Irish Curling

 Congratulations to Frances Donald, who took part in the Irish Curling Association's Fyfe Trophy at Braehead.  Each team completed five, three end games to establish the winner of the Irish Championships.  David Whyte's rink claimed victory with four wins from their five games.  Among David's rink was our own Frances Donald.
When interviewed afterwards Frances cited her games with Haddington for her improvement in form.

National Province Championships

The 'Prize' for winning the East Lothian Province Knockout is the opportunity to represent the Province at the National Championships held every year at Greenacres. This year, the honour befell to our victorious team of James Pate, Dave Munro, Sandy Nicoll and Andy Aberdein.  The actual formation of the team caused many headaches with the event clashing with weddings and rugby matches, as each team is restricted to a pool of six players.  The Nicoll family stood up to the mark and the team for Saturday was, Morgan, James P, Sandy and Andy,  with Dave coming in to skip on Saturday and sister Lindsey replacing Sandy.  History does not relate who would be playing on the final day.
Our first game was against Cupar, a very strong team.  Nerves were settled taking a single in the first end and losing it again straight away in the second.  However a run of 1, 4, 2 and 1 against in ends two to five saw the end of our challenge and we went down 9 - 4 against our eventual group runners up.  Our second game of the day was against Upper Strathearn, which was a much more cautious affair.  The opposition stole a 2 in the first end and after that all the ends went on singles.  Going in to the last end we were 5 - 3 up but a tactical error saw us lose a four and the game 5 - 7.
The second day dawned with us on a played 2, lost 2 record and perhaps the strongest team in the group against us first.  Refreshing our playing pool must have helped with Dave and Lindsey joining the team.  The game was poised at 3 - 3 after 5 ends, including our first blanked end ot the championship however Angus took a, possibly decisive 3 in the fifth end.  Fighting back we scored a 2 in the seventh end and managed a steal of 2 in the final end to take a 7 - 6 win (against the eventual group winners).  Our first points were on the board and the fightback had started.  Next up, Selkirk, representing the Borders.
We were against more familiar opposition, which seemed to help.  Despite a come back with a 3 in the seventh and and a steal of 1 in the final end, Haddington had done enough to record a 10 - 7 win and leave qualification a (small) possibility.
The final group game and third game of the day,  was against Inverness.  The decisive moment was a steal of 3 in the third end which laid the foundations for a relatively easy 7 - 2 win, leaving Haddington on 3 wins and 2 losses.
Unfortunately this left us third in our group and failing to qualify by 1 point.
It should be noted that the two teams that topped our group, one of which we had beaten, both won their quarter final games and lost in the semi-final round.

Well done to our six players, who certainly did not disgrace themselves or our club.

As a final note, Yester were also taking part as a 'reserve' entry.  They also finished third in their group with three wins from five.  Yester tied with Renfrewshire on both points and ends but missed qualification on 'shots-up'

East Lothian is one of the smallest Provinces and to produce two teams that were close to qualification is a testament to our abilities.  Well done again to both Haddington and Yester teams.

Swan Trophy - aka Oxenfoord rnd 2

Following our early season departure from the Rink Championships, where our very talented team led by Willie (other names withheld to prevent embarrassment) were humbled by cunning Oxenfoord, we were looking forward to revenge when we were again drawn against them in the First round of the Swan.
Our teams, led by Willie and James Logan applied themselves and things were going well until both teams lost big scores in the third end.  Willie bounced back with a good fourth end and a steal in the fifth while James slowly pegged the scores back.
When the curtain finally came down, it was mission accomplished for Willie taking a 9 - 5 win, meanwhile James Logan managed to restrict defeat to 4 - 5 scoreline, leaving Haddington the victors.

We now go on to face Corstorphine in the Semi-Final on Friday 26th January 2018 @ 12.05.

Wingate at 1/3 distance

With the first round now complete, our defending champion Dave Munro and his team have opened some clear blue water between themselves and the other teams.  This is not so much as a mighty river as a small trickling stream-let.
The Munro squad have managed to win all three of their games in what looks on paper as quite comfortably.  In reality the games were all much closer than the results make them look.
The remaining three skips are meantime squabbling among themselves, in that they all have one win to their names.  Sandy beat James L but lost to Willie.  Willie on the other hand lost to James Logan who had already been beaten by Sandy etc etc.  All these games, however,  were decided by a single shot, leaving Dave as the only skip who has won by more than one shot.
The remaining league positions are therefore decided by ends, so James L takes second spot having won 10 ends to the others having 9 a-piece.  Sandy pips Willie by only being four shots down compared to six.  Maybe the results would have been a bit different if someone hadn't stolen ONE of Willie's curling shoes after the first game of the season.  (Sandy/James, I hope you are going to give him it back at the Dinner?)

Individual Points Competition

The youthful Mr Munro

It is always the fun part where I try and create some facts and figures on a game when I have not been
there myself (for the second year!)
OK - Here we go.
This years winner is Dave Munro with a monumental 45 points from 8 disciplines.  This was an improvement of 11 points from his best performance (since 2010) and catapults him up 7 places in the rankings to top the 'Best Ever' table.  He wasn't the only player to improve their personal bests, both James and Elinor improved their best scores by 1 point and David Wyllie by 10 points.  This boosts David Wyllie from 15th to 8= in the overall tables.
It should be no surprise that Lindsey took the Ladies prize for the fifth year running, although maybe the change of name should reset this winning streak to 1.

Aberlady Friendship Kettle

Congratulations to our 'Juniors' who were invited to take part in the Aberlady Friendship Kettle.
This is an event, similar in nature to our Balyarrow Trophy and is played between clubs sharing their 'birthday' and selected clubs with whom they have a close association.  This close link is demonstrated by three out of our four players also being members of Aberlady !
The competition is played on an accumulated shots-up basis.  Our Juniors, skipped by Karen Munro made a strong come back in the final two ends of their game against Breadalbane/Kenmore to secure a +2 shot score.
In their second game, Lorna Nicoll took the helm and along with Karen, Callum Harvey and Daniel Peart.  Playing against a double father/son pairing, representing Blairdrummond, they pulled out a narrow lead and managed to retain it for the rest of the game, giving them their second +2 shot score.
With a total +4 shots they were able to secure second place to an Aberlady team that were taking no prisoners by winning their second game 8 - 0, thus ensuring them a win with the score of +11.

A Full House

A rare occurrence in the Wingate last night with all 4 teams fielding their 'designated' rosters.  No reserves or other players were on the ice, despite David Wyllie on standby in the gallery.

Two tight and well fought games were played with Willie Kerr's side just getting the better of Sandy's team.  Despite some large scores being traded only one shot separated them at the end of the night.

In the other game, a full 8 ends were played, although Dave Munro's rink elected to blank one end.  This (fortunately) seemed to have paid off with Dave going in to the last end two shots up.  James Logan played his final stone with a chance of a diagonal raised takeout to leave him with a five and the game.  In the end though Team Munro picked up another shot to end the game with a comfortable looking 7 - 4 scoreline.