Rinks : ‘A’ Maccornerkicky  v.  ‘C’  Deemo

‘Match 7 of 15 in the Main League for Deemo !’

On arrival the squads were found in the bar area partaking of ‘bants’ before taking to the ice. Rink Maccornerkicky were evidenced by ‘the Young Yin’ and two substitutes in the form of ‘Flour Power’ and ‘The Scalpel’. Rink Deemo were complete in their most deadly formation with ‘Snudge’ at lead, ‘Sweet Chariot’ at second and the irrepressible ‘Super Lube’ at third being led into the foray by ‘Deemo’ who was barely awake but thankfully responsive to the calls of his Third!

Rink Deemo won the toss and ‘Snudge’ encouraged ‘The Scalpel’ to kick off the action which she did in usual fashion by placing stones on the front edge of the house, no range finder required! ‘Snudge’ duly stepped onto the hack to play his stone in similar fashion. This was to be their own personal battle for the evening and when one played a stone through the house the other duly followed – I can only remember one stone of each clearing the house such was their accuracy.

This set the tone for the match and despite having last stone Deemo was left with two stones against after the first end. End two was a case of ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ with rink Maccornerkicky lying on shot on the pot lid whilst rink Deemo had a stone directly in front and one directly behind the shot rock – and those three stones were protected by a clutter of stones in front of the house. Deemo had last stone and faced with this puzzle had a quick confab with ‘Super Lube’ who had had his protractor and compass out to survey the dimensional layout. It was decided that with two Rink Deemo stones lying slightly on the wings it might be possible to do an angled raise on one of the stones to push it onto the shot rock in the centre and displace it. The contact spot for the stone to be struck was calculated at a half inch off centre – that would do the trick and Deemo concurred. The shot was played and despite opposing shouts to the sweepers from both ends of the rink the desired stone was struck and took the shot rock out for Rink Deemo to record a score of three. At this juncture Deemo was stopped from rushing out to buy a lottery ticket and reminded that there a few more ends to play.

End three saw Rink Deemo chalk up another two shots to go into end four with a three shot lead at 5 shots to 2. That end and the following two saw Rink Maccornerkicky pick up a further two shots whilst rink Deemo added a further one to their tally for the scores to sit at 6 shots to 4 for rink ‘Deemo’.

A quick look at the clock indicated that we were now into the final end and if Deemo, who had the hammer, could limit rink Maccornerkicky to a steal of one shot then the win would be secured. End seven got off to a familiar start with both leads replicating each other’s shots. Rink Deemo were lying one shot at the back of the head with the other lead shots lying in a protective bundle to the front of the house. It was at this point things started to ‘pear shaped’ for rink Deemo as both ‘Flour Power’ and ‘the Young Yin’ grasped the nettle and peppered the head with shots that sneaked passed the clutter of front stones to look like a potential score of four if they could displace our stone lying towards the back of the house!!!!!!

It was now up to Mr Maccornerkicky to raise one of his front stones into the house to at least secure a count of two and square the match.  However, his shot came up a little short and marginally cleared a path to their shot rock which hitherto had been partly obscured. An opportunity now presented itself to Rink Deemo to possibly hit the shot rock on the nose and stay for a count of one and potentially secure the win. Taking fairly tight ice, as directed by ‘Super Lube’, Deemo played his shot and the sweepers were called on at once to keep the stone straight and true. The sweepers worked their thermal socks off and managed to guide the stone past a front obstacle by the tightest of margins to see it strike the shot rock on the nose and propel it through the house while lying shot in its place. Well done the sweepers. It was now up to Mr Maccornerkicky to follow that shot but it curled too much and wrecked on the stones to the front of the house. Deemo played his last stone which had everybody’s heart in their mouth but thankfully no damage was done and the win secured at seven shots to four.      

A most enjoyable match with some excellent shots made and no time to relax for all concerned – thank you.

Onwards and upwards was the cry while we enjoyed our after-game refreshments whilst contemplating our next matches.

Bye for now.

Deemo