Team Willson had much to live up to after their win in their first Thirds match. Fortunately, the team picked up where they left off at that last match, winning the first three ends to lead by four shots. Team Garner opened their account on the fourth end with a single, but then after a well-built fifth end, Team Willson scored a three with skip Richard chipping in scoring shots with both of his stones. The sixth end saw Rob drawing for a single leaving the match open going into the seventh and final end. Here Fiona, playing second, sent down two stones that landed on the centre button and despite every effort, those stones could not be removed leaving team Morrison with a 7-4 win.
With neither Kay nor Keith able to play, Team Waterlow had drafted Deemo as a last minute sub with only vague whispers about ringers being heard from an all present and correct Team Herd.
Team Herd may well be familiar with the expression “rub of the green” – that little bit of extra luck needed to help with any game – but they certainly didn’t experience it on this particular occasion.
At 12 points to six in favour of Team Waterlow, this topsy-turvy match saw defeat snatched from the jaws of victory in a number of ends for Team Herd. Team Waterlow were playing steadily, but their main advantage was that (with one main exception) it was just that they weren’t making bad positions worse in the way that Team Herd seemed to be excelling at. All too frequently and for whatever reason, Team Herd’s stones would fall the wrong way.
The exception was the third end. With the game already running against them at four to nil, Team Herd scored a magnificent five as Team Waterlow found that they could do nothing about the build-up of opposing stones in the house – skip Waterlow realising too late that they had become well-guarded by both their own and their opponents stones.
But things fell apart for team Herd after that. They could add only a single point to their score while Team Waterlow consolidated a strong win with another eight points from three ends, the high scoring often helped by Team Herd’s dreadful luck. At the final (seventh end) Team Waterlow had the hammer and by the penultimate stone were holding a three point advantage – at this their skip chose to chicken out of using his final stone rather than risk some Ken’s bad luck transferring to him.
This was the first of the Thirds’ League games for Teams B and D, represented respectively by Rob Garner and John Waterlow, who as team mates for their daytime VETS curling on Thursdays, were unaccustomed to finding themselves adversaries for this Holyrood league within a league. Over three crucial games through December, Holyrood’s thirds move up to skip to fight it out for the honour of promotion to full time skip next season.
So with these two presumptive skips already familiar with their opposite numbers strengths and weaknesses, a close and hard-fought game was in prospect – and so it turned out to be. The final result was six points to four in favour of Team Waterlow but on ends it was even-stevens with three each.
At the start the ice was sticky and for the first couple of ends there was a tendency for stones to build up in front of the house. Nonetheless, the game started well for Team Garner who took the first end by a single point with a fine tap-up from their skip into an unassailable position in the house.
But then Team B countered with a win in the second for two points. As the third end developed, Team Waterlow were feeling confident as a wall was building to protect their stone lying near the centre spot – there was only the narrowest of slots for skip Garner to gain access. Surely another point was in the bag? But no, an inspired Rob sent a fine shot whistling through the gap, knocking out their opponents’ stone and leaving them two stones up. The advantage was back with Team Garner.
The next end was perhaps the turning point of the game. With the ice now much freer, Team Waterlow’s front two were putting vital stones in the house while third Kay’s key strength of the night was setting up some excellent guards. Despite Team Garner’s best efforts, there was little they could do and it was three points to Team Waterlow.
The momentum carried through to the fifth end with Team Waterlow sneaking another point .
The final end provided some consolation for Team Garner, although not enough to reclaim the match. Seeing Skip Rob thread a stone through another narrow slot into the house to gain the upper hand, John thought it was just a simple matter of following in Garner’s tracks. His stone set off and the line looked good – but then the curl increased and despite the best efforts of the sweepers and a lot of hollering from the skip, it grazed another stone and the last end went to Team Garner.
Holyrood Curling Club 