The Midlothian Province King George IV Cup competition 2015-16 got off to a start last week, with Penicuik drawn against the current champions, Clydesdale Bank.

Penicuik Team: Robert Beaton, Ronnie Hope, David Ballantyne, and Iain Scott at lead.
 
Clydesdale Bank gave themselves an uphill task by losing three penalty shots for a late arrival by one of their members. Penicuik added to the Bank’s difficulties, with Iain Scott at lead and David Ballantyne at second, playing a solid, tight game, and took the opening two ends with singles. The Bank countered with a two at the third, but Penicuik kept up the pressure with two more singles. Score after five ends;  7 – 2 to Penicuik.  Robert Beaton was skipping well, minimising the opposition’s opportunties to get into the head, but the Bank came close to reducing the difference to two shots at the penultimate end; a very close measure proved to be a two rather than a three, and the teams went into the last end with Penicuik defending what they thought was a comfortable three shot lead. For the first time in the game, nerves showed in the Penicuik ranks and despite a good double take-out by Ronnie Hope at third, Robert was faced with three, well guarded opposition counters. He played a cracking draw to rest on an opposition stone and reduce the lead to two. The Bank skip failed with his take-out and Robert was persuaded to stick his final stone up his jumper, to take the game 7 – 6.  A fine win, and one that sets up Penicuik for a difficult second round tie with 37 Club in January.  

Match report from Ronnie Hope

Monday 19th 21:30 Penicuik V’s Watsonians

The second game of the season took place against Watsonians. They finished second last year and decided to refuse promotion to Division 1 – preferring to stay in Division 2. 

The team  got off to a good start taking the first 3 ends against the hammer. This was mainly due to John and Iain setting up good heads which we were able to consolidate into a 4 shot lead. We lost a single in the 4^th end but came back in the 5^th with a single thanks to a fine hit and roll which froze against the opposition stone fully protected by a bank of guards. In the 6^th end we took two shots against the hammer but lost a single in the last end resulting in a satisfying 7 shots to 2 victory.

A very enjoyable game played on fast swinging ice.

Team: – Skip Murray Hope, Dave Anderson at 3, Iain Scott at 2 and John Jacobs at lead

Report – Dave Anderson

Penicuik 1 played Barbarians in the first round of the 2015-16 Rink Championship qualifier at Murrayfied on Saturday afternoon.  The team was skipped by Walter Brown, with Ken Hunter, Jim Cowper, and John Jacobs completing the ranks.

In the first end, Barbarians placed a centre guard, and subsequently drew round it to the pot lid.  Jim managed to tap this stone back and replace it with his first shot.  After that the guard on the singleton stone in the house was successfully removed and replaced until last stone , when Walter raised a front stone 6-8 feet for a second shot.  Barbarians threatened with a high scoring response in the second end, but were restricted to a single.  Moving onto the third end, Penicuik took 2 shots; then stole a single in the fourth end following a well judged double take out by Walter, and a slightly underplayed tap back from the opposition.  Barbarians again threatened with a big score in the fifth end; Penicuik played a second stone into the head with last stone to lie two, leaving Barbarians to attempt a double which did not quite come off.  So Penicuik went into the sixth end 6-1 up.  Barbarians could only manage a single, and shook hands on completion of that end.  Final score 6-2.

A good start for Penicuik.  The next round is not until 24 January (9.30am).  Before then Penicuik 2 play their first round match on 13 December.

Monday 5th 21:30 Penicuik V’s SIAE

After achieving promotion last season, Penicuik made a successful start in their first game in division 2.

Penicuik’s Midlothian Province League Division 2 campaign started against SIAE, well skipped by Jon Addinall. We got off to an excellent start with a well protected 3 at the opening end, followed by a steal of 1 to give us a 4-0 lead. Trading 1’s over next 4 ends, we went into the last end with a 2 shot lead. Murray went on the offensive hitting anything that made the house, SIAE tried all they could to hide, but Murray continued the hitting game to pick up a good 2 to finish the game 7-3.

A hugely enjoyable game played in great spirits on good swinging ice.

Team: – Skip Murray Hope, Dave Anderson at 3, Iain Scott at 2 and John Jacobs at lead

The draw for the Indoor Grand Match being staged on Saturday 24 October has been announced by the Royal Club.  Penicuik will be fielding three teams and their fixtures are as follows;

Strathspey 1                        v     Penicuik 3    Elgin 10.00am

Bridge of Allan                    v     Penicuik 1    Murrayfield 12.45pm

Dunfermline Ladies 1       v    Penicuik 2    Kinross 3.30pm

The Penicuik teams have been drawn and are as follows;

Elgin

Dave Carr, Ronnie Hope, Margaret Carr, and Christine Hope

Murrayfield

Walter Brown, Dave Anderson, John Jacobs, and Pauli Holmes

Kinross

Andrew Lambie, Murray Hope, Iain Scott, and Jim Cowper

The annual team points match against Merchiston took place on Sunday 8 February at 6.00pm.  The match involved eight players from each club.  The Penicuik team is as follows;

Dave Anderson, Walter Brown, Jim Cowper, Ken Hunter, John Jacobs, Keith Morris, Jim Ramsay, and Roger Scott.

Penicuik won the match with a score of 118 points against Merchiston’s total of 107 points.  The highest scorers for Penicuik were Dave Anderson (22), Walter Brown (19), and Ken Hunter (18).  Top scorers for Merchiston were Ron Eadie (18), Ross Angus (15), and three players were tied on 14 points.