E. L. Bonspiel 2017

Congratulations to both our teams in the East Lothain Bonspiel.
In the first round Haddington 2 came out of their match against Dirleton 11 shots up.  This gave them the half time lead over East Linton by 4 shots.  Unfortunately as this is a Shenkel competition, when they came to play each other East Linton came out on top.
Meanwhile, Haddington 1 started quietly with a single shot win over Yester.  This gave them a second round game against Doo'cot, who reached half time sitting in mid table.  The Haddington quartet then 'caught fire' and administered a severe 17 - 1 beating to Doo'cot.  This result gave Haddington 1 a total score of 17 shots up.  This was enough to secure Haddington the Elco Cup, for the nineteenth time in the history of the trophy, which dates back to 1859.
So well done to James Logan, James Pate, Andy Aberdein and Elinor Logan (helped out in the first game by Roy Black)

Wingate - Tablets of Stone

The penultimate round of the Wingate saw top and bottom of the table clashes.  The results lock in everyones positions and no more movement is possible.  We can all enjoy the final round with nothing but pride at stake.
We hail Dave Munro as our winner, for the second year in succession.  A feat that has only been achieved on six previous occasions, since the war !  They are:-

A McDiarmid 2013, 2014
P Rennie 1996, 1997
J Logan 1990,1991
J McLaren 1972, 1973
R Howden 1961, 1962
T Fortune 1953, 1954

I notice that no-one has achieved a hat trick, yet........  No pressure Dave.
Dave was assisted by James Pate, Colin Baird and Frances Donald.

At the other end of the table, a high scoring match was taking place with Morgan, skipping for Simon, stealing a 4 in the first end before losing a 4 in the second.  The third end saw him reestablish his lead with another 4 before the symmetry was lost by James Logan taking a 5 in the fourth end to make the score 9 - 8 after only four ends.  The game then settled down with James taking a 2 in the final end to win 12 - 10.
With 22 shots scored, this was easily the highest scoring game of the season.  The second highest with a total of 19 shots scored was also between James and Simon, this time in favour of Simon's rink.  That was also the first Wingate match of the year.

USA TOUR 2017

With only a few days to go President John Good will be packing and repacking his bags ready to set off on the 2017 Scottish Curlers Tour to the USA.  He will be playing 31 games in three weeks and hopefully will return home having regained the Herries Maxwell Trophy for Scotland.
The tour will cover from Cape Cod in the East to Minneapolis in the West.
The best wishes of the club goes with him, Callum Harvey, Jim Ramsey and the 17 other curlers.

You can follow their day to day exploits on their website  https://rccc2017tour.com.
This link is also on the right hand panel along with other useful links.

Access to Murrayfield

Bridge Closure - As from Wednesday 11th January 2017 the main road bridge into the rink will be closed.  The bridge into the back car parks (rugby parking) should be used - this will be well signposted.  Parking will still be in the usual car park, with the overflow in the back car park.

President v Vice President

Maybe this is the first time this match has, in name if not in fact,
been won by a Vice President who was in the Caribbean at the time.
President John, encouraged by Willie Kerr, Lindsay Nicoll and David
Wyllie headed off the challenge by Morgan Nicoll, Sandy Nicoll and
Colin Baird with a seven to their five.
Dave Munro, Jack Kerr, Karen Munro and John Playfair, playing for the
President, finished with four shots, three behind James Pate with his
VP team of Roy Black, Liz Nicoll and Richard Taylor.
Result: The Vice President wins with a total of twelve shots to eleven.

It was good to have George Playfair, for many years one of our members
and possibly the most reliably consistent  lead some of us will have
curled with, watching the match and joining us for the supper which
followed.