Donald Kennedy Becomes a Grandpa!

...and there was a C & B pairs competition!

Rowena Steven and Melissa McCluskey got oh-so-close to a fabulous pairs win on Sunday!  To be very fair, their cause was not harmed by the fact that they came up against the writer in their first game.  Poor Karen Munro - all I'm saying.  When the last draw fetched up against the hack at what most people would have thought was a fairly firm strike weight, she knew her goose was cooked, but Rowena and Melissa - well they were right in the hunt with three ends won out of four.  This set up a a tough game against Kerry Barr.  They did really well and though they lost a four in the last end, that mattered not a jot; they had secured a further two ends to take their total to five.

Katie Wood also won five ends but was behind on shots, so lay second in her group.

So, onto the second session, the players in whom have the advantage of knowing exactly what to do to get ahead of the winners of the other group, not that such details have made the slightest difference in the past.  Why, I remember when one winning team was blissfully and completely unaware of where they lay, what they had to do and indeed of the very fact that they had won!

So Joe Barry and guest John Good found themselves up against Lois Copland and Nook Weir who earlier had had a really tight tussle with Jenny Barr and recently returned Canadian tourist, Maggie Barry.  Four ends later, they had not added to their total and Joe and John had won four ends to add their two in the first game.  That took them to six ends and the competition! 

From left: Pairs Winners Joe Barry and John Good

Picture by Margaret David Bailey Nicol

Andrew Galloway and Morna Aitken got all excited when president Margaret Nicol announced that they done enough to come second with their five ends, but in a move of which the great South African referee Andre Joubert would have been proud, indeed should learn from, a mistake was noticed and corrected.  Turns out that Rowena and Melissa were the runners-up. 

Well done all - a great day out in true C & B tradition!

Kettle Trophy Round Six

A big night tonight for teams Fleming and Gunn in their top of the table clash.  Brian crucially was away curling with his seniors team (John Steven and Dave Munro were also absent, as we shall see later) and Niall, Kerry Barr, Karen Munro and Graeme Maguire took full advantage with a big 10-4 win in their eight-end game against their key rivals, skipped by Raymond Preston, with Betty Gibb at third, Donald Kennedy and substitute Colin Campbell.

In the other big game of the night, Andrew Cargill beat John Steven's team, skipped in John's absence by Norman Nicol.  This was a tight affair that was only settled in Andrew's favour with a two in the last end for a one shot win.

Jenny took care of Bob in the clash of the Barrs and this enabled her to leapfrog her rival Katie Wood who could only draw against Susan Kesley.  Mind you, Katie threw the stone of the night with her last stone - a perfect draw to the corner of the one-foot circle and in behind a guard.  Susan's attempted button draw slid agonisingly through the button and back to the eight foot.

Here is the game score grid.

Team	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8
	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E
Wood K				4	11	2	4	6	4	3	5	3	3	6	3	13	3	6	4	4	3
Gunn	11	4	5				10	5	3	4	4	3	15	4	5	10	7	3				10	4	4
Barr J	6	4	3	5	10	4				2	9	1				7	4	4	4	7	3	3	11	2
Cargill	5	3	3	4	4	4	9	2	5				8	7	3				6	5	3	7	8	3
Steven	6	3	4	4	15	2				7	8	4				6	5	4	7	6	3	4	5	2
Barr B	3	13	2	7	10	4	4	7	2				5	6	3				3	8	3	3	9	2
Kesley S	4	4	3				7	4	4	5	6	3	6	7	4	8	3	4				2	9	2
Fleming				4	10	4	11	3	5	8	7	3	5	4	4	9	3	5	9	2	4

Here is the resultant league table with one round to go. 

Position	Team	Played	Ends	Shots u/(d)	Shots scored	Points
1	Gunn	6	23	32	60	11
2	Fleming	6	25	17	46	10
3	Cargill	6	21	10	39	9
4	Steven	6	19	-8	34	6
5	Kesley	6	20	-1	32	5
6	Barr J	6	17	-18	27	4
7	Wood K	6	21	-4	31	3
8	Barr B	6	16	-28	25	0

In the last round, the three contenders for the prizes shape up as follows.  Niall Gunn plays Susan Kesley, Brian Fleming plays Katie Wood and Andrew Cargill plays Bob Barr.  Exciting times ahead!

Kettle Trophy Round Five

The whole club was out on Friday 13 November - a day that was lucky for some and unlucky for others.  At one point, the rink came to a standstill as realisation dawned that John Steven was facing eight Niall Gunn shots with one stone to come!  John's initial call was the cold draw, but he changed his mind and played a spectacular hit and roll, after which he lay second shot.  Cue exhalation of major "phew" on team Steven's part and the spectators returned to their own games.  Niall, Karen Munro (playing her dad and taking no prisoners!), Graeme Maguire and Caitlin Barr were in tremendous form, though they were aided in their cause by a couple of Steven shots that went horribly awry.  For John, it was the old "merdre happens, then you die," kind of a night and their challenge for the Kettle trophy came to a shuddering end.

Brian Fleming had a tight game for the first four ends against Frances Kennedy, skipping for his holidaying skip, Jenny Barr (Dubai or Murrayfield?  Hmm - let me think about that one for a moment!), with Pauline Alexander at third and a pretty hot front end comprising John Penny and Struan Wood!  Brian, Raymond Preston, "Cruiser" Gibb and Donald Kennedy took control thereafter and ran out relatively easy winners.

Andrew Cargill kept his challenge going with a good win over Andrew Galloway in a tight game that ended up 6-5 in his favour while at the bottom of the table, Robin Copland, skipping in Katie's place, Nook Weir, and substitutes Colin Campbell and Richard Alexander had a comfortable win over Bob Barr and his troops.

Here is the score grid.

Team	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8
	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E	F	A	E
Wood K				4	11	2	4	6	4	3	5	3	3	6	3	13	3	6
Gunn	11	4	5				10	5	3	4	4	3	15	4	5	10	7	3
Barr J	6	4	3	5	10	4				2	9	1							4	7	3	3	11	2
Cargill	5	3	3	4	4	4	9	2	5										6	5	3	7	8	3
Steven	6	3	4	4	15	2										6	5	4	7	6	3	4	5	2
Barr B	3	13	2	7	10	4							5	6	3				3	8	3	3	9	2
Kesley S							7	4	4	5	6	3	6	7	4	8	3	4				2	9	2
Fleming							11	3	5	8	7	3	5	4	4	9	3	5	9	2	4

Brian Fleming remains undefeated with ten points after five games.  He has arch-rival Niall Gunn and Katie Wood to play.  Niall has Brian and Susan in his sights for rounds six and seven.  Andrew Cargill has a big game against John Steven in round six and then plays Bob Barr in his last game.  John Steven plays Andrew Cargill and Jenny Barr.  The rest are out of things, I am afraid, so I shall concentrate on the top four in the league analysis below the table.

Position	Team	Played	Ends	Shots u/(d)	Shots scored	Points
1	Fleming	5	21	23	42	10
2	Gunn	5	19	26	50	9
3	Cargill	5	18	9	31	7
4	Steven	5	15	-7	27	6
5	Kesley	5	17	-1	28	4
6	Wood K	5	18	-4	27	2
7	Barr J	5	13	-21	20	2
8	Barr B	5	14	-25	21	0

It is Brian's competition to throw away at this stage, although his game against Niall is a potential banana skin upon which he may yet slip.  If Niall won that game, then he would move to pole position on 11 points with one game to play against, as it happens, Katie Wood.  In order for Andrew Cargill to win the competition, he needs to beat John Steven and Katie and win a lot of ends; he then hopes that Niall beats or draws with Brian but loses to Susan.  Andrew moves to eleven points; Niall is on either ten or eleven points and Brian is on either ten or eleven points.  It is a mathematically possible for John to come second, but his problem is that Brian and Niall are playing each other and therefore sharing two points.  He is way behind on ends though, so we are talking extreme maths!

As for the rest - geese may quack and ducks might crow before the scorers get their knickers in a twist.  Goosed; quacked; knackered; slim to none with the emphasis on none - take your pick, but the general point to be made is none of them have any chance at all.