As I have quoted in the past, history is written by the victors. But not in this case. Here follows the briefest of accounts from the skip of the losing side, still licking his wounds almost a week later.
It was another close match but Team Waterlow’s recent habit of dropping a big score early on continued and gave us an uphill struggle to claw back the points needed for victory – and ultimately we just failed to manage it.
We were up against a diminished Team MacConnachie as there had been no takers from a call to replace the absent Gill. Team Waterlow was at full strength and aware that we needed a good result to banish the spectre of the looming wooden spoon in the league order.
After the unfortunate dropping of a four in the second end, we played well – indeed a bit more consistently than Team MacConnachie perhaps. By the sixth end we had pulled back the deficit and at 5 all (and well ahead on ends), we went into the seventh end with everything to play for. However, it was not to be. We stumbled as the end progressed and any chance of victory was dashed by yours truly’s failed attempt to draw something into the middle.
‘Match Twelve of 15 in the Main League for Deemo!’
The rinks assembled in the bar area but some well-kent faces were notably absent and on arrival of ‘Tides out’ there was mild panic as his rink looked to be one man down. The ‘Young Yin’ just happened to be loitering in the bar having just completed a game in the preceding session (if I remember correctly) and was promptly seconded to make up the rink. Both rinks now had a full complement of players made up thus:
Rink ‘Tides Out’ comprised the man himself with ‘The Scalpel’ at third, ‘The Young Yin’ at two with ‘Flour Power’ playing lead.
Rink ‘Deemo’ comprised ‘he himself’ with ‘Super Lube’ at third, ‘Special K’ subbing for ‘Sweet Chariot ’ at second, and with ‘Snudge’ performing his normal heroics at lead.
The first end concluded with ‘Deemo’ scoring a single shot that calmed the nerves and assured that ‘the Granny’ was going to be avoided no matter what was to follow. The second end saw ‘Deemo’ score a four which was totally out of character but gave a little ‘breathing space’ in the continuing struggle. A single at the third end for ‘Deemo’ kept up the positive mood – for the time being. Where were rink ‘Tides Out’ in all of this? – they felt as if all luck had deserted them with all the calls going rink ‘Deemo’s’ way.
The fourth end saw a change in fortunes with ‘Tides Out’ regaining their mojo and scoring a three: ‘Game On’. End five saw a complete change in fortunes with rink ‘Tides Out’ scoring a four to take the lead for the first time at seven shots to six!!! Yikes, ‘Deemo’ felt like the proverbial rabbit in the head lights with shots coming up short and skip shots making no impact on the game.
The sixth end saw a break in proceedings with rink ‘Deemo’ grabbing a single shot when there had been potential for a score of four or five – skip rocks not coming good at a critical point again. With ‘Tides Out’ regaining the hammer for what looked very much like the last end the feeling in rink ‘Deemo’ was one of resignation but they had to give it a go.
The seventh end was progressing in ‘Deemo’s’ favour with his second last shot taking out an opposing stone to lie shot but partly hidden behind a collection of stones at the front of the house. With the line to the shot rock established it was up to ‘Tides Out’ to replicate the shot but he only caught a thin edge of shot rock and pushed it further behind cover. ‘Deemo’ then tried to play a guard shot on the other side of the head to block a potential draw from that side but his shot came up woefully short. It was all down to ‘Tides out’ last stone and he decided to try and replicate his first shot with a draw to the button.
Rink ‘Deemo’ collectively stood behind the head holding their breath as the stone was played – it looked to be on line and good weight but it just managed to miss the draw and slid to the back of the house and out of contention – rink ‘Deemo’ took a single shot to win the game 8 shots to 7. PHEW!
A good game but a nerve jangler for rink ‘Deemo’ who still strive to win the league this season but with no room for errors at this stage. Meanwhile rink ‘Tides Out’ is trying desperately to make up ground on the points front to avoid a possible relegation situation. It is by no means a done deal for any of the four rinks with everything still to play for.
Onwards and upwards was the cry from all as we enjoyed our after game refreshment whilst contemplating our next matches.
Both teams were complete for this match, and Team D having lost the toss led off playing yellow stones, playing on the middle sheet 4.
It turned out this ice was playing very slow, especially on some patches, so the whole match was characterised by draw-shots coming up short, and so building up a guddle of stones in front of the house. This was evident from the start, but I did manage to curl a draw behind that cover to score one against the hammer in end 1.
John then did much the same on end 2, and scores then went with the hammer for the rest of the match. John scored two in end 4, and I managed to draw in both shots on end 5 for a three.
As so often, the memorable stones came right at the very end, with the score at 5-4 and yellow with hammer.
By the thirds’ stones, there was the usual guddle in front, and a yellow stone counting in the house. Dougie took his own initiative to attempt a promotion on a central blue guard, and it worked well, to lay as the new guarded counter.
Both first stones from the skips hit guards and made the guddle more impenetrable, so a 5-5 draw was looking very likely.
John opted with his last stone to replicate the promotion shot on a front blue. Unfortunately, it instead hit the neighbouring yellow stone, which turned into a long, angled raise to hit that blue counter, knocking it back and leaving the two yellows counting. And that’s how it finished, a 7-4 result.
Holyrood Curling Club 