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.