Team Kesley has been back on the road again, this time off to Stranraer as Murrayfield 2 for the Henderson Bishop national finals. Second player Jenny decided that hopping off a plane from an overnight flight from Canada was probably not the best start to the competition so super sub, Lois Copland, stepped in to play the first game. We thought that as Lois is a Stranraer girl then this might give us some insider knowledge. Wow what a result – 20-2 against Greenacres. Coach Eileen Harvey had no doubts about this game and followed our progress intently from behind the glass, with a glass!
Tuesday
gave us a harder game against Ayr 1 with the score 8-5. The ice was more
challenging on this sheet with some interesting stones to use too. Game 3 gave
us a shock result of 17-4 against the local Stranraer rink. This we thought
would have been our toughest section game so we were very pleased with this
result. The North West Castle provided a lovely supper followed by a fashion
show kindly provided by the local ‘department’ store, Barbours. A great evening
was had by all and time was spent with Murrayfield 1, with our own Shona Watt
in this team.
Wednesday
morning gave us some time off and a chance for some fresh air and a short visit
to the shops. Back in time to play at 12.45 against Waterfront where we knew
that winning would place us in the high road and losing would probably send us
to the low road. My jet lag must have been setting in as one of my stones
disappeared. We couldn’t find it anywhere and began searching nearby sheets
where we found it in play. Apparently it was the second time the offending
player had stolen a stone from another sheet during the event!
The arrival of
supporters Margaret and Betty gave us the lift we needed and a hard fought win
was achieved and a little Prosecco celebration was enjoyed by one and all. A quick
turnaround took place and we were back downstairs in our ‘posh frocks’ ready
for the infamous Henderson Bishop dinner. Much hilarity followed with the draw
for the semis followed by the local organising committee’s Abba re-enactment
plus the also infamous John Munro disco! Team Kesley were very well behaved and
were upstairs before the disco was finished (just!)
Thursday
– what can I say. Well It’s always Susan’s birthday at the Henderson Bishop and
we surprised her again with a birthday card this year and promised to try
really really hard this time. We faced a very strong Lanarkshire team skipped
by Margaret Richardson in the semi which went to the final stone. Susan was
very happy. A quick bite of lunch and back it was to the ice for the big
one against Margaret Agnew (nee Morton) representing Ayr – a repeat of a
previous HB final at Stranraer where we were not victorious. We had a great game with some really good play by both sides but a big 4 in the 5th
end really helped; we couldn’t relax on the challenging Stranraer ice as
anything could happen. We kept our calm, won the game and Susan was a
very very happy skip!
A
point of interest, the low road winners, Stranraer also came out of our
section.
Here's a picture of the winning team with their trophy. Apologies for the quality - I nicked it off the Scottish Curling site, so can't really complain!
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| (from left): Morna Aitken, Susan Kesley, Fran Stretton and Jenny Barr Winners, the Henderson Bishop Competition 2019 |
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