Grassroots Coach of the Year

© Scottish Curling / Tom Brydone

OK, even I think that the shirt was maybe a mistake !

The Rennie Decider

A happy Andy Aberdein

On a cold Wednesday night at 9.30 two teams assembled at Murrayfield to 'duke out' the delayed Rennie title decider.  In the end, the win went to Team Aberdein, consisting of Andy Aberdein, Willie Kerr, Simon Kesley and Paule Arnott.    Andy Aberdein is a deserved champion as he has led the competition from the very first round.  Unfortunately the Club Dinner is tomorrow, so there will be no time to get the Rennie Quaich engraved in time.  Although credit goes to Team Nicoll, who fought back well to take the game to the final round.  Third place goes to Rowena Kerr's team, who ended equal on points with Morgan but lose out on second spot on ends.

The other postponed game between Colin Baird's team and Team Pate was abandoned as no-one felt it necessary to turn up at 9.30pm for a game without significance.  The result has been indicated as a peel.

2 March Game postponed

Tonight's Rennie title decided has been postponed due to weather.
This should ramp up the tension nicely.
Alternative date will be published when decided.

2 March - snow report

WARNING - Murrayfield is officially closed until  2.30 today BUT there has been no snow clearance in the car park and 'flood walls' have acted as snow fences. The condition crossing the bridge is unknown and the skating rink is closed all day.
I suspect that our 5.30 game may be cancelled but will try and update later.

Rennie - Title Decider - Build Up

With only 1 fixture left we see the table toppers, Andy and Morgan, facing off against each other in the title decider.  Both are faltering with the finishing tape getting closer, while the 'Youngsters' have finally got into their stride, although a bit to late.
In the last nights games, a member of Morgan's rink (OK it was me) was heard to say that there are nights when you lose but feel that you have played ok, this was NOT one of those nights.  All four players were definitely sub-par in their 8 - 3 loss to Karen's rink.  Karen, although finishing bottom has taken a win and a peel from her last two games and both of these were against the two title contenders.  Our other young team led by Rowena was also winning last night with an 8 - 6 score against Colin's rink.  Rowena is also finished her campaign and will finish in third place.
The various teams are now neatly back into the positions that they occupied back in December at the half way point.
Andy now leads Morgan by 1 point, so the winner of next weeks sudden death game, will be the champion.  (A peel would also seal the deal for Andy).  Andy's last result was a peel against the bottom of the table team, while Morgan's team comes into the crunch game off the back of defeats to both the 'young' teams.

The Swan Trophy

Congratulations to our teams led by Morgan Nicoll (in stead of James Logan) and Willie Kerr.  The record books show that the last time we won this prestigious trophy was back in 1964.  After this years final the record books will STILL show that the last time that we won was 1964 !
In the semi-finals we secured two relatively comfortable wins against Corstorphine to qualify for an early lunch andslot in the final.  Meanwhile Penicuik were taking Currie and Balerno to the wire. In the end C&B had just enough juice to squeeze through.
Despite our best efforts to rush them back onto the ice, they took their time recovering before heading onto the ice for a very cagey final.  After two ends the aggregate scores were tied at 1 - 1, with two (deliberately) blanked ends.  The scores ebbed and flowed however in the second last end a superb draw and tap back from Robin Copland secured a big score of 4 and the result was beyond rescue.  (Although a fall back in the last end denied Willie a 4).  For the record the final aggregate score was 16 - 6 but this does not come close to describing the run of play.
So, Congratulations again to Willie Kerr, Sandy Nicoll, Graeme Maguire, Shelagh Main and to Morgan Nicoll, James Pate, John Good and Andy Aberdein who ALL made C&B have to fight for their win.
The last time we competed in the final was 2013 when we came up short against Corstorphine.

EL Bonspiel 2018

Move over Haddington 1......  Haddington 2 is here !
A slightly smaller field of 10 teams were mustered at Murrayfield for the annual bonspiel which was held in the usual good spirits.  Despite a 'blue light' injury to Pam Clark, Vice-President of Aberlady during the first game (She was released from hospital that night and hopes to be back on the ice with her new scalp staples next week!) the first round was keenly contested.  The defending champions, Haddington 1, started off with a peel against the remnants of the Aberlady team but it was Haddington 2 that went into pole position with a score of +5.

l-r  Richard Taylor, Ali Harvey, Willie Kerr, Dave Munro (skip)

After a break for soup and sandwiches, they took to the ice with the top billed match being the two leaders, Haddington 2 and Athelstaneford 1 (on a score of +4).  Haddington got off to a great start and looked 'nailed in' for the overall win until in the final end the wheels came off the bus and Athelstaneford bounced back with a 4. This was still not enough to derail Haddington 2.
We therefore issue our congratulations to Haddington 2 and, over post match drinks, watched President Dave Munro present himself and his team the ELCO Cup and associated silverware.
Congratulations are also due to Yester 1 who came in 3 shots behind for second place and an extremely creditable third place went to the 3 man Aberlady team, who were a further 1 shot behind.