We couldn’t be happier with how the weekend went, organising, hosting, and playing in the first ever Kent & Sussex Bonspiel.  Team Rees finished 3rd out of 10 teams, and finished with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss, which was to the eventual champions Team Braden.  There was a great mix of teams, including some juniors (2 from Beacon Academy, and also the England Junior Boys) as well as some international visitors (3 Belgian  Teams, some Canadian ex-pats, and an American), along with some Fenton’s Rink regulars.  Below is a summary of the scores.

Nov 14th 2015

9:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Shepperson, Woods, Shaw, Bourne

Nov 14th 2015

4:15 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Allan, Flinn, White, Hidalgo

Nov 14th 2015

6:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Palmans, Megens, Stessens, Another

Nov 15th 2015

9:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Braden, Nelson, Boyd

Nov 15th 2015

4:15 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Kendall, Barker, Sugden, Price

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As you can see from the scores, we played quite well on Saturday and really felt like we were on a roll, playing well and enjoying our curling.  The morning game against Team Braden was extremely tough, but we were in it right down until the last stone.  Team Kendall (the England Junior Boys) played extremely well against us in the Bronze Medal game, but after gaining a 5-0 lead things got interesting.  All of a sudden we started to make shots, and our opponents began to miss a few.  We scored a massive 5, and had to play for the steal in the final end…which we managed,and so we ended our bonspiel feeling very proud of our comeback, but slightly sheepish!  Congratulations to everyone involved for helping to make the 1st Annual Kent & Sussex Bonspiel a success…see you again next year!

Final Standings:

[1] Braden

[2] Van Dijck

[3] Rees

[4] Kendall

[5] Roth

[6] Allan

[7] Palmans

[8] Hensey

[9] Fitzpatrick

[10] Shepperson

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This weekend the Sir Alexander Fleming Bonspiel was held at Fenton’s Rink, and we were one of six teams to compete for a rather nice trophy with history dating back to the 1950s.  Vincent was unable to join us, so we drafted in Ian MacDonald as a substitute to take his place.

Mar 7th 2015

12:00 PM – Rees, Burman, MacDonald, Lea v Mote, Kennedy, Hague, North

Our first game was a nice way to start the competition, against some lovely people who were at the competition to enjoy the benefits of the social side of the sport.  We threw lots of rocks into the house and made some key hits when needed, scoring high early on.  Despite the convincing win, it was nice to see our opponents enjoy the 7th end!

Mar 7th 2015

4:00 PM – Rees, Burman, MacDonald, Lea v Brown, Noble, Fleming, Brown

Later in the afternoon, we had a slightly tougher game against Team Brown.  The ice was very tricky early on, as both sides were throwing takeout weight just to get some stones to reach the house!  We persevered with it and adapted well, taking another big early lead.  Our opponents made some great hits at the right time and took points from us in two ends, but we went home happy with our days work.  However, to win the competition we knew we would probably have to win both of the Sunday games.

Mar 8th 2015

10:00 AM – Rees, Burman, MacDonald, Lea v Havercroft, Hillier, Alexander, White

This one really went back and forth, with each team needing a win to stay towards the top of the standings.  The first four ends were very cagey, trading singles with each team making some very key shots.  In the 3rd end a double takeout was needed to take one, and if we had missed that we could have given up three…a lucky escape!  The breakthrough came in the 5th end when we managed to take two with the hammer, putting pressure on our opponents.  We held them to one in the 6th, but they managed a steal in the 7th.  It was all square going into the last end, but with the hammer we wanted to keep the house clear.  It didn’t quite go to plan, but James Burman managed a perfect freeze to another of ours on the button, and Stephen and Iain swept it majestically to get it past multiple guards, which then provided cover.  With skip stones, Havercroft tried to hit the shot stone but missed wide.  Owen Rees put up a guard to block a potential tap back, which left Havercroft with a rally tough multiple stone raise…it didn’t quite come off, and we just had to throw our last stone through for the win.

Mar 8th 2015

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, MacDonald, Lea v Bates, Watson, Mallows, Robinson

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In what essentially was a final, both teams knew they had to play well to secure first place and the trophy.  Arthur Bates and his side were very strong on paper, but didn’t have quite as many ends scored as us.  This meant that we only needed a draw in this match to finish at the top of the table.  However, we struggled early on and were lucky to only give away a few singles…it could have been more but some key shots cut down our opponents options late in each end.  We got on the board with a single in the third end, but the match seemed all but lost when Bates took 3 in the 4th.  Our heads were down but we didn’t give up, scoring 3 consecutive singles…but it wasn’t enough.  We made a game of it but in the 7th end we needed two…our skip needed to hit and stick to lie 2, but rolled wide and allowed Bates to draw.  He came up short, so we got the 1, but it didn’t matter as it was indifferent at that point anyway.

Congratulations to Arthur, Lana, Harry and Mike on winning the competition…you were the best team and it was a pleasure to play against you…but it was bloody tough!  For us it was a great weekend and valuable experience.  Well done Stephen, James, Owen, and thank you to Ian for standing in.

Final Standings:

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The MacDougall team didn’t even need to win this game to secure the championship, they just needed results elsewhere to go their way.  In case of a potential final, skip Alan MacDougall elected to miss this one out and allow his alternate to take his place.  We didn’t start well, and gave up a big 4 that put us behind early.  We took one in the 2nd end, and forced a blank in the 3rd, but despite playing well we were always chasing the game.  A further score of 4 set us back even more, but at this point we dug in and really started to play well.  We took one with the hammer, before forcing our opponents to do the same in the 6th.  We had a brilliant end in the 7th, with a draw to the house for 3.  In the 8th we forced our opponents to take another single, and had the option to score one in the 9th end but elected to blank.  Unfortunately in the last end, we ran out of stones…we were looking like scoring one or two but had to shake hands and concede when we mathematically couldn’t avoid a losing score.  We are all incredibly proud of our fightback and determination in this game, considering MacDougall secured the championship victory for the 6th straight season, and are vastly experienced at the highest level.

Feb 21st 2015

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Reed, Woolston, Fowler, Jaeggi (MacDougall)

Final Standings:

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We started this game with a strong first end, forcing Michael Opel and his team to blank.  Unfortunately for us, they were very strong from this point forward and hardly missed a shot.  We did manage to score a single point in the 5th end, but after giving up 5 points in the next two ends we had to concede.  Despite the one-sided score, we made some good shots but simply made mistakes while the other team didn’t.  Team Opel needed to win in order to keep their final hopes alive, and have made it to the finals in many previous years.

Feb 21st 2015

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

Current Standings:

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Despite getting a few things wrong in the first end and falling behind early, we managed to stay calm and carry on playing a hitting game.  We regained our composure and strategically blanked the next two ends, meaning that we could have scored one but elected to throw our last shot through to retain that advantage for the next end.  Although we gave up one in the fourth end, the real turn around came in the 5th when we took advantage of our opponents missing some hits and we scored a big 4.  Furthermore, we held James Dixon and his team to one in the next end, after he made a great escape with a tap back on his own stone to score one when we were threatening a steal.  We gave up two in the next end, and a further one in the eighth…but then made a tremendous comeback.  We made a fantastic hit and roll in off our own stone to make a double takeout on the last shot and score 2, taking the game right to the wire.  Needing to steal two to force an extra end, and with only two stones remaining, we managed to draw the first skip stone in behind a corner guard to the 4-foot.  Dixon went for a draw in onto that stone, but it missed wide and light and landed on the top 8-foot.  With our last stone, all four of us worked together perfectly to make a perfect hit and roll in behind the guard, and beside our other stone.  Lying two, Dixon had to hit one out with his last shot to win, and while he did manage to get one out it only just had enough momentum and almost stuck around.  It was an extremely close finish, and we were all proud of our ability to fight back from being 4 down twice.  Despite the loss, we all came off the ice with smiles on our faces and are very happy with the way we played.  Tomorrow, we play the two best teams, and our game with MacDougall is streamed live on YouTube at 2pm.  Search “Dumfries Curling” to watch!

Feb 20th 2015

8:30 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Dixon, Bowyer, Patrick, Wilkinson

Current Standings:

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After quickly putting the afternoon game behind us, we were determined to make an improvent and play some better shots.  A slight tweak to our strategy seemed to work for us, playing a more defensive hitting game.  Both teams traded points early on, until our opponents broke through and scored 3 in the fourth.  We fought right back with an excellent end, throwing some precise hits to score a 4.  This rejuvenated us at the half way break, and were feeling really good about improved performance.  After trading singles, we hit a rough patch in the 8th end when John Summers had three stones buried behind guards.  Although we attempted some high weight hits to remove them, they didn’t come off and we fell behind by two points.  A shot to score one at the end of the 9th went wrong and we fell even further behind.  We needed a miracle to score 4 in the final end but it almost happened.  On our last shot we could have drawn for 3 but elected to go for an impossible split to score 4.  It didn’t come off and we lost by two, but it was a much improved performance and we felt proud of our efforts.  The game finished after midnight and so we are very happy not to be playing until tomorrow evening.

Feb 19th 2015

8:30 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Summers, Jackson, Hamilton, Taylor

Current Standings:

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In our first competitive game at the national level, we struggled and came up short against much more experienced players.  We started off playing a few good ends, and after three had managed to score our first point and hold the opposition to one with the hammer.  We then struggled to find our draw weight and gave up 8 points over three ends which really put the game out of reach.  Our opposition switched to a defensive style and we managed to score two singles, but Zachary got one in the ninth end which forced us to concede.  We didn’t get off to the start that we had hoped, but there is plenty of time to improve and many lessons were learnt.

It wasn’t until after the match we learned that it had been streamed live on YouTube.  If you want to watch any or all of our game this evening, look for “DumfriesCurling”.

Feb 19th 2015

2:00 PM – Rees, Burman, Branch, Lea v Zachary, Havercroft, Brown, Kendall

Current Standings:

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Today we played 3 games in the Great Gordino funspiel at Fenton’s, and had a really good time.  Despite finishing third, we put in some good performances and only lost out to the eventual winners of the competition.  Local Junior Joe Sugden took the place of Vincent Branch, who was actually playing with the opposition!  It was great experience for all of us, and a funspiel we look forward to entering again next season, hopefully with all of us on the same side!

Feb 15th 2015

10:00 AM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Barthelemy, Fenton, Branch, Nelson

11:15 AM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Hinds, Mather, Amann, Conlin

12:30 PM – Rees, Burman, Sugden, Lea v Bryan, MacDonald, Pellett, Ostermeyer

 Click here for more of our live scores and archived results