(Apologies – wrote this after the game but forgot to post it. JW 24/2/23)
Team Waterlow had the regular line-up but Team Auld was light on originals. Dougie and Dee were in attendance but the temporarily absent James was replaced by super-sub Bob Cameron while the holidaying Rob had been unable to find an alternate, despite a club-wide appeal several days earlier. So then there were three.
I sometimes wonder if these reports should be written by the losers of the game rather than the winners. That way we would perhaps gain a greater insight into the anguish felt over the result. The sense of “what might have been” and “if only”; the internal howl of despair at the unfairness of it all. And in this case, the loser’s perceived injustice of Team Waterlow overtaking them in the dying throws of the game?
By the sixth end, team Auld could quite justifiably be feeling pretty confident. They were leading six stones to four and were asking questions of Team Waterlow that weren’t really being answered. Team W’s score of four was largely down to just one (admittedly stunning) shot in the third end from Jim Craig who had blasted clean through a gap narrower than Rishi Sunak’s trouser leg to clear the centre of the opposition’s stone to lie three. Other than that, fireworks from Team W were notably absent.
But then in the seventh end it happened again. Another three gained by Team W thanks to a pretty outlandish shot. In order to clear an outlying Auld stone and make the three, JW’s last shot needed to run right down the snow and dust on very edge of rink one and yet it also had to curl in. It was unknown territory but somehow it worked. The stone was removed. 7-6 to Team Waterlow. Try as they might, Team Auld couldn’t pull it back in the eighth end, dropping another single. They were magnanimous in defeat, but it hurts when such good work has so little to show for it.
John.
Holyrood Curling Club 