CHANGE OF FIXTURES (WINGATE)

Due to a clash of our final Wingate Fixture on 31st January with the incoming Strathcona Cup Dinner, the games have been rescheduled as follows :-

Wed 31st January - CANCELLED

Mon 29th January @ 5.30pm  Rinks 1 v 4 - James Logan v Willie Kerr
Fri 2nd Feb @ 5.30 Rinks 2 v 3 - Dave Munro v Sandy Nicoll

 Please update your cards/calendar accordingly.

Xmas Message

Have a great curling break and a Fab New Year

Early Christmas for Dave Munro

Following last weeks dip in form (only a peel) Dave was looking to wrap up his second championship in a week.  (Last week he won the Currie and Balerno Kettle League).  However he was up against a resurgent Willie Kerr who was not about to make it easy for him.  True to form, Team Munro was only able to win two ends while the Kerr Squad scored in five ends.  Unfortunately for team Kerr, they were only allowed a single each time while Team Munro Snr took a four and a two to secure the match AND the Wingate crown by 6 - 5.
This represents a hat trick for Dave, having won it for the last two seasons.  We will have to create a Hall of Fame to induct him into as he is the first member to take a hat trick since my records begin (1891).  It could also be noted that Dave has also won our Presidents Cup, three times in a row, again the only person to do so. Before he is overly consumed with his own greatness, he still has a bit of catching up to do as Lindsey has won the ladies points for seven straight years.
Dave has occasionally been assisted (and hindered by his team of Graeme Maguire, Colin Baird and Richard Taylor.
In the other game Sandy powered to a 13 - 8 win over the absent James Logan and moves himself into second place and now only needs to secure another 1 point to guarantee himself safe in the Wingate for a second year.

Rennie @ 50%

The new and enlarged Rennie reached the end of the first round with a couple of interesting results.  Both games went to the seemingly underdogs and both teams that won the most ends, ended up losing.
The undefeated Team Aberdein was in a top of the table clash with Team Morgan.  Willie Kerr, at the helm of Andy's team always seemed to hold a small advantage, whenever Morgan built up a good end, Willie would manage to get one stone into the middle of the pack that was impossible to dislodge.  With the score at 5 - 3 in Willies favour he left Morgan a draw, with backing, for a 2 and a peeled game.  Despite Graeme's advice, Morgan instead elected to play a heavy weight strike, with only a thin edge visible (and the necessity to catch the stone even finer).  When the debris had cleared, the measure was brought out and Morgan had made the necessary three and took the game
6 - 5 despite having lost four ends to three.  Andy had suffered his first defeat of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Rowena was also absent from her team, which was led by Lorna.  Lorna managed to engineer a 5 and a 4 shot ends in the second and fourth ends to take a commanding 9 - 2 lead.  Team Baird fought back with a win and a steal in the next two ends.  At this point Lorna, with brother Sandy subbing in third, seemed to relax and Colin, Hugh and both Donalds almost pulled off an unlikely come back.  Unfortunately they only managed a steal of 3 in the final end and narrowly lost out 9 - 8, despite having won five of the seven ends !
So at the half way point, Teams Aberdein and Nicoll Snr. are top with only one defeat each and the A Team topping the table by virtue of having won two more ends.  Teams Kerr Jun. and Baird are next, respectively one and two wins behind the leaders.  Meanwhile Teams Pate and Munro Jnr. are at the other end of the table with one win each.  Team Pate however has a relatively comfortable six end advantage over the junior squad.  If the table was to be determined on ends ONLY, the James Pate quartet would be in third place.

East Lothian Province Knockout

Despite a close match, unfortunately the holders (yes, us!) went out in the first round match against Yester.  The game was evenly matched until the second last end where our draw was slightly heavy and instead of taking a 2 shot lead into the final end, we were 2 shots down.  Yester then proceeded very clinically to remove our stones until we simply ran out of stones.

East Lothian Province Pairs

Dave Munro holds up the Doo'cot Trophy

On keen and swinging ice, the 1st round of the Province Pairs developed into 4 very closely contested games. The games were played over 4 ends and after the 3rd end was completed Haddington held a slim 2-1 advantage over Doocot. However at the end of the next end Doocot (after a draw shot challenge) successfully made it through to the high road and Haddington was relegated to the Low Road. 

In the high road semi finals Haddington edged out Markle and proceeded to the final.

The low road final took place first and East Linton, skipped by Paul Neison with Emma Hood leading, took a single point at the 1st end but Haddington took the following 2 ends scoring 3 then 2 to lead 5-1 going down the 4th and last end. Although East Linton managed to score 2, the victory and the Doocot Trophy was won by Haddington pair Dave Munro (skip) and Colin Baird by a final result of 5-3.

 The High Road was between the father & son pairing of Balfour and Sandy Stewart for Yester and Frank Ross and Katherine Golding for Athelstaneford. This proved to be a really intense event but in the end Frank and Katherine successfully defended their title.

Wingate at 2/3rds distance

Last night saw the teams completing their second leg of the triple round robin league.
Dave Munro our leader was stuck in traffic on the M8 while his deputy (my name will not be mentioned to protect the guilty) steered his team into a 6 - 1 losing position against Sandy.  Unfortunately for Sandy, Dave turned up in the middle of the fourth end and proceeded to win that and every successive end to pull back to an unexpected 6 - 6 draw. (I am not sure if I am relieved or annoyed at the embarrassment).  This was the first peeled game of the competition.
Meanwhile, on paper, another close tussle was being fought out between Elinor (standing in for James L) and Willie (the man with the two tone shoes).  This game resulted in our second peeled game of the competition with a score of 4 - 4. Although Mr Kerr was overheard to say that he probably did not deserve the point !
So two peeled games leave Dave still out in front although Willie and Sandy could still catch him by winning ALL their remaining games AND by dramatically increasing their winning ends.  In the relegation battle, Willie, Sandy and James L are all within 2 points (one win)  and 2 ends of each other.  So it looks like Dave is odds on to get his hat trick but the only thin that is certain is that he cannot be relegated and James Logan cannot now win this year.

Meanwhile in the Rennie, approaching the half way point, an important victory for Rowena lifts her team up from last place to third, which improves the prospects of the youngsters for this season, but there is still a long way to go in this competition yet.

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, Sandy Nicoll (Haddington) John Shedden, Shelagh Main (Athelstaneford), Ian Donald (East Linton) and Ken Burchell (Doo'cot).  Sandy was also the ONLY player to 'cover the hole' (although faither was not far behind
Well done and enjoy your drinks.