‘Seconds Out – Round Two!’

Both rinks took to the ice with Rink ‘D‘ fielding ‘Tides Out’ skipping with ‘The Young Yin’ at 3rd, ‘Sweet Chariot’ at 2nd and ‘Blue’ as anchor man lead. Rink ‘Deemo’ was fielding ‘Ivor the Engine’ at 3rd, ‘Newsprint’ at 2nd and ‘Flour Power’ in as a sub for ‘Maverick’ who was off on Choral duties.

Ends 1 through 4 was a testing period with ‘Deemo’ striking the first point and thereafter the rinks swapping single shots at alternating ends. After four ends it was all tied at 2 shots each. Tension was mounting!

Rink ‘Deemo’ managed to break the sequence with a two in the fifth end without the hammer – that was the breakthrough that was needed. Rink ‘Deemo’ took another single in the sixth end, again against the hammer, to go three shots up with time counting down and looking as if the seventh end would be time up! Keeping the pressure on ‘Tides out’ was the aim and a cluster of three stones behind an opposing stone giving some cover from a direct assault proved pivotal with ‘Tides out’ only managing to chip out one of the shots. ‘Deemo’ was able to replace the missing shot to keep the cluster of three which remained intact as ‘Tide Out’s attempt at a final draw just managed to slide through the house leaving a count of three to rink ‘Deemo’.

The game was a far closer encounter than the score line would indicate with very few stones going through the house; in fact the sixth end had only one or two stones not in play at its end with the critical counting shot going the way of rink ‘Deemo’. Fluke shots?  There were none that come to mind – just some very accurate play from both rinks with sweepers quick to answer the call and playing an integral part in each end.

The bell being rung, handshakes were made with congratulations all round for a keenly contested game and then we all retired to the rejuvenated bar to enjoy the new facilities for the much missed ‘Après curl’ experience when jovial banter was the order of the day – life at the rink has returned to something akin to ‘times past’.

Bye for now.

Deemo

Everyone has their own truth these days and recollection may vary.

Team MacConnachie, yellow, were up against team Herd, blue, and unfortunately stalwart member Geemo was double booked – however, Special K stood in and performed brilliantly.

Although we won the toss we ended the first end two down due to lack of accurate shots from yours truly. Blue managed to get good positioning in the second early on, with a good stone in place from Keith which was well protected. Both Superlube and Cornerkicky failed to penetrate and we managed to steal a one.

The third end saw Colin place a yellow at front of house on the centre line with a follow up tucked up behind just forward of the button. Repeated attempts failed to shift it with yellow managing to place further protection. Skip’s attempt of trying to draw round and reduce the accumulating score failed. Down a further three.

The fourth end started well for blue with stones placed all over front of house. Yellow’s attempts at taking any of them out failed, either coming up short or running through. Worries that Superlube would carry out his famed complicated take outs were unfounded. Skip steps up to the mark to put a guard in the gap leading to the centre, good line and weight for the job, but team had other ideas and swept it into the centre. A great chance for Cornerkicky but both stones went haywire and fell short. With me having last stone, all I had to do was repeat my last shot. Released perfectly, unfortunately the inbuilt brakes within the stone came into play and the stone fell short. A four and all even.

Next two ends saw chances for blue but anytime we built up a position it was surgically cut. At the final end we managed to get a stone well placed and protected by both, but yellow was always counting second. My first attempt at wicking off a yellow failed as it involved running down the outside ice which was hardly used and so rather sticky. The last stone involved tapping up a blue on the opposite side to push it into the centre and finish with a draw. The stone looked good for line and weight but just short of the house performed a wobble to the outside and missed the mark. Final score 8-6 for team B, but all very enjoyable.

Ken Herd.

Match Report:

Don’t take a tip on a horse from this man

This was the first game of the new season for both teams so it was very much a case of tentatively getting the feel of the ice after the summer break.  Both teams have a residency of five players so each has a rota of stand-down games for their team members. In the case of Team Herd it was Keith W’s turn to be absent, although Billy was also away, taking in the spring sunshine in South Africa and therefore replaced by the Club’s super-sub, Bob Cameron playing at lead. Fiona was second and Geemo was at third. 

For the opposition, Steve Laux had requested to be stood down from Team Waterlow so the line-up was Dave Dunsire making a welcome return to full-time play at lead; Kay Wilson at second; and Dougie at third, the latter looking particularly relaxed at being freed from the weight of command for this season.

Once the greeting of long-lost pals had been completed and the bell had rung for the start, we tottered gingerly on to the ice to find out whether the muscle memory was still there and if so, would it ensure that we could make a contribution to the team’s success.

But even if you can remember what to do and no matter how honed your skills at delivering the stones might be, the other thing you always need is at least a fair share of any luck that is going.  And in this case for Team Herd, Lady Luck wasn’t just occasionally looking the other way; she had packed her bags and left the building.   

For end after end, nothing would go right for Team Herd. The first end was always going to be shaky for both teams but to be frank, Team Herd were in not-hitting-a-barn-door territory, dropping a four and giving themselves a hill to climb from the start.  But not to be daunted, stones started to head in the right direction – only for it then to become clear that luck wasn’t going to be their lady tonight. 

Team W kept chipping away with ones and twos so by the fourth end they were nine points up and Team Herd still hadn’t got on to the board.

Particularly out of favour was Team H’s third, Geemo, who managed to pull off some astonishingly ill-fated  moves.  Particularly memorable was an excellent stone in the fifth end aimed at clearing a blockage at the front of the house which instead passed straight through a gap seemingly narrower than a curling stone and clean out of the back of the house. Just leave buying the lottery ticket for another day, George.

Things finally came right in the sixth and the granny was avoided with an excellent two.  But that was it and another single for Team W in the seventh end brought to a close a game that Team Herd would probably rather forget.

John.