Sometimes the curling gods smile on a team while their opponents wonder just what it  is they have to do to prevail over their opponents.  Tonight those gods most definitely cast their favours on Team Waterlow while Team Auld’s best efforts eventually came to naught.

Team Auld were at fighting strength whereas Team Waterlow were short of Richard Willson who was feeling considerably below par having disagreed with something he ate.  Fortunately new super-sub Niall Macintosh was available at remarkably short notice to keep the numbers balanced.

It was an exceptionally close and hard-fought game which concluded with Team Waterlow just one point ahead at 6-5.  It could so easily have gone the other way. For so many ends, Team Auld held the clear advantage only for their opponents to pull something out of the bag.

After Team Waterlow had taken a comfortable single in the first, Team Auld was turning the tables in the second with a well-stocked and well-guarded centre to the house.  But a nicely-judged tap up from NJW was inch-perfect for once leaving Dougie with nothing to go for. Another point to Team Waterlow.

By the third, Team Auld had their dander up and scored a strong two points to level the game, their confidence growing by the minute.  And although they lost another single in the fourth, their curling prowess was showing through.

So it was particularly frustrating for Team Auld in the fifth end after having confidently built up a well-guarded five with not a single opponents’ stone  in the house, to have Team W still manage another tap-up to reduce their advantage for the end to just two points.  Still, Team Auld were working well and leading by four points to three.

But the sixth was perhaps the most galling for Team Auld as once again they approached the conclusion to the end with two stones at the centre and considerable protection at the front.  Surely this end was in the bag?  NJW had little option but to try running a heavy stone through a narrow slot to push up one of his own stones lying just at front of centre.  The odds were against but my goodness, it worked!  It was a real team effort thanks to the laser-precise guidance with the brush and spot-on calling from third, Jim, and heroic and disciplined sweeping from Fiona and Niall. It gave the team an invaluable three.  6-4 to Team Waterlow.

So the seventh and final end was a tense affair.  With Team Auld still rampant, it looked quite possible that they could level the game, if not sneak a win. But in the end Team Waterlow managed to foil those ambitions, albeit losing the end by a single point.  It was as close a victory as they come for Team Waterlow, an honourable defeat for Team Auld.

John W.

This was the first game of the season for these two rinks and everyone was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and raring for the fight.  Old friends but now new team mates were warmly greeted in what has now become the traditional pre-game huddle upstairs – it was just like the first day of a new term back at school when stories of summer holiday adventures and derring-do were exchanged.

Substitutes abounded in Team MacConnachie with both the leader himself and the returning George Morrison otherwise engaged.  Standing in their stead were Kay Wilson and new boy (quite literally) Niall Macintosh both of whom had been drawn from the club’s considerably expanded pool of reserves.  Colin Appleby ably donned the skip’s cloak.

On the other hand Team Waterlow were at full muster, with a particular welcome for Jim “Superlube” Craig who, like Geemo, has returned to the Holyrood fold after a brief hiatus to partner Fiona, Richard and John this year.  

It was a relatively high scoring game which was conducted at a brisk pace with eight ends easily fitted into the allotted time – it is of note that with less time-consuming anti-Covid procedures for the ice team to follow and in some compensation for the unwelcome hike in ice fees, the rink have extended the sessions by ten minutes. Eight games should be the norm rather than the exception this season.

The game ended with a clear and well deserved 8-5 victory to Team MacConnachie who simply out-played their opposition for much of the game.

It didn’t look like that in the first end though.  On ice that was slow and barely drawing on either hand, Team Waterlow got off to a confident start with a fine three, managing to find the house more easily than their opponents. 

But thereafter the boot was for the most part on the other foot.  Colin’s initially wayward shots in the earlier ends became increasingly more accurate, as did those of Gill and Kay, while Niall at lead was doing a fine job on what was only his third or so foray on the ice. So Team MacConnachie quickly broke their duck with a single in the second.

At the third end Team Waterlow prevailed to score one and at this stage it could still have been anybody’s game.  But Team Waterlow struggled with accuracy and length over the subsequent ends, their skip finding that the all-important skip’s lets-get-us-out-of-trouble throws were just not working.  Even a rare success in threading through a narrow slot to hit two of the opposition’s button-lying stones failed to achieve a scoring position.  So after Colin and his team had taken a confidence boosting three on the fourth (the cheers echoed around the rink as Colin’s last stone increased the score from two to three) it was uphill all the way.

Team Waterlow were able to score only once more in the game with a solitary single in the eighth, little consolation in a game that had slipped away from them.

With the rink bar closed and most still having had no tea, we slipped off into the night….

John W.