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.