Christmas Break

With the exception of the East Lothian Pairs Competition we now enter our Christmas Break, so we wish good luck to Morgan and Dale on Saturday and a Good Christmas and New Year to everyone.

Knocked Out

A very short report to say that we were eliminated from the East Lothian Province Knockout Championships.  It is fair to say that our team, led by Graeme was severely out gunned by the defending champions, Athelstaneford, who fielded three players who have experience playing in national competitions.

The final score line was 14 shots to 1.  As if that wasn't bad enough. Robin Aitken scored all 15 points!

At least we all now have a free day in January.

Bonspiel 2014 - part 2

Sheena's photos have been joined by John Smail's pics on our Flickr feed

Bonspiel 2014

Being the 'convenor' of this years Bonspiel and imposing the 'rules' such as they were and not being able to attend did feel a bit like lighting the blue touchpaper and standing well back.  Looking at the photos provided by Sheena and John S. it would appear that the event turned out to be highly enjoyable with everyone entering into the spirit.  The afternoon concluded with a convivial tea at Murrayfield.

Congratulations to everyone that helped make this a fun event and especially to Mike, Lindsey, Lorna and newcomer Craig, who was persuaded to stand in for an absentee and play his first ever game of curling - oh ! and winning. I have an image of him skipping his first ever end, I presume that assistance was given.

Thanks also to John G and to Sandy for acting as referees/ arbiters in my absence.

Graeme

Unorthodox use of the hack

Barbara was yet to notice the
theft of a tea cosy 

Dale was unaware of the new
drink/flying limit

A change from Sage & Onion stuffing

The 'rules' had not been written
with a Rasta in mind

A perfect pair

Thirds - are Go

With the Trophy competition complete and the Peter Allan Shield taking it's mid-season break, it's over to the Thirds to battle out their Medal competition.
Graeme got off to a perfect start beating John Niven in the first game but there is still plenty of games to go.

In the meantime preparations are underway for the CLUB BONSPIEL, which will be held on Sunday 7th December at 3.45 pm and will be followed by a supper and prize giving at the ice rink.

Trophy Winners 2014

Mike Wood

Congratulations to Mike Wood and his team of Dale Callandar, Rosie Clark and Pam Clark who won the Trophy competition despite slumping to their first defeat.  Mike and Morgan tie on two wins and one loss each but Mike takes the trophy having beaten team Nicoll in their 'head to head' match.

John Good's Prize

At the other end of the table John Good and Sandy Nicoll also tie on wins but Sandy prevails with the final place on the podium for the same reasons, while John has to be content with the wooden spoon.

In the Peter Allen Shield Morgan leapfrogs Mike and John overtakes Sandy due to their superior 'end' count.

We now enter the mid-season break for our skips while the thirds take centre stage with their competition.

Pairs Competition 2014

Congratulations to Raymond Preston and Cathy MacLean for their win in the High Road Final.  A hearty well done also goes to Mike Wood and Dave Wyllie for taking the Low Road.

East Lothian Province Competition - Draws

The Draws for the East Lothian Knock-out, the Pairs and the Bonspiel competitions have now been completed and can be found on the FIXTURES page.

Trophy Competition Commences

The Nicoll family seem unstoppable, and that is with Morgan still to take to the ice.
Our new skip, Sandy got off to a poor start in his first Trophy game as a skip losing a four to John Good's rink.  The nerves were settled with a three at the next end but he continued to play catch up for the entire game.  Fortunately for Sandy, you only have to lead the game at the end, which is what he managed to do with a final end two.
The final score of 7 to 6 makes Sandy our league leader.

The Knockout Winner is........

Despite not yet setting foot on an ice rink this season Morgan wins the Knockout.
After asking his eldest daughter to deputise for him in the first round and her good win against Mike, she was allowed to skip the rink in the final where she came up against the  sadly out of form John Good rink. This is actually a bit unfair as neither headlining skip was on the ice.
The results show a comprehensive win for Lindsey J Nicoll and her team of George, Karen and Dave.
Even Graeme (skipping for John Good) trying Mike Wood's tactics and turning up well into the first end (accident on the Bypass) didn't help and his team were always playing catch up.
The eventual score of 8 shots to 1 will ensure that Lindsey gets her name on a major Aberlady trophy for the first time.

Mixed Fortunes for the Nicolls

With the seasons initial skirmishes complete, there were mixed fortunes for the Nicolls in the opening round of the Knockout Competition.  With the holder, Morgan, away hob-nobbing with the Ryder Cup players, Lindsey stepped up to skip her dad's team.  With the score showing 5 - 3 down after four ends she steadied her troops to take the last three ends to beat Mike Wood 9 - 5.
In the other game Sandy took the helm as his first game as a full skip against John Good.  He took a while to settle and taking a three in the last end gave the scoreline some respectability but still recording a 7 - 5 loss.
The Final on Wednesday 1st October will be between Morgan (or Lindsey) Nicoll and John Good.

Season 2014 - 2015

Sandy - The new skip on the block

Spring cleaning of the website is now complete and we are almost ready for the new season to start.
Things get underway with our Annual Come and Try on Friday 19th September.  Sheena has already done a superb job of signing up her choir and this should be well attended.
The knockout competition then gets underway on Wednesday 24th September with all four rinks getting their first outing.

Dave

The main competitions, in the event of a two way tie will still be decided by the result in the head to head game but in the event of a three way tie will be decided, as before, by number of ends won followed by shots won. The scores including ends will be recorded on the results page.
Please remember that it is important that score cards are completed for all games.  The information that I require is the date, full names of all players, total score and number of ends won for each rink.
This information can be emailed to me  and should be in my hands within a week of the game.

Finally a warm welcome to our new (full) member Dave Wyllie and our new skip Sandy Nicoll.  It remains to be seen if Sandy can stop his dad running off with all the silverware again this season.

The Final Scores

The final congratulations are  for the league games are due to Morgan Nicoll's team of Dale Stan and
Rosie who romped through the shots competition without losing a single game.  They walk away with the title by the massive margin of 28 shots and were the only team to return positive figures.

Their undefeated run matched that of Mike Wood in the Trophy Competition and both teams only gave up a single defeat throughout the season and that was to each other.

The Peter Allan Shield was therefore, again, decided on total ends won in the Trophy and Shots competitions.  Morgan again came out the victor by the margin on 25 ends to 22 ends.

All that now remains to be decided is the President v the Vice President on Monday 24th March at 5.30, followed by a supper and AGM at Murrayfield.

Non Appearances

It was sad to note that once again there were only six people on the ice for last weeks game.  In sixteen club games, so far this season, there have been ELEVEN no-shows.  If you cannot play, it is your responsibility to find a substitute.
Curling is not a particularly cheap sport and it is unfair on all the other people on the ice, to have to play short handed.

Shots Competition

The shots competition got underway last week with a resounding win for Team Morgan, who take an early lead and already look the team to beat.

Thirds Medal Champion 2014

A thrilling final game in the Thirds left the destination of the championship in President Dale's hands.  The championship could go three ways.
If Dale lost - Sandy would be champion at his first attempt.
If Dale won (just) - George would take the silverware.
For Dale to win he must take his final game and win at least 5 ends.
Dale's chances were possibly put into question when he discovered that due to substitutions Sandy was to be his third !  Another factor that proved to be limiting was that despite not appearing to play slowly, only six ends were actually played.
With that information buzzing round his head, the destination of the Medal came down to the final stone of the final end, which was played slightly light and tight and wrecked on the guard giving Dale an impressive 9 - 1 score line but more importantly winning 5 ends.  With wins and ends tied with George, Dale's superior
shots up tally of thirteen to George's six was enough to secure more silverware for Mrs Dale to keep polished.
Congratulations then to Dale, L Nicoll, Pauline and Graeme.

Club Bonspiel 2014

Well done to Sandy, Graeme, Sheena and Dave W who successfully managed to navigate the complex rules set down by Graeme (wasn't he in the winning team?) to take the dubious honour of each taking home a box of Jaffa Cakes, as this years winners. Judging by the shouting and gales of laughter emanating from sheets one and two, most of the players also found elements of the afternoon either baffling amusing or hilarious.  I don't think everyone was laughing at Graeme's knees all the time, although they were possibly outdone by Karen's hockey socks (you decide!).
The afternoon was completed with a well attended supper.

Morgan takes more Province Silverware

Congratulations to Morgan, supported by Sandy, Sheena and Dale for winning the East Lothian Province Bonspiel.  In the opening round, much to the delight of Sheena they inflicted a severe beating to Haddington 1 led by hubby, Dave.
After a brief lunch it was back to business inflicting a defeat to the second best team from the first round Yester.  Despite a last end come back by the opposition they held on to beat Johnny Shedden's Athelstaneford by a single shot and Dave Munro's Haddington (who had a good afternoon) into third place.

Nicolls - cashing it in

Aberlady Curling and the Nicoll family had a great start to 2014.

Commencing with an early start, Morgan and Dale battled their way through the competition to eventually run out the winners.  This is the first time Aberlady have won this competition and it is apt that Morgan should hold the trophy, which he donated to the Province three years ago.

After lunch Morgan was joined be a record 13 other members to contest the club Points Competition.

New member Raymond Preston was (literally) fast out of the hack and held a commanding lead after the first four exercises before his challenge wavered and Morgan started to recover from his mornings exertions. The full results can be seen on the 'results' page.  In this picture we see Dale, Morgan's partner from the morning handing over the brand new Points Trophy, which was generously donated by John Good.

To complete a great day for the Nicoll's, Lindsey took the Ladies title with an excellent score that saw her coming third in the overall points table,

The Season Continues

Our curling has now resumed and the Thirds competition returns to the fray.
This month also sees our Individual Points Competition on Sunday 12th January at 3.45pm.
Our Bonspiel and supper night also returns on Saturday 1st February at 3.45pm.