Note: Penalty shown should be three stones, not five, so final score 10-7. And date of game was 6th February – JW.

Team B (John Mac – yellow) against Team C (Ken – blue)

With Billy away on possible jury duty Special K stood in, and with Keith unaccountably a no show, we were down to three and looking vulnerable. Keith later reported a bad back after his morning game.

First end – saw yellow falling short with the majority of stones and with two blues counting early on and soon well protected. John tried a draw with his last stone, although at the back of the house it was not counting. My last stone was a successful draw. Three up, a good start and John a bit nonplussed.

Second end – saw any stone from the opposition lying in the house being blasted out. John thought I was going for a blank end. Just following the tactics of the professionals. Yellow’s end with a one.

Third end – again we had two stones lying and after failed attempts from team B to remove them things were looking good. My last stone had the possibility of another three, but unfortunately a tentative throw meant it finished six inches short.

End four – has completely passed me by – can’t remember – but two stones to Team B.

End five – another three, Wow! A possibility we might be able to bring off a historic win.

Ends six and seven saw us steal another one in each.

End eight – not sure what happened in the early stages, but there was a dearth of blues in the house. Team B was lying with a crowd of mainly yellow stones out at the front but with a narrow corridor open. Special K asked to remove, BANG – out it went and blue now lying. Colin asked to reciprocate. BANG – blue out and yellow lying. Unfortunately a repeat from Special K just failed. My first stone, an attempt at a draw fell short, John’s did the same. Loads of yellows in the house and no blues, disaster looming. My last stone was another attempt at a draw.  I thought it was too heavy and started to explain to John that my last two games at ended with a substantial lead being lost. Anyway, my last stone did not end exactly where we wanted – it was lying in the house and had curled in behind some yellows. John’s last stone just had to follow mine in and clear to the back. He threw wide and too heavy, total exasperation from him. My stone counted second, reducing five against to one against. Result!

John claimed a five stone penalty. 10-9 for us.

Card sent up to the beak for checking, failed, three out of ten: Wrong date, wrong penalty – it should have been three.

Ken

HOLYROOD vs EDINBURGH ROTARY

FUNNY ICE AND MASSIVE ERROR OF JUDGEMENT

The first three ends were nip and tuck, trying to understand the ice which Deemo thought very funny, with stones tending to hang out on both wings.

The fourth game (I think) with me yellow and Deemo blue, was strange.  Yellow was lying with four stones, symmetrically placed in the white either side of the centre line, two to the front, two to the back with loads of space. No blues to be seen. Deemo had last stone, looking for a draw, or in off, standard shot. Stone hung out, missed all stones and sailed out. Funny ice!

Next end another one added to team C.

Sixth end was one where stones were piling up one in front of the other. Great stones from Rob and Deemo gave two blues more or less on the button with one resting against the crowd of yellow and the other on the button with a small gap between. My perfect shot would be to hit the side of the blue and push away and deflect into the other counting blue to lie. Delivered the perfect stone, quelle surprise! A lot of thought from Deemo but in the event stone was light and drew away from planned line. My third called effectively for a burnt last stone, not sure why, but I was too bowled over by my last shot to not give it proper thought.

Four stones up going into last end, surely we couldn’t lose this game.

Last end saw a great blue stone from Richard lying in the centre and well protected. We tried unsuccessfully to shift it, but we had yellows lying at the back resting against blues, another at the front counting second. With four stones to go, my first yellow missed the blue but was lying second. Deemo took this out and my last stone also failed and was out of contention. Sliding up to watch the final stone from Deemo I was horrified to see that the yellows resting against the blues had evaporated and were nowhere to be seen.  Our only other yellow was in a sea of blues, open and unprotected. We should have protected this and not flogged a dead horse. It goes to show I should have gone up and examined the position before deciding what to do. Deemo’s last stone did not hang out this time and our yellow was pushed to the back.

Final count from Billy, four; Rob said five, Billy agreed. I jumped in and suggested a measure. Five meant a win for Deemo, four a draw. Thankfully Rob did not clear the stones immediately; measure agreed and yellow comfortably counting fifth stone.

Another peel as in our previous game and total frustration at losing what should have been a win.

Ken.