Curling: Rhona crowned as the ice queen

Olympic champion puts world champion in her place

Rhona Martin slid into the nation's consciousness in February when she delivered the so-called "stone of destiny" to secure the Olympic women's curling gold medal for Britain. Yesterday she confirmed her status as the best in the world by sliding to victory, occasionally on her backside, over her fellow Scot, Jackie Lockhart, the current world champion.

The action was played out in front an enthusiastic capacity crowd of 600, none of whom seem especially bemused by the novel format of the event. Playing under special rules designed for the occasion, it was deemed that whichever side had the "hammer" (the right to deliver the final stone of each end) needed to score at least two to win an end. If the team without the hammer scored at all, they won the end. If the team with the hammer scored just one, the end was "rolled over" into the next end. If anyone was confused, they were not letting it show.

The official margin of victory in this one-off special, organised by the British Olympic Association and screened live by the BBC from a Glasgow shopping centre, was £5,300 to £4,700. That was the value of the prizes that the respective skips took home. Instead of points, this was a "skins" contest, each of the 10 ends being worth between £500 and £2,000. For the purists, Martin also won on points, 9-7, largely thanks to scoring four in the first end.

"Of course I'm happy with the win," said Martin, who has now beaten Lockhart four times in four matches since the latter became the world champion in Bismarck, North Dakota, in April. "This isn't a format that we play very much and also the ice was deteriorating in the final three ends. But more than that I hope that today will give a boost to our sport."

The intangible margin of victory for curling will become apparent in the coming days. Firstly, when the viewing figures for yesterday's contest are announced. Anything remotely near a repeat of the 5.7m who saw Martin and Co triumph on the Ogden ice sheet in America would be a triumph for what is a complex minority sport, essentially confined in Britain to Scotland because of the lack of facilities elsewhere.

The second indicator will come when the BBC hosts its Sports Personality of the Year Awards on Sunday. Martin's rink are in the running for the Team of the Year award. Victory for the European Ryder Cup team is expected, probably ahead of Double winners Arsenal in second place. But the fact that Martin's team – the only all-British side or genuine world-beating side in contention – will be there or thereabouts says much for the public appetite for romantic achievements by underdogs.

Both teams' achievement on the world stage come into that category. At one point during the Olympics, Martin was on the verge of elimination in the round-robin phase. "It's finished. We played rubbish, we're out. We're dead," she memorably said before other results went her way and her rink – Janice Rankin, Fiona McDonald and Debbie Knox being the other members – eventually progressed to the final, where they beat Switzerland on the final shot.

On their return home, their first competition, the Scottish national championships, saw them meet Lockhart's rink, and lose. Hence Lockhart went to the world championships in April. There Lockhart – and Anne Laird, Katriona Fairweather and Sheila Swan – beat Sweden, also on the final shot. And by coincidence, that final shot was delivered with the same stone Martin had used in the Olympics. The stone of destiny, a lump of granite that would lead to three hours' televised curling months later.