Kinross Open Champions!

On Friday, John Penny was designated the responsibility of delivering the Aberdeen contingent of Team Edwards to Kinross to compete in the Scottish Curling Tour event.

Scott and John stopped by Curl Aberdeen for a quick practice before heading into town to pick up Mr. Edwards.

Fabulous ice provided by Pye!

After getting to the centre of Aberdeen to pick Dave up at his office, we headed to the Yodel depot where Dave was looking to pick up his brand new Xbox One. This took ages. With John and Scott waiting in the car they decided to investigate. They walked into the depot to see Dave waiting on the Yodel man trying to find his box. After deciding that the muscle of the two baby faced members of the team would not speed up the situation, they left the building. The Yodel employee then asked Dave if John and Scott were his sons. That was pretty entertaining.

The years have obviously not been kind to the members of the Edwards household.

Father Dave back in his prime.

This is how the group games went;

Win vs David Jones 11-4. Opened her up with a 4 in the first end and took things from there.
Win vs Stuart Brand 6-4. Took a 3 in the last end to seal the deal in an alcohol effected 7 end classic.
Win vs Lorna Vevers 9-3. Managed to break the curse we faced playing womens teams.

On the Saturday evening there was a pub quiz organised at the rink. We needed fuel to keep our minds sharp for the quiz, so we made our way out to the Muir Inn for some food. As we walked in, Scott and John were instantly ID'd along with the rest of the team and coach. Greig Henderson passed over his bus pass which was enough to get him a pint.

Greig's ID.

For the quiz, we were sitting at the table with our team, Greig Henderson and 3 members of Team Vevers. As the quiz required teams of 4, somebody had to take the hit and join up with the girls. True to form, Greig instantly volounteered. Dave, Scott and Colin have experienced the abilities of their wise third and knew that their chances of winning would not be weakened by ditching JP. After prying Greig away from Becca, Sarah and Lorna, John was forced out.

There were a mixed bag of results from the table with Team Edwards minus JP(named Colin Campbell's Bush Trimming Services Ltd) coming in a safe second while Team Vevers + JP took a shaky and much assisted second last place.

Colin Campbell is very good at working with bushes and knocking down houses.

Following the quiz, a challenge was offered to eat a Kit Kat with a thick spreading of blue cheese on the top. So rank. A few members of the team attempted the challenge. The results may be posted in the future.

Not an ideal combination

So we had qualified top in our group and were facing the cream of English curling in the quarter final. This was a strong game against Michael Opel and we ran out 7-1 winners after 5 ends.

In the semi we were up against Ewan MacDonald. We had a great first end taking a 3. We didn't do a great job of scoring many points after that we and were 4-3 down with two ends to go. Ewan went hard for the force in the 7th but it didn't set up great for him and we managed to take a 4, we then peeled our way home in the 8th and were rewarded with a place in the final!

We were then up against Grant Hardie, Jay McWilliam, Glass Jaw and Billy Morton in a repeat of the Lockerbie Superspiel final a couple of weeks ago. Grant had beaten Ross McCleary in the other semi, so we had the opportunity to go one point ahead of him in the Scottish Curling Tour if we were to come out on top.

It was  a pretty boring game until the 4th end. With a lot of stones play Grant had to draw to the 4ft against 3. His stone hit a slow track and came up short allowing us to go 4-0 up. We managed to hold on to this one and the final score was 6-1 to win the Kinross Open for the second time!

Kinross Open Champions 2013 - picture taken by Andy R McPherson

So overall it was a good weekend with a win and a solid jump to the top of the Scottish Curling Tour leader board with only the Aberdeen City Open remaining.

Thanks to Kinross for a very well organised tournament with great ice conditions.

Following the prize giving we made our way back up the road eating throughout the journey. Once John had dropped everyone off, he sent this snapchat indicating his unhappiness about the state of his car.

Oh well

That is it!

Cheers
Team Edwards
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Kinross Open

While getting organised for Moscow we have had to complete a couple of administrative tasks. Dave requested that we each send him a photocopy of our passport so he could send them away to Anastasia to sort out our Visas. This was what Scott sent to Dave.

Scott's hilarious attempt at a joke.
 

After Scott being firmly told by David to send a photocopy of the correct page as we were in a rush, he got in line and sent his in. Given the response following the retro pictures that were posted of Dave, we thought that you would enjoy a snapshot of our passport photos.

Here are Scott, John and Colin. Apologies about quality.

Scott 'Heroin Addict' Macleod

John 'the gay one' Penny 

Colin 'Fat Boy' Campbell 

We were unable to obtain Dave and Greig's passport pictures as they never included them in the email. Sly buggers.

Last weekend Scott, Dave, Rhiann and Louise took part in the inaugural Curl Aberdeen Club Bonspiel representing Petroleum CC.

This was the team line-up.

Skip - Scott Macleod
Third - David Edwards
Second - Rhiann Macleod
Lead - Louise Edwards

Outrageous shout.

Despite the girls lacking any experience and skill in sweeping any stones that were sub 2.3 seconds, the team coasted through the first 2 games and earned their place in the final where they would be fighting for the much coveted championship trophy.

Although I said it was a final, it wasn't really, as it was a schenkel. In the final end of the final game, Team Macleod were 1 up without. Being slightly down on ends, the team had to steal to ensure they would top the schenkel. This did not go to plan. With no stones remaining, we were lying one against and the opposition had the tournament in the bag. At the last moment, the opposing skip decided to play the hit for 6 with his last stone as he had nothing to lose........  The diagram below shows what actually happened.

It was actually a hit for 5, but I realised that after I made the diagram.

This gave us the stolen point that we needed to win the tournament in what was an absolute nightmare of a shot for the lad. Commiserations.

Lovely first prize. Tom was not on our team.

Next weekend we are heading down the road for the penultimate leg of the Scottish Curling Tour in Kinross.

As you can see, we are sitting in third. As far as I am aware, ourselves and Ross are the only two teams competing in both of the final two events. So to earn the Galbraith Trophy and £2,000 again, we are needing to take McCleary out at some point.

This is what we have lined up for us in the group stages.

Friday 6pm vs Robert Walker
Saturday 9.30am vs David Jones
Saturday 2.30pm vs Lorna Vevers

As we are playing a women's team in one game, we are almost guaranteed at least one loss.

The Kinross Open will mark the one year anniversary of the infamous 'Cinnamon Challenge'. We will be looking to reinstate the 'Challenge Scott' series, but we are struggling for ideas. If you have any suggestions, you are more than welcome to make a contribution.

We very rarely get comments on our blogs, but this is one that popped up in reply to our Moscow blog and we thought that it deserved a bit of attention!

"I reckon you've fallen for an RCCC stitch up. To ensure you don't win the Scottish, the Russians "invite" you to play in Red Square, Moscow, and pay "all your expenses" and give you more "Vodka than you could ever drink". Double Agent Logan Gray has a hand in this I tell you. Without doubt, Colin and John will be incarcerated for crimes against fashion and sent to the salt mines in Siberia, while Scott "ladies man" McLeod will no doubt be led astray by some Russian mafia's tottie, and will mysteriously acquire a pair of concrete curling shoes in the Volga river. Dave Edwards, well he will be forced to be masseur for the Team Sidorova for the rest of the season. It'll be hell!"

 

Very well done to whoever composed that beast. It made us laugh. Especially the bit where you called Scott a 'ladies man'. Good one. But poor Dave, such a brutal punishment......

If any of you are unsure about what some of the members of Team Sidorova look like. Here is a short video clip that will give you an idea....

No idea how it is still only on 900 views.

 

Cheers

Team Edwards

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The Red Square Classic, Moscow

I know we speak a lot of rubbish on this blog the vast majority of the time, but this one is genuinely true.

Team Edwards will be making their first foreign trip of the season to the newly formed Curling Champions Tour event in Moscow, The Red Square Classic!

The information for the event claims that there will be a "Participation of eight top teams from around the world". Fortunately, they must have not been able to find 8 top teams as Team Edwards got the invite to fill a spot.

Spectacular outdoor location!

Here is what the Curling Champions Tour says about the event.

"On the eve of the Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi, January 19-23, 2014, Moscow will host the Curling Champions Tour Red Square Open men's event....

The tournament will be held in the very heart of the Russian capital - on the very famous Red Square!

A side program of the event will include curling classes held by eminent coaches in addition to a celebrities' contest.

With comfortable conditions lots of activities on and off the ice, fun and excitement are guaranteed for all participants and supporters!"

  

This sounds ridiculously cool. Obviously we jumped at the chance to take up the offer of a free+ trip to Moscow to play some curling in the centre of one of the world's most famous landmarks!

The Red Square is home to some very famous sights, such as the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and of course, Lenin's Mausoleum. Colin does not know what a mausoleum is, but he is really keen to meet the Celtic manager.

I can not imagine being outdoors in Moscow during the middle of January is going to be very warm.

Wikipedia agrees.

So we are quite looking forward to this and if anyone has any advice on how to get a visa* for Russia, that would be great.

*for John Penny - No, your bank card won't get you in. It is a different kind of visa.

Cheers
Team Edwards
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