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
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | X | FINAL | |
| REES | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 5 |
| BROWN | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 15 |
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
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | X | FINAL | |
| REES | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 6 |
| FOWLER | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 8 |
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
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | X | FINAL | |
| REES | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | – | – | – | – | 15 |
| FENTON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 3 |
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
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | X | FINAL | |
| REES | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 7 |
| MALTON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 6 |
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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
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | X | FINAL | |
| REES | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 6 |
| BROWN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 6 |
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.