Lymphoy Cup Round 2.2

Last Friday, the second round of the competition was completed. Confusingly, this means that all the teams have now played three rounds. Don't ask, because I don't know. Actually, I do, but I am choosing not to share it with you - why? I'm in a mood! Onto the results grid, including the latest round.

A good win for Kerry Clark over the strong Jennifer Marshall team keeps her on full points and takes her to the top of the table. Meanwhile Dave Munro kept in touch with a good win over Katie Wood's team. The league table looks like this.

C&B at "The Scottish"

This year's Scottish Men's and Women's Curling Championships take place in Dumfries Ice Bowl from the 6th to 11 February and C&B will be represented in both championships. Jennifer Marshall is throwing last stones for Team Young; Eilidh Yeats throws second stones in the team. Jennifer is the "Poster Person" for the championships, as you can see below!

Gina Aitken (pictured below) is throwing third stones in Rebecca Morrison's strong and fancied team.

As far as the men are concerned, the only member taking part is Gavin Barr, who throws lead stones for team Waddell. Good luck all!

C&B at the Hamilton Open

There was a strong representation of C&B women curlers competing in the Hamilton Open earlier this week. Congratulations to Shona Watt who played in the winning team skipped by Liz Paul. Here are Shona and her team mates with their prizes after the competition.

In second place was the all-C&B team of Susan Wylie, Katie Wood, Vicky Gumley and Morna Aitken. Both pictures were taken by Lyn Kenyon. Great performance from all five and many congratulations!

David Aitken at FISU Winter World University Games

C&B's own David Aitken is now a full-time coach with Scottish Curling and recently found himself out at Lake Placid, coaching Great Britain's men's team in the FISU Winter World University Games. As many readers will know, the men had a sterling competition and brought back Gold Medals from the USA. Here is a report of their progress through the competition, lifted from the Scottish Curling website. Team Craik went into the Games on great form and hit the ground running, winning their first five round robin games against Korea, Brazil, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Norway. Their first slip arrived in the next game when they narrowly missed out to Japan - the team, however, made sure it was the first and last defeat of the tournament. They went on to secure comprehensive victories over USA, Sweden, Sweden and Canada to finish the round robin top of the table. The standings meant that team Craik met Owen Purcell's Canadian side for the second time on the same day in the semi-finals. The occasion may have been a different one, but the outcome was the same. Once more the Scots in GBR colours emerged victorious with the final score reading 6-4. Up against local heroes USA, skipped by Daniel Casper, they delivered an outstanding performance. Team Craik were in control throughout and played some brilliant shots to clinch the Gold by five points to one.

Pictured (from left) James Craik, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce, Blair Haswell, Jack Carrick, Iain Watt & C&B's David Aitken.

C&B at the Sellar Trophy

The Sellar has a long and distinguished history as one of Edinburgh Curling Club's premier competitions and this year there was a healthy entry of sixteen teams, with many of C&B's finest on show in different teams. Congratulations must go to Maggie Barry who skipped her team to a great win in the competition. Here is Maggie with team mates Avril Anderson, Ruth Addinall and Catherine Dodds and the trophy at Murrayfield.

Shona Watt played last stones in her team and managed a great win in the low road final against another C&B player, Vicky Gumley. Here's Shona and her team - again with their trophy.

Honorary mentions for Morna Aitken, Lois Copland, Kim Dalland, Betty Gibb, Margaret Nicol and Morag Wellman, all of whom also competed in the competition - a strong C&B representation.

Lymphoy Cup Round 3

Well, well, well, as the thirsty traveller said to his three-headed friend, this was quite the week for results and upsets, was it not? First off, we have to get the elephant out of the room and admit that one team that would prefer to go unnamed, did indeed lose by a score of 19-2, managing to win only one end in the process. On the plus side, they did manage the full eight ends and their unnamed skip, one John Steven, was heard to comment that, "If you're going to lose big, you might as well lose fast," or words to that effect. Somebody on the team opined that they didn't get any breaks. Yeh - that and Kerry Clark and her whole team - Jenny Barr, Maggie Barry and Richie Anderson just played a little bit better! Well played Team Clark; a real statement of intent right there and they are snapping on Andrew Galloway's heels. Andrew has played three games to Kerry's two. Andrew himself, along with team mates Morag Wellman, Susan MacFarlane and Julia Mackey had a comfortable 9-4 win over Katie Wood's team, skipped in Katie's absence by regular third Morna Aitken. Dave Munro also had a good 9-3 win against Brian Fleming. Dave was aided and abetted by David Hogg and Jamie Rankin. Here's the scores grid for the night.

The more observant reader will notice that I haven't talked about the other game between two of our younger skips, Jennifer Marshall and Karen Munro, just returned from a shoulder operation. Three ends into their eight-end game, Jennifer must have been thinking that she was on easy street! She and her team of Douglas Burns, Sarah Ford and Donald Kennedy were 6-0 ahead! That all changed in the next four ends, in which Karen and team mates Rowena Steven, Joe Barry and Sheena Munro, put together a run of scores as follows: 4, 1, 2 and 3! They were now 10-6 ahead playing the last. So Jennifer scored a 4 and the game ended tied on 10-10! Here's the league table. Round 2.2 will be played next Friday.

Two teams remain undefeated, with team Clark to play their second round game next week. Teams Brian Fleming and Katie Wood remain rooted to the bottom of the table on zero points.

Lymphoy Cup Round 2.1

President Niall's Canadian Adventure

C&B club president, Niall Gunn, is off to Canada to compete for the Strathcona Cup. He is playing second stones on David Imlay's West Tour team. You will be able to follow Niall's progress on the Scottish Curling site. Sadly, I can't seem to post the link, for which apologies. There are three different tours, West, East and Central and I suspect that many of you will know quite a few of the curlers on each of the tours as Edinburgh is well represented this time around.

This is a picture of Niall earlier in the season, having just won the "Champion of Champions" Jackson Trophy. Interestingly, both Joe and Maggie Barry, also pictured, are former tourists themselves - Maggie to Canada in 2015 and Joe to Switzerland in 2009 and Canada in 2013. Douglas is a bit young yet to be thinking about a tour, but his time will come!

Lymphoy Cup Round 1

It only seems like yesterday that we were waxing lyrical about the Kettle League final results, but in the meantime Christmas has been and went, as they say in footballing circles and here we are reporting on round one of the Lymphoy Cup. Early days, of course, but a good win for Karen Munro's team, skipped by Rowena Steven. Brian Fleming was lying game when Rowena came to play her last stone. She managed to wangle her stone on to lie shot and the points went to Karen. Other teams all bedding in. Here's to the next seven or eight weeks! Results and league tables follow. New colour scheme. Hope you like it!