Post Messenger Recorder -

The Alpine Curling Club held a Bonspiel recently, which is a mixed invitational. On Saturday morning they had a breakfast for all of the curlers that participated and on Saturday night there was a sit down banquet, entertainment and a raffle.

Normally, there is a Scottish or Irish bag-piper that "pipes" the teams out onto the ice as they head to the other end of the ice house then proceed back as a "line" but this year, Chairwoman Dawn Johnson put a Swiss twist on the piping and invited George Albright, Heinz Mattmann and Ed Brand to "alphorn" the teams onto and "down" the ice.

The alphorn players performed two songs while on the ice. The first as the teams entered the proceeded to the "hog line" where, then, the skips of each team came "forward" for the celebratory shot of "scotch" as this is a Scottish game started over 350 years ago.

After a Swiss greeting, translated to English, our "alphorn-ers" preformed another song.

After they left the ice they performed several more songs in the clubhouse for other participants and club members to enjoy.  Their horns filled the ice arena to a wonderful resonance and full spectrum of incredible sound.