Preston curling team made up of Under 16s make December World Championships based in Finland

Matthew, 16, George, 15, Oli, 14, Ollie and Niall both 12, will compete representing England in the World Junior B Championships held in Lohja, Finland, in December. The boys from Preston are students by day and national curling title holders by night, as they train every Monday night at Garstang’s Flower Bowl, across from Barton Grange, in anticipation of the big world competition.

All five boys are part of Preston Curling club and have been practising since the Flower Bowl opened in 2019, almost four years ago. They met at the Junior curling sessions where they developed Team Waring and grew their love for the sport as a group.

The local boys won the National Curling Championships in March this year, where the age range for the Junior men’s competition is 11 to 21 years-old, where they beat a team from the South to win their place at the Finland based World Championships.

Matthew, the team’s Skip said: “Not many people understand the sport when we tell them. Obviously they may not know the sport but then they are really happy when we tell them more about it. We are really excited for Finland

"We are very proud of how far we have come. We started from just learning how to slide to being the best team in England, it’s quite an achievement.”

The boys will travel to Finland from the 8th of December in a week long competition in a bid to win in the World Championships against boys aged up to 21, despite half of Team Waring being almost 10 years their junior.

George, the team’s Vice, said: “It is an unusual sport, I enjoy the fact that not many people play it, there is a variety of people who do play and everyone who plays curling are such lovely people.”

To help send them on their trip, the team needed to source money for the journey. To do this the boys camped over night on the roof of where they train on August 29.

Ollie, the team’s Lead, said: “I had the idea to raise money, we asked Guy from the Flower Bowl and he said yes so we’re camping there overnight. It will be a few of our parents and our coach.”

The team are looking to raise £5000 to cover accomodation, flights, equipment, uniform and food for the trip which currently is coming out of the young boys ‘pocket money’. Team Waring have set up social media platfroms and a GoFundMe page to help with financial and moral support for the trip.

The boys have been coached by Rick Hills who has recently become President of the English Curling Association and who they say has devoted so much time and energy to this team and got them to where they are.

Team Waring have also shown their gratitude for Guy from the Flower Bowl, the Flower Bowl and to Preston Curling Club for all their support they have given the boys over the past couple of years.