Skins 2015/16

Monday night saw the usual scratching of heads as teams Kerr and Munro faced off against each other in the Champions Skins Challenge.
Although Willie had come prepared with sweeties and bowls to record the results, nobody thought to bring the lovingly prepared scorecard and rules.  It was eventually remembered that a spare set had been pinned on the club noticeboard and play got under way.
When Graeme and Morgan (who will from now on be called the spectators) turned up, the first two ends had seen the 'skins' rolled over.  This was when Team Munro struck, taking the third end and collecting 4 skins (no jokes please).  It was one way traffic from there though with Equipe Kerr taking the next three ends and collecting 8 skins.  With 4 being available for the last end, there was all to play for and Willie kept the house clear and only allowed Dave (with the hammer) to score a one and thus not take the pot. 
With time pressing there should have been a draw shot to decide the final pot but as Dave pointed out, that would only earn him a peel, if he won, and then there would have to be another draw shot to decide the title winner.  At this point Dave offered the handshake and Willie Kerr, Elinor Logan and Graham Elder emerged our first champions for the season.

A Grand Day Out

As the day of the Indoor Grand Match rolled round, our gallant boys and girl set off to their various venues.

Simon Kesley, Andy Aberdein, Karen Monro and Stephen Dyer set off for an early start in Kirkcaldy.
As per the warnings, after Murrayfield's (relatively) quick ice they took a couple of ends to get the idea that nothing short of a 'full strike' would reach the hog line. Never the less they contained the first two end losses to singles and then stuck back with two singles of their own.  Fortified by the half time 'stacking of brooms' (whiskies), they then went on to take three of the remaining four ends with twos while only losing a further single.
Final scores South of Scotland (Haddington) 8 - North of Scotland (Coupar) 3.
It was great to see that Karen took the trouble to borrow her fathers clothes to turn out in a Haddington strip.  If you think the jacket in the photo looks a bit large, I am assured that the T-shirt was even larger.

Meanwhile, with a slightly later departure, Graeme and Dave Wyllie set off for Aberdeen, along with Vic Williams who was borrowed from the Surveyors.  After a very wet drive they were introduced to their fourth member Ian, who was borrowed from Aberdeen curling club.  It was handy to have some local knowledge but we refused the North's requests that a quarter of our score should be returned to them for his participation..
Unlike Kirkcaldy, our team struggled with the faster ice while the opposition, Turriff, were on their weight from the start, taking, singles in the first two ends.  The comeback started in the third end with Graeme erring on the heavy side, so as not to disturb our scoring stones and missing his draw and only taking a 3 and the lead.  The comeback didn't last too long though and a loose end resulted in a loss of 4 and a 6-3 deficit at mid point.  Fortified by the mid game whisky, we moved into a striking game which paid off leaving a clear house for our last stone.  Graeme tactically (some say missed) played through the back to blank the end and retain the hammer.  At this stage it suddenly all came together and the skip made two difficult draws (probably the best I have played all season) to take a 3 and tie the game going in to the last end.  It was still up for grabs when Graeme played his last stone, a difficult draw, which would have been almost impossibly to dislodge, unfortunately his luck had been used up the previous end and the stone just scuffed a guard and left the opposition a draw for 4.
Final score  10 - 6 against.

For the record the South of Scotland won the overall Grand Match, for the fourth time (out of 4) with a total score of 2154 to 1928 .

Roll on 2020.

RCCC Rink Champs - Out-Gunned

Last Saturday our boys & girl set about a very tough first round match against the Murrayfield Champions from last year - Gogar Park.
Our rink was skipped by Dave Munro who provided this report:-

You asked for a brief report on the rink championship match against Gogar Park and I was tempted to make it very brief.... ‘we lost!’

 

However I had better make a bit of an effort. It can be summed up that we (Shelagh, Andy McD, James P and myself) were outplayed (or should that be out-Gunned!) by a Gogar Park rink of Ian Keron, Stuart Dodds, Sean Murphy and Niall Gunn. Having lost 2 singles we took a 2 at the 3rd to square the game but although we played the 4th end quite well my last stone gave Niall an opportunity of a double take out to lie 3 which he achieved. Now chasing the game a bit we gambled somewhat which ended up with my last shot drawing against 2 and unfortunately came up marginally short. Although we gave ourselves a small glimpse of hope in the 6th with another well worked 2, trying to steal a 3 in the last was always a big order and we eventually lost a further 3 shots to see a slightly unrepresentative result of 10-4 to Gogar Park. Maybe next year! 

 

I watched the first four ends and more than one Gogar Park Player asked if Haddington practiced their trick shots, which I thought was unfair as 1) the trick shots that I saw (including a beautiful, long diagonal promote to the button from Dave) were all called and made and 2) We were STILL losing despite them.  

 

The opposition was a very strong team with vastly more ice time this season than we were able to muster. In the words of Dave - "Maybe next year"

Opening Bonspiel

The Opening Bonspiel was held last week in the usual spirit of good fun and humour, even if some of the players were confused by the rotating rink positions and finding themselves thrust in the spotlight of standing in the head.  Two good and close games - although the final scores may cast doubt on this point - were played with team Willie Kerr triumphing.  Willie was aided by the two Colin's (Baird and Hood) which made his screams for sweeping that little bit easier !  The Man of the Match  was given Colin Hood.
A big welcome to Ian and Frances Donald who played against each other and seemed to enjoy themselves in a tight game between James Logan and Simon Kesley, with Ian's side coming out on top.
Nine of the players sat down to the post match supper and analysis.

Contact Number - Corrections

Please note the following corrections to our playing roster and contact numbers on the syllabus.

Corrections
Rennie Only
Correction - Andy McDiarmid - 07974 414 926
Reserve Members
Correction - Hamish Logan - 07917 197 327