Welsh gold at Salt Lake; The curling stone that brought glory to Great Britain at the Winter Olympics was quarried from the solid blue granite of North Wales.
Byline: David PowellSCOTLAND is the spiritual home of the ancient and, until this week, little known sport of curling.
The same country also provided the five women curlers who on Thursday night gave Britain its first Winter Olympic gold in 18 years.
But as millions tuned in to watch the nail-biting final, few would have realised it was Welsh granite sliding across the ice in Salt Lake City.
Last night the men responsible for hewing the curling "stones" told of their pleasure at seeing their work turning to gold.
The 42lbs of granite came from Chwarel yr Eifl in Trefor, between Pwllheli and Caernarfon.
Quarry owner Trefor Davies said: "It's our granite and I am proud that a gold medal has come from it. There's no 'if' about it, it's definitely ours. I can recognise the colour, which is called Trefor Blue."
Mr Davies took control of the quarry in the same year ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won Britain's last Winter Olympic gold.
His granite blocks are sold to Kays Crafts in Mauchline in Ayrshire, Scotland, and to the Canada Curling Stone Company in Ontario for shaping and polishing.
Kays, a 130-year-old firm, is Europe's only manufacturer of the stones.
It makes 600 stones a year for the sport, played by 30,000 Britons - mostly in Scotland.
The North Wales quarrier sends a shipload of blocks of fine granite in raw form to Canada once a year.
Some of the curling stones are made exclusively of Trefor granite.
Others are made up of 95pc Trefor granite and 5pc from a quarry on the volcanic island of Ailsa Craig, off the Firth of Clyde, Scotland.
Diamond cutters are used to shape the lumps into curling stones.
To merge the two granite types together, Mr Davies said: "They cut out a dish from the base of a piece of Trefor granite and insert a slice of Ailsa Craig granite."
Resin is used to bind the two together.
Each stone can cost as much as pounds 200.
In the last three years Mr Davies has invested pounds 100,000 in specialist sawing and shaping equipment which will shape granite at his own premises and make production easier.
He said: "These stones last for a number of years. How much we supply for new curling clubs varies from year to year, and depends on whether there's an increase in popularity.
"After the gold medal, there could be more interest in Wales. I don't know about the rest of the world."
Since it opened in 1850, the quarry at Trefor has yielded millions of tonnes of granite. Some 700 men used to work there.
Now only five people produce granite for kerbs, curling stones, fountains, bollards and table tops.
CURLING stones were actually produced in North Wales until the mid 1990s.
Charles Drackett, 79, who worked in Deganwy Quay, said:
"I only wish it had happened when I was still working there. I might be better off by now."
For 30 years from 1965, he and Mike Hughes shaped and polished curling stones at Bonspiel Curling Stone Company Ltd.
The name Bonspiel means "a good game".
In the mid-1990s, landowner Charlie Bell sold the site and the factory closed.
Londoner Mr Drackett, now of Overlea Avenue, Deganwy, retired, and Mr Hughes joined curling stone makers in Mauchline, Ayrshire.
Mr Drackett worked with 16 ins by 12 ins granite from Trefor quarry.
His 12 workers would core it out and glue in a piece of Ailsa Craig granite.
CAPTION(S):
GREAT SCOTS: The British Curling team with their medals WELSH CRAFT: Trefor Davies CURL UP: Hugh Meikle at the Deeside rink, which expects a surge of interest in the sport
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| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
|---|---|
| Date: | Feb 23, 2002 |
| Words: | 618 |
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