We had a tough week in Dumfries this year, and didn’t come away with any victories.  Some of our play was dissapointing but there were some positives that might not be so obvious in the line scores below.  Harry Pinnell joined the team as our alternate which allowed us to rotate the front end over the course of the 10 games!  The standard of opponent we were playing was much higher than the previous two years, and although we would have liked to win some games, our play was fairly good and we came close on multiple occasions.  Thank you to all of our opponents for a great competition, and congratulations to Team Woolston on becoming national champions and Team England 2017.

Feb 22nd 2017

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Woolston, Fowler, Gibson, Clark

8:45 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Brown, Brand, Whittle, Graham

Feb 23rd 2017

2:30 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Reed, Jaeggi, Kendall, Barker

8:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Lea, Pinnell v Dunn, Braden, Havercroft, Gasson

Feb 24th 2017

10:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Pinnell v Malton, Opel, Carter, Mallows

3:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Dunn, Braden, Brown, Gasson

8:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Lea, Pinnell v Malton, Opel, Carter, Mallows

Feb 25th 2017

11:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Woolston, Fowler, Gibson, Clark

4:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Brand, Spain, Brown, Whittle

Feb 26th 2017

9:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Lea, Pinnell v Reed, Jaeggi, Kendall, Barker

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This weekend the Sir Alexander Fleming Bonspiel was held at Fenton’s Rink, and we were one of nine teams to compete for a rather nice trophy with history dating back to the 1950s.  Vincent was unable to join us on the Friday evening, but both of our opponents were down to 3 players as well!

Mar 11th 2016

6:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Lea v Brown, Robinson, Amann

Perhaps it was because both teams only had 3 players, but this was a very wild and crazy game.  We started off well but by scoring a single, but then the madness began.  We gave up a whopping 4, but bounced back in the very next end with a 4 of our own…only to give it right back by surrending another 4 in the 4th!  From there, our confidence dropped and we didn’t play well, eventually losing 15-5.

Mar 11th 2016

8:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Lea v Fowler, Sparks, Pearce

After a dreadful first performance, we did well against a tough Anna Fowler team.  Scoring 2 without the hammer to begin was a real bonus, but Team Fowler showed us what they were made of with a 3 followed by a 2 in the next few ends.  In the 7th, we needed a big score to keep things respectable and Stephen, James, and Owen all made their shots count.  We scored a 3 but it wasn’t enough, losing the game 8-6.

Mar 12th 2016

10:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Fenton, Brown, Topping, Ostermeyer

This morning we had Vincent back with us and it was no coincidence that we were back to our best.  We dominated the first three ends scoring 2, 2, and then stealing 4.  Unfortunately for our opponents they were struggling with getting the right draw weight, and we were fortunate to take advantage of a few of their misses.  The score of 5 in the 7th end was cruel, but by that point the game was virtually over.  Finally, a win and we were back in business!

Mar 12th 2016

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Malton, Opel, Hiller, McDonnell

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We started off strong in this match knowing that to make the Final Four, we would need to win.  We had the better of our opponents in the first few ends, but despite a 4-0 lead the match was far from over.  Malton & Opel lead their team’s comeback by making some excellent tap up shots in end 4 to score 3, and this sparked their team into life.  After 6 ends they had taken the lead and we needed to score 2 with the hammer just for a tie.  On the last shot, Owen had to make a raise takeout avoiding some of his own stones to earn the draw, but thanks to James’ line call and Vincent & Stephen’s excellent sweeping, we managed to make the raise takeout AND hold the shooter, scoring 3 and earning a thrilling 7-6 win!

Mar 13th 2016

10:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Brown, Robinson, Amann, Young

Due to the crazy scheduling of having a 9 team bonspiel, we were in the situation where we had to play Team Brown again.  This was our chance to make up for an appalling performance on Friday and we actually played really well.  With a 6-3 lead going into the last end, we tried to keep the house clear but playing on a very tricky sheet of ice things got messy…takeouts were missed and on the last shot, our skip was faced with a draw against 3.  Owen made a mess of it and through his draw wide and heavy, despite having some backing down the center of the sheet.  The game finished in a draw and we missed out on the later playoff games.

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It was our last game of the competition and we wanted to end on a high note, playing against some very strong opposition.  Our game was chosen to be live streamed on YouTube, and we were determined to show improvements from last year.  In the first end, stones hanging on at the back of the house meant that we tried to steal rather than stick to an open strategy.  Our gamble did not pay off, as Opel scored two with the hammer.  They them stole one in the following end, before holding us to one in the third.  We forced our opponents to blank in the 4th, and then played an excellent end in the 5th.  A few key hit and rolls ensured that Opel had a tough job to score 2, and in fact they only managed 1.  Then came our best end of the tournament.  Stephen threw up a perfect centre guard, and then drew behind to the button.  Joe and James followed up with 4 more great stones, and we were lying 3 hidden behind multiple centre guards.  Our opponents struggled to resolve the situation, and missed their finadraw wide.  With our final stone we could have thrown through for a safe 3, but elected for a strike weight hit and role for a possible 5…and made it perfectly! A great team effort and a brilliant end.  Unfortunately, Opel fought back with successive scores of 3 in the 7th and 8th ends.  We only managed to score one in the 9th, and ran out of stones in the 10th.  A hard fought game that we ultimately lost, but with some really bright sports that leave us a lot to be proud of.

Feb 21st 2016

9:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Opel, Malton, Carter, Malton

Current Standings:

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Playing against the 6-time defending champions was always going to be a challenge, but even more so after they lost an earlier game in the tournament and could not afford to lose another.  We had nothing to fear in this game, and started off well by forcing Alan MacDougall and his team to take 1 with the hammer.  We continued with our hit and roll game, leaving an open draw with our final stone for 2, taking the lead! Our opponents bounced back with a two of their own in the 3rd.  We elected to blank the 4th end, but were forced to hit for 1 in the 5th, going into the break all tied at 3 each.  They blanked the 6th, but took control of the game when they out-hit us in the 7th and took 3.  We tried to score 2 in the 8th and 9th but both times had to blank.  To score 3 in the 10th was a big ask, and we almost did it…but all they had to do was hit one of our two stones out of the house on their final shot for the win.  A much closer game than he score suggests! We matched them in every end but the 7th, where the game was won and lost.  This was a performance to be proud of.

Feb 20th 2016

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v MacDougall, Reed, Fowler, Jaeggi

Current Standings:

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After a disappointing performance against Team Taylor, we were looking to show some resilience and bounce back with a competitive performance against Team Dunn, who were so far undefeated.  We played a very good first end and forced Dunn to take one with the hammer, a small victory that set us on the right track.  Unfortunately, Owen missed a shot for 2 in the second end and only managed to draw us level.  Dunn and his team started to find their form, and despite some good guards from Stephen managed to get in behind and score 2.  We were still on track if we could make our own score of 2, but once again we could not.  Owen threw a hit for a blank but hit on the nose and stuck around for a single.  In the 5th end Dunn managed to make a few nice hit and rolls to undo all of our hard work, scoring another 2 to make the score 5-2 going into the break.  At this point we were pleased with our performance, it was a competitive game and we were very much still in it. In the 6th, Joe made an excellent draw which Stephen and James swept brilliantly behind a guard, only for our opponents to make the perfect shot needed to remove it from play.  Owen had a light weight hit and roll on his last shot, but threw wide and Dunn took a commanding 8-2 lead.  James made a perfect freeze in the 7th, our shot of the competition so far…but unfortunately on a draw for 2 we knocked an opposing stone in just enough to lose that end too.  However, we ended on a positive as facing 4, Owen threw a nice draw that Stephen and Joe swept close enough to the button to save the end and score.  Despite the scoreline, it was a decent performance against a very good team that in retrospect we should take lots of positives from.  A much better effort than this morning, which shows our determination and resiliency.  

Feb 19th 2016

7:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Dunn, Hinds, Mallows, Amann

Current Standings:

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The less said about this game the better, we simply didn’t play well and were punished by Team Taylor and their accurate draws and light weight hits.  We will move on from this game and take it as more experience and a lesson learned.

Feb 19th 2016

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Taylor, Campbell, Sillito, Fyfe

Current Standings:

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This time our hitting game worked, as early on we managed to keep the score down and even take a lead.  However it was great draw shots from Joe and James that earned us the hammer for the first end, which enabled us to blank.  In the second end, we kept the house clean and missed shots by Team Havercroft allowed Owen to draw to an open house for 2, which he made this time!  We kept hitting and aggressively removed stones from play, forcing Havercroft to take one in the 3rd before we had a hit and roll out in the 4th to blank once more.  Our opponents managed to steal from us in the 5th and 6th, but we always felt in control despite falling behind 3-2.  We attempted to change tactics in the 7th end, which almost cost us giving up a few more points.  However our final stone accidentally tapped another of ours in and we sheepishly breathed a sigh of relief as we tied up the score rather than falling further behind.  Everything changed in the 8th end when we were lying 3 in an open house and Havercroft missed his shot wide, and we moved 3 clear with two ends to play.  We all kept making our hits, with special mention going to James Burman and Joe Sugden for their excellent peels and hits throughout the game.  Havercroft only managed to score 1 in the 9th, and missed a very tricky split in the 10th which meant we didn’t need to throw our last stone…we had won our first game at National level!  We had clearly relaxed a bit and settled the nerves from the afternoon game, and fought hard to earn the win in a tight defensive game.

Feb 18th 2016

7:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Havercroft, Brand, Hills, Fowler

Current Standings:

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Going into this game we had made a conscious decision to play it safe early on to avoid falling behind while adjusting to the Dumfries ice. Clearly that didn’t happen, as we gave up 4 in the first end which was a disaster.  The team swept Owen’s final stone perfectly onto the button, frozen against Dixon’s best rock to lie one.  However, a miraculous hit and roll off an outside stone removed our stone and put us far behind after just one end.  Rees then failed to draw to an open house for 2, as his final stone sailed through heavy and the score was 4 to 1.  Another tough end followed with Dixon scoring 3, followed by another single.  Down 8-1 after 4 ends was a disaster, but perfect execution of a risky shot for 4 got us back in the game at the half way break, trailing but now only 8-5.  Some excellent guards from Stephen, combined with the hitting precision of Joe and James meant we forced Dixon to a single in the 6th.  We elected to blank the 7th, but were forced to one in the 8th.  An excellent double from James Burman meant Dixon had to take another single in the 9th, rather than risk going for a hit that could give multiple points either way.  Needing to score 4 in the final end was a tough challenge, and we ran out of stones.  Losing our first game was not in our plans at all, but the fight back made the game competitive right until the very end.

Feb 18th 2016

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Dixon, Bowyer, Patrick, Wilkinson

Current Standings:

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