The Trophy Pie Dilemma

 The final (and deciding) game of the Trophy Competition saw Team Mackey with an interloper, the skip of the Maguire squad playing lead.  As the Mackey team was the only team with a (very slim) chance of beating Graeme's rink to the pies there was a fierce debate about whether he would help or hinder Julia's chances of another pie.

With Julia needing 7 ends and a 14+ shot advantage, she made a good start.  Graeme was behaving himself but started to get worried when after 2 ends Team Mackey was well on target.  All speculation was calmed, however when the Good Squad took two vital ends.  From then on, with the Trophy Competition decided the skips thoughts then turned to the Peter Allen Shield race.  Team Julia, wrapped up the game by taking a further three ends, thus restricting Graeme to a two end advantage in the Shield going into the final round of games.  These wont start until 5th March as we now take a break with the upcoming start of the Thirds Competition.

At the other end of the table, Team Good's two ends were not sufficient to leaver himself from the 'strongman' position, i.e. holding everyone else up !  His team are, however, only 4 ends behind Dale's team, with three games to play.

So, its congratulations to Graeme Maguire, David Wyllie, Alasdair Robertson, Karen/Sheena Munro and various reserves for securing the second lot of pies for the season.  (For the record this is the first main league win for Graeme since 2012/13)

Christmas Bonspiel

 The Bonspiel will be on 11th December at 2.30pm.

THE THEME - - -   THE N.H.S.   

Fancy dress should be anything to do with the NHS, medical services or Covid.

There will be a club supper after the game to which partners/friends are invited.

Trophy Competition nears conclusion

 Last night saw narrow leaders, Team Maguire, playing their final game against Team Callander.  Graeme had a game plan and largely managed to stick to it, that was to win and take as many ends as possible.  This saw a defensive game consisting of a lot of guarding of single shots.  Team Callander failed to conjure up their normal consistency and with the help of one long angled raise and a draw to the button saw the Maguire squad take an 8 - 1 victory.  More importantly, they also kept the end count high.  They now have one hand on their steak pies.

In the final game Julia's team face off against Team Good. To claim their second pies, Julia needs to win 7 ends AND increase their shot difference by 26 ! (or play and win 8 ends).  A BIG ask but if anyone can do it Julia can.

Meantime, at the other end of the table, to avoid the wooden spoon, the Good Quartet require a peel or better.

Even More New Reserves

Thanks to some fabulous poaching by past president Sheena Munro, no less than 3 new reserves have been added to our roster.  Hopefully they will be added to our WhatsApp group in the next few days, but in the meantime their contact details are:

Annabelle Martin 07940 882 185

Rachel MacRae  07928 851 552

Sarah Ford           07513 597 013

I will be adding them to the syllabus, along with David, which can be found and downloaded from this website.  - Alternatively add them to your copy of the syllabus (that's why we leave a blank section for notes!)

New Reserve - David McKay

David joined us for our Swan Trophy game and is now on our reserve list.

Hopefully he will shortly be on our WhatsApp group but in the meantime, he can be contacted on 07720 899 048.

Aberlady - The Swan Raid

 At a certain persons suggestion, we entered the Swan Trophy competition for the first time in at least a couple of decades.  Finally, with the inclusion of David McKey (neither a relation to any of our other Davids or Mackeys) a friend of John Good's from 'The Vets' our 8 players took on a very impressive Mid-Calder team.

Our, and their, teams were split almost on an ageist basis.  Our youngsters go off to a bad start while the older contingent held on to the oppositions coat tails, even forcing them into a blank end in the third.  But things were not going to stay like that for long.  The youngsters (no, I'm not going to say who was in either team!) tightened their game up, a bit, but unfortunately not their scoring rate, while the oldies started running out of puff.  Soon it became an internal contest to see which or our teams would receive a smaller beating.

We ended up, surprisingly, in second place and not qualifying for the next round. 

Despite the scores all of our valiant eight seemed to enjoy themselves and some got to see an entirely different style of game from our club leagues.  Some drinks were had with the opponents and I wouldn't be amazed if we repeat the experiment next season.

Knockout Final

Last night was the Knockout Final contested between the Mackey and Maguire squads, or at least so we thought....

Julia approached it as mission Steak Pie ! 

I'm not sure I can remember a club game that was played with such an attacking style.  Every end contained so many 'take-outs' (or attempted ones) that we should have opened a restaurant !  Anyway, I can't delay the pain much longer.

Team Mackey got off to a great start, taking a four from their opposite numbers before Team Maguire got their heads in the game.  They struck back, but with a barrage of hits, were restricted to singles in the next two ends.  The contest turned and it was then Julia and her crew to be restricted to singles.  By the end of the fifth they had restored their four shot lead.  At that point a poor hit and roll attempt backfired and left Graeme having to play a wide hit and diagonal roll with his last.  The hit was made but the stone rolled just too far and left Team Julia with another four.  

With the score at 10 - 2 the game was conceded.

Overall, with the exception of the actual scoreline, it was a close fought match, with some excellent shots being played.  Especially from the winners team who deserved their victory having hardly made a mistake (or even miSTEAK) all night

Congratulations to Julia Mackey, John Niven, John McOmish and Adam Hicks for winning the first meaty goodness of the season - AND the Knockout crown.