Christmas Break

We wish John Good and Dave Munro the best of luck in the Province Pairs competition on Saturday
20-12-14.

Other than that we wish everyone a Good Christmas and New Year.

Rennie @ 2/3rds

As the Rennie reaches it's Christmas break and the end of the second round, things started closing up somewhat.  Dave previously unbeaten was up against Colin who was still to get off the mark.  Things were going to form with Dave leading 3 - 1 after four ends, then Colin mounted a strong come back and pulled off a great win to send him into the Christmas break with something to cheer about.
In the other game, I have to report that despite Simon not playing a single bad stone his side recorded another loss to John Good.  Simon actually played despite a shoulder injury and skipped but did not deliver any stones.  Dedication from Oor President and a lesson to any footballers out there.
These results see the gap narrowing to a single win between the top two teams and the same margin between the trailing two teams.

Wingate at 2/3rds

After two of the three rounds of the Rennie have been completed we see Morgan slipping into a narrow one point lead over Willie (after my mistake has been corrected - oops) who has a further one point lead over our two times winner Andy.  Although Andy could, mathematically, still win it now looks like a fight to avoid relegation.

RCCC Medal - 2014

After a tight tussle, Haddington come up just short once again in our annual quest for an RCCC Medal.  John Good has written a short report of the match:-

 John Good, Sandy Nicoll, Karen Munro and Andrew Kinnaird represented Haddington CC in a District Medal game at Murrayfield on 19 November. Their opponents were two husband-and-wife combinations from Glenrothes CC.

After five of the seven ends played, Glenrothes were 5 shots to 2.  Haddington got one in end six, taking us to within two shots.  After our last stone in the seventh end we were lying five without the hammer only to see that reduced to a single by another excellent shot by the Glenrothes skip.

Result after the seven ends: Glenrothes 5, Haddington 4.

 

All eight players agreed that the game had been tight, not least as Glenrothes got one of their singles by a fine margin after a measure. The visitors joined us for supper and some good craik. All were agreed that meeting curlers from other clubs through the District Medal competition was well worth doing.

 

John

Individual Points - Analysis

Last night 8 players accepted the challenge, that is our points competition.  This year saw the defending champion, Morgan, avoided having to play 'first stones' using the cunning ploy of playing on a different sheet and therefore not defending his title. 

Having only 8 players meant that we rattled through all the exercises in a close and high class competition that saw the average score increase to 33, a score that would have won in previous years (although not all the exercises are completed each year).

Morgan need not have worried though as the medal remains in his house with the title being passed over to Sandy, who was given stiff competition by big sister Lindsey who retained the Ladies crown.

Results and comments are below:-

 For the record, the all time best highest (and lowest) scores - well since records began (five years) are below,  please note that these are distorted slightly by not all the exercises being completed every year:-

Halloween Game Report

Currently the Rennie is at the one third mark with Dave Munro our clear leader with a 100% record, so far.
In the Wingate, only two games have been played and all the rinks are on one win and one loss, leaving Morgan our table topper having a superior end count.

East Lothian Province Competitions

The Draws for the East Lothian Knock-out, the Pairs and the Bonspiel competitions have now been completed and can be found on the FIXTURES page.
Please note that the fixture date for the first round match in the Knock-out needs to be rearranged as our opposition cannot play at the original time.

Skins 2014

This seasons first silverware (ok, Pewter-ware)  goes to Andy McDiarmid and his rink of James Pate and Simon Kesley for the annual Skins Challenge between last years two league winners.
The score of Nine skins to Zero probably does not reflect the game, as it was not until the fifth end that either team got on the scoreboard with a total of an accumulated nine skins.  Although there was a pot of Seven skins available on the seventh and last end, this would not have been enough for Willie to overtake Andy.  This pot was not won either and (presumably) the two skips decided to shake hands without drawing the shot for the final pot.

Member Profile - James Logan

Ever wonder what our members get up to in their spare time, ie. time not on the ice.

Article spotted in the Toun Cryer - Oct/Nov edition.

Balyarrow 2014 - Results

A stormy morning saw 14 of our boys and girls heading towards Greenacres for the 2014 running of the Balyarrow being hosted by Bridge of Weir who narrowly pipped us three years ago with a final stone, final end win.  Although an experienced team, we were without our stalwarts including no Logans, Pates or Kerrs and many of our team had not ventured to Greenacres before.
The morning session got off to a good start with Morgan's rink getting off to a huge 14-1 victory.  Andy McDiarmid took some time to get to grips with the ice before he also led his team to a big win.  This left Haddinton as the only club that had won both their morning games.
In the afternoon Dave's rink set about trying to beat Morgan's total of the morning and coming up one shot down with another emphatic win 17 - 5.  This left John Good with the opportunity for a clean sweep.  Although John's team led for a large part of the game the loss of a 7 left his team trailing (Imagine what the opposition skip could have done if he had sight in both eyes - sorry John).  It looked like a comeback was possible and they got within two shots before another big loss in the last end.
This left Haddington with 3 wins and 1 loss and this was enough to tie with the holders Bridge of Weir on points, however a superiority in ends, shots up and total shots meant that Haddington won the Trophy for the third time in its history . The rink of Morgan Nicoll, Shelagh Main, Simon Kesley and Graeme Maguire were named the best rink of the day, narrowly pipping Dave Munro, Morgan Nicoll (again), Sandy Nicoll and Stephen Dyer.
We all then sat down to a thoroughly satisfactory supper courtesy of Greenacres and left us wondering, which of us is going to organise the 2017 event at Murrayfield.  (Volunteers, please let Graeme know !!!)

Full results and answers to the quiz can be found at the bottom of the Balyarrow Page.

Balyarrow - Sun 19th October

The triennial Balyarrow is being held at Greenacres on Sunday 19th October.

Haddington's teams are as follows (subject to change).

time	Team	Skip	Sheet	Opposition
12.45	HCC 1	Andy McD, Sandy, Karen, Liz	B	Strathendrick 2
12.45	HCC 2	Morgan, Shelagh, Simon, John G ?	C	St Andrews 1
3pm	HCC 3	Dave M, Sandy, Graeme, Stephen	B	Falkland 4
3pm	HCC 4	John G, Andy A, Roy, Graham E	F	Bridge of Weir 3

 

The players in the first session should be there for the welcome at 12.15 and all players should be at Greenacres for a photo session at 14.45.

Good luck to everyone in their bid to win this for the third time.

RCCC Rink Champs - Round 1

Morgan Nicoll, John Good, Lindsey Nicoll and Elinor Logan played a Corstorphine team on 12 October 2014 in this competition. Corstorphine had something of an advantage in respect of ice knowledge as their players were Douglas Baxter, Colin Campbell and Aaron Forsythe, all Murrayfield Curling icemen, ably complimented by Dan Arrondale.

Sadly, our team were outclassed and outplayed by four men curling well as individuals and as a team. The game may best be summed up by saying that Haddington had to wait till the seventh end to take a shot, by which time Corstorphine was well out of sight with ten on the board.

Those in our Club who in the past have played and won at this level and gone on to the National final know that the standard is high. With the strength there is in Haddington, we can do better, so let's look forward to doing that in 2015. Surely by that time, Morgan will have got rid of the head cold that meant he was a bit short of his best this year!

John Good.

Now we move on with our next 'outside' competition - The Balyarrow on Sunday 19th October.

Opening Bonspiel 2014

With many of our reserves dusting off their techniques, the Opening Bonspiel saw run away winners with Andy Aberdein, Lorna Shaw, Stephen Dyer and Dave Wyllie having a decisive win of Twelve shots to Something over their rivals.
Things were a lot closer in the other match, with Graeme's rink of Richard Taylor Willie Thomson and Lisa Starrs edging our President Simon's rink Six shots to Five.
The rotating of positions caused a lot of fun and confusion and gave some of our trusty leads and seconds the opportunity to experience the game from the other end of the sheet.
The evening was completed with a very convivial supper which saw 17 attendees, having acquired some of our members who were involved in an Aberlady tussle on another sheet.
Thanks to everyone for a fun evening.

Unleash Your Sporty Side

Stephen wonders where
the measure is ?

As part of East Lothian's 'Unleash Your Sport Side' day, we, along with ten other local sports clubs put on a display and demonstration in the Aubigny Centre of New Age Kurling.  Yes, that was curling with a K. This was the indoor (roller) version of our game that we demonstrated as part of the Queen's Baton Relay Celebrations.  This time the floor was much smoother and and required more skill and less chance of a bad bounce off a loose floor board.  We were kept busy throughout the three hours with a constant stream of people ranging from youngsters to oldsters wanting to give it a go.  Several others wanted to discuss the proper game and we collected some names and contacts for future 'ice bound' Come & Try events..
The children were all very competitive and gave us a hard time and I don't think that anyone was cutting them much slack.
We were informed that our display was one of the constantly busiest throughout the afternoon and we were thanked for contributing to the event
Huge thanks go to Stephen Dyer and Richard Taylor for their help and time.
As usual more photos can be found on our Flickr site - follow the link, or look top right.

OK One shot to blue then !

Rennie is underway

Last night saw wins for Dave Munro and Simon Kesley in the opening round of the Rennie Quaich.  John Good looked like he had the measure of Dave going into the last end with a one shot lead, however a loss of four shots saw his hopes dashed.  The other game saw Simon have a convincing victory over Colin.
The scores etc are as ever on the Results Page.

Thank You Joe !

A big thanks are due to Joe Forte who has turned his sport shop window display over to our club for two weeks.
Please go along and see if you can spot yourself in the window and support Joe's shop.

T - 7 Days

Only one week to go until our Come & Try. 
If you want to try curling or know anyone that does, tell them and ask them to get in contact with Graeme as soon as possible.

Also only a week left to pay your membership and ice fees.

The season opening game is a Rennie Trophy match at 7.30pm on Wednesday 24th September

Website Problems

It has been brought to my attention that the tables on this website cannot be viewed in Internet Explorer.  I am working on this but it may take some time to resolve. Anyone with expert knowledge could contact me and help get this fixed.
In the meantime, I have managed to correct the issues on the Fixtures Page, so all this seasons fixtures should now be visible.
The Results will be visible once the season starts, even if I have to do it the long way !

This issue does not appear to effect other browsers such as Chrome, Firefox or Opera and the website should be fully operational on these platforms.
(Other browsers are also available but I do not have access to them so have not been able to test them.)

2014-15 Teams and Fixtures

The skips have now had their 'meeting' and the rinks selected for the new season.
All rinks, fixtures etc can be found on the 'Fixtures' tab.

We are delighted to welcome John Playfair and Lorna Shaw as new members.  Both have some previous experience and Lorna has played in the Young v Old games (much to the regret of the oldies, who were well beaten last season) for the last couple of years.
We are also pleased to welcome back to the 'playing roster' Drew Bain, who will be sharing a rink place with John Playfair, Kath Dun, Keith Stuart, Colin Hood and his new wife Pat.

Our Syllabus should be printed and issued with the welcome pack sometime next week.

Season 14 - 15

The new season is getting ever closer, provided that if this weather continues, the Murrayfield plant can cope.
We are now awaiting a meeting of the skips, when the rinks will be selected, however, if you want a taste of what is to come, we have updated our Fixture List with the dates for the new season.  Please note that these dates are provisional and may be subject to change.
Dates and draws, where known, are also on the Fixtures tab.

Summer Kurling

On the 17th of June the Commonwealth Baton passed through Haddington.  As part of the celebrations (which were attended by almost 3000 people) we were asked to put on a display of New Age Kurling in the Corn Exchange.  Thanks to the help received from John and Muriel Good, Simon and Rebecca Kesley, Sheena and Karen Munro, Graeme and Gill,  we produced an excellent display of equipment and photos and gave hundreds of local children their first taste of Curling (or more technically Kurling).  The afternoon was declared a huge success and we were thanked by the organising committee for providing a very popular event.
It was also a fun day for the helpers but in our opinion 'roller curling' will never replace the real thing !
More photos of the event can be found on our Flickr Photostream.

Summer Bowling

The Players

A triumphant return of our Summer Bowling saw 16 competitors and 4 'interested' spectators turn up at Gifford bowling club.  The sun shone and the midges were well tempered while teams were drawn.
Someone must have let on to Master and Miss Dun that there were two prizes on offer this year, a first and last prize because they conspired to win both of them with Kath and Gordon some place in between.
Once again the junior section represented this time by Angus Dun and Lorna Nicoll scooped first prize with a score of +10, while Megan and Maxine Kinnaird scooped up the other prize with a somewhat lower score.

The Spectator Gallery

The players had fun and the spectators knew how to do it better and just had a drink and chat in the evening sun prior to all enjoying the plentiful supply of sandwiched, laid on by the bowling club.
Thanks to everyone that helped.
As usual, more photos are available on out Flickr Page

Summer

Summer has arrived and the nights are starting, only just, to draw in.
With this in mind the preparations for next season are well underway and all my systems need updated, including the website, which I will endeavour to do over the next few days.

Andy McD back to back wins, with Simon, Richard and James

First up:-
The Annual Dinner and Prizegiving.
Again, it was a successful night with a 'foreign guest' and Robin Copland delivering an interesting and witty speech.  More photos can be found on our FlickR Photostream.  Just click HERE and select Dinner 2013/14 Album or go to the link top right of the blog.

Wingate Won

Congratulations to Andy McDiarmid who retained the title.  This is the first time that this has been
successfully defended for nearly 20 years and only the sixth time since the war.  The last skip to defend their crown was Peter Rennie in 1994/95 and 1995/96.
It has been noted that no-one has achieved the hat-trick, yet.............  no pressure Andy !
Andy and his regular team of James Pate, Simon Kesley and Richard Taylor dominated this years competition and had it won with games still in hand.  They were also the only team to remain undefeated throughout the season although he did peel three games, one against each of the other skips!
The target is on your back for next year Andy.

President v Vice 2014

Congratulations to Simon Kesley, very much supported by Dave Munro for winning the Presidents Cup, for the first time as the President.  Simon and his Depute won both games, although in very different styles.
Simon was embroiled in a battle with the Vice President John R Good and took the lead for the first time in the final end.
On the adjacent sheet, Dave and his three person team team of Kath and Dave Wyllie, administered a severe beating to his opposition, including taking five consecutive ends.  This also involved two steals of five shots.  With the game well and truly won they relented and let the opposition catch up with a four in the final end.

Rennie Showdown

It was all change last night in the final Rennie games of the season.  In a bottom of the table clash Dave Munro followed in Eve Muirheads footsteps by inflicting a big seven ender to win and consign Simon to bottom position.
In the meantime Willie, fresh from the Scottish Senior Championships needing a win to take the title from James P.  Willie, who was safe from taking another wooden spoon, took no prisoners by leading into the final end eight - nil up.  There was no generosity on show as he went all out to win that end too, although he came up short allowing James to get on the scoreboard with two shots.
So Congratulations to Willie Kerr, Morgan Nicoll, Roy Black and Stephen Dyer who are this years champions.

Pairs 2013 / 14

Richard and Andy A

Congratulations to everyone who took part in this years pairs, which provided a few surprises and upsets along the way.
In the first round The Daves (Munro and Wyllie) presented a granny to Simon and Lindsey, who were definitely slow off the mark.
In the Low Road, John G and Julie ran out the winners against the inexperienced duo of Douglas Pate and Steven Dyer while Simon and Lindsey continued their slow start against Shelagh and Hamish Logan.  Simon and Lindsey finally got on the scoreboard in their seventh end of the day and followed up with another end peeling the game and having to draw the shot.  Lindsey drew just behind the button while the opposition slipped a few inches further.
The final was a tight affair all the way through with our snails, Simon and Lindsey coming good at the end and winning three shots to two against John and Julie.

The Gallery

In the High Road, both games went with a four - two scoreline leaving us with a battle of the Andys for the crown.  Morgan (fresh from his Province Pairs and Province Bonspiel titles - both for 'the other club') and his Andy (Kinnaird) were favourites against Richard Taylor and Andy Aberdein (both with excellent track records in the Pairs).  After 4 ends Morgan and Andrew K were leading five to three and looking comfortable.  This was when the ice came into play and bit back. Morgan's first stone picked up and veered off the sheet while his second also picked and veered away........ then swerved back and ended on the button half guarded !  much to the frustration of the opposition and jeering from the spectators gallery.  All was not yet lost for Richard and Andy A who watched Morgan's final shot neatly pick out his own shot stone.  Richard and Andy then 'calmly' played their final stone for a three and the title.

Scottish Junior Champion

Team Gina Aitken
Photo courtesy of RCCC

Well done to Rowena Kerr, who playing second to Gina Aitken secured an exciting Scottish Junior title to their names.
Despite a slow start to the week they came good and qualified from the round robin in second place. They managed to beat, by a convincing scoreline Katie Murray, who had already beaten them in the round robin and the Page 1v2 playoff.
Gina's sister Karina also won the girls sportsmanship award.
Now we have all got to ask, will dad Willie make it a double title when he contests the Scottish Seniors ???

Early Finish for the Wingate

With two games remaining Andy McDiarmid, (in his absence) and his team of James Pate, Simon Kesley and Richard Taylor, secures back to back victories in the Wingate Rosebowl.  It is the first time that the title has been successfully defended since Peter Rennie in 1995 and 1996.
There is still all to play for at the other end of the table though .

Young v Old

Young 16 - 9 Old
Time has now gone by and the Oldies have finished licking their wounds, so at the risk of opening old sores here is the official report.
The Youth sqaud led by Lorna Nicoll with Karen Munro, Lorna Shaw and Angus Elder got off to a flying start against the Vice President's team (no names mentioned here to save embarrasment).  Indeed at the half way mark the only 'Granny' on the ice was for the all male Oldies team.
The kids built up a seven - nil scoreline after five ends before presumably remembering who was paying for their tea and petrol home.  They patronisingly allowed the Oldsters to take the last two ends for a final seven - three scoreline.
Things were a bit diffiernt, but only a bit, in the Presidents game.  Here the Youth team skipped by Sandy Nicoll, Jack Kerr, Hamish Logan and Douglas Pate allowed the first end to go to the opposition.  Having used that as a practice end the juniors then took the next three ends (including a steal of four).  The Younger team ran out Nine - Six winners
Young have now won the challenge for a second consecutive year.




(The Old Team was J R Good, D Munro, J Pate, G Elder, S Kesley, E Logan,G Maguire and M Nicoll)

Kerr-Ching

...... and now the good news.
Congratulations to family Kerr.
Willie has now qualified for the Scottish Seniors Finals.  His team winning their qualifying group with a 100% record.
Willie was too busy playing to witness Rowena, playing for Gina Aitken taking the final Under 21 Slam of the year, thus bracketing the season having taken the first two slams of the year as well.
We wish the Curling Kerrs, the best of luck in the Senior and the Junior Championships.

East Lothian Pairs

First the bad news of the year.
Unfortunately we bowed out of the Province Pairs Competition at the first hurdle against Athelstaneford.  who swept all before them by taking a clean sweep of ALL the Province competitions last season.