Henderson Bishop Shenanigans

The Henderson Bishop is taking place this week in Lanarkshire Ice rink and C & B has a team in the finals, representing Murrayfield.  Here are Morna, Jenny, Fran and skip Susan being presented with the Edinburgh qualifying trophy late last year. 

So far so good as far as the competition itself is concerned, according to the Scottish Curling website, but don't quote me on that, as I really don't understand how their website works, if I am honest.  I think Murrayfield 1 is still in the hunt is all I am saying and a full report follows on the conclusion of the competition on Thursday 1 March.

 

Anyhow and notwithstanding any of that, Margaret Nicol sends me this charming study of club secretary Jenny Barr competing in the frog competition.  According to Margaret, "she didn't win it"!  A study in concentration though, do you not think?  It's a dynamic warm-up of the lower arms is what it is and you need to do that effectively if you are going to be able to drink without cramping up.

Team Kesley are the new Scottish Senior Ladies Curling Champions!

What a fabulous performance last weekend by Susan, Fran Stretton, Vicky Gumley and Morna Aitken in the Scottish Senior Ladies Curling Championship at Braehead.  Regular readers will remember that team Kesley carried all before them, including a fair few top men's teams, when winning the senior competition in Dumfries.  They carried on their rich vein of form at Braehead; indeed they went through the weekend undefeated - a dominating and satisfying way to win a national championship.

Having won their section, they faced the difficult task of beating the former World Champion rink skipped by Christine Cannon (normal skip Jackie Lockhart was out in South Korea for some reason!); our own Isobel Torrance was playing in the team.  After a tight start a score of two, followed by a stolen two in ends four and five calmed the frayed nerves and set the team up for the final against Margaret Robertson and her Borders rink.  Here's the report on the final, loosely lifted from the Royal Club (or should that be Scottish Curling?) website.

Team Robertson took an early 1-0 lead after the first end.  In the second end, team Kesley had one lonely stone and were looking potentially in trouble before third Fran Stretton played a lovely hit and roll.  This led to a score of two before following up with dominant steals of two in the third and fourth ends. Team Robertson managed to create a guddle in the fifth end to take a two and stay in contention.

Team Kesley responded in the sixth end when skip Susan played her final stone, sneaking past a guard to score another two and take a commanding 8-3 lead in the game.  That was enough for Margaret Robertson, who felt that the mountain was too hard to climb and shook hands.

Well done Susan, Fran, Vicky and Morna!  They go on to represent Scotland in the World Ladies Championship in Ostersund, Sweden from 21-28 April.  They had better start saving their pennies, by the way; Sweden ain't cheap!

Team Kesley
Scottish Senior Champions 2018

From left: Morna Aitken (lead), Vicky Gumley (second),
Fran Stretton (third) and Susan Kesley (skip)

Lymphoy Cup Round 5.2 Results and League Table

"Ouch", was the cry from team Copland last Friday as they were gubbed 11-1 by an impressive Shona Watt team.  Shona herself played some lovely draws round guards, Andrew Barr and Caitlin Penny missed nothing and Sheena Munro had a splendid game at lead.  On this form, they are a shoo-in for the Lymphoy Cup, but there are still two tough games to play for them (against Brian Fleming and John Steven), so they won't thank me for suggesting that the bookies would have stopped taking bets!

On the adjoining sheet, Bob Barr took on and beat John Steven to keep his challenge very much alive.  He still has to play Robin and Andrew Galloway, but if he takes four points from those two games, he moves to 12 points and keeps Shona and co honest!  Here's the results 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
J Steven				5	4	3	4	12	2	9	1	6	4	9	3				4	6	4
R Copland	4	5	4				8	5	3	12	3	4				14	4	6				1	11	1
B Fleming	12	4	6	5	8	4				4	8	2				8	4	5	6	8	4
A Galloway	1	9	1	3	12	3	8	4	5				5	10	2							5	10	3
J Barr	9	4	4							10	5	5				7	8	3	3	8	3	3	10	2
S Kesley				4	14	1	4	8	2				8	7	4				2	9	2	1	10	1
B Barr	6	4	3				8	6	3				8	3	4	9	2	5				3	8	2
S Watt				11	1	6				10	5	4	10	3	5	10	1	5	8	3	5

And now the league table.

Position	Team	Played	Ends	Shots u/(d)	Shots scored	Points
1	S Watt	5	25	36	49	10
2	B Barr	5	17	11	34	8
3	R Copland	5	18	11	39	6
4	B Fleming	5	21	3	35	4
5	J Steven	5	18	-6	26	4
6	J Barr	5	17	-3	32	4
7	A Galloway	5	14	-23	22	2
8	S Kesley	5	10	-29	19	2

Shona has as good as an extra point in the bag if you look at her total ends scored.  She has two tricky games against Brian and John.  Even if she loses both of them, she is still on ten points.  Given her ends total, I cannot see Robin (that'll be me, then!) overtaking her and the best points total he can get to is ten, so the worst that she can come is second in the league.  Her challenge will come from Bob Barr, who plays Robin this Friday.  In order to win the Glenbrook Quaich (the Lymphoy is out of reach now), Robin really has to win his game against Bob.

If Bob wins both his games, he really needs Susan to lose both her games (or lose one/ draw one of them at worst), so that he can overtake her points total.  I can't see him catching her ends total.  

Any one of Brian, Jenny and John Steven could make a last stand by winning both their games and getting their points total to 8 (the same as Bob).  Then it would be down to ends.  Slim chances for all of them when it comes to names on the silverware (and none for the Lymphoy).

Unless of course, the leaders have been taking banned drugs.  There's always that option.  Meldonium cocktail for anyone?  Bit like the birds - going cheap.

And on that note...

Lymphoy Cup Round 5.1 Results and League Table

Two interesting games on Friday last.  Here's the results 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
J Steven				5	4	3	4	12	2	9	1	6	4	9	3
R Copland	4	5	4				8	5	3	12	3	4				14	4	6
B Fleming	12	4	6	5	8	4				4	8	2				8	4	5	6	8	4
A Galloway	1	9	1	3	12	3	8	4	5				5	10	2							5	10	3
J Barr	9	4	4							10	5	5				7	8	3	3	8	3	3	10	2
S Kesley				4	14	1	4	8	2				8	7	4				2	9	2	1	10	1
B Barr							8	6	3				8	3	4	9	2	5				3	8	2
S Watt										10	5	4	10	3	5	10	1	5	8	3	5

And the resultant league table looks like this.

Position	Team	Played	Ends	Shots u/(d)	Shots scored	Points
1	S Watt	4	19	26	38	8
2	R Copland	4	17	21	38	6
3	B Barr	4	14	9	28	6
4	B Fleming	5	21	3	35	4
5	J Barr	5	17	-3	32	4
6	J Steven	4	14	-4	22	4
7	A Galloway	5	14	-23	22	2
8	S Kesley	5	10	-29	19	2

Analysing things in great detail and with a forensic mathematical eye, it's fair to say that Andrew and Susan are kind of goosed.