Christmas Bonspiel theme revealed

Our Christmas Bonspiel is on Sunday 10th December at 3.45pm and will be followed by an early supper at the rink.
The rinks will be skipped by Dale, John G, Graeme and Sandy.
Due to a multitude of alternative activities the rinks will be revealed on the day (We are short of numbers, so if anyone knows someone that may want to join us, please let Graeme know)
Current confirmed players are:-
Pam
Cathy
Sheena
Stanley
David
Pauline
Justyna
and possibly Mike.

THIS YEARS THEME IS -  EUROPE any country or anything identifiable with any european country will count.

Trophy Competition - They think its all over.

Finally the new format double round robin Trophy competition has been finalised.  As previously reported it was a Nicoll one-two with father just pipping son for the win.
In the meantime Team Good is going to have to look to their laurels in our (final) Shots competition if they are going to escape relegation.  In the meantime, if Morgan decides to retire now and not compete in the shot competition, he would already be safe from relegation.  This I suspect is unlikely and we will see Nicoll Snr back to try and win the Grand Slam.
The Grand Slam could of course be decided on the President's decision as to who actually did win our Knockout.  The decision has been made but not yet revealed !!!  (The President's bank account details are available on request to the two involved skips!)

A Difficult Few Days

RCCC District Medal
This year the RCCC threw up as our 'random' draw - Haddington.  This seemed less random than a derby match.  Our team pool was considerably shortened by illness, work commitments and especially our players having been pre booked by our opposition.  Our team consisting of Mike Wood, Graeme Maguire, Pam Clark and (supersub) Stuart Ronald were...... outplayed would seem an appropriate word.
The loss of a 3 in the first end resulted in our team never being able to settle, while Haddington, led by Dave Munro settled into a smooth groove.  It wasn't until the fifth end that we managed to get on the score card.  The final score was 8 - 2, so congratulations to our neighbours for their well deserved victory.

East Lothian Province Knockout
This time we were up against East Linton and again 'up against' would seem to describe it.  This time, led by John Good, Dale Callander, David Wyllie and Pam Clark, we took an early lead in the first end, however E Linton fought back with a 2 in the second.  A single in the thrid saw us draw level again but that was the last point that we managed to score.  The rest of the game was a tight affair with all the remaining ends going to singles but the final score was 5 - 2 against.  Congratulations to East Linton and we wish them good luck in the semi finals.

Trophy Competition - A Nicoll one-two ?

It has taken until the last game of the expanded round robin for Morgan to lose his first Aberlady game of the season.  This takes away his 100% winning record in the Trophy Competition.
However with 5 wins from 6 games he can no longer be caught therefore He along with Dale Callender, Pam Clark and Rosie Clark are our WINNERS.
This marks a comeback and his name will again appear on the trophy, just below son Sandy's from last season.
Elsewhere in the table, the only game remaining is John Good v Sandy Nicoll.  Although Sandy cannot be denied second place , John can avoid the wooden spoon.  To leapfrog Mike he must not only beat Sandy in his final game but in doing so must either win 6 ends OR win 5 ends and beat Sandy by 17 shots ! 
Realistically,  Mike will be looking to Santa if he requires additional wooden cooking equipment.

Stats - Trophy Competition

With the Trophy Competition nearing its conclusion, Morgan still has an unbeaten record, with 2 games to play.  He also has an impressive 20 ends won (compares to 8 lost) which is an average of 5 ends won per game.  This is 3 ends clear of Sandy but with a game in hand over Sandy.
Morgan is also 17 'shots up' which means that his average win has been by 4.25 shots per game.  This is where his son gets the better of him with an average win of 4.6 shots. 
Sandy has amassed 49 shots in his 5 games, which means that his average score is merely a tickle away from 10 shots (he still has 1 game left to try and reach that milestone.
At the other end of the table Mike, still leads John G by having scored 13 ends to John's 9 (although John still has a game in hand).  Mike is also 10 'shots up' better off than John, although both teams have conceded the same number of shots.
The season opener, defaulted game between Mike and John could yet prove to be very important.

Pairs Competition 2017

Following a successful Pairs Competition, the convenor, Dale has sent the following report:-

Just to let you know that we managed an enjoyable Pairs Competition yesterday. 8 curlers in total - 4 pairs: Sandy/Stanley; John G/Cathy; Karen/Stuart; Dale/Pauline. Over the first round of three matches - playing each other, the result was that Sandy/Stanley won all 3, Dale/Pauline won 2, lost1. So the High Road final was contested between Team 'Double S' and Team 'Calexander'.
Going in to the final end the score was level but the excitement of possibly winning a pie voucher stole D&P's concentration and they crumbled!
John and Cathy won the low road. Everyone warmed up with soup, cakes and tea upstairs  afterwards.
Good fun!

Aberlady Friendship Kettle

Winners - ABERLADY - John Good, Pam Clark, Morgan Nicoll, Sandy Nicoll (absent) and Graeme Maguire - with the 'disguised' kettle

Runners-up - HADDINGTON Jnrs. Lorna Nicoll,
Daniel Peart, Callum Harvey and Karen Munro

After a delay of 7 years, we were finally able to run our Friendship Kettle Competition.

Special 'Scunnerd' Award winners - LESWALT
J Ross, John Agnew,
Norma Lammie & Alison Bathgate

The competition was originally run in November 2010 to celebrate our 150th anniversary.  It was intended to be run on a 5 yearly basis but was postponed in 2015 due to a clash with the Indoor Grand Match.  It was again postponed last year when it clashed with a Murrayfield 'Rugby Day' meaning that our guests would have no access to car parking.  This year, things finally fell into place, with the exception of the trophy having gone AWOL.
The clubs that share our 'birthday' were again invited and
we were delighted when Leswalt, Blairdrummond and Kenmore/Breadalbane accepted our invitation. Unfortunately Portpatrick and Belmaduthy were unable to raise teams this year, but East Lothian Province and Haddington 'Juniors' kindly stepped up to complete our draw.

The teams were greeted by President, Graeme.  The rules explained (much simpler than his Christmas Bonspiel rules, thankfully) and the teams sent out to play.
Each of the visiting teams were paired with a 'home' team for the first round and some close games ensued (which made the second round draw extremely difficult).
The first games saw our Aberlady Team of John Good, Morgan Nicoll, Sandy Nicoll and Pam Clark take a narrow 1 shot lead over Leswalt and therefore facing off against each other in the second round.  The other 4 teams were all snapping at their heels.
The second round saw a lot of thinking going on, in all the games, with lots of stones in the heads and some fine curling going on all round.  Some could accuse Aberlady of not being very 'friendly' in their 'Friendship Kettle' administering a severe defeat on their opponents.  This resulted in a win for the 'Home' team and their opponents, Leswalt, tumbling from second to sixth place.  Meanwhile Haddington Juniors were capitalising on their late comeback in the first game, to control their second game, against Blairdrummond, from the outset.  They eventually came out of both games with a score of +2 which was enough to give them second place.

Kenmore/Breadalbane, with one win and one loss and a final score of 0 shots up, was enough to secure them a third place.
The games were followed by supper at the ice rink.
The President's observations on the day was that it was delightful to see so much 'chat' going on in a series of tight games.  The games were all played, very much in the spirit of friendship and it was especially nice to see so many 'younger' players on the ice, between Haddington Juniors and the double father/son rink put out by Blairdrummond.  This all bodes well for the future of our clubs and the sport in general.
Hopefully we will have found the trophy in time for our next anniversary  'Friendship Kettle' competition !

MISSING !

MISSING !

Answers to the name 'The Aberlady Friendship Kettle'

Last seen in the Aberlady/Longniddry area

circa 2014

 

If anyone knows of its whereabouts, please contact Graeme

who is keen to re-unite it with its current owners.