Substitutes

The procedure for arranging substitutes is noted in the club calendar, but it is worth repeating and highlighting before the start of the season.

• Players should play in their rinks as drawn up.  Any substitutes should play lead position.  If two substitutes are playing, they should play lead and second.
• If you need a substitute, please contact the club members on the substitute list first and foremost.  If a long-term substitute is required, please contact the committee for a replacement player.
• No penalty shots will be incurred in the absence of one player, but where two players in the same rink are absent (and have no substitutes arranged), then that rink will lose the game.
• It is club practice to inform your skip who your substitute is if you are unable to play.

Club Etiquette

In addition to the normal rules and courtesies of the game, the committee has highlighted a few things that it wants us all to pay particular attention to this season.  These are also noted in the club fixture card.

For the coming season, teams are actively encouraged not to concede games where at all possible.

Please be ready to start when the bell goes.  Games will be eight ends or the bell.

Skips and seconds should make sure that the cards are fully completed and legible.

Kettle Teams and Draw First-half Ice Allocation

The committee has been hard at work throughout the summer, doing organisational things on a monumental scale so that the rest of us can enjoy our curling.  Negotiations with the ice rink have been ongoing; meetings have been held and socks have been strewn all over the place.  You have already had your club cards delivered to you by the wonders of electronic wizardry and now here's some more of the same.  The Kettle draw, team names and all of that good stuff on the club website.  You could not make this up.

Anyhow, here are the teams

Rinks for Kettle Competition 2016
	1	Niall Gunn		2	John Steven
		Andrew Galloway			Lois Copland
		Karen Munro			Gina Aitken
		Rowena Steven			Margaret Nicol
	3	Brian Fleming		4	Dave Munro
		Shona Watt			Robin Copland
		Francis Kennedy			Pauline Alexander
		Graeme Maguire			Donald Kennedy
	5	Katie Wood		6	Bob Barr
		Raymond Preston			Kerry Barr
		Morna Aitken			Joe Barry
		Susan MacFarlane			Anne Anderson
	7	Susan Kesley		8	Jenny Barr
		Mike Wood			Norman Nicol
		Betty Gibb			Nook Weir
		Maggie Barry			Sheena Munro

The prize for first place in the alphabet goes to the Bob Barr team - Barr, Barr, Barry and Anderson, though now that Kerry has become a Mrs, Clark doesn't cut it in that exalted company.  I'm liking the look of the Niall Gunn team - strong all the way down the rink, but they have a big game in their first one of the season, as you can see in the draw...

Kettle Competition Draw and First-half Ice Allocation
	Month	Day	Date	Time	Kettle Draw / Event
	September	Fri	23-Sep	7:30pm	1 v 2	3 v 4	5 v 6	7 v 8
		Fri	30-Sep	5:30pm	1 v 3	2 v 4
	October	Fri	07-Oct	7:30pm	5 v 7	6 v 8
		Fri	14-Oct	7:30pm	1 v 4	2 v 3
		Fri	21-Oct	5:30pm	Points Competition
		Fri	21-Oct	7:30pm	1 v 5	2 v 6	3 v 7	4 v 8
		Fri	28-Oct	5:30pm	5 v 8	6 v 7
	November		04-Nov	no ice	Edinburgh International
		Fri	11-Nov	7:30pm	1 v 6	2 v 5	3 v 8	4 v 7
			18-Nov	no ice	Edinburgh International Seniors
		Fri	25-Nov	5:30pm	1 v 7	2 v 8	3 v 6	4 v 5
		Sun	27-Nov	1:45pm & 2.30pm - Club Pairs Competition
	December		02-Dec	RCCC Double Rink competition, Stranraer
		Fri	09-Dec	5:30pm	3 v 5	4 v 6
		Fri	16-Dec	5:30pm	1 v 8	2 v 7

Could the Gunn v Steven game be the title decider as early as September?  Don't ask Brian Fleming for an answer to that one - he has a good looking team as well, though I venture that it's been a while since Francis and Graeme have been called "good looking".

And on that note, I shall retire to the golf course so that my handicap can go up by 0.1 again.  That's another story for another time.

Friday 23 September at 7.30pm; be there or be square!