The results for the Peter Allan and the Shots Competitions have been updated to reflect the Mike/Graeme game which was a default game (not a peel as originally posted).
The Day/date of the Annual Dinner and Prize Giving (above) has now also been amended. (The time and date were put in my Google diary when I was still in the 'Pacific Time Zone and it compensated !)
The game (and the title) came down to the final two stones which saw Mike make a miraculous shot to edge out Team Maguire. With the 'hammer' and his final stone of the regular season, Graeme answered the call with a delicate draw and diagonal tap back to take the end and secure the peel. No further discussion of a 'default' game was needed (although it continued in the changing rooms).
So it is congratulations to Graeme Maguire, John Good, Adam Hicks (who Graeme will NOT be lending to the opposition in any future games as he played too well for Mike!) and Ian Campbell. They started out the season strongly and managed, at the end, just to hang on to their advantage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| Skipper Good in USA action |
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.
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.
