Your Curler Issue 11

The latest issue of the Your Curler Magazine has now been released. You can view or download the e-zine by following this link.

Drew Duncan Quaich Results

Steell McFadzean and his team of Peter Kennedy, Forbes Watson and Willie Scott started with 8 shots in the first three ends and eventually triumphed by 11-5 over Scott Thomson's team.
Their 6 shot win was enough to secure this year's Drew Duncan Quaich competition.

The full results:

Steel McFadzean 11  Scott Thomson 5
David Hope 10          Ewan Lawrence 6
Jimmy Niblock 8        Bert McKay 4
Ronnie Wilson 5        David Gray  5

It was good to see David Kidd curling with us again and he wishes it known that he is available as a reserve for the next half season.

Afterwards, we retired to the bar where an excellent meal was provided by Hazel and her team at Passion Caterers.

European Curling Championships

The European Curling Championships starts this Saturday, 8th December, in Karlstad, Sweden.

Scotland's teams will both be competing in the "A" Division, with Tom Brewster's team of  Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews (from Ayr) and Michael Goodfellow taking on the Czech Republic in their first game. 

The women's team are skipped by Eve Muirhead, with Anna Sloan,Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton.

Some of the games will be shown on Eurosport and the schedule can be found here.

For the first time, the WCF have arranged live TV coverage on the WCF You Tube Channel. This should provide more extensive coverage of the event and is available by following this link.

Two Links of Interest

David Smith has posted a very interesting article in which he publishes a letter from the Country Gentleman: Sporting Gazette & Agricultural Journal from Saturday Dec 4th 1880. It's a great read.
Have a look at this link
Also you might be interested in Hammy McMillan's famous shot from the 1992 World Championships.
Brilliant! The link is here.

President's Cup

Last night saw the first round of the President's Cup - the competition where skips get a well earned rest at lead, and the rest of the team take a turn at the difficult shots.

Francis McCrossin skipped Jimmy Niblock's team to a 10-6 victory over George Hodge (David Gray). Austin Thomson was in charge of Scott Thomson's rink, beating Peter Kennedy (Steell McFadzean) by 8 shots to 2. On sheet 4, Ronnie Peat just managed to hold off a late surge by George Hay to leave Ronnie Wilson's team 8-6 victors over David Hope.

The current table is here and you will no doubt notice that only three games take place each week during the league part of the competition. Hopefully, this will all work out by the time of the semi finals on 14th February.

There is no curling next week, but we all reconvene on December 10th for the Drew Duncan Quaich. You will remember that Jim Henry was good enough to give us his memories of Drew last season. If anyone is interested in reading the article again, please follow this link.

The draw for the Drew Duncan is based on the final results of the Fraser Cup, 1 v 2, 3 v 4 etc. so the games on the 10th Dec will be:

Ronnie Wilson V David Gray
Jimmy Begg V David Hope
Bert McKay v Jimmy Niblock
Steell McFadzean v S Thomson

Fraser Cup - Final Results

It was a close competition right from the start, and despite last night throwing up a few surprises, it remained close to the last end.

Ronnie Wilson's team was tied 4 all with Bert McKay's team after 6 ends. Jimmy Begg was not having his best night and was losing to David Hope (as Jimmy said "We were Gubbed!"). And on sheet 4, George Hodge, skipping for David Gray, was well up on Steell McFadzean.
If Bert could prevail, then the title would be decided on ends and the Gray/Hodge team was favourite. However, two counts of three in the last two ends meant that Ronnie Wilson and his team of Ronnie Peat, Peter Reynolds and Robert Boyd were clear winners by 10-4 and Fraser Cup winners by two points.

Fraser Cup Winners 2012
Ronnie Peat, Peter Reynolds, Robert Boyd, Ronnie Wilson (Skip)

Jimmy Niblock's team had a very tight game against Scott Thomson, winning eventually by 8-7.  His second win in successive weeks meant that Jimmy had escaped the bottom of the league and finished in sixth place.
The final league table is here.

Latest "Your Curler" Magazine

The latest ezine from the RCCC can be found here.

All to Play for Next Week!

Despite David Gray losing to Ronnie Wilson tonight in a closely fought and good quality game, the three teams at the top of the league can all still win.
There must have been something magical about the yellow stones - all 4 winners played them. Jimmy Begg beat Scott Thomson and David Hope beat Steell McFadzean. But the biggest cheer came from Rink 5, where Jimmy Niblock's team broke their duck by beating Bert McKay 11-1.

Up to date table is here.

So the last week in the Fraser Cup will have the following games.

Ronnie Wilson (10 pts)  v  Bert McKay (5 pts)
Jimmy Begg (10 pts)      v  David Hope (6 pts)
David Gray (8 pts)         v  Steell McFadzean (4 pts)
Scott Thomson (3 pts)    v  J Niblock  (2 pts)

It's close at top and bottom and there are no "dead" rubbers.  Just as it should be!

Still a Three Way Tie at the Top

Ronnie Wilson, David Gray and Jimmy Begg all won last night and are still tied on 4 wins each. Ronnie takes over top spot by having won one more end than David.
With two weeks remaining, it's increasingly likely that the winner will come from the top three, but who knows?  The current league table is shown here.
George Hay commented that the 9-4 scoreline that his team (David Hope) lost to Ronnie Wilson was an unfair reflection of a very close game - and he's right! On one of the other sheets, Bert McKay only lost three ends against Jimmy Begg, but they were all fours!  Such is curling.
President David asked me to let everyone know that Gordon Neil is available for subbing, but not for the 5.00 pm session.

It's Very Close after Week 4

Good wins last night for David Gray and Ronnie Wilson mean that these two teams now share top spot with Jimmy Begg on 6 points. Indeed, the top two are equal on 20 ends won and separated only by ends lost.
Close behind are Bert McKay on 5 points and David Hope on 4. Those of us with a mathematical brain will immediately realise that there are only two points separating the top 5 teams!
The current table is shown here.

Week 3 Results

Jimmy Begg's team of Ewan Lawrence, Ken Ross and Bob Henderson continue to set the pace with their third win in a row. They beat Jimmy Niblock in what seemed to be a close game.
Hot on their heels are the teams of Ronnie Wilson, David Gray and David Hope, who all won last night.
The league table is here.
The RCCC sent out the link to their latest issue of Your Curler yesterday. In case anyone doesn't have it, you  can access it by following this link.

Close Games in Week 2

The scores seemed much closer this week. Jimmy Begg's team had a good win, defeating Ronnie Wilson's team 10-9, and moving to the head of the league with 4 points.
Bert McKay's team and Scott Thomson's team, who drew with each other last week, both won to be in 2nd/3rd place on three points, and David Hope's team had a good win beating Jimmy Niblock 5-2.
The up to date table is here.

Two New Teams

No we haven't increased the numbers back to 10 teams. As mentioned in yesterday's report, we had a wee problem with two teams playing the wrong opponent.
We don't know exactly how it happened, and it probably doesn't matter.  The easy way to rectify the situation, without redrafting the whole draw is simply to re-number two teams.
So from now on Team 6 will be Bert McKay's team and Team 8 will be Jimmy Begg's.
The "Rinks for Season 2012-13" page has been amended and a fresh copy of the teams will be posted on the notice board.

Opening Night and Challenge League Report

First outing on the ice for the new Gangrels season was last night and it was good to report some very close games and some not so close.

Honorary President Jim Watson threw the first stone with his usual aplomb. Unfortunately, your correspondent made a mess of recording this properly with his new camera so we can't publish a photo of it.

Here, though, is the full club eagerly awaiting their first game.

So now to the results.  There were good wins for David Gray and Ronnie Wilson over David Hope and Jimmy Niblock respectively. Jimmy Begg beat Steell McFadzean and the last game was a draw between the teams of Bert McKay and Scott Thomson.  The updated table can be found here.

However, Scott was meant to play Jimmy, and Steell was meant to play Bert. (I knew the new draw would cause problems). Watch this space for yet another new draw to try to work out a solution.

Our meal afterwards was first class and  very well received by all. Passion Caterers are the new Ice Rink caterers and they are to be commended on their efforts so far. Let's make every endeavour to use them as much as possible.

President David has sent a report on last week's Challenge League Game.

"On Tuesday evening a rink of Gangrels set foot on the ice for the first game of the Challenge League. The rink comprises of Russell Boyd (Skip) David Hope, Peter Galloway and Ken Ross. We were up against Andrew Baird from Crosshill Curling Club and we had a close game. Unfortunately the score did not reflect the closeness of the game where most ends could have gone either way. The end score for the evening was 11 – 6 to the Crosshill rink. We will endeavour to do better in our next game."

Thanks, David for the report.  Can I remind all skips representing Gangrels in outside competitions that it would be very helpful to have a report emailed to me afterwards.

Amended Team Lists and Club Fixtures

The amended team sheets, reserve lists and fixtures are now shown. These have been slightly changed from Bob's email after further discussions, with Charlie Jack and Alan Brown swapping places with Francis McCrossin and Austin Thomson.
David, Bob and the committee are very grateful to everyone for their cooperation and look forward to Gangrels opening game and meal on 1st October.

New Season Practice Ice

Two sheets of practice ice have been booked, prior to the start of the season.
The first is on Wednesday 19th September at 7.15 and the second is on Thursday 20th at 8.30.

There was a request for this ice at the AGM so please make use of the facility.

Club Fixtures now complete

Your new Match Secretary has been working hard and the Points, Pairs, Kirkbride Rosebowl and Frame Salver draws have now been finalised.

Please click on the link at the right hand side of the page or use this link here.

The Matches and Open Competitions Page has now been amended to show the teams who will represent the club.  Once more details of dates are available, we'll incorporate these where possible.

Teams for Next Season, Incentive for New Reserves

Your Committee has not been idle in this glorious (?) summer. A meeting was held at the start of this week and the new teams were chosen for our Monday night games next season.  These are detailed below.
Ken Ross has volunteered to take over as Match Secretary since David is now our President, and we wish him well in his new post.  Teams for matches and open competitions have still to be finalised so that page on the website has not yet been amended.
As mentioned last year, and particularly at the AGM, we are concerned that the club numbers are reducing. We still are able to field 10 teams but the number of reserves has shrunk to 7.
In an attempt to attract new members to the club, it was decided that for this season only, we shall offer new members a package of only paying the club membership fee of £30. If they are already members of Ayr Ice Rink then that would be the only financial commitment. They would not make a contribution to club funds for ice fees but they would revert to the normal reserve terms in their second season.
Please think seriously about anyone who you think could be invited to join us. We need to address this now or the club structure may have to be looked at in the near future.

Next year's teams are as follows and the new dates for our club games are shown here or on the page link on the right. So you have plenty of time to organise diaries before September. The draws for the Kirkbride Rosebowl, Frame Salver, Points and Pairs Competitions will be announced in due course.

	Rinks for the Season 2012-2013
	Rink 1		Rink 2		Rink 3
	D Hope		D Gray		R Wilson
	G Hay		G Hodge		R Peat
	R Morrison		B Grassom		P Reynolds
	J Henry		B Cherry		D Cattanach
	Rink 4		Rink 5		Rink 6
	J Niblock		S Thomson		F McCrossin
	G Neil		A Brown		R Penny
	W Scott		I Ruthven		A Thomson
	R Boyd		E Mutter		P Galloway
	Rink 7		Rink 8		Rink 9
	J Begg		C Jack		S McFadzean
	E Lawrence		C Naismith		P Kennedy
	K Ross		R Charters		F Watson
	B Henderson		D Moulds		H Peters
	Rink 10		Reserves
	B McKay		Russell Boyd		D Kidd
	J Dunlop		S Gow		J Nelson
	A Hastie		B Inglis		D Scott
	G Watson				J Sharp

Your Curler Issue 8

Here is the link for Issue No 8 of the Your Curler Magazine. Something to have a look at over the summer months.

World Mixed Doubles Championships

Scotland play Austria tomorrow in the quarter final of the World Mixed Doubles Championships at 8.00 am (I think).
The link to the games on You Tube is here.
If you haven't seen this game played it is similar to Pairs but, in my opinion better.

Your Curler Magazine

Delighted to see some people still logging on to check the Gangrels Website.  I thought it might be sensible to give something fresh to look at so here is a link to the latest issue of RCCC your Curler Magazine.

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/63dcb0605bc07065a5f174a81/files/YourCurler_Ed7_April2012.pdf?utm_source=YOUR+Curler&utm_campaign=538555698e-YOURCurler_Issue_52_21_2012&utm_medium=email

Mens' World Championships start Saturday

The Mens' World Championships starts on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland, with Tom Brewster representing Scotland.  His team is Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow, so there is some local interest in keeping a look out for their results.

The schedule for picking up the games on Eurosport is shown here and the event website for all the results is here.

Frame Salver, AGM and Presentation of Prizes

The evening started well with a comprehensive victory for Francis McCrossin's team of Charlie Jack, Richard Morrsion and Austin Thomson. Perhaps it was a good thing that the scores were not shown on the scoreboards - we would have been totally scunnered if we could have seen their 14-0 scoreline!

Frame Salver Winners
Richard Morrison, Austin Thomson, Francis McCrossin (skip), President Ronnie Wilson, Charlie Jack

Following the usual good fare from Mo and his staff, the AGM was conducted speedily by Ronnie Wilson and our new President David Hope.  A full report on the AGM will follow later.

Meanwhile, here are the trophy winners.

Fraser Cup
Allan Brown, Jim Henry (skip), Jimmy Begg, Peter Reynolds

Drew Duncan Quaich
Richard Morrison, Bob Cherry (David Kidd & Colin Naismith both absent)

There is a wee story to tell about the President's Cup. Despite our new President (and his team - including me) standing up and gaily receiving the trophy, it turns out that Euan Lawrence's team had actually won (oops!). so here is a photo of the correct winners of the President's Cup.

President's Cup
Willie Scott, Euan Lawrence, David Gray, David Scott

Kirkbride Rosebowl
Allan Hastie, Richard Morrison, Bob Cherry, Jimmy Begg

Points Trophy - Ronnie Peat

Pairs Trophy - Charlie Jack and Bert McKay

Sportsman's Award - Ronnie Peat

Women's World Champonships start Saturday

Dedicated followers of Women's Curling. particularly our Scottish team skipped by Eve Muirhead, will be interested in the World Championships which start on Saturday.

The event is being held in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada and Eve's team is Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton.
Some of the games are being broadcast on Eurosport and the schedule of games is shown here.

Kirkbride Rosebowl Finals

My thanks to Ernest for this report and photo.

The High Road was a closely fought contest between Robert Boyd's rink of Peter Kennedy, Ian Ruthven and Austin Thomson and Bob Cherry's rink of Allan Hastie Richard Morrison and Colin Naismith. In the last end Robert was trailing 6 - 4 but lying one and having last stone to play. Unfortunately the opposition had guarded the whole front of the house and there was no way in. Robert tried a wick from an outside stone just touching the circle. Unfortunately he did not have enough weight and although he got the right angle ended up promoting the opposition stone to be shot rather than taking it out with him second and third stones. 

In the low road Ronnie Wilson's rink of Charlie Jack, Jim Dunlop and Peter Reynolds (sub for Bob Grassom) who had been having a recent  run of success were beaten by the rink of Ernest Mutter, Steell McFadzean, Roy Penny and Gerry Watson.

Inter club competition/ bonspiel - Murrayfield Ice Rink Friday 2.3.2012

From Ronnie Wilson

As you are aware the Club was invited by fellow Gangrel Alistair Henry to take part in his “other” Club known as the DAFS Curling Club  (Now known as Directorate for Agriculture Food and Rural Communities – DAFRC)

It was a mini bonspiel with two teams from DAFS, one from Dalgety Bay in Fife and ourselves held at 17.30 on Friday 2 March 2012 at Murrayfield Ice Rink, Edinburgh.

We played two four end games on very keen ice – the first end against Alistair and his rink with Jim Henry as Skip, Francis McCrossin, David Hope and myself as lead. The result was peels with three points each. The other match also ended in the same score.

The second four ends was played against a team including the DAFS Club President Elizabeth. We were perhaps fortunate that a final shot at one end by their skip did not hit the mark and left us with a four that really sealed the result for the evening giving the Gangrels a win overall by eight shots up with all other three teams five up.

At the meal after the game we enjoyed the company of the fellow curlers. Elizabeth thanked us all for participating and presented a prize to each of the Gangrels team. Skip Jim replied in the customary manner and appeared to have obviously enjoyed the competition against his son, Alistair, who I think took it all in good heart? It was suggested that a return match might take place in Ayr sometime in the future.

Kirkbride Rosebowl Semi Finals

Semi finals were played tonight in the High and Low Roads.
The Low Road saw good wins for Ronnie Wilson's team of Jim Dunlop, Bob Grassom and Charlie Jack over Bert Mackay's rink, and for Ernest Mutter, Steell McFadzean, Roy Penny and Gerry Watson who beat Jimmy Niblock's team.
There were two very close games in the High Road. David Gray's rink narrowly lost to Bob Cherry, Richard Morrison, Colin Naismith and Jimmy Begg while David Hope's team had a tight game against Robert Boyd, Peter Kennedy, Ian Ruthven and Austin Thomson, with Robert's team winning at the last.
The two finals will be played at 5.00 pm on Thursday 15th March.

Robertson Trophy

David Hope has sent the following update.
"The competition started for the Gangrels (Skip David Hope, Euan Lawrence, Bob Cherry and Willie Scott) with a game against Bobby Ireland which was a good game but unfortunately Bobby and his rink got the better of us and finished with us loosing this game. Our next game was against Bobby's father Hubert Ireland with the Gangrels field a changed rink of Skip David Hope, Bob Cherry, Peter Reynolds and Willie Scott. This was a very close game and could have gone either way with Anne Kerr producing some very good pressure shots as skip for Hubert to save some big ends."
Results

Bobby Ireland 10 Gangrels 5 and Hubert Ireland 8 Gangrels 4.

 

World Junior Curling Championships

Next week sees the start of the World Juniors. These are being held in Ostersund, Sweden and the Scottish Teams are skipped by Hannah Fleming and Kyle Smith.
The games start on Saturday and for those of us interested in watching live curling some games are being broadcast by the WCF. They are doing this through the You Tube Channel. The Schedule of games is shown here.

Gangrels v Tarbolton

The team skipped by Ronnie Wilson with Robert Boyd, David Hope and Ken Ross played a rink led by George Hunter, with Willie Morton, Stuart Bates and Tarbolton President David West. The game was close with four ends each but a points score in favour of the Gangrels of 8-6

The team skipped by Bob Cherry with Charlie Jack, Robert Charters and Bob Grassom played a rink lead by Jim Wilson with Margaret Morton, David McClure and Ian Wilkie. That game seemed to be an easy win by the score of 12-4 in favour of Tarbolton but by all accounts did not reflect the competitive nature and enjoyment of the game.

Following the game and some refreshments Ronnie thanked the Tarbolton Club for the match which seemed to have been enjoyed by all. The good humour and standard of curling evident from the two games had made the event the usual annual success and he expressed the hope the competition could take place again next year.

Jim Wilson in his response thanked the Gangrels in the usual fashion and was pleased to receive the trophy in recognition of his rink’s points score giving rise to an overall win for Tarbolton.  

Another Day League Success for Gangrels

Ronnie Peat's team of Jimmy Begg, Jim Dunlop and Ken Ross (subbing for Jimmy Smith) had a good win today beating Auchenames 8-3 to finish the Day League B as champions, and secure promotion to the dizzy heights of League A next year.

They won 8 of the 9 games and followed on from their success in winning league C last year.

Your Curler

The latest edition of the RCCC magazine can be found here.

2012 Pairs Finals Night

The Low Road final was between Bob Charters / Allan Hastie (subbing for Francis McCrossin) and Austin Thomson / Ian Ruthven, with the Charters Hastie team winning after a close game.

2012 Low Road Winners
Robert Charters and Allan Hastie

2012 Low Road Runners Up
Austin Thomson and Ian Ruthven

The High Road final followed thereafter with Bert McKay and Charlie Jack (subbing for Gordon Neil) overcoming Russell Boyd and George Hodge

2012 Pairs Winners
Bert McKay and Charlie Jack

2012 Pairs Runners Up
George Hodge and Russell Boyd

Pairs Round Two

Some fairly close games tonight - some not so close! The closest was the game of David Hope and Steell McFadzean against Bob Charters and Ernest Mutter where the score was 3-3 after four ends. Another Draw Shot Challenge saw Steel put his stone just outside the four foot but this was not close enough.  Bob managed to draw just to the edge of the button.

So the Semis and Finals are on Friday 24th as follows:
High Road & Low Road  Top Half  6.15
R Peat & W Scott                v     G Neil & B McKay
A Thomson & I Ruthven       v     P Reynolds & K Ross

High Road & Low Road Bottom Half  7.15
Russell Boyd & G Hodge      v    D Gray & G Hay
Robert Boyd & M Bowden   v    R Charters & E Mutter

The Final of the Low Road is at 8.30 followed by the High Road Final at 9.30.

Scottish Curling Championships Live!

You can see live coverage of the two Scottish Curling Championship Finals on Sunday 19th Feb by following this link 
The Women's Final is between Gail Munro's team and Eve Muirhead's team and is being shown at 11.00 am.  The Men's final is between the teams of Tom Brewster (featuring Scott Andrews) and David Smith. It starts at 3.10 pm.
Highlights of both Finals will be shown on BBC 2 on Tuesday 21 February at 7pm for the Women’s and Wednesday 22 February at 7pm for the Men’s.

President's Cup Semis and Final

As far as the two finalists were concerned, the semis were potentially tough games that had to be overcome swiftly because two games in a row can be a daunting task.
Francis has asked that the semis reports use the words "nailbiting", "sneaked through", "damned close" etc. So I've used them.  But in reality, both games finished early and the teams of Ronnie Peat and Euan Lawrence had time for a drink and a chip butty before the final.
The losing semi finalists were Malcolm Bowden, Bob Henderson and Francis McCrossin, who lost to Ronnie's team and Jimmy Begg, Peter Reynolds, Allan Hastie and Jim Henry, who lost to Euan's team.

President's Cup Finalists 2012

The final was a good quality game and there were critical shots played by both teams. The turning point was the 6th end where Euan's team of Willie Scott, David Scott and David Gray stole a three. They also played well in the 7th (and last) end holding Ronnie's team of George Hodge David Moulds and David Hope to a single shot and thereby winning 6-4. A game fitting for a final and well deserved victory for Euan.

President's Cup Winners 2012

President's Cup Runners Up 2012

Pairs 1st Round -IMPORTANT- Potential Change to Draw

The first round of the pairs took place last night and there were some very close games. In particular, Bob Cherry and Euan Lawrence tied after four ends and had to enter the nerve-wracking Draw Shot Challenge! Both skips displayed such an absence of nerves that their draws finished inside the button, with Bob just edging the victory by an inch.
For various reasons two teams in the top half received byes to the second round. This also means that the two losing teams in last night's top half will now receive byes to the semi final stage. Two games from the bottom half low road will also be moved forward from 10.30 to 9.30 to make better use of the earlier ice.
I hope that makes sense. The amended draw is now as follows:


9.30 Ice
High Road
R Wilson & R Morrison   v    R Peat & W Scott
G Neil & B McKay         v     C Naismith & P Kennedy
Russell Boyd & G Hodge v    B Cherry & C Jack
Low Road
Robt. Boyd & M Bowden v   E Lawrence & B Grassom

10.30 Ice
High Road
D Gray & G Hay               v   A Hastie & F McCrossin
Low Road
D Hope & S McFadzean   v   R Charters & E Mutter

A Thomson & I Ruthven and P Reynolds & K Ross will play in the Low Road semi finals on 24th Feb at 6.15.

Gangrels vs Ayr & Alloway

Our annual fixture against Ayr & Alloway saw a good victory and two enjoyable games.
Ronnie Peat skipped Russell Boyd, Ernest Mutter and President Ronnie Wilson to a 10-5 victory over Neil Beattie's team, and Bob Cherry skipped Scott Thomson, Alan Hastie and Ian Ruthven to an 8-4 win against Milly Beattie's team.
The evening was rounded off nicely when Neil shared a lovely fruit cake with everyone.
A photo of the participants is shown below.

Ayr & Alloway v Gangrels 2012

Points Trophy

18 Gangrels turned out for the annual points trophy, split over two sessions.  There were the usual moans and groans about the skip not giving the correct ice and the sweepers not doing their job properly, but there were also some good performances.

1st    Ronnie Peat        50
2nd   Russell Boyd      48
3rd   Euan Lawrence    40
4 =   David Hope         39
4 =   Bob Charters       39

Sincere thanks to everyone who played and a special thanks to Robert Boyd, Peter Reynolds and David Hope for marking.

We missed David Kidd and Jim Smith last night. David has a broken leg and Jim wasn't feeling too well last week.  Our best wishes to them both. Please try to assist if you are asked to sub. There will no doubt be more pressure on the reserve list!

Kirkbride Rose Bowl Round 1

Tonight we had two very close games and two not quite so close. David Gray and Robert Boyd seemed quite comfortable in their victories against Ronnie Wilson and Jimmy Niblock, while David Hope and Bob Cherry both took shots in the final end to narrowly beat their opponents, Ernest Mutter and Scot Thomson.
The two Davids and the two Bobs thus progress to the high road semis.  Good news for the losing teams, however, is that they qualify for the low road semis.
All games are played on Monday 5th March and the draw is shown here.

Cup Semi Finalists

The final league games of the President's Cup took place last night.  There were wins for Euan Lawrence, George Hay and Ronnie Peat, while Bert McKay and David Kidd drew.
Bert and David's draw unfortunately meant that neither of them could catch Malcolm Bowden and the semi finals are now as shown.

David Hope (Ronnie Peat) v F McCrossin (Malcolm Bowden)
David Gray (Euan Lawrence) v J Henry (Jimmy Begg)

The semis (and the final) take place on Tuesday 14th February. Aye, there'll be no love lost this year on Valentines Day!

The final league positions are here.

Last week also saw the preliminary round of the Kirkbride Rose Bowl. Interestingly, the four teams drawn in those games were the semi finalists shown above.  On this occasion David Hope beat Francis and David Gray beat Jim to reach to first round proper.  Can you sense the whiff of revenge in the air on the 14th?

The updated draw is here.

Last Night's Games, A Reminder and a Great Shot!

Last night saw big wins for David Hope, Bob Cherry and Robert Boyd. And a smaller win for Scott Thomson. The league positions are here.
Next Monday sees the final games in the mini leagues and the semi finalists have still to be decided.

But before then, Thursday Night is the start of the Kirkbride Rose Bowl. The preliminary round is at 5.00 pm with David Hope against Francis McCrossin and David Gray against Jim Henry.

For those of us interested in great curling shots, have a look at Tom Brewster's quadruple take out at last weekend's Continental Cup.
They don't often come off, but it's very sweet when they do - particularly when our Canadian friends are watching avidly on TV (and subsequently on You Tube)

The Province Medal

The Province Medal – 17 January 2012

The Gangrels rink of Robert Boyd, Ronnie Wilson, Willie Scott and David Moulds played Beresford Ladies in the first evening session of this competition  and won by a tight margin of one against a strong team of senior skips led by Gail Brown. It was a very enjoyable game with good curling and banter as always with these ladies. It was clear that our margin was not going to see the Club go any further in the competition as Crosshill had won their first game with such a good margin. I believe their other match later in the evening secured their win of this competition for another year.

Ronnie Wilson

And this from Bob Cherry

Yes we were well beaten 7-2. Not a good night! I think Ronnie won the earlier match?

Bob

Rink Championship

The Rink Championship – Semi final and Final Monday 16 January 2012

The Gangrels rink got through to the semi final of this competition with a bye in the first “round” and met Fairywell in the morning session. Keith Rennie and his rink gave us a good close run game on what was fairly keen ice with reverse tendencies in places that caught some if us (me to be precise!) out on one occasion by playing the wrong hand – Unforgivable! We won the game however with good measure and then enjoyed some lunch with the opposing team. The Gangrels rink was skipped by Robert Boyd with me, Ernest and Peter Kennedy.

The other semi final was between Galston and Dundonald with the former having what seemed an easy ride in that match.

The final was held in the afternoon against Galston and it was to my mind a very good tight game that, with hindsight, might have been won by the Gangrels had it not been for a bit of a communication misunderstanding between the skip and the third over whose stone was shot at the end of the second last end and which should have given us a two! We lost that end with a one giving us the last stone advantage in the last which turned out to be a good result for us getting a three – and a final score of 5-6. A close game.

The rink, in the same format as the morning, did play well together and were resigned to the loss in the final against a strong team who it is understood have won this competition in the past two years  and now go on to play at the final in Forfar in March. The Galston rink was skipped by Robert Anderson with Alan, Tom and Euan Lawrence.

Ronnie Wilson

16 January 2012

Last Night's Games

The two mini leagues are beginning to take shape.  On the President's Rinks, the early pace setter is Jim Henry's team, skipped by Jimmy Begg, who are unbeaten after three games.
The Vice President's Rinks are headed by David Gray (Skip Euan Lawrence) who have won three out of three so far.
Thankfully both Jimmy's and Euan's teams don't play next week, so the rest of us have a chance to catch up.
The league positions are here.

Memories of Drew Duncan

When I published David Kidd's photos of Drew just before the Drew Duncan Quaich in December, I asked if anyone had any memories of him they could share with us.

Jim Henry has been kind enough to take the time to send me an appreciation of Drew, which you can see by clicking on this link.  I have also set up a link through the History page on the right.

My sincere thanks to Jim for sharing these thoughts with us.

President's Cup Resumes

New Year handshakes and good wishes preceded last night's games. There were good wins for Jimmy Begg, Ronnie Peat, Euan Lawrence and Malcolm Bowden.
The current tables are here.