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.

A night to remember – for all the wrong reasons.

This first game of the 2024/25 season started with high hopes but finished, prematurely, with a disaster.  Poor George Morrison, whose star had shone brightly for four ends, took a nasty fall in the fifth which resulted in him being taken by ambulance to A&E.  A broken hip has been diagnosed and at the time of writing, the prognosis is for surgery to repair the damage followed by a lengthy recovery period.

It all started so well.  Full of new term brightness and enthusiasm the teams assembled at the allotted hour of 6 pm.  Well, almost at the allotted time as Donny Hay came panting through the door just as the first end was getting under way after hitting heavy traffic – on his bicycle.  Actually it was work that had kept him but all was fine since he was well within the permitted allowance for lateness. He joined his Team Waterlow team mates Richard Willson who was playing third and Kay Wilson at lead, the latter subbing for Fiona Auld. (There were Auld sized gaps in both teams due to Fiona and Dougie being away at a distant wedding this week).

Team MacConnachie comprised the aforesaid Geemo at third, and not one, but two substitutes; Rob Garner in at second for the missing Dougie and lead Bob Cameron standing in for an absent Gill Neil.

Your correspondent had already played his first game with VETS the previous morning and found the ice to be as keen as a razor’s edge.  Would it be the same? Of course not – it was just the opposite.  The first end saw a lot of stones falling short and it felt as if there had been a fresh fall of snow on the rink. Team MacConnachie were much better at coping with the conditions, notably Geemo who was already on fire.  With the build-up of stones at the front, skip Waterlow singularly failed to get anything in the house and at the finish of a catastrophic end, Team W found themselves to be five stones in arrears – not an encouraging start.

Team MacConnachie were strong again in the second, Geemo once more shining.  The ingredient of any game, a modicum of luck, was also absent from Team W’s game.  Feeling rather pleased with himself for a successful tap-up with his last stone, Skip W thought he had a single in the bag.  But that was without a classic Macornerkickey special – his last stone failing to meet its allotted target but casually spinning into the centre anyway.

Team Waterlow finally managed to score in the third end with a two to avoid the granny but lost out again in the fourth albeit only by a single stone.

It was in the fifth end that disaster struck.  Having played his second stone, and waiting for Richard to take his turn, George tumbled on the ice, landing heavily on his left side.  He was helped off the ice but clearly something was badly wrong. The excellent ice team swung into action, George was swaddled against the cold as he lay on the floor and an ambulance was called.  As luck would have it, Edinburgh Medicals were playing on the adjacent rink so there was no shortage of experts to keep an eye on him as we waited.

George remained stoic throughout and told us to carry on with the game.  We finished the end although our hearts weren’t really in it – indeed skip W vaguely recalls threading a draw through a gap at the front of the house to take the end by one stone but it didn’t mean very much.  Then there were phone calls to make and other things to think about so rather than carry on, the teams agreed to close at five ends, so finishing with a score of 7-3 to Team MacConnachie.

By now it was well past seven and coincidentally, Deemo had turned up to catch the end of our game and check out form, only to find his brother on the floor.  As we waited for the ambulance we all realised just how cold it is to stand around at the rink, let alone lie prone as George was – Rob kept going to his car to bring an extra blanket and what seemed like an endless supply of coats for additional insulation for George and anyone else who needed it.  And it was a long wait. The ambulance eventually arrived at around 10.30 pm.  Professional and calm as ever, the crew swiftly gave George a thorough checking over (by now he had got very cold) and painkillers before carefully easing him on to a stretcher and into the ambulance, finally setting off for the Royal Infirmary at around 11 pm.

John.