On 27th November, an intrepid group of Penicuik Curlers (Iain S, Jim R, Craig B, Roger S) ventured forth after a ‘bye’ into the Quarter Finals of the Rink Championship and now drawn against Trevor Dodds and his rink from Carrington. Trevor, on a high from daughter Jennifer’s European success earlier in the day, may have momentarily lost his focus as in End 1 Penicuik, with the hammer, were lying 4 with last stone to play. A successful draw to the centre of the house got us off to a great start, up 5-0.
Second end quickly became a tense affair with a series of successful draws forming a column of alternating stones spanning the 4 ft. Unfortunately, every subsequent Carrington stone seemed to remove/move the previous Penicuik stones back or out of contention.
First skip stone from Penicuik was a draw to the back of the 4’ and seemed to have solid backing settling the team nerves. However, our optimism was short-lived and again the Penicuik stone was somehow removed from contention leaving Carrington stones in play. Unable to repeat end saving draw with skips second stone, Carrington were able to take a 5 straight back – Ooops!
End 2: Penicuik 5 v 5 Carrington (afterward this was deemed a very fair & sociable thing to do!)
Competitive play followed with ends that could have gone either way… End 3: Carrington steal 1, End 4: Penicuik take 1, End 5: Carrington take 1, End 6: Penicuik take ‘only’ 1, after a relatively open draw for 2 picked up as it passed the 2nd Hog line. The game is tied going down the last…
End 7 was played well on both sides and by skips stones, Carrington have a single stone scoring but open to hit. Hit & Stick, Penicuik lie, Hit & Stick, Carrington lie, neither player getting the required roll under cover (Centre line guard in play). Penicuik change tactics and decide to draw around the guard attempting to take shot and put the pressure back on Carrington, however the Ice Gods had other ideas. Another pick-up resulted in the stone pulling across and hitting the guard!!! Carrington already scoring, had no need to play their last stone.
Final Result – Penicuik 7 – 8 Carrington. Thereafter both teams retired to the bar area for a well-earned drink, and proceeded to watch how curling could be played as Bruce Mouat triumphed over Sweden in the Final of the European Championship.
Report by Iain Scott
Penicuik Curling Club 