(This report was written two weeks in arrears by the vanquished team – Churchill is said to have claimed that “history is written by the victors” but this doesn’t apply to Holyrood it seems. The finer details of the match have already been lost in the mists of time but hopefully the following gives a sense of the occasion)
This was a match where both rinks were keen to get their season off the ground, having won neither of the two matches in which they had previously played.
Team Kinnaird were fielding a substitute in the form of the inestimable Bob Cameron, back now in the Holyrood fold as a valued reserve member. Team MacConnachie were complete and original and, as it turned out, operating as a cohesive and formidable unit. Nothing that Alice and her cohort could throw at them – more precisely at their stones on the ice – could overcome their sparkling return to form. All of Team MacConnachie were playing well but Fiona Auld at lead must be singled out for mention in despatches. Her deliveries were largely textbook – the stones ending up exactly where the skip had directed in the house – and there was barely a duff stone throughout the game.
So after a shaky start from Team Kinnaird, who dropped a point in the first end and then two in the second, they had reason to hope the tide might be turning by claiming a single point in the third end. But then came the killer blow as they went down a five in the fourth and their tails dropped.
Skip MacConnachie was having a dream game – from lead to third his team were getting stones in the house leaving him with the job of putting up guards against Alice’s best efforts.
After the disappointment of the killer fourth end, Team Kinnaird managed to pull back another point in the fifth but in reality it was all over bar the shouting. Team MacConnachie completed the rout with a three in the sixth. They possibly took their foot of the gas a little too much in the seventh to concede a single to Team Kinnaird but by then it was academic.
The final result was 11 for Team MacConnachie, 3 to Team Kinnaird – much licking of wounds for the latter, celebrations for getting on the scoreboard for the former.
John W 8th November 2021
Holyrood Curling Club 