Annual Match against Tarbolton

This long standing game against Tarbolton, for the handsome Wilkie Trophy, turned out to be very close .

Ronnie Peat's team of Allan Hastie, Peter Kennedy and Jim Henry had a tight affair with Willie Morton.  The teams were tied at 5 all playing the last, where Tarbolton took 2 shots to win 7-5.

Francis McCrossin and his team of Peter Galloway, Peter Reynolds and Ken Ross were down by 5 shots at one stage but scored singles in the last 5 ends to win by 6 shots to 5.

So overall, Tarbolton won by a single shot for 4 wins in a row. All four teams played well and the evening was very enjoyable. 

Kennedy Pairs Finals Night

Congratulations to Peter Galloway and George Hodge who won the High Road Final on Tuesday against Colin Naismith and Robert Charters.

Robert Boyd and Allan Hastie won the Low Road.

In the High Road Semis, Colin and Robert beat Ernest Mutter and Jim Henry by 8 shots and Peter and Robert beat Charlie Jack and Bob Cherry by 6 shots.
The final was a much tighter affair, being won by 3 shots to 2.

The Low Road semis were confused from the outset, with not everyone being aware of the time changes. As a result, there was no opposition to Robert and Allan when the final was due to be played.

This is not the first occasion that the Pairs has been confusing and the Committee will be looking at ways of restructuring the competition for next season. My own feeling is that it is played over too many nights at a time of year when there is a lot of competition for our time.

World Junior Championships

The World Junior Championships starts on Saturday and will be played in Estonia - the first time a World event has been held there.

The Scottish Teams are skipped by Bruce Mouat and Gina Aitken.

You can follow all the results by clicking here and there will be live coverage on the World Curling Federation You Tube Channel.

BBC to show Highlights of Scottish Finals

BBC 2 is showing highlights of the Women's Scottish Championships Final tonight at 12.20 am.

The Men's Final will be shown tomorrow night at 11.50 pm.

Match with Ayr & Alloway

Our annual fixture with Ayr & Alloway was played in friendly fashion, as always, and finished with two good wins for the Gangrels.

Ronnie Peat's team of Robert Boyd, David Hope and Bob Grassom got off to a good start scoring 6 shots off the first four ends.  The opposition was not unknown to us, with a top end comprising of Ronnie Wilson (A & A Vice President), Peter Kennedy (A& A President).  They came back with a 3 at the 5th end but Gangrels eventually held on to win by 8 shots to 4.

The other game saw our VP Francis skip Ernest Mutter, Ken Ross and Willie Scott to win handsomely by 8 shots to 3, having taken a 4 at the fourth end. Francis's opposition also included our own David Gray.

The majority of both teams stayed on for some food to finish an excellent evening.

Pairs Competition - Round 2

Tonight's results were as follows:

Top Half

High Road   R Peat & D Hope          2       J Henry & E Mutter         4
High Road   G Hodge & P Galloway 4       P Reynolds & R Wilson  3
Low Road   F McCrossin & D Gray  5       H Peters & B McKay       5
                          Harry & Bert win the Draw shot challenge

Bottom Half

High Road  C Jack & B Cherry          5     R Morrison & J Dunlop    2
High Road  C Naismith & R Charters 6    G Hay & P Kennedy         1
Low Road  R Boyd & A Hastie          3     J Niblock & A Thomson   2

Special mention must be made of Harry Peters and Bert McKay.  They were 5 shots down after 3 ends, took a 5 to square the game and then won the draw shot challenge.

The draw for the semi finals next Tuesday is:

At 5.00 pm

Low Road Semis

H Peters & B McKay    v    R Morrison and J Dunlop
A Hastie & R Boyd       v    R Wilson & P Reynolds

Low Road Final to be played at 7.15 pm

At 6.00 pm

High Road Semis 

J Henry & E Mutter       v     C Naismith & R Charters
G Hodge & P Galloway v     C Jack & B Cherry

High Road Final to be played at 8.15 pm

President's Cup - Finals Night

First, the semis.

There were two clear winners as Peter Reynolds and David Gray had convincing victories over  Peter Galloway and Allan Hastie.  The margins were 12-3 and 11-4 respectively.

After an all too short break, the final started with David Gray and his team of Francis McCrossin, Harry Peters and Bob Cherry taking singles in the first two ends.

Peter Reynolds, with Robert Boyd, Jimmy Begg and Colin Naismith fought back well and with one end to play led by three shots.

The last end was very tense. A lot of good shots were played by both sides but David played a final draw, swept all the way to the very edge of the rings to score a 3 and tie the game.

Each skip then had to draw a shot.  Peter's was just through the back and David made no mistake in securing the closest of victories.

The Winners
Francis, Harry, David and Bob

Pairs Competition - Round 1

Last Night saw the first round of this year's Pairs Competition.
The results were as follows:

Top Half

J Henry & E Mutter       6  P Reynolds & R Wilson 4
F McCrossin & D Gray 2  G Hodge & P Galloway 7
R Peat & D Hope (bye)  v H Peters & B McKay

Bottom Half

J Niblock & S Thomson 1  C Naismith & S MacFadzean 3
R Boyd & A Hastie        1  C Jack & B Cherry                  6
G Hay & P Kennedy      4  R Morrison & J Dunlop           6
                                           (F Watson & E Mutter)

As was reported last week, organising knockout competitions with less than 8 games can be a challenge.  However, Bob has risen to the occasion and here is what the draw for Round Two looks like. Games will be played on 16th Feb. Top Half at 5.00, Bottom Half at 6.00

Top Half

High Road   D   R Peat & D Hope  v   J Henry & E Mutter
High Road   E    G Hodge & P Galloway v P Reynolds & R Wilson
Low Road   F    F McCrossin & D Gray v H Peters & B McKay

Bottom Half

High Road  A  C Jack & B Cherry  v R Morrison & J Dunlop
High Road  B  C Naismith & S McFadzean v G Hay & P Kennedy
Low Road   C  R Boyd & A Hastie v  J Niblock & A Thomson

The Semi Finals on 24th Feb will be

High Road   at 6.00

Winner Game  D v Winner Game B
Winner Game E  v  Winner Game A

Low Road at 5.00

Winner  Game F  v  Highest Margin Loser of A & B
Winner Game C  v  Highest Margin Loser of D & E

The two Finals will be played thereafter.
The Low Road will be at 7.15 and the High Road at 8.15

Kirkbride Rose Bowl Round 1

This competition is a little more complicated when played with 7 rather than 8 teams, but hopefully things will be a bit clearer after tonight.
The three winners tonight were Ronnie Peat, Colin Naismith and Jim Dunlop. They progress to the High Road semi finals on 2nd March where they will be joined by Peter Kennedy, who had a bye.

The losers tonight would all normally go to the Low Road semi finals, but the new draw only had space for the two highest scoring losers.  I was of course panicking about how we called the highest scoring. Was it shots scored, ends won or even smallest losing margin? My thanks are therefore due to George Hay, who unfortunately didn't score any shots, so must have been in third place by any means of calculation.

Francis and Charlie Jack go into the low road semi. The full draw can be found by clicking on the Kirkbride link at the top right of this page.