The Night of the Substitutes
The third game of the new season pitted arch-rivals Deemo and Waterlow against eachother for the first time. Except that it didn’t as a number of the principal players were absent, notably Deemo himself. His doughty veteran number three, Jim Craig, was also missing. Their places were ably filled by Dougie Auld and super-sub Bob Cameron. This meant Team Deemo regulars Steve Laux and Billy Fraser were promoted to skip and third respectively.
As for Team Waterlow, Donny Hay was still running around a hockey field in Cape Town so his place was filled by Colin Appleby. Fiona Auld was back from partying down south to take lead, Colin was nominated second and Richard Willson was as usual at third. So all present and correct and with the bell about to go, the teams were ready for the off. Hang on a minute, where’s Richard? Cue a panic phone call to discover a diary malfunction meant he was relaxing at home. He immediately dashed off at a pace, intent on arriving before the last stone of the first end to beat the three point penalty deadline.
Meanwhile the game commenced. With everyone still feeling a bit new to the ice, accuracy was coming second to enthusiasm and judging the ice was difficult. It seemed fast down one side, slower down the other and the stones were curling considerably down both.
The first end resulted in a single to Team Waterlow and this set the pattern for the next couple of ends. Team Deemo were still getting used to the new order of things with skip Laux and the sweepers not always seeing things eye to eye.
Richard had arrived with minutes to spare so with no forfeit to be accounted for, after three ends Team Waterlow were four stones up with Team Deemo yet to open their score.
But in the fourth Team Deemo started to get it together, scoring a fine single as Team Waterlow failed to find a way through to a well-protected stone.
That protected position was reversed in the fifth though and Skip JW was lucky enough to draw around the front wall to make it a two.
End six saw the shot of the match. As the end progressed, Team W had a scoring stone near the button but it was increasingly surrounded by Team Deemo stones. A dislodged guard left the lead stone exposed although the path to it was tight. Undaunted, Skip Laux narrowed his eyes, drew back his stone and delivered an absolute corker – straight through the gap onto the pesky opposition stone. When the dust settled it was just bad luck that Team Deemo was up only a single – they deserved more.
For the seventh and final end and despite some fine deliveries, Team Deemo were at a two stone disadvantage by the time Skip JW was due to take his final stone – there was little to be gained by risking going for a three so he stuck his final stone up his metaphorical jumper and shook hands to finish an enjoyable game.
John.
Holyrood Curling Club 