Province Competitions

The draws for the East Lothian Province competitions have now taken place and can be found towards the bottom of the 'Fixtures' page

Skins 2017

Double Skins Champion, Dave Munro

.... and so the victorious teams from last season assembled for our annual 'Skins' competition.
The Munro team, the current Skins champions mustered an experienced team looked on as the 'rules' were explained to Sandy Nicoll's team.  The NEW club rules were then explained to both teams.
Team Munro's experience showed and they took skins in the first four ends to make the score 6 - 0.
Sandy then took the more valuable skins on ends five and six to level the score at 6 - 6.
The referree made sure that both teams were aware that in the event of the four skins available for the seventh end, not being won, that a winner would be determined by drawing the shot.
With his last shot remaining, Sandy had worked out that to win he would have to hit the button, not once, but twice in order to take the title.  This added pressure caused him to over throw his shot and leave Team Munro victorious with a score of 10 - 6.

Balyarrow 2017

For the history of the Balyarrow trophy see the appropriate tab
Firstly thanks to Colin Baird and Shelagh Main for the organisation of this competition, which we were hosting this year.  Despite difficulties with some clubs raising a full compliment of players, approximately 70 players from each of the 5 clubs turned up to engage in their three yearly bonspiel.

In the early session, our teams led by Morgan and Sandy both secured victories giving Haddington the lead going in to the second session.  Dave Munro, the man that scored the winning shot in the 2014 competition took an early and commanding lead before getting pegged back.  In the meantime James L was getting a lesson in curling from Strathendrick.  In the final end Dave seemed to remember the script and that the winners get to host the next event, and lost a three and the game.  (I am sure that that was the furthest thing from his mind)

The two losses in the second session meant that we finished in third place overall and the well deserved victors were Strathendrick.  This was fitting, as they were the originators of the Bonspiel, and were the only club of the original five that had yet to win the trophy.

The afternoon was concluded by testing out the capabilities of our new caterers with over 55 players sitting down to a meal, drinks and banter.  The caterers, like Strathendrick, came out with flying colours.

Our skips and senior players also produced a series of prizes for a raffle in aid of the Murrayfield Renovation Appeal.  This raised £340 and thanks were expressed to ALL the Balyarrow Clubs, by Murrayfield for their effort.

RCCC Rink Champs

An early season start for our first 'external' competition resulted in an early season defeat for Willie Kerr and his team.  Despite, fielding a team of experience and youth (You are still young in heart and mind Willie) consisting of Rowena Kerr, Karen Munro and Sandy Nicoll, they were out foxed, and played by Oxenfoord, who progress to the next round.

Opening Bonspiel

Lots of summer rust was dusted off as the four teams led by Graeme, Sandy John G and Colin squared off against each other in the Opening Bonspiel.
New faces, Paula Arnott and Susan Stanton were making their presence known, on the ice and many players found themselves in unusual positions in their rinks.  This afforded them the novelty of getting to play different shots and to experience, in some cases, what a curling match looks like from the other end of the sheet.
Graeme v Sandy started off very positively for Sandy winning the first four ends and racing to a 6 - 0 lead.  At that point, maybe the summer excesses started getting to him, or Graeme remembered he was no longer on his motorbike but anyway the tide turned.  Graeme took all the remaining ends but alas still came up short with a 6 - 3 defeat.
Meanwhile.... John Good and his team of Roy Black, Paula Arnott and Colin Hood were in not in a compromising mood.  From what I witnessed, the only thing they made a mess of all night was the score card!  Before the conclusion of the game John's team reached the end of the new scoreboards and left the ice with a 12 - 0 win.
Congratulations to John, Roy, Paula and Colin H.

President's Drinks

President's Drinks.
A huge thank you to James and Elinor for hosting one of the best 'Early Season Drinks' that I can remember.  It was extremely well attended and the hosts very attentive (although maybe next time, both ends of the cocktail sticks could be sharpened !).  There was a lot of good 'chat' going on in all corners of the room and hallway.
It was great to see some old and newer faces and to catch up with past events.

Rennie - update

With the match secretary now back from his start of season jaunts, the first games for all the teams in the Rennie have now been completed.  Looking at the results, there must be a few people with smirks and high hopes, while some must still be hoping to get rid of the summer rust.
An interesting looking table but can the teams improve and/or maintain their level.