The first Intermediate Points Competition was played out tonight, Tuesday 14 March, with 11 enthusiastic members vying to gain the medal.  Six disciplines were completed, with ‘Wick & Curl In’ being omitted in favor of ‘Raising’.   It was a closely contested evening with a tight finish; Andrew Dalgleish took the medal on 16 points, with Janette Lambie and Vic Ramage just one point behind in joint second place.  Congratulations to Andrew, and well done to all of the participants.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, so hopefully we can look to run the event on an annual basis. Finally your Secretary would like to thank Jim Cowper for going in to the curling rink to assist in making the event run smoothly for the players.

Once again we have had an excellent Pairs competition with an exciting finish. The High and Low Road format giving everyone 2 games and keeping the crowds to the bitter end.  The games were played on sheets 1 and 2. The ice was very tricky with big swings and fall backs.

The first round winners were Tom Alexander & Jean Lennie, Dave Anderson & Margaret Carr, Roger Scott & Dave Carr and Walter Brown & Janette Lambie.

 In the Low Road semi-finals, Andrew Lambie & Liz Anderson beat John Jacobs & Reg Dunbar, and Ronnie Hope & David Gillespie beat Keith Morris & Vic Ramage. In the final, Andrew & Liz had a comfortable win against Ronnie & David, with Andrew playing the fall back particularly well.

 In the High Road semi-finals, Dave A & Margaret beat Tom & Jean in a tight match, and Roger & Dave C beat Walter & Janette.  The High Road final was a very close encounter. After 4 ends Roger & Dave had crept to a 5-0 lead, but Dave A & Margaret hit back with a 3 in the 5th end. In the 6th end, the advantage swapped around but with the last couple of shots Dave A just squeezed past a guard and Roger tried to follow him. Roger’s shot just caught the guard leaving Dave A & Margaret with a 2, to tie the game at 5-5.

So for the second year in a row, the Pairs competition would be settled by drawing shots.  Dave A went first and drew to within the 4 foot. Roger followed but was slightly heavier giving the title to Dave A and Margaret.

 Congratulations to Low Road winners Andrew and Liz and to High Road winners Dave A and Margaret.

The Second Points Competition was played out on Wednesday 22 February, with nine members setting out to try and gain the medal.  Fastest out of the blocks in the first two disciples was Dave Anderson, but his lead was clawed back somewhat in the next two disciples.  Chap & Lie was perhaps the pivotal disciple with John Jacobs scoring a maximum eight to go into a one point overall lead.  John managed to hang on and finish on a total of 35 points (8 disciples), with Dave Anderson close behind on 33 points, and Iain Scott in third place on 30 points.

Congratulations to John, and well done to the others who all managed good scores on tricky ice.

The final club fixture before the Christmas break was the First Points, played last night (Thursday 15 Dec).  Seven members contested for the medal on ice that was somewhat challenging for a number of the disciples; despite this there were a number of fine performances.  The full ten disciplines were completed on the night, and the eventual winner was Dave Anderson (37 pts), closely followed by Iain Scott (36 pts), with Murray Hope in third position (32 pts).

The Singles Competition took place on Sunday evening with a restricted field of 8 participants; Reg Dunbar came in as a late replacement for an unwell Tom Alexander.  The ice on the night was very slow and heavy, and perhaps in hindsight it would have been better to have run the stones up and down the sheet before commencing.  As a consequence the early ends of the first ties featured numerous short stones.  After the opening exchanges, Iain Scott, Ken Hunter, Dave Anderson and Keith Morris proceeded to the High Road, whilst Dave Carr, Reg Dunbar, Ronnie Hope, and Craig Brown proceeded to the Low Road (see Singles Page).

In the Low Road, Reg beat Dave and Ronnie beat Craig to reach the final.  The final itself was well contested by both players with first one taking the advantage only for the other to come back strongly.  Coming into the last end Ronnie was in a strong position being two shots up, but did not have last stone, however after three stones each he was lying two shots.  He attempted to remove a front opposition stone with his last stone but only managed to deflect it onto his first shot leaving the initiative with his opponent.  (The Gallery clearly thought it was an incorrect option).  Reg elected to strike and executed it well to remove one of Ronnie’s stones and get an inside roll for a two – all square and onto an extra end.  Ronnie’s opener was an attempted draw to the left hand side of the house which ended up just short.  Reg followed this with a draw deep into the house behind Ronnie’s first stone.  Ronnie tried to follow it it but although he had adjusted his ice he was still just short.  Reg played a guard which came to the inside of Ronnie’s two short stones. Ronnie opted to hit the front, removing his outer stone (covering Reg’s counter) and rolling his played stone into a central position for second shot.  Reg’s final draw was not deep enough to change the position, and Ronnie took the medal with a well executed hit and lie for two shots.

In the High Road, Ken beat Iain and Dave came back to beat Keith in the final end of their tie, to reach the final.  Ken stole a three in the first end of the final, and the second end was blanked.  The third ended featured draws and hits to the outer right hand side of the house and ultimately Ken stole a single to go four up.  The fourth end was draw and hit, and at the end Ken had two shots in the front on either side of the outer circle, Dave ignored these and made a fine draw to take a single.  Moving into the fifth end, Ken removed Dave’s first drawn shot, but then managed to play three ‘silent’ strikes against Dave’s further draws leaving the game all square.  The sixth end was largely draws by Dave followed by strikes from Ken; with an empty house for his last shot, Dave had no where to hide and this time Ken managed a Chap and Lie to take the medal.

The 2016-17 Knockout final was contested by Teams Anderson and Ramsay on Monday evening.  The outcome was a 6-4 victory for the Anderson team.  So congratulations to Dave, Reg Dunbar, Pam Ramsay, and Elaine Lambie on lifting the first silverware of the season. 

The semi-finals of the Knockout competition were played in the late shift on Thursday evening. Team Ramsay had a comfortable victory over Team Brown (12-2), and Team Anderson ran out as winners over Team Alexander (6-5).

So Team Ramsay will meet Team Anderson in the final on Monday 5 December (7.30pm).

In the remaining quarter final games Team Alexander enjoyed a comfortable win (10-1) over Team Hope, and Team Anderson overcame Team Hunter in the last end (7-6).  The two winning teams will play each other in the semi-finals on 10 November (see Knockout page). 

The 2016-17 Knockout Competition got underway on Monday evening, with Team Lambie meeting Team Ramsay.  The game was a fairly tight affair with the teams level at four all after 6 ends.  Team Ramsay took a single in the final end to clinch a victory that sees them face Team Brown in the next round.

The outcome of the long campaign to gain the Kettle was resolved last night (8 Mar).  Team Hope met Team Hunter with the latter only requiring one point to take the Kettle.  Team Hope faired better in the early jousting, taking a two in the first end and leaving their opponents struggling somewhat in the second end; only a last stone hit and wick to the four foot saved the day for Team Hunter who took a two.  Team Hunter then stole a two, before Team Hope responded with two singles in the next two ends to tie the game at 4 – 4  after five ends.  Team Hunter took two singles in the last two ends to run out winner by six shots to 4.

Congratulations to Liz Anderson, Robert Beaton, and Elaine Lambie.