Match 25 of 30 in the Main League

Both rinks took to the ice with their designated rinks with one exception. ‘Sweet Chariot’ was scheduled to turn out for Team D’s five man rink with ‘Tides out’ standing down – would that turn the odds in favour of rink ‘Deemo’?

‘Sweet Chariot’ had succumbed to a bug so ‘Tides Out’ was thrust into the action once again. So Rink D took to the ice with the familiar setup of ‘Tides Out’ as skip with ‘The Young Yin’ at 3^rd, ‘Special K’ at 2^nd and ‘Blue’ as the sharp point. Rink ‘Deemo’ came out to bat with ‘The Maverick’ at 3^rd , ‘Ivor the Engine’ in at 2^nd and ‘Newsprint’ kicking off at lead to blunt the opposition attack.  

Was this to be a rerun of our last encounter? – Rink ‘Deemo’ hoped that not to be the case as a win in this match would set them up in a stronger position to secure the league – but these things are never a given.

The first end had got rink Deemo off to a sound start by counting a three – an unusual start which caught them off guard – could that advantage be maintained?  With no stones having gone through the head there was a collection of granite sitting short of the house with all commenting on how slow the ice was – still three stone counting for rink ‘Deemo’.

End two saw a similar situation develop with a defensive line of rocks across the front of the head for rink ‘Deemo’ which ultimately led to them keeping rink ‘Tides out’ scratching about for a way into the head and setting up another count of three for rink ‘Deemo’ without the hammer. A comfortable start for rink ‘Deemo’ – when would the wheels come off the wagon?

Ends three and four saw a resurgence for ‘Tides out’ scoring singles at each. However, end three in particular was critical when ‘Team D’ were restricted to counting a single shot after a deft draw by ‘The Maverick’ which intersected two counting opposition stones keeping them to one when a two or three count was looking possible.

With consistent shooting by rink ‘Deemo’ on ends five, six and seven they picked up a two then two consecutive singles to run out winners by ten shots to two. A satisfying night’s work for rink ‘Deemo’ means that they keep the initiative in the race to secure this season’s title but not quite over the line yet while needing to secure one point from four in our final two games.

It has been a close run season, enjoyable and nerve-wracking at times with the contest still live at this stage to see who takes the crown at one end and the wooden spoon at the other.

Till the next time – enjoy the visit to Hamilton for those taking part in the ‘Away-day’ event and we shall see how the final games decide our fate.

Deemo

This is where we challenge ourselves as much as our fellow Holyrood members by undertaking various technical deliveries – things that we should already be used to in our day-to-day curling games. But with no skip or sweepers to blame for errant shots, this competition really shows us whether we are as good as we think we are! 

The format of the exercises is set by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club:

http://royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2011-Points-Competition-Rules-Diagrams-and-Scorecard-Web-Version.pdf

Not one but two magnificent trophies are up for grabs every year.  The Loving Cup on its huge elephant’s foot stand which goes to the overall winner – John MacConnachie last year – and the Curling Stone Silver Kettle for the handicap winner – George Morrison taking the honours a year ago.  Both of course are a nightmare to keep polished but that is a small price to pay for the privilege of winning.

The handicaps are set by Club President, Dougie Auld, and Secretary, John Waterlow, and it involves much head scratching but perhaps not enough rigorous analysis of past results.  Suffice to say, recent competition winners and team skips are given the least advantage by the handicappers.

This year there were 12 members in attendance – much the same as recent years and about the right number as it keeps down the waiting between turns. It was the usual enjoyable evening albeit at times frustrating as you realise how much you miss relying on the skip to set how much ice to take and call the sweeping.

We had agreed at our last AGM to ring the changes by playing first through the even number exercises and then the odd numbers.  We managed to get through six exercises in total, finishing with the first of the odd number exercises, striking, which yours truly found the most frustrating as it looks simple but isn’t!

With the scores quickly added up by Dougie and myself while everyone was getting their drinks upstairs, the results were revealed to the awaiting crowd:

Overall winner – David Morrison was a clear victor here with an excellent 22 points, well ahead of the pack.

Handicap winner – Richard Wilson achieved a net 21 points to bag the silver kettle.

Note that Club tradition has it that one individual cannot win both the overall and handicap titles so David’s net 22 points based on a zero handicap is discounted. Clearly the handicappers need to take note and negative handicaps may be considered next year.

John W.