Season 25-26 News

Following an invitation, Haddington is entering a team in the Monday Night Coronation League.  This will run on 14 nights throughout the season.  Our team will provisionally be headed by Morgan Nicoll.

Our Points Competition will be pushed back later in the season to a Saturday in February, to give everyone a chance to get their eye in !   As a trial, it will be run at the same time as Aberlady's Points and will share the ice.

Ice is currently being booked and over the next couple of months this website will be getting its summer clean in preparation for next season. 

Anyone wishing to join should act asap and contact Shelagh or myself.

Provisionally, the season will commence with our Wednesday 8th October with a Rennie League game.  The following Wednesday 15-10-25 should be our Opening Bonspiel and Supper (both dates tbc)

Other games will be confirmed when the ice is finally confirmed.

 Have a good and safe summer.

East Lothian Bonspiel

 

A huge congratulations to our team that contested and WON the Elco Cup (and other bits of silverware) at the East Lothian Province Bonspiel.  After a big win in their first game, they were in second place which meant that they were up against the first round leaders.  A second win saw them draw clear on shots and take the title.

Congratulations to Sandy Nicoll,  Andy Aberdein, Keith Anderson and Richard Taylor

Skins 2025

Sandy & Family

 An all family affair with Sandy, The Wingate winner taking on his father, Morgan, the Rennie Winner.

After the ,now traditional, trying to understand the rules, battle commenced.  It was interesting to note that of the five times 'skins' were won twice was with the hammer and three times without.  Sandy was publicly claiming that his ambition was to win a single skin (which he had failed to do against his only previous skins outing).  It should be noted that, his play did not indicate this modest ambition, and with one of his 'spirited' sweeping efforts, shattered the head of his broom !

With no winners in the first end Sandy struck and took 2 skins (with a rollover) in the second end.  Morgan struck back with his own 2 skins in the next end. After the fifth end Dad was leading by 5 - 4 with 3 skins available for the next end, which wasn't won.  This left, including the rollover, 7 skins on offer for the final end with Morgan being the slight favourite having shed the 'hammer' to his laddie.

Meantime the thirds were conspiring to make the skips have to 'draw the shot' to determine a winner. 

With Sandy sitting with a 1 he needed to bite the eight foot with his final stone to take the skins and the win. Unfortunately the whole of the house was well guarded, so he had to make a very wide draw with only a small section of the house available to him.  He played onto the tee line and made the shot.

So it is congratulations to Sandy Nicoll, Graeme Maguire, Richard Taylor and Heather Harpur as worthy winners.

Wingate Conclusion & Records

The final game of the Wingate was between Team Pate and Team McDiarmid.  Team Pate were firing on
were fighting for their survival in the Wingate, while Team McDiarmid required a peel to take the title.  Only one of them could come away happy.

Team Pate were firing on all cylinders while our Vice President was possibly showing fatigue after a long season.  The game eventually went to Team Pate with a 7 - 4 score line, which mean that they will feature in next years Wingate while the McDiarmid crew lick their wounds and lose out on the title to the Sandy Nicoll squad by a single point.  That point was obtained by a peel way back in the first game of the season on 9th October.

Sandy is the seventh player to back up a Rennie win (and achieve promotion) with a win in the 'big league' as a 'rookie'.

Congratulations therefore to Sandy Nicoll, Graeme Maguire , Richard Taylor and Heather Harpur.

They will go on to contest the Skins on 20th March against Team Morgan, the winners of the Rennie.

For factual correctness, this is the first time that there has been a Father/Son lock out in our leagues.  There have previously been Father/daughter and Brother/sister as well as Husband/wife lockouts (can you name them?)

President v Vice

President Andy & Family

With allegations (well one anyway) of Vice - President Andy (McD) having 'stacked' his teams, we took to the ice.  The two Andy's battled out a close game, for the first five ends anyway before President Andy (A) struck with a big end of 4.  Their game eventually going to the President 8 - 4. (So much for a stacked team!)

Meanwhile their deputes were having an altogether different game on the next sheet.  The Presidents pick started off sedately, but between taking a 5 in the third end and a 4 in the sixth AND restricting the Vice Presidents pick to a single end meant a very one sided game going to the 'underdogs' 15 - 3.

This meant that President Andy (A) retains the trophy and he and his team (Keith Anderson, Richard Taylor, Susan Stanton, Morgan Nicoll (skip), Hugh Braod and Roy Black) deserve praise for a colossal       21 - 7 victory.

A very convivial supper concluded the evening.

Rennie Winners

As forecast, the deciding game came down to Team Morgan v Team Munro Jnr (NOT Munro Snr - please fill in all the details on the cards, it saves me a lot of work).

Until the final two ends this was a close game then Team Morgan took a 3 in the second last end and followed that by stealing a 2 in the final end.  The final score was 9 - 5 to  the Morgan Nicoll Rink.

Congratulations to Morgan Nicoll, Andy McDiarmid, Keith Anderson/Simon Kesley and Susan Stanton.

There is still one game remaining between Ian Donald's team and Dave Munro's team, this will decide the 'spoon' winners.

 

What still needs done !

It may be getting near the end of the season but there are still some BIG games to be played.

Wingate

Still tight as a tight thing.

The top two teams, Andy McD and Sandy have played each other for the last time and are still split by only 1 point.  They both still have to play James Pate and Andy A, who in turn still have to meet each other, as well.  All four teams could still claim the Rosebowl.

Rennie

The long time leader Karen was beaten by her bottom placed father, which sees her relinquish her long held top spot. Her team now trails team Morgan by 2 points although she has a game in hand.  Interestingly though despite playing one less game than Morgan they have both won the same number of ends.  Morgan's last game will be against Karen in what could be the title decider.  The win for Dave also moves his team off the bottom of the table.  That 'honour' goes to Team Ian, although only on ends.  Team Ian also has a game in hand over Dave and good wins in his last two games (and a bit of luck) and he could still take the Quaich.  The only team that cannot win is Team Dave.  With Ian still having to play both Munro father and daughter, it looks like Dave's only remaining game against Ian could be the wooden spoon decider.

Trivia

Especially in the run up to Christmas, I felt that I was always playing on sheet 2 which, at that time had some 'dodgy' ice.  As you know, I ask for sheet numbers to be recorded on the score sheets.  Following some analysis and omitting the 2 'unrecorded' sheets.  Over all our competitions, to date this year we have played on sheet 2 seven times! (so I wasn't making it up).  The next most popular sheet was 6 with six appearances.  Things then drop off dramatically with sheets 1 & 3 being played on 4 times and sheets 4 and 5 only three times.  Last nights game was the only time this season that we have played sheet 7 !  Points and pairs have not been included.

(This is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at nights!)

Wingate @ 66%

The final game of round 2 saw all four teams close up.  There are now 3 teams on 3 wins and the final team is only one win behind them.  Leading the way is Team Sandy with three wins and one peel.  He is one point ahead of Team McDiarmid and Team James (P), who are separated by a single end.  Meanwhile bringing up the rear is the President's team, but still only two points away from leading the table.

I usually say that there is all still to play for and this time it is really true, with all the teams withing touching distance of the silverware.

Dinner & Prize Giving

Following confusion (by me) and conflicting information.  I confirm that the Dinner & Prize Giving will be:- 

FRIDAY 4th APRIL, 2025

7 for 7.30pm

OPEN ARMS HOTEL, Dirleton

Rennie @ 66%

 With two rounds completed and one to go, the Rennie is tightening up.  The two teams that had been leading the way, Team Karen and Team Ian, are both still up at the sharp end but there is now clear water between them. Their last two games both resulted in defeats.  Currently, Team Karen is in the lead by two points while Team Morgan has now rallied and is in second position but only two ends ahead of Ian Donald's squad.  Despite managing to double their seasons wins, the Munro Snr Rink trails by a further two points.

With three games to play (each) all of the teams are within two wins of the lead, so mathematically, anyone could still win.

EL Province KO

The first round of the Knockout produced a couple of surprises and see Aberlady and East Linton as the winners who will go forward to play each other in the Semi Final on 16th Feb at 3pm.  There they will join Yester and Dirleton who got byes and will play in the other Semi.  The Final will be played straight after at 5.15pm.

Haddington v East Linton was a close match but East Linton were largely in control over a very good (on paper if not on the day) Haddington side.

Meanwhile the very experienced Athelstaneford side, who played aggressively were beaten by a much younger and laid back team from Aberlady.

Good luck to the surviving four teams.

Four Old Men and a Granny

Google image of
"granny + curling"

Congratulations to the 'younger members' of our club, particularly Sandy Nicoll, Euan Forbes, Hamish
Logan and Lindsey McConnell for reclaiming the Young v Old Title.  The last time that the Youngsters won this was over ten years ago, in Season 13/14, when the team was Lorna Nicoll, Karen Munro, Lorna Shaw and Angus Elder.

As you may have gathered from the title, this turned out to be a long and one sided game for the 'Oldies' who managed to win zero ends although they did find a lot of inventive ways of getting in for second shot. All credit must go to the winners who all played very steady and high class shots throughout and always had their opposition chasing !