A father and son from Scotland are to make history while playing for England at the World Senior Curling Championships in Geneva, Switzerland.
Andy McGlynn lives in Forfar and his Inverness-born son Douglas in Nairn.
They will be the first father and son to compete in the same team at the championships and, at 83 years old, Andy will be the event’s oldest ever competitor.
The men qualify for the England team because Andy was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Douglas, who describes himself as a proud Scot and curled with the Scottish Juniors, is the England team’s skip.
He said he and his dad were “really excited” about competing and it was an opportunity too good to miss.
“I saw this as a way to circumvent the Scottish system because qualifying out of Scotland is so hard. There’s so many good curlers in Scotland,” said Douglas.
“I don’t see it as representing England in terms of the shirt. For me it’s just you’re putting a top on.
“To be able to curl at this level and gain this amount of experience has been a long term dream for me.”
Douglas, a father-of-two, added: “We have lots of sportspeople who are born in one country and play for another and I thought if they can do it why shouldn’t I.”
He said he had spoken to the dad of Scottish Olympic curler Hammy McMillan and he told him the opportunity to play at international level should be “grabbed with both hands”.
“I felt a little bit more vindicated by that,” said Douglas.
Proud son
Douglas, who lived in Canada for 23 years and curled competitively in the Canadian provincial league system, returned to Scotland during the Covid pandemic.
He then worked in Wales but curled in Preston and that was when he was invited to form a curling team to qualify for the world championships.
The England team successfully qualification and it is currently ranked ninth in the world.
Douglas said he was proud of his dad’s achievements – which include coaching the England team last year, and a number of champion curlers over the years.
They have included Olympic silver medallist and world gold medal winner Greg Drummond, and Ricky Tasker who has represented Australia and won gold and silver at the Pacific Asia Championships.
Douglas said it was a special year for his dad, who has continued to compete after having had two knee and hip operations.
He said: “I think he hopes it’s an inspiration for other people to look at that and go ‘wow, if you’re 83 and you’re representing a national team at the worlds then I can go out and do that too’.”
The pair are due to be in action on Sunday when England take on Hong Kong.