This was the first game of the season for these two rinks and everyone was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and raring for the fight. Old friends but now new team mates were warmly greeted in what has now become the traditional pre-game huddle upstairs – it was just like the first day of a new term back at school when stories of summer holiday adventures and derring-do were exchanged.
Substitutes abounded in Team MacConnachie with both the leader himself and the returning George Morrison otherwise engaged. Standing in their stead were Kay Wilson and new boy (quite literally) Niall Macintosh both of whom had been drawn from the club’s considerably expanded pool of reserves. Colin Appleby ably donned the skip’s cloak.
On the other hand Team Waterlow were at full muster, with a particular welcome for Jim “Superlube” Craig who, like Geemo, has returned to the Holyrood fold after a brief hiatus to partner Fiona, Richard and John this year.
It was a relatively high scoring game which was conducted at a brisk pace with eight ends easily fitted into the allotted time – it is of note that with less time-consuming anti-Covid procedures for the ice team to follow and in some compensation for the unwelcome hike in ice fees, the rink have extended the sessions by ten minutes. Eight games should be the norm rather than the exception this season.
The game ended with a clear and well deserved 8-5 victory to Team MacConnachie who simply out-played their opposition for much of the game.
It didn’t look like that in the first end though. On ice that was slow and barely drawing on either hand, Team Waterlow got off to a confident start with a fine three, managing to find the house more easily than their opponents.
But thereafter the boot was for the most part on the other foot. Colin’s initially wayward shots in the earlier ends became increasingly more accurate, as did those of Gill and Kay, while Niall at lead was doing a fine job on what was only his third or so foray on the ice. So Team MacConnachie quickly broke their duck with a single in the second.
At the third end Team Waterlow prevailed to score one and at this stage it could still have been anybody’s game. But Team Waterlow struggled with accuracy and length over the subsequent ends, their skip finding that the all-important skip’s lets-get-us-out-of-trouble throws were just not working. Even a rare success in threading through a narrow slot to hit two of the opposition’s button-lying stones failed to achieve a scoring position. So after Colin and his team had taken a confidence boosting three on the fourth (the cheers echoed around the rink as Colin’s last stone increased the score from two to three) it was uphill all the way.
Team Waterlow were able to score only once more in the game with a solitary single in the eighth, little consolation in a game that had slipped away from them.
With the rink bar closed and most still having had no tea, we slipped off into the night….
John W.
Holyrood Curling Club 