Tom Holmes Brings Season to Premature Close

The Tom Holmes day proved in the event to be the last club meeting of season  2019-2020.  Fortunately, it lived up to its billing as one of the club highlights, as Dave Munro reports below.

Just two teams emerged from the 1st round of the competition with two-end victories, the teams skipped by Maggie Barry and Morna Aitken, the former after delivering a six-shot pasting to husband Joe, a scoring differential that would later prove critical!

The second round of games found these two teams still out in front but the vagaries of the Schenkel system meant that they played the third- and fourth-placed teams in the final round.  Going down the final end, Maggie had lost one end and Morna had won the first end of her game.  As ends counted first, Morna had to hang on and win her second end; if she managed that, then she would take the silverware home.  Step forward Gavin Barr!  With his last stone to come, Morna was sitting nicely hidden in the four foot, but this was as nought to Gavin!  He played a raised take out, and left himself lying shot.

Maggie Barry, Susan Kesley, Donald Kennedy and Colin Barr Win Tom Holmes, 2020!

(from left) Maggie Barry, Susan Kesley, Donald Kennedy and Colin Barr

Winners

Tom Holmes Trophy 2020

Meanwhile Maggie, with her team of club president Susan, Donald and Colin managed to win their last end.  This brought them up level on ends won with Morna but, courtesy of their big shots-up win over Joe in the first round, they moved ahead and were declared winners of the trophy.

Many congratulations to everyone who took part and especially to Maggie and company on a great win.

Wish I had been there!

Lymphoy Trophy Round 6 Results and League Table

… And Then There Were Three

Round 6 was played over two weekends.  Here is the results grid and there were some big results at the top end of the league!

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
Dave Munro				8	4	3	2	16	2	3	8	2	5	4	3	2	16	2	3	7	3
Shona Watt	4	8	4				4	8	2	3	9	3	6	7	2	4	14	3				1	12	1
John Steven	16	2	5	8	4	5				3	14	3	11	2	6				10	3	5	11	1	6
Niall Gunn	8	3	5	9	3	4	14	3	5							13	3	6	2	18	1	7	3	4
Jenny Barr	4	5	4	7	6	5	2	11	1							6	6	4	4	6	3	4	13	2
Andrew Galloway	16	2	5	14	4	4				3	13	1	6	6	3				7	5	4	2	9	2
Brian Fleming	7	3	4				3	10	2	18	2	7	6	4	4	5	7	2				7	2	4
Susan Kesley				12	1	5	1	11	1	3	7	3	13	4	5	9	2	5	2	7	2

For Andrew Galloway's team to get in amongst the silverware, they needed to win their last two games.  A 13-3 thumping at the hands of Niall Gunn's team did for Andrew's chances, but kept Niall right in the hunt!

Unfortunately for Niall, John Steven also won his game and with the same number of ends (six), thus keeping him well out in front on the ends scored front.  In reality, all John and company have to do to win the league, is to win their last game.  That said, if either of them lose their last game, then the other has the chance to win the league, unless...

Unless, that is, Brian Fleming also wins his last game and they both lose theirs ...

	Team	Played	Ends	Shots u/(d)	Shots scored	Points
1	John Steven	6	30	33	59	10
2	Niall Gunn	6	25	20	53	10
3	Brian Fleming	6	23	18	46	8
4	Andrew Galloway	6	19	9	48	7
5	Susan Kesley	6	21	8	40	6
6	Dave Munro	6	15	-32	23	4
7	Jenny Barr	6	19	-20	27	3
8	Shona Watt	6	15	-36	22	0

You can see from the table that Brian is on eight points - two behind John and Niall.  To overtake John might be a tall order as he is seven ends ahead, but Niall is catchable as there are only two ends separating them.

Gina Aitken Just Misses Out on a Sixth Scottish Mixed Doubles Championship

Gina Aitken and her mixed doubles partner, Scott Andrews from Ayr just missed out on defending the Scottish Mixed Doubles Championship in Perth at the weekend.  They lost out to Jennifer Dodds and Gina's old Mixed Doubles partner, Bruce Mouat in the final of what looked to have been a high quality competition.

The duo went through their league with a 3-1 record before going on their undefeated journey all the way through the knockout and page play-off games.  On their way they took a fair few major scalps before succumbing in the final itself.

The final looked to be a close run thing until they gave up a big score of four in the penultimate seventh end.  As Confucius once remarked, "If you're going to give up a big end of four or five, do it in the first end rather than the seventh."  To be fair, I am not sure that he actually did say that, but you get the drift!

Still and all, Silver Medals in some very exalted company - not to be sniffed at.  Gina and Scott will be mightily disappointed, but they had to get there to be disappointed.  Scant consolation, I know, but there we are.

In any case, many congratulations from the club.

Henderson Bishop Competition

Susan Kesley, Fran Stretton, Jenny Barr and Morna Aitken Win the Henderson Bishop!

The team, called Murrayfield 2 for the purposes of the competition, kept up Murrayfield and Currie and Balerno CC's fantastic recent record in this prestigious national competition.  They secured a great victoy over a very strong Perth team, skipped by Claire Milne in the final at Aberdeen, this after a great win over Jackie Lockhart's strong Aberdeen team in the semi-final earlier in the day.

Winners of the Henderson Bishop 2020

(From left) Morna Aitken (lead), Jenny Barr (second), 

Morag Wellman (President of the Ladies Branch of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club)

Susan Kesley (skip), Fran Stretton and Robin Bishop (grandson of Andrew Henderson Bishop)

Huge congratulations to the team!

Kerry Clark, Katie Wood, Betty Gibb, Maggie Barry and Margaret Nicol Win the Cherrystone Trophy

And in the meantime, Murrayfield 1 were triumphing over a strong Dumfries team in the low road competition for the Cherrystone Trophy.

Winners of the Cherrystone Low Road Trophy 2020

(From left) Betty Gibb, Katie Wood, Kerry Clark, Robin Bishop, 

Margaret Nicol, Maggie Barry and Morag Wellman

What a great performance from nine proud C&B lady members! 

Lymphoy Trophy Round 5.2 Results and League Table

Well, well, well!  Brian Fleming has thrown a spanner into the works and no mistake!  Eight ends.  An 18-2 victory.  And the victim was none other than the hitherto undefeated Niall Gunn!  In the meantime, John Steven was racing to an 11-1 win over Susan Kesley's team, skipped by Richie Anderson in her absence.

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
Dave Munro				8	4	3	2	16	2	3	8	2	5	4	3	2	16	2
Shona Watt	4	8	4				4	8	2	3	9	3	6	7	2	4	14	3
John Steven	16	2	5	8	4	5				3	14	3							10	3	5	11	1	6
Niall Gunn	8	3	5	9	3	4	14	3	5										2	18	1	7	3	4
Jenny Barr	4	5	4	7	6	5										6	6	4	4	6	3	4	13	2
Andrew Galloway	16	2	5	14	4	4							6	6	3				7	5	4	2	9	2
Brian Fleming							3	10	2	18	2	7	6	4	4	5	7	2				7	2	4
Susan Kesley							1	11		3	7	3	13	4	5	9	2	5	2	7	2

What does all of this mean?  Well, here is the revised league table

	Team	Played	Ends	Shots u/(d)	Shots scored	Points
1	John Steven	5	24	24	48	8
2	Niall Gunn	5	19	10	40	8
3	Andrew Galloway	5	18	19	45	7
4	Brian Fleming	5	19	14	39	6
5	Susan Kesley	5        16		-3	28	4
6	Dave Munro	5	12	-28	20	4
7	Jenny Barr	5	18	-11	25	3
8	Shona Watt	5	14	-25	21	0

With two rounds to go, things have changed a bit and the only team who can rightfully say that it is completely in their hands is Andrew Galloway.  If he wins both his games, he will win the Lymphoy trophy, simple as that.  Why?  Because he plays the two teams immediately above him in the table, teams Steven and Gunn.  Crucially, both teams Steven and Gunn have already played each other.  Even if they each win both their games, the final result will go down to ends, shots up and shots scored.  On that front, John has amassed a fairly substantial ends score.

Brian's win brings him into contention for a trophy and conceivably, he could go on to win the Lymphoy itself, though that might be stretching things a bit.  But consider this:  imagine that Andrew peels both his games; he would move to nine points and John and Niall would also be on nine.  Let's imagine that they lose their other games and that Brian wins both his games - well you see where this is going.  Unlikely perhaps, but entirely possible.  What is the other team in this macabre little dance?  Team Jenny Barr, that's who!  Jenny's last two games are against Niall and John.

Aye, all to play for and no mistake!