Wednesday, November 28, 2012

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.


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

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.

Monday, November 12, 2012

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!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

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.