With the new year almost upon us I felt it was about time we posted the result of Round 1 of challenge Scott as I know some of the regular readers have been asking how he got on. In all honesty I've had trouble downloading the cinema quality video from a mobile communication device and that's what caused the delay. Unfortunately I took the video on the wrong orientation so you'll have to excuse half of Scotts head being cut off although it's probably best that way.
I don't think the video needs too much of an introduction if I'm honest so I'll leave you to enjoy the show with a tub of popcorn and a bucket of coke. All you need to know is that this is Scott's effort at trying to consume a tablespoon of Cinnamon. I'll let you decide whether he was successful or not.
The boys will be back in action at the Mercure Perth Masters on the 3rd of January at 16:45 against Steve Laycock's Canadian side.
Team Edwards would like to wish everyone a happy new year and a cracking 2013.
The season so far has been a slow burner and our social activities could be viewed by some as the reason we've misfired on a couple of occasions elsewhere on the Scottish Curling Tour. That being said results have been improving and we headed off to Kinross last weekend hoping to make a move up the Scottish Curling Tour rankings and by all accounts we had a pretty successful weekend.
When Dave and John arrived on Friday there was a sizable welcoming party in attendance who proceeded to question the Lionel Richie concert the previous night that Dave attended. Dave claimed that the tickets were free and that he was dragged out by Louise. This is not true. Dave has loved Lionel ever since his second solo album released in 1983. (The reason for Dave’s number 83 shirt).
The team lined up against the Latvians (Regza) in the first game miffed that team Curl One Out (more to follow on them later) had received a walkover in their first round game and therefore had a lie in. The lads headed off the Latvian challenge and headed off for a bit of fuel at Loch Levens Larder. It has to be said it was worth the trip and for those of you who haven't been it's thoroughly recommended and you get a cracking feed. One question that did crop up was whether it really was an impression of Rob Niven's torso that was stuck to the wall in the restaurant?!? We sincerely hope it wasn't his legs that were on show! The Christmas jumpers were also of extremely high quality.
Catalogue worthy
Team Barr took an early 4-1 lead in our second game of the weekend and fortunately they ran out of steam before the end. Next up was Gordon Addison in a game that could see us qualify with a day to spare. We took a 3 in the first end and ran out the game to ensure qualification for the knock out stages.
Last game of the group stages was against Team Curl One Out. Now we don't normally go into too much detail about curling games, but on this occasion we're going to make an exception. This was the big one and the crowd arrived in their droves to watch the match-up against Gracie & Co. Dave Soutar was one fan in attendance who had extracted himself from his pit on a Saturday morning to witness this momentous game. Pregame nerves got the better of the underdogs and Team Edwards whipped a three off the pretenders in the first end. Scott "Hagrid" Robertson deserves a special mention as he was soaking up so much "fresh air" in the first few ends that we wondered if he thought he was on the beach. It didn't get any better for the boys from D&G as we brought out the power game and punishment rained down. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the boys from the south bent over and took a good spanking from Team Edwards. We did notice Curl One Out stood for the rest of the day as their arses were so red raw.
Hagrid enjoying the fresh air.
The old boys Colin and Dave went for a nap while Scott and John had a romantic afternoon planned together with the TV and Babestation. The young boys topped out their phone bills calling the Babestation girls, they will have a lot of explaining to do when their parents get the bill at the end of the month.
This is Dani. She was their favourite, looks like she has a wonderful personality.
Following the nap, Team Edwards headed out to Dunfermline for some nutrition and competition in the form of Frankie and Benny’s and ten pin bowling. The main task of the night involved getting through the crowd of stabby looking neds at the door to the Megabowl. Never to fear, John and Scott lead the team confidently past the neds protecting the two weaker members of the team (Dave and Colin) as the Megabowl Young Team scurried away in awe of such Alpha males.
They didn't look this cocky after Penny and Macleod walked by,
Down to the Ten Pin Bowling. We played 3 games.
John struggled in the early frames with all the skill, power and accuracy of an 8 year old girl not quite cutting it in this high level game.
For Scott, ten pin bowling was very much like his peels. A combination of extremely poor technique mixed with a max power effort sometimes resulted in some embarrassingly erratic results, but by Christ, when it hit, it really hit.
Being a lead, it felt incredibly unnatural for Colin to actually knock the pins over. He kept trying to freeze them. After a solid 20 minutes of trying to explain the concept to him we were not having any luck and let him use the throwing aid mainly used by young children. This helped and he redeem him score slightly.
Dave was consistent and shit.
Here are the results.
The running totals were Scott-363, Colin-343, John-324, Dave-322.
As you can see, the Scott’s power game ran out the winner and JP did eventually get better.
After the ten bowling, we headed home to bed in preparation for the quarter final against team Lorna Vevers with Kyle Smith skipping. This was a game we really wanted to win as there was potential we could once again face Team Curl One Out in the semi.
We were also motivated by Dave Soutar who was getting a bit big for his boots and forcasting our impending defeat on Twitter.
@David_Soutar wrote:
@scottmacleod1 @granitecitydave Big game this morning. You're going to lose to girls (and a guy!). #c'monthefemmes #curling
Psyched up by a bald man, we were focused and ready to go. It was a reasonably tight game until we stole a 2 and managed to hold them off until the end of the game.
In the semi-final, Team Curl One Out were once again out of their comfort zone. Having never ventured anywhere near this stage in a competition before and being up against such a high class and better looking team, they were always going to struggle. This was especially true after taking the rough side of the spanking paddle so hard in the group game. Prior to the first stone, Team Edwards won the toss and the game was effectively over. Team Curl One Out sought solace in the fact that they managed to score a 2 in the 6th end to make it more respectable.
The paddle that became extremely familiar with Team Curl One Out
Team Curl One Out went on to beat Murray Young on the 3/4 playoff and take home the four bottles of whisky. Congratulations.
This lined us up against Ross McCleary in the final. Colin Campbell, for the first time as a Team Edwards member, was prolific at winning the toss. We once again had hammer in the first end which we used it well to take a 2. Following this we gave up a 1 and a steal after we could not quite get to grips with how quick the ice was getting. We then took another 2 and had a bit of breathing space in the last end, which we needed. We had a hit on a stone which was around half open for the tournament victory. It unfortunately picked half way down and wrecked on the guard. Onto the extra end, with the ice not curling a ton, so it was tricky to get round guards, Ross left his last stone high and we had the open hit for the win!
This was Team Edwards first ever tournament victory and let us sail to the top of the Scottish Curling Tour rankings with only one event remaining in Aberdeen.
Kinross Open 2012 - Champions
For those wondering, Scott attempted the Cinnamon Challenge. The results will be uploaded and posted in the near future.
Next weekend will see the introduction of a new video feature called "Challenge Scott". Challenge Scott unlike the 90's TV programme Challenge Anneka will be no good to man nor beast and will involve some completely pointless tasks.
Being a midget Scott's little man syndrome means he refuses to back away from a challenge and next Saturday he will take on the famous "Cinnamon Challenge". Dave mentioned to Scott the other weekend and as predicted the wee man couldn't say no to eating a tablespoon of cinnamon inside 60 seconds. Apparently this one is going to be easy, but we think there may be some surprises in store for the little man.
Verne is taller (and stronger) than Scott
January will see Scott tackle the Slains Castle "Burger Challenge", which involves eating 2 x 12oz burgers topped with 4 rashers of bacon, 6
onion rings salad and a mound of cheese. All served in a focaccia roll
with a pile of chips! Victory will be his if he can finish inside 25 minutes. Chances?!? Nae chance!
Any suggestions or ideas for Challenge Scott would be gratefully received and he'll do anything that doesn't involve jumping off a bridge with an elastic band between his legs.
Adding to the excitement of the Kinross weekend is the possibility that we may have a team streaker. Should a certain event happen (this has to be kept under wraps) one of the team members has volunteered do a streak! Colin's identity will remain secret until the big event, however we will provide advance notice for all the ladies who would like to see his elephants trunk shrivel up in the cold should events transpire against him.
Team Edwards were back in action again this weekend competing
in the Stirling Invitational. This weekend saw super sub Ringo returning to our
line up as John Penny had other commitments that he could not get out of.
Ringo in action.
But what other commitments could John possibly have that
would mean he would have to miss one of the most important curling weekends of
the season and leave his team in the lurch? And more worryingly, allowing Scott
to play third?
Work?
A holiday?
A wedding?
A funeral?
A family emergency?
They would probably all be pretty valid and understandable
excuses. But no, it was none of these.
John Penny missed the Stirling Invitational because he is
whipped.
The trousers that John never gets to wear.
JP’s lucky significant other had booked flights up to
Aberdeen where they could spend a romantic weekend together. Rumour has it that
John had a fun filled weekend prepared for himself and Caitlin. Our sources say
that John had booked a candle lit table for two at McDonalds, where he
would even consider letting Caitlin supersize the meal, as it is certain that nothing else over the course of the weekend would be *"Supersize". This was to be followed by a drive in his car back to Old Meldrum where
he had prepared nothing but the finest 6 pack of Strongbow to watch the
football with. I am sure that she will have been impressed.
Romance.
As for the curling, it went alright.
Win 5-4 v Fraser Hare. Pretty tight, made the hit and stick
for the win.
Win 10-0 v A Mitchell. Dishing out free points.
Win 7-2 v Graeme Shedden. Made a good double for 4 in the middle of the game.
Win 7-1 v Murray Young. Stole a 4 in the 6th to
seal the deal.
Draw 2-2 v Logan Gray. They gave up half way through the
game.
We were through to the quarter final against Ewan McDonald
where we once again improved our playoff record with a tight 3-2 victory.
We then had Warwick Smith in the semi-final, they
beat us 5-1 by taking a 3 when Warwick made a triple followed by a split.
We also had to play the role of Richard Hart on a couple of
occasions over the course of the weekend.
After the games on Friday and Saturday we had a couple of
beers while watching boxing and playing cards. Like real men. As
I am sure you are all aware, Team Edwards are highly desirable company and Team
Barr begged us to allow them to come for a few drinks with us to celebrate
their qualification into the Scottish Ladies Finals. We initially said no, but we finally caved and accepted. One thing to note about their qualifying
weekend is that Rhiann Macleod travelled to the curling competition in Dumfries
without her curling shoes. Absolute spacker.
Standard Rhiann
After a couple of drinks Kerry Barr was getting a bit mouthy.
She challenged Scott to a high stakes game of pool in the hotel across the road.
It was a good game which was very tense at times. After an opportunity to clear
up, Kerry choked and gave Scott the tap in for the win. Kerry whimpered away with her tail between her legs. FIVE POUNDS TO
MACLEOD!!!!! Victory pic below. Never in doubt.
The prize giving.
That was the Stirling Invitational.
Because we stole some photos, I will give the source a shout out.
Andy R Macpherson did a great job, here is a link to his album.
Last weekend we took part in the Lockerbie Superspiel. Following a hiatus from the last tournament, Team Edwards had their absolute tank of a second back in their roster ready to dominate all on-comers.
The Tank
The weekend began on Thursday evening with John and Dave driving the long road to Perth to pick up Scott in McDonalds at Broxden. Following a nutritious pit-stop, we were fuelled up for the rest of the journey down to the Edwards family home where we met Colin. We were exceptionally well fed/looked after throughout the weekend by Meg. Much appreciated both by us and our bank accounts!
As we arrived, we were allocated to our rooms for the weekend. John and Colin ended up in Dave’s child hood room which was well indicated by the sign on the door. The stag looking over his herd of hinds in the pasture really was inspiring. I can see why it was Dave’s choice.
Due to some Libyans going a bit raging 24 years ago, there were not that many embarrassing childhood pictures of Dave going around. The best I got was of a young Dave graduating. I think he resembles a chimp.
Chimp boy
As there was a pub quiz on the Saturday night that we desperately wanted to win, we had a training session on Friday evening. John Penny showed the depth of his historical and political knowledge with this gem.
Scott: "Right John, I would normally ask these questions to Rhiann to make her look like a spacker, but today it is happening to you. Who was Che Guevera?"
John: "No idea"
Scott: "Karl Marx?"
John: "…..Nope"
Scott: "Fidel Castro?"
John: "Are these meant to be people?"
Scott: "Kim Jong Un"
John: "I do not know"
Scott: "Lenin?"
John: "Oh aye, he played for Celtic"
Neil Lennon
Vladimir Lenin
We were just about to settle down for the evening on Friday night when we heard some nervous laughter coming from Scott. As it turns out the fashionista had picked up his gym bag rather than his weekend bag and didn't have a change of clothes. True to form Scott hit the Lockerbie "High Street" on Friday morning and opted for some sleek looking white t-shirts accompanied with a pants and socks multipack from that famous brand Tesco. A full weekend of clothing for under £20 bargin!
"The emperor's new clothes"
A special mention has to go to avid Poirot fan and daytime TV viewer Kenny Edwards who set everyone right at the quiz about where the show was based. The world according to Kenny had Poirot placed in "Kentshire" (anyone ever heard of Kentshire?!?) because the people spoke posh English. Poirot was a Belgian detective based in London for those of you who didn't know, but lets just say the logic used by Kenny to determine that he wasn't based elsewhere in Europe was a little wayward. I'll go no further than to say I'm not sure a sure a show in a foriegn language would work on ITV!?!
Poirot Superfan
As for the curling, we will stay true to form and not go into any depth.
Win 14-3 v David Jones. They dropped a couple 4’s, which was very nice of them.
Win 5-4 v Gus Van Imhoff. We had to pick a stone clean for the win against the Dutch team with suspiciously Canadian accents. Stay sharp, stay focused, this is the moment.
Win 7-5 Gavin Flemming. Took a 3 of us in the first end so had to claw it back.
Draw 4-4 David Hardie. We gave up a steal up 2 to make it difficult, we took a 2 in the last end for a tie to win the group.
This led to our quarter final. We were standing at an impressive record of 0-6 for playoff games prior to the tournament, so we went into the game against Christine Cannon’s senior ladies outfit as heavy under dogs. We managed to somehow get through this game for our first ever win in the business end of a tournament. Congratulations to us.
This led to us playing the on fire Graeme Black. Or, he was getting fired….. or needing fired. I can’t remember. It was a good game, with some decent curling. We were lying game for the entire 8th end, but Graeme played a good last shot to leave us an angle run back for the win, which we missed.
So it was off the 3/4 playoff against Gavin Flemming. There was all the intensity, drive and emotion you would expect for a 3/4 with an impending 4 hour drive to follow. Colin ditched us in the second end to go away to work. This left us with 3 players and Scott extremely pissed off as he was now throwing lead. We managed to win the game and the £12.50 prize money that went with it.
Fraser Hare won the tight 7 end final against Graeme Black. Congratulations.
It's taken a while to get round to doing this update, but I thought we'd better provide a summary of the Edinburgh International before we head off to Scottish Curling Tour event at Lockerbie this weekend.
Things started well with a win against Lovold, but they soon took a turn for the worse as we lost three straight to Kauste, Smith and the Russians. You'll notice I didn't mention the surname for the Russians and there's two reasons for this. Firstly I would likely make a right mess of trying to spell it and secondly because I think they all had a shot of skipping over the weekend. If you were to ask us why we lost those games it probably came down to a mixture of average play and some questionable tactics given the ice conditions. Going into our last round robin match against John Hamilton we had two chances of qualifying for the quarter finals. One was none and I'm sure you can work out what the other was. We managed to get a win from this one and finished the weekend off with a W. We'll move on with a few things to work on from that weekend.
A big thanks goes out to Neil MacArthur for stepping in to replace "The Destroyer" over the course of the tournament.
So off to Lockerbie it is this weekend as we attempt to wipe out the 7 point advantage that Team Barr have over us in the tour rankings. We're matched up against David Jones in our first game for the second time this season, and with Team Curl One Out also in our section the exciting prospect of a big clash over the weekend looms.
If you read our last update you'll know that Scott won't be with us in two weeks time for the Edinburgh International. Some of our regular followers will remember that Scott was absent last year for the Stirling Invitational as he had to direct traffic at House of Bruar while dressed as a squirrel. While he mentioned on the previous post that he would be absent this time due to work commitments it transpires that he's actually performing in the local Atholl-Factor auditions in Blair Atholl. Scott was caught on video last weekend warming up for the big event although it is apparent his voice coach does have their work cut out with only a couple of weeks to go. His personal manager and sister Rhiann Macleod does appear a little shocked in the video, and we can only assume this is because his song choice was intended to be kept secret. Phone lines open on Saturday night and I'd personally save your cash, but here's a sneak preview. Thanks goes out to our man on the inside Andy who provided the footage.
If we're being completely honest wasn't that difficult to find a replacement for Scott and we're pleased to announce that Neil Macathur will be joining the team for the event in Edinburgh and also at Stirling later in the month. I did try to find a photo of Neil in action, but he must be good at hiding from the camera so you'll have to make do with the video of Scott this week.
We played in our first competition of the season in Forfar at the weekend. It was a good one which involved some extracurricular activities to keep us entertained.
The new team shirts got their first outing. In hindsight, when ordering jackets from a company that specialises in clothing rugby teams, it is maybe not a great idea to err on the larger side.
Here is a picture of Scott trying on his new jacket.
As for the curling, I don’t really like going into much detail, so I wont.
Win 9-4 v David Jones. Took our 2’s quite well. Ran it out reasonably easily.
Win 11-3 v Andrew Maitland. They were pretty young.
Win 5-3 v Ally Fraser. Took a 3 in the last to win.
Win 7-1 v Ian Young. This game hurt a little, too early and too hungover.
Win 6-5 v Graeme Shedden. Very close, stole a 3 in the 7th to come back.
So we topped our group and went on to play Robin Brydone in the quarter final. We did the classic Team Edwards routine, go through the group stages undefeated to then lose the first knockout game. We gave up a steal of 2 early on, then an unlucky 3 to be 5-1 down at the halfway point. We managed to claw it back a bit and made him draw the 8ft against 3 for a 7-5 win. Pretty frustrating, but they played quite well.
On the Friday evening following our 3 game day, we had a couple beers, which then turned into being a lot of beers. While this was going on, the entertainment in the ice rink involved a horse race. This involved the two competitors to sit on a chair with a piece of string attached to a wooden horse. The goal is to roll the string around the wee stick to get the horse to your chair first. With one nominated player from each team to compete, Scott was the Team Edwards representative. The picture below shows the concept of the game.
The concept
He battled through 3 rounds of intense competition with the notable demolition of Kerry Barr on the way. It was an extremely proud moment for him. Unfortunately, in the best of 3 grand-final, Scott lost out 2-1, and the EQ pad went to Angus.
Nervous Kerry.... as she should have been!
Following the horse race, Team Edwards made a stop in a local bar. We came across a local gentleman who could be described as having a few too many beverages. After a couple of minutes of us arriving, he wished to engage us in an intense political debate. We glanced on several subjects throughout the course of the evening from Scottish Independence all the way through to conspiracy theories regarding Princess Diana. The very articulate gentleman believed that that the SAS in-fact took her out because she was pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s child. The reason behind this was the government did not want this child to be King. We will let you figure out why this theory one does not really work.
But just in case Rhiann is reading, it doesn’t work because neither Diana or Dodi were members of the Royal family at that time. Therefore, the child would not be inline to the throne. And for Rhiann again, Dodi Fayed was Mohamed Al-Fayed son. Mohamed Al-Fayed was the guy who used to own Harrods. And Harrods is a shop.
As for the cards over the weekend. Something very unique happened. Nobody could really believe it. JOHN PENNY WON A GAME! Congratulations on the victory.
As Dave is now getting into his old age, he requires spectacles for some very basic tasks such as playing cards, curling and looking like a camp Chinese television presenter.
Gok Wan
Dave Edwards
That was The Forfar Open. Next up is the Edinburgh International during the second weekend in November. Scott is going AWOL for that weekend, as he has to work. As far as I am aware, we do not have a replacement for the weekend at this point. If you would like the opportunity of a lifetime to play second for Team Edwards, you can apply in writing to David Edwards. Or text/facebook him.
I'm sure there will be a tear in the eye of many a curling fan when they hear the news that the "Green Machine" is no more. The 2011/2012 collection has been replaced with a new look for this season , which includes the latest curling fashion accessory, player numbers. The addition of numbers to the kit this season came as special request from Macleod as he thinks they're "cool".
So it's black and yellow this season guys and the bumble bee look is sure to provide a real buzz!
A sneak preview of Macleod's rear end
The first outing for the kit will be at the Forfar Open next Friday 11th October at 10am against team David Jones where we're be hoping to get our season off to a winning start.
Finally we'd like to apologise to everyone in advance as we fully expect team super fan Alan Clark to have his beach towel across several seats prior to the game and viewing space may well be at a premium.
It's been a while since we last posted so I'll apologise now for the length of this update!
Well the good news is that unlike The Rangers Football Club PLC our team will emerge from the off-season with it's name, reputation (if we had any), history and personnel intact. The administration at Rangers must have watched a lot of Bullseye during the eighties and taken Jim Bowen's catchphrase "Stay out of the black and into the red" the wrong way. If any of you kids don't remember Bullesye that's what we used to watch on a Saturday night before rubbish like the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing came on the scene.
Let's cover off the only serious piece of news that's worthwhile touching on in this post and that's relates to funding. Although the team does remain intact for the season ahead we will not be part of the RCCC World Class Performance programme. We decided at the end of last season that the programme criteria doesn't fall in line with our needs for various reasons and have therefore decided to move forward without any official support. We are however pleased to announce that coach Greig Henderson is still on the roster and will be helping the team out with his expert game analysis and wine selection skills.
Well that's all the dull stuff covered off so what have we been up to over the summer?
At the start of August Dave had a one off loan move to team Curl One Out approved for the Stirling Summer Skins. In what can only be described as an absolute disgrace the team sunk enough alcohol to take down a cruise liner and were incapable of curling on the Friday night. I'm sure some would question whether they were capable of curling at any point during the weekend. One point to highlight was the dance off challenge issued by Kerry Barr on Saturday night. This really was a non event after Disco Dave pulled off the winning Crippled Grandad move on the dance floor to which Barr had no reply. Maybe you'll have better luck at skating Barr face!
A picture of Dave was taken during one of the games with Team Curl One Out
After only a few months of romance Johns other half decided that she'd had enough of him and flew off to Australia for the summer. He's spent last few months pining for her swift return. John joined to family business as a joiner last year and lets just say he's a little accident prone. It therefore has to be positive that we've had no accident reports this summer after he walked into a plank of wood with his head and stood on a nail last year.
John: When will she be back?
I'm sure all the ladies out there will really be wanting to know what the team heart throb Scotty has been up to this summer. Unfortunately the Peugeot passion wagon is no more and has had her last trip. Although we're yet to see the replacement the rumour is that you'll not be disappointed. The question on everyones lips is whether Scott will be the next in line to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond? It was only last week he managed to break into his own house with all the skills of 007 only to find out the front door was open.
It is rumoured that Scott has purchased a new Austin Powers styled machine
Colin set up a new gardening business during the summer and is now trading as Hedge and Lawn Garden Services. In a shameless plug for business if anyone in and around the Edinburgh area needs the lawn mowed, hedge cut or the odd bush trimmed he is your man. Could Colin be the new Alan Titchmarsh?
Beachgrove Gardens Jim McColl is hiding from BBC bosses in the fear that Colin may in line to replace him
The guys (minus Scott who was working on his market stall) met up for a BBQ and beers a few weeks back in Aberdeen and below is some footage from our trip to Go Ape at Crathes.
After going 8-1 in the Round Robin, we lost both the 1v2 game and the semi-final. Disappointing does not quite cover this one.
We didn’t fire at all in the game against Warwick Smith in the 1v2. Saying that, we had many opportunities for 2, and we even converted a few of them. The key end was the 8th when things were really not setting up well for us. After two freezes by Dave Smith, we were in a fair bit of trouble. Dave gave us a chance with his first, but the second didn’t quite come off and Warwick had an open draw for 4. We were only 2 down at this point and we gave ourselves an opportunity to make the comeback, but Warwick made 2 good draws to the button in the 10th for a place in the final.
Skip Cottage Curling
David Edwards
The semi-final was a much better game. In the 3rd end we had to draw to the 4ft against 3, the stone picked at the hogline but we managed to drag it to the top of the 8ft to cut it down to 1. In the next end, things were looking quite good for us with a lot of our stones hanging about. Tom blasted them but left us with a double for 2. Unfortunately we jammed and gave up another steal. Next end we had a split for 3. Hard to describe how unlucky this one was. But trust me, it was fucking unlucky. After that we forced the 1, we then had a hit for 2/1 depending on a measure. Obviously the umpires decided that the stones were exactly the same and that apparently means it was only a 1. We had to go for it a bit in the next couple of ends, we had a small hit and roll with Dave’s last that wrecked and left Tom with and open draw for 3. He made it and we conceded.
GAME OVER
Skip Cottage Curling
Colin Campbell/Scott Macleod/John Penny
Well 3rd place is not awful, although it was not what we wanted after going 8-1.
Thanks to everyone over the last week and the entire season for their support, it has been much appreciated.
I would also like to congratulate Tom, Greg, Scott and Michael for winning the Scottish again. Well done. Also congratulations to Dave for getting to go as 5th. Your rock matching skills will have improved significantly this year! Good luck in Basel!
Cheers
Team Edwards
PS I thought I would just let you all know that with these blogs it is possibly to find out what people have searched to reach the blog. The most popular search used to reach the Team Edwards Blog over the last month is "Swingers Club". I find that very entertaining.
New blog to kill some time before the 1v2! The background TV show today is Jeremy Kyle US Version. (Also John’s choice). One observation from this is, if you have a tattoo on your face, some shit is going down.
Mike Tyson
And with the curling, we really can’t complain about how it has gone so far.
As you can see, we are on 8-1. But I am sure that you will all already know that as I have inundated you with facebook statuses. Apologies, I am a Social Networking junkie. Anyway, this means that we have won the Round Robin and are lined up to play Warwick Smith in the 1v2. Tom Brewster plays Ewan MacDonald in the 3v4.
The game kicks off at 2.30pm with the semi-finals at 7.30pm. Hopefully we will not need the semi-final, but it is nice to have the back up!
I am limited with time and have the memory of a goldfish so I will only give a quick rundown of the last 2 Round Robin games yesterday.
Goldfish
John Hamilton 9-6 Win
We were always in reasonable control although we gave up a couple soft 2’s which made it close. They took their 2 in the tenth for an Extra End. Dave made a short run back for a 3, and the victory.
Tom Brewster 6-5 Loss
It was a good game against Tom. It did not change things at all for us, but we had the chance to put him in a world of pain if we were to win. We held an early lead and had the opportunity to go down the last end peels with the hammer. We were unfortunately forced to take our 1 in the 9th, then had to prevent Brewster from taking a 2 in the last end. We did not manage that, and Brewster got the Win.
Skip Cottage Curling
Greg Drummond/Tom Brewster + John Penny/David Edwards
My form in “Bugger your neighbour” has dropped. I have had a second last and two last place finishes in the last couple of days! And this was with Greig Henderson playing! Unbelievable!
We changed up the game last night. It was now Team Whist. This was the first appearance of the game since the Oslo Cup in September. If I remember correctly, my team, which had many different combinations, were 0-7. This time it was going to be different. The line-up was Team Frontend (Colin and Scott) v Team Rearend (Dave and John).
The result was a big win for the sweepers. Very pleased.
Well we are away to get some calories for the 1v2. Wish us luck with this one. We really want to be in the final.
We have got a lie in this morning, so I thought I would do a blog update as John is being entertained by kid’s television. I am not joking. It’s not even like it’s the only thing on! We have got sky! I had forgotten how annoying the Chuckle Brothers are. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch Chucklevision.
The Chuckle Brothers
On Monday morning, we had our 8 minute practice on each sheet. This gave us a chance to pick out any temperamental stones for the upcoming games. My Advanced Higher Graphic Communication A came into use for the first time since the exam in 2006. I got my compass and set squares out and had a wee project to draw a curling head on a grid. We used this to mark down where thrown stones landed and to compared to splits. It was immensely professional.
My gear
The first game was against Ewan MacDonald. Dave made a good draw to get the hammer. Following that, it was a rocky first couple of ends with John pulling us out of a lot of trouble. His triple was especially sexy. The 8th end was the key for us. We played a really good one and after a few big smashes from MacDonald, there were still a few lying about the house and had the nose hit for 3. Good win!
We had a 7.35am first practice on Tuesday Morning. Raged. The game was again Jay McWilliam. We covered the pin with the LSD to get hammer. The early ends went well and we built up a 3-0 lead. We kept it reasonably clear throughout the rest of the game with McWilliam needing a 2 in the 10th for an extra. He didn’t really have a shot and ran out of time. So it was another win on the board for Team Edwards.
The Tuesday afternoon game was against David Murdoch. It was a big game for us. If we won, we had the potential to go clear at the top of the table. We once again got the hammer and we needed it as we did not have a phenomenal first end. In the middle of the game we got a great couple of twos courtesy of Dave’s nailers. One up with in the last end, we had a nose hit double for the game, which we made. 3-0 and the top of the table!
There is a really long way to go but we are certainly happy with our start. Today we have Graeme Black at 12 noon and Warwick Smith at 8pm.
So, the curling is going well, but I have not mentioned the most important development of the week. Our card game of choice is “bugger your neighbour” which is a variation of trumps. The rules are here.
Anyway, I(Scott) am winning it! Anybody with experience of our games will know how much of a turnaround and a shock this is. In my opinion, it was just a matter of time before my superior skill and talent shone through to get these vital W’s on the board. I intend to keep the run going.
We made it through to Scottish Mens Finals! The group is shown below.
We did not have the most convincing of qualifications. It was pretty ropey at times.
A picture of some rope.
I will now give you all a 2 sentence summary of each game.
Lose - Graeme Black 3-6
Graeme played a lot of shots and we did not. By far our worst game of the qualifiers.
The Bye
We went on a team date to watch Sherlock Holmes. Very romantic.
Win - Alan Manuel 9-3
We also did not play very well. Won it without too many issues.
Lose - Logan Gray 4-6
This was a really good game. Unfortunately for us Logan was being a bit of a dick and kept making ridiculous shots.
Win - Alan Gillies 6-5
We were toiling for a while. Had to make a wee bit of a comeback.
Win - Dave Hay 10-3
We could have quite easily been 5-0 down after the first 2 ends. Mr Edwards was on form, so it was all good.
Lose - Ally Fraser 4-5
Played really well, but it was a defensive game, so it was tight until the end. Had the 4ft for the win, and missed.
Win – Graeme Shedden 9-0
Was not a classic from Shedden. We stole quite a lot of ends.
Win – Bruce Mouat 8-2
Took a 3 in the first. I had some fun peeling following that.
This left us on a 6-3 record. Because all the other results went our way, we got through without any tie breakers! It looked like we could have been there for weeks if we had lost the last one. There was a possibility of a 5 way tiebreaker for one spot.
First game was against Tsoulesov from Russia. He was amazing at blanking so it was a very tight game until the 5th end. He went mental in the 6th and tapped us up for a steal of two. We won.
A rare time when we had stones in play
Following this was the Calcutta. We fancied buying ourselves but someone else was determined to get us. We sold for £190 in the end.
Next up was Laycock from Saskatchewan. They are a pretty good team. It was tight the whole way and it went to an extra. They hogged a few guards so we had a pretty simple shot for the win.
Chasing John's Peel
We had Brewster in the A semi. I think he had received a bit of coaching from the Russian we played earlier. It was an insanely boring game until we open freshed, and lost a 2. Following that, we didn’t make very many shots and ended up getting beaten 5-0.
We then played Sandy Reid. It was a pretty good game for a while. We had a few chances that didn’t come off, especially in the 4th end. So in the 5th end, we decided we really wanted a 2. What we actually did was give up a steal of 3. Hello C Road.
Team Edwards Hairline
Next was Pascal Hess from Switzerland. We played really well at the start of the game and had a few chances that did not get us anything. We were 3-1 down in the 4th. We took our 2 in the 5th, then forced 1, then scraped together a 3 and then didn’t lose a 2 in the 8th. So we won.
We played Kyle Smith’s team of children for a place in the C final. We were 3-0 up after the first couple of ends. We had a pretty awful pick/burn combo that ended with us losing a very unjustified 3. After that, they played really good and we played bad. So we lost and were out.
Giving it the guns.
Conclusion of the weekend.
We are amazing at playing foreign people. Not so good against Scottish. Sooooooooooooo, as of tomorrow we are starting the Qualifying for the Scottish Finals, this will be mostly against Scottish teams. First up is Mr. Graeme Black at 12.45pm Saturday. On Sunday we have Alan Manuel first and the Logan Gray at 8.00pm.
I am very keen to be playing Mens Finals this year, so, once again, wish us luck!
