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.

Delivery !

A huge thanks to Vice President Julia who 'herded the cats' and arranged for a 'Sort your Delivery'  coaching session with the hugely experienced Paul.  The nine attendees were fascinated by the information imparted by Paul and all were given a LOT to think about with their own deliveries.

All in all, it was an extremely useful and enjoyable session.  

Remember Paul's words - There are 17 things that make up your delivery,  If you can improve just one or two, it will make a big difference.

Xmas break

                         Have a great Xmas

                        and see you for more 

                            curling in 2023

On The Beach - Xmas Special

     

Well done to everyone for, once again, being the talk of Murrayfield, even though some of the older witnesses felt slightly queasy at the sight of Graemes 'knees'.  With the group photographs successfully out of the way, the 13 players, trying (mainly unsuccessfully) to establish various alcoholic flavours of seaside rock, took to the ice. A big shout out to Annabelle who stepped up to skip her rink and appeared to be the only person (other than Graeme) able to read, follow and impart instructions/rules clearly to the other players.  A good time seemed to be had by all, although it must be noted that only one player had to be penalised for the 'silent' end.  That person was President Rosie who was unable to hold back a 'guffaw'.  In the end, the results were extremely tight with the convenor and his team of Rachael Macrae and Rosie 'guffaw' Clark running out the winners with 7 points, ahead of Team Dale(Adam and Cathy) with 6.5 points.  Third was the Martin squad (Pam and Ian) with 6 points and finally the Good Rink (Megan, Sheena and David McK) with 5 points.

Most of the players then, after having got dressed, stayed to enjoy soup and sandwiches courtesy of Paul.