Christmas Bombshell

Another successful night with Dale complaining about Julia and Derek attacking the game like a pair of sharks (the score was peeled, so I thing he complaineth too much).  Meanwhile in the gentlemens game, Mike beat John G by 6.5 points to 4.
Congratulations to our Bombshell winners of Mike, Karen and Pam.

COME & TRY CURLING - report

What Can Friends Make?

All nine first-timers at a very busy Aberlady TryCurling session on 3^rd November had been encouraged to come by one or more of our members.

That says a lot for the persuasive skills of the members who did the recruiting, and their enthusiasm for the sport. There was at least one common response from the friends we asked: “Curling? Yes I’ve seen it on tv. Sure, I’d like to give it a go”.

President Pam Clark introduced the Club’s team of herself, David Wyllie, Julia Mackey and John Good. The newcomers stepped on to the ice with smiles which, thankfully, lasted without hesitation or deviation - but with lots of repetition – all the way through the session.

The only moment of contention was when the result of the last end was declared, as some folk wondered if there had been a plot to ensure that both teams had the same final overall score. Even if that had been the case, all players happily shook hands and joined the President for a cuppa in the Clubrooms.

We gave participants what-to-do-now sheets. The very good news is that within a few days ________ had committed to one of the Beginners’ Courses at CurlEdinburgh.

Here’s hoping that before too long we’ll all welcome some new members ready to curl in our Club.

John Good.

Trophy at 50%

With Dale taking a decisive win over Team Maguire the first phase of the Trophy Competition was completed.  With 3 teams all on 3 wins and 1 loss, only three ends separate first from third.
Team Callander leading the way with 16 ends won and the Maguire squad one end behind on 15.  Team Mackey lurk ready to strike  only two ends behind that on 13.
With Mike Wood having been absent for a large part of the first round, he cannot be discounted and Team Good is also in a strong position (ie propping up the rest of the league) and is bound to mount a comeback in the lead up to Christmas.
Round 2 commences today !!

Province Competitions

The Draws for the Province Knockout and the Pairs Competition have been held and the full draws are on the fixtures tab.
E L Knockout - round 1
Julia Mackay, David Wyllie, Justyna Konowrocka and Daniel Peart
Sunday 25th November @ 2.15 against East Linton
cost £13 per head.

E L Pairs
David Wyllie & Pam Clark
Sat 7th December from 12 noon
cost £45 per team
NB there is a ACC Trophy game at 4.15 on the same day !

Doubles Competition

A big thank you to Mike Wood for successfully running our inaugural Doubles competition, which we decided to run in lieu of our usual Pairs Competition.  By all accounts this was successful and enjoyed by all the participants.
Congratulations to John Good and Rosie Clark who are our inaugural Doubles Champions (don't expect a new trophy).  They beat Cathy Maclean and Justyna Konowrocka in a tight 3 - 2 final.  Cathy and Justyna will collect the 'Low Road/Runners Up' Trophy.
In third/fourth place play off,  Sheena and Alasdair beat Julia and Andrew 5 - 3

Trophy Competition is Go.....

The Trophy Competition got off to a good start last night with two interesting games.
The first, a rematch of Monday's Knockout Final saw Julia getting her sweet revenge by beating the Callander Squad 6 - 4 (although they were all square after six ends!).
The other game saw Mike's three man squad, skipped by supersub Karen against the three man Team Maguire.  The tactical absence of Graeme's team from the Knockout left them fresh and enabled them to run our 6 - 3 winners.
The players then adjourned to the bar where 'someone' had a lot of marshmallows in their chocolate.

Knockout

After initial wins by Dale's and Julia's teams they lined up for the final looking in relaxed mood.
Julia being one player short got off to a poor start with Dale's team getting away to a 5 - 0 start after two ends.  Julia fought back by taking the next two ends to leave her trailing 5 - 4.  Scoring back to back ends again in the final two ends of the game leveled the score at 6 - 6 to set up a Draw the Shot, winner take all, challenge.
With an audience from the Haddington players on the adjacent rinks Julia played first.  Her shot ran slightly too deep and stopped at the back of the house.  Dale then took his turn and held his nerve calling the anxious sweepers off to make a perfect (unswept) draw completely covering the button to take the applause and competition.
(Sorry Dale, no steak pies for this one!)
Congratulations to Dale, Pam, Rosie and Andrew - our season's first winners.

Season 19/20 - update

We have now completed our ice bookings and the membership package should be issued (very) shortly.
In the meantime, the syllabus AND ROTA list can be found on the Fixtures Tab (above).
Please note that some of the draws/fixtures for 'external competitions' have not yet been done, so are marked 'to be confirmed' on the syllabus.
Please remember that Mike needs your subscriptions by 15th September, this allows us to obtain a small discount on the ice.

Season 2019/20

While we are awaiting our Ice Allocation, I have posted a 'DRAFT' syllabus on the fixtures page.

Spring Cleaning

Ice allocations are due by the end of July.
In preparation for the new season, the website will be updated over the next couple of weeks, as information is available

President v Vice - AGM and roundup

Congratulations to Pam Clark and her crew who won the final trophy of the season, due to the President (oops) botching his last shot (OK Dale, and several previous ones) to let the Vice Presidents team steal the trophy by 1  shot.
The AGM set a new record of 30 minutes and say Pam elevated to President and we welcome Rosie as our new Vice President so once again we have an all female executive team (and Mike, of course).

A big THANK YOU to all our new members and reserves, who have stepped up, when injuries struck, to keep the club matches running.

PLEASE REMEMBER - The Club Dinner and Prize Giving will be on Fri 26 Apr 7 for 7.30pm - Longniddry Inn (NOT Aberlady, Mike !!!) - Hope to see you all there.

It has Popped !

Determined Sandy

Victorious Sandy

Congratulations (again) to Sandy and his team consisting of Dave Wyllie, Cathy MacLean, Liz Nicoll and Alasdair Robertson.  With a decisive win against his father he added the Peter Allan Shield to his trophy shelf.  This win also puts Team Nicoll Jnr in pole position for the Shots Competition.  I only hope that his trophy shelf is big enough and that he can handle all the steak pies that might be coming his way.

The Fizz stays on Ice

Last night was Team Nicoll's first opportunity to seal the Peter Allan Shield.  Unfortunately (?) he will have to wait another week.  A determined Maguire squad, engaged in their own battle with 'Faither' Nicoll (for the wooden spoon), managed to inflict Sandy's second defeat of the season to lift themselves off the bottom of the table, where Morgan's victory over Team Wood put them on Sunday.
On paper Mike's boys n girls could still lift the Shield but that would require help.  Sandy only needs one win from his last 2 games.

Shots Competition

And so it begins......
Remember that this competition is based on Shots Up only......  But....
The wins/losses/ends also count towards the resumption of the Peter Allan Shield hostilities.
We got off to a narrow win for John Good over Team Nicoll Snr last night.

Points Competition 2018/19

A small, but quality, turn out along with a non-playing referee, enabled us to complete 10 exercises this year.  The tenth is normally reserved for tiebreaks but due to having plenty of time we elected to play it.  This was possibly a mistake because it allowed our leader to 'clear off' while creating a three way tie for second place!  The subsequent Draw the Shot for second place was inconclusive with no players putting their stone in the house ! - At this point we decided to retire to the bar.
Sandy once again supplanted his father (who did not defend his title due to a 'long run' in the Yara!) as our points champion, while Karen took the ladies crown for the fourth consecutive year.  Karen was also the only player to secure an 8 in any exercise, thus proving that Karen is indeed 'striking'.
The extra end did enable a couple of players to rise up the 'all time' tables with Dave Wyllie beating his previous best by a whopping 72% and puts him in 5th in our 'since records began' table

Thirds - Winners

Congratulations to John Niven and his team of Pauline Alexander, John McOmish and Mike Wood. With a target of winning at least three ends to take the title, they held fast and had achieved their goal in the fifth end against Team Dale.  This gave them a 4 - 2 lead but they celebrated in style by taking a 3 in the next end, giving them the final score of 7 - 5.  It looks like nerves played a part in the final round with Team Howard having blinked slightly more than our deserved winners.
Congratulations are especially due to two new members having joined during the season.  John McOmish who played in stead of Tegan Williams (another new member, who is still injured) and Julia Mackey who took over skipping when Stuart had to withdraw (with another injury).  It is always difficult to skip with and against teams that you do not know the strengths and weaknesses of.  Julia however was a quick learner and won her last couple of games with relative ease giving her a third place finish in the league.

Thirds Competition - update

With the final round to play, the league is finely balanced.  The top two teams, Stan Howard and John Niven, who peeled their head-to-head, lead and cannot be caught.  They are on the same points and currently have won the same number of ends. Despite Team Howard having scored one more shot they are second at the moment with a total of +3 shots up compared to Team Niven on a score of +7.
Clearly ends and shots may be important in the final games.
Meanwhile, the remaining three teams are all on two points and the final podium step is still available.  Teams MacKay and Callander will be trying to make lives difficult for our leaders, being involved in their own personal battle.

New Members Update

We are delighted to welcome John McOmish as a new reserve member of our club.  He was a former junior player with Gogar Park but is making his comeback and has come through a Beginers Course and is a member of New Stones (and several other clubs).
I have played against John and witnessed him making a very good double tap up and a double take out in successive shots !
His details are:-

Name - John McOmish

email – john.mcomish AT hotmail.co.uk

Mobile number – 07521 365 302

To consolidate things I would also remind you of our other new member Julia Mackey. I have included her details here as well

Name – Julia Mackey

email -   Julia.mackey  AT hotmail.ca

Mobile number -07483 416 565   (This is the updated UK mobile number)

Finally here are Tegan Williams details - please note that she is currently injured and not playing

Name – Tegan Williams

email – teganjanewilliams AT gmail.com

Mobile number – 07835 139 855