President v Vice

 Sixteen specially selected men and women arrived to battle for their selected captain.  Rosie, our
president, again decided to play as second, delegating her skipping duties to Dale and her counterpart on the next sheet Graeme.  Meanwhile Julia, vice, took her duties seriously along with her nominated counterpart, Mike.

Both games were tense and nervy, with Julia even electing to blank her second end. After five ends, both games were tied at three shots each, Graeme while drawing for a two tapped Mike' stone up to drop a shot for the Pres, fortunately Dale and Rosie took a single, keeping the overall game tied after six ends.  That was when Dale (and Rosie) decided to turn up the temperature and the biggest score of the night by stealing a three!  Despite a fightback from Julia, she only managed a two in the final end.

The aggregated scores were President 11 and Vice President 9

So, for the final time this season it is a BIG congratulations to the outgoing (literally and socially) President Rosie Clark and her teams of Dale, Daniel and Suzanne and her deputes Graeme, Dave W, John N and Cathy.

Update - Corrections

 The results for the Peter Allan and the Shots Competitions have been updated to reflect the Mike/Graeme game which was a default game (not a peel as originally posted).

The Day/date of the Annual Dinner and Prize Giving (above) has now also been amended.  (The time and date were put in my Google diary when I was still in the 'Pacific Time Zone and it compensated !)

Nail Biting Finish for the Peter Allan

With Graeme still jet lagged the Peter Allan Shield still required some work to be done.  With on and off

ice discussions about a Default win, Adam was lent to an under manned Team Wood, so a game could be played.  As this was Team Mackey's and the Maguire Squads final games Julia needed a win, which she got to almost ensure the Shots Title while Graeme, with an ends and shots advantage needed a peel to take the overall.

The game (and the title) came down to the final two stones which saw Mike make a miraculous shot to edge out Team Maguire.  With the 'hammer' and his final stone of the regular season, Graeme answered the call with a delicate draw and diagonal tap back to take the end and secure the peel.  No further discussion of a 'default' game was needed (although it continued in the changing rooms).

So it is congratulations to Graeme Maguire, John Good, Adam Hicks (who Graeme will NOT be lending to the opposition in any future games as he played too well for Mike!) and Ian Campbell.  They started out the season strongly and managed, at the end, just to hang on to their advantage.

Province Knockout

The semi finals saw the holders, Haddington, being comprehensively beaten by Team Aberlady.  The other game saw  Dirleton triumph over Yester.

After a short break, it was back onto the ice for the victorious teams.  Aberlady got off to a strong start with twos in the first and third ends with Dirleton only taking a single in end two.  This gave Aberlady a 4-1 scoreline after three ends.  From there, it was one way traffic with Dirleton taking the remaining four ends.  It was still a tight match with them only managing to take more than a single in one of these ends.

The final score was 6 - 4 to Dirleton.

Big Congratulations to Julia, Dave W, Cathy and Adam. 

To put this in context, Aberlady have only won this competition once before (2007/08 - Mike) while Haddington have 12 titles to their credit.

 

What do Points Make ?

 A number of late call offs saw a depleted field of six, which included three 'skips' and two 'Points Virgins'.

Without last years winner or runner up, Graeme graciously volunteered himself and Julia to play first, which is usually considered a big disadvantage.  This and tricky ice saw them both get off to a poor start with Graeme considering he would lower his worst previous score. 

With good explanations of the 'exercises' and scoring and everyone pitching in with minding of the stones it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for everyone and it turned out in the end to be an extremely close fought match both in the mens the ladies and the overall.

Rosie was the best performing President while Ian improved his previous best by 2 points. Jillian was the best 'first timer' and finished only 1 point off taking the ladies prize, won by Julia who upped last years score by 7 points.  Jillian's score was also only 3 points off the overall win - and all that while trying to come to grips with new shoes !

John Good, meanwhile, had got off to a great start end held the lead through to the second last end.  Graeme however came good at the last and was the only player to have an 8 point exercise (Chap and Lie) and stole it by 1 point in a relatively low scoring contest.

So its congratulations to Graeme and Julia.

A Third of John Good

 With one game left to play in the Thirds Competition, it is congratulations to Team Good, consisting of Pam Clark, Ian Campbell and Julia Mackey who are 'Bothy Bound' to cash in their Steak Pie vouchers.  My, by now famous, inability to count to two means that I could have claimed John and his merry men (and women) champions a couple of weeks ago but the extra suspense did us all good.

John has one game left to play, against Team McOmish.  The McOmish squad are currently sitting in fourth place and realistically second place is now out of their reach and has been claimed by David Wyllie.  They can still overtake the Peart team but need a peel to do so.

Skipper Good in USA action

Province Knockout

Congratulations to Team Aberlady who, despite a poor first end, prevailed to beat Doo'cot 10 - 7 in the first round.

They now go on to play Haddington in the Semi Final on Sun 12-2-23 at 14.30 - and then hopefully straight on to the Final.