Lymphoy Cup Round Two Results and League Table

Round Two was played over two weeks towards the end of January. Not a lot to say really and the league table speaks for itself. Regular readers will be wondering whether the reference to Buckingham Palace in the previous entry wasn't a bit ambitious, to be honest. Imagine a street leading out of Fort William in the general direction of Ben Nevis. Now we're talking! Good wins for Norman Nicol's team (skipped in Norman's absence by Kerry Clark) and Karen Munro take them to the top of the table on four points. Here's the proof of the pudding.

Swan Trophy - Five Times in a Row!

The Swan Trophy is one of the most prestigious competitions in the Edinburgh Curling Club calendar and dates back to the opening of the Haymarket Ice Rink in 1922. Until very recently, it had only had one sponsor, Swans the auctioneers. Now, ECC itself runs and sponsors the competition. It is unique in that it is a double rink competition. Each club has eight players split into two rinks. Two games are played and the combined scores are totalled. The club with the highest total score wins the competition. Players obviously have to concentrate on their own game, but they need to have an eye on the progress of their clubmates in the other game as well. All very entertaining! So, what happened in the final against Oxenfoord? Brian Fleming, Dave Munro, Maggie Barry and Robin Copland (substituting for Betty Gibb) got off to a good start against rival skip Trevor Dodds and were 4-0 to the good after three ends. In the middle of the game, C&B rode their luck on a couple of occasions but some great stones from skip Brian saved the day. Perhaps the limiting of Oxenfoord to a single point in the penultimate sixth end turned the tide finally. A steal in the seventh end secured a 7-2 win. On the adjoining sheet, Susan Kesley, Andrew Galloway, Joe Barry and Margaret Nicol were involved in a titanic struggle against Callum Harvey's team. Two down coming home (remember that Brian and company were only four-up at this stage, so the competition result all hinged on the last ends), Susan and company engineered a score of two with a lovely four-foot draw from skip Susan. So - a draw and a five-shot win combined to secure the Swan trophy for a fifth time - excellent news!

Lymphoy Cup Round 1 Results and League Table

Always an interesting night is the first night of a new competition and last Friday was no exception. It takes time for new teams to bed down together: skips need to read each of their teammates' individual throwing styles; are they consistent? are players normally wide - or tight? how do they release the stone? On the kind of ice and with the aggressive stones at the rink, these are important questions. And then there are the skips themselves. One of them at least was having a bit of an issue. His team was playing pretty well, but it all went Pete Tong when he came to throw his stones. Imagine the Mall - not the shopping centre! The Mall in London that runs in a straight line from Admiralty Arch to Buckingham Palace - that Mall. So further imagine that the mall is an ice rink and your job as a curler is to hit Buckingham Palace at the far end. How wide is Buckingham Palace? No idea, but it's a bloody sight wider than a curling stone. Anyhow, our hero would have missed Buckingham Palace nine times out of ten. No argument. No discussion. A shocker of a game. So anyhow, I lost - despite the best efforts of Jennifer Marshall, Raymond Preston and Graham Paterson. Karen Munro, Morna Aitken, Douglas Burns and Angela Downie ran out easy winners. Betty Gibb skipped Norman Nicol's team. She, Morag Wellman, Fran Stretton and Stuart Ronald lost out on the end count to Brian Fleming, but scores of five in end 3 and three in end 5 were enough for them to run out 9-6 winners in their game. Shona Watt skipped John Steven's team in his absence and was involved in the tightest scoreline of the night - a 5-4 win over Dave Munro. A two for Dave in end 7 made the scoreline look a bit more respectable! Good start for Shona, Rebecca Steven, Maggie Barry and David Hogg. Best win of the night was Jenny Barr's 10-2 win over Katie Wood. Jenny, Niall Gunn, Lois Copland and Donald Kennedy (welcome back, Donald!) swept to their win with some fine play. So - here are the results grid and league table after round one. Long way to go, but March will come round before we know it!

Lymphoy Cup Teams and Draw

Well, the time has fair flown in and the second half of the season is upon us! Here are the teams and draw for the Lymphoy Cup. The Glenbrook Quaich will be presented to the team that finishes second in the league. Note that the club's first games are at 18.00 on Friday 7th January when all eight teams are out. For clarity, if you are reading this on Thursday 6th January, that's tomorrow. If you are reading it on Friday 7th January BEFORE 18.00, that's today and, if you are reading this after 18.00 on Friday 7th January and you didn't play that day, then you either got a substitute to play in your place (well done you!), or you didn't and you missed the game - eedjit! Diaries to hand - here we go!

Kettle Trophy Round 7.2 and Final League Table

Team John Steven / Jennifer Marshall had their final game on Friday last and managed a good win over Jenny Barr. Congratulations to John, Jennifer, Rebecca Steven, Morag Wellman and Richie Anderson on a marvellous undefeated performance in the Kettle Trophy 2021, worthy winners of the competition. In the other game, Robin Copland, skipping in Karen Munro's place, had a tricky promotion to take Shona Watt's stone away from shot position. He was light (and it's been a long time since the writer has been described as light), leaving Shona's stone in place for a hard-fought draw after a great game. The final scored grid and league table tell no lies - congratulations to Team Fleming again for their second place and the Harlaw Cup.

Kettle Trophy Round 7.1 Results and League Table

Team John Steven Wins the Kettle Trophy! This has been a great performance and a real team effort, so step forward John Steven, who skipped the first three games, Jennifer Marshall, the regular third who has taken over skipping duties, substitute third Rebecca Steven, second Morag Wellman and lead Richie Anderson. To go through the competition undefeated has taken some doing and they have not had it all their own way, so congratulations. Oh - and another thing; they weren't even playing! So who was and what happened? Here is the results grid.

Niall Gunn's team played their last game with Joe Barry in the head. They had a good win over Andrew Galloway. Niall moves to seven points in the table - a respectable finish. Meanwhile, Brian Fleming's team, skipped by Raymond Preston cemented second place and the Harlaw Cup with a good win against Dave Munro. Congratulations to Brian, Raymond, Stuart Ronald and Angela Downie on a great performance - only one loss to team Steven. These two teams ran away with it in the first half, he admitted grudgingly!

Kettle Trophy Round 3.2 Results and League Table

One of the delicious ironies of the club card is that round 6 of the Kettle Trophy competition was played before round 3.2. Well, it tickled me anyway. Anyhow, onto the games and results and, perhaps more interestingly, nay intriguingly, what they mean to the competition as it approaches its denouement. Jennifer Marshall has stepped up to the plate and no mistake. She is filling John Steven's big shoes but she is doing so with aplomb. This week, she guided her team of Rebecca Steven, Morag Wellman (have I mentioned her earlier presidential role?) and Richie Anderson (who, whilst never a president, is an accountant) to a really tight win against president (aye, OK!) Niall Gunn and his team (welcome back Karina Aitken, by the way!). Neither team scored more than one per end and there were two steals, so the only separator was the fact that there were seven ends and not eight! Really tight game. Karen Munro, David Hogg, together with subs Maggie Wilson and Allan MacLennan found themselves 5-2 down against faither Dave after five ends. Team Munro the Younger were not to be counted out though - oh no! A stolen 3 in the seventh and last end did for faither and Karen took the win. Here's the scores grid.

And now here is the league table. If this were an election and just using the exit polls, you would almost have to call it for team Steven now. They are four ends ahead of Brian Fleming as well as two points. They can almost afford to have a big loss, as long as they score a couple of ends next week - they will be fine. For Karen, she could end up as high as third in the league. She plays Shona next week and if she wins that, she jumps over Shona; if Jenny loses or draws with the rampant team Steven/Marshall, then she could jump over Jenny as well. Who'd have thunk it, eh?