Teams B and D were at full strength for this match, as the season gets towards the sharp end. Team B lost the toss and chose blue stones. My team D got an early yellow counter, though it felt very precarious as it became surrounded by four blues in the house. Still, we managed to guard that lone counter, and it held on to score a single.
We were on sheet one, and the ice was strange – playing generally dead straight down the north side, while in-swinging well but sometimes massively on the south side by the edge.
Second end saw the first two stones stop short before Fiona got to the button behind them, and that stone remained shielded to count one for 1-1.
Third end we’d got more of a feel for the ice, and Dave and James laid two well-guarded counters on the left, and with the hammer I could draw a last-stone counter down the right.
Fourth end was decisive, with a good spread of yellows developing while blue stones seemed to either stop short or go through, so in the end five yellows had the house to themselves.
John pulled one back next, but that was to be it, as things just wouldn’t go their way on the night.
This result means that our team D will now finish somewhere nicely mid-table, after a strange season distinctly ‘of two halves’! Losing the first straight six games, often narrowly, but then winning seven out of eight, with good stats. I’m really grateful to Dave, James and Ken for staying positive through that first half, staying with the rather different tactics, and just playing so well as a team, thanks guys.
Also (in case this is my last match report this season), to me it emphasises how surprisingly tricky it is to shift mind-set from being full-time third to being the full-time skip. I think this may be the first season in years (ever?) that the skip emerging from the previous Thirds’ mini-league has then managed to stay on to skip for a second season? It’s clearly tricky – but it could be seen as this good rotation scheme now working fully at last.
Plenty of curling left, with a couple of games and the Awayday yet to come, on we go, cheers …
Rob.
Holyrood Curling Club 