Surprise Boxing Day Gifts

A surprise package was delivered to my doorstep on Boxing Day.  (In time honoured fashion, 'A big Boy/Girl done it and run away')







What on earth could it contain ?

Now where can I put it for the next 5 years ?

Xmas Message

Have a great Xmas Break and a Fab New Year

Christmas Bonspiel 2017

Back l-r:- Pam, David, Richard, Mike, Cathy, Pauline, Dale, Stanley, Sheena.  Front:- Graeme, Justyna

 

Once again the club dispensed with their usual tasteful purple outfits in favour
garments conforming to the theme of Europe for this years bonspiel.  Some interesting and unusual explanations for costumes were exchanged before everyone got down to trying to work out Graeme's Rules for this years extravaganza.
Two tight games were played out with Graeme's team of Sheena and Justyna powering through the first four ends before Team Dale (David and Pam) got their heads together and took the next three ends leaving them the Bonspiel Winners by 2 shots.  Meanwhile John and Mike battled hard to come away with a peel.
All the players were confused when asked to play to the 'half length' houses in ends four and five (The second time from opposite ends of the rink) and then resorting back to the 'normal' houses.  Seldom have I witnessed so many hogged stones !
An excellent turkey dinner was then provided by Paul and his caterers and a toast drunk to 'Absent Friends' as last years Bonspiel was the last time that George was with us.

Edinburgh Area Bonspiel

Due to reasons that we wont go into here, East Lothian were unable to defend the Black Bull Trophy.
However a fun 'Draw Shot' Competition was added and this was dominated by one of the East Lothian Teams.  This team was made up by Morgan Nicoll (representing Aberlady) and Colin Baird and Sandy Nicoll (representing Haddington).
Well done and enjoy your drinks.

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.