between the north and south of Scotland.
The last tournament was held in 1979. From then until 2010, a loch never froze to the required depth of seven inches[1] of ice to allow the tournament to take place. It can attract thousands of curlers when it is held.[2] The Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC) stated in December 2010 that the Lake of Mentieth is no longer suitable for holding a Grand Match due to the logistics involved, with Loch Leven and the Piper Dam in Dundee now the preferred sites.[2]
In total the Grand Match has taken place on 38 occasions, of which 33 were on outside ice: 1 in November, 9 in December, 16 in January, and 7 in February. The 5 indoor matches were held at the Edinburgh and Glasgow ice rinks.
On the 5th January 2010, following weeks of freezing weather conditions throughout the UK, the RCCC met to discuss holding the event for the first time in 30 years,[3] however just days later the plans had to be scrapped as Health & Safety issues could not be resolved in the short time scales available.[4] However upwards of 20,000 people turned up over the weekend in defiance of the police and numerous matches were held on the ice. An unofficial tournament was planned for a few days later, not sanctioned by the RCCC. This had to be abandoned due to the warmer weather making the ice dangerous.[5]
To celebrate the Millennium, an Indoor Grand Match was inaugruated in 2000, and this proved so popular that it had become a regular event, being held every 5 years since. It is spread across several indoor ice rinks across the nation, with the last Indoor Grand Match in October 2010 being won by the South of Scotland.[6]