E.L. Knockout 2017

Congratulations to Haddington for winning our Knockout Competition, they will go on to represent us at the National Province Championships at Greenacres next year.
An eye witness reported on the semi finals and finals below:-

The Haddington team of skip James Pate, third Dave Munro, second Sandy Nicoll and lead Andy Aberdein played Athelstaneford (Johnny Shedden, Douglas Scott, Frank Ross and Roy Black) in the semi final. From the start Haddington managed to control and dictate the game and even when an end looked like drifting away James Pate would pull out a saving shot and either keep the loss to a minimum or even claim the end. They steadily built a reasonably comfortable lead and Athelstaneford offered their hand in the seventh end to see Haddington through to the final. 

This gave them the opportunity for a brief rest before the final and an opportunity to watch the other semi play out.

In that Semi Yester and Dirleton were having a close battle and Dirleton skip Susan Meikle drew her last stone on the 8th end to gain a peel so their game went to a draw shot challenge. Susan unfortunately threw her stone through the house and Yester skip, Sandy Stewart, with all 4 of his team sweeping as hard as possible, managed to touch the front of the house and scrape into the final.

So it was Haddington against ‘young’ Yester (Sandy Stewart, Andrew ?, Jack Kerr and Zoe Bain) in the final. It was a much more aggressive game than Haddington had experienced in their semi, with more reliance on strikes and less use of guards.  The early ends were very low scoring but from the fourth end Haddington managed to gradually ease away from Yester.  By the time they reached the culmination of the eight and final end, Yester skip Sandy had to try a ‘miracle’ shot which wasn’t really on to force a peel.  He didn’t manage it so Haddington took the trophy for the East Lothian Province Knock Out for the first time in 6 years. 

D.M. (slightly edited)

E.L. Bonspiel 2017

Congratulations to Haddington 1, skipped by James Logan for winning the ELCO Cup for the nineteenth time, with a good final score of 17 shots up.  James was assisted by James Pate, Andy Aberdein, Elinor Logan and Roy Black.

Upcoming Events

A happy and healthy new year to one and all. I hope you have all enjoyed the festive season.
I am sure you all join me in wishing all our curlers an enjoyable and successful tour in America, especially John and Callum. We will miss you at our Bonspiel.
Our next Province fixture is our annual bonspiel on Friday 20 Jan @1205. We have six sheets booked. The draw is on the Province notice board at Murrayfield.
The semi-final and final of the knockout is on Sunday 29 Jan @1345, with the final @1545. Congratulations to Yester, Dirleton, Haddington and Athelstaneford.
Our last Province fixture of the season is the big one. On Wednesday 8 February we play Forth and Endrick in the Waldie Griffiths Challenge. The game is at Murrayfield this year @1430. We require 16 players please, and preferably a couple of reserves. I would like to have the names asap, but no later than Fri 20 Jan(bonspiel day). Supper is booked for afterwards.
Thanks Roy

USA Tour 2017

Our best wishes go to Callum Harvey and John Good, who along with 18 other Scottish curlers set off shortly for 'their tour of a lifetime'.  During the 2017 Curlers Tour to the USA they will be playing a total of 31 games in three weeks.  At the end of which they will hopefully have regained the Herries Maxwell Trophy for Scotland.
The tour will cover from Cape Cod in the East to Minneapolis in the West.

You can follow their day to day exploits on their website  https://rccc2017tour.com.
This link is also on the right hand panel along with other useful links.

E.L. Pairs Competition

Frank Ross & Katherine Golding

Congratulations to Frank Ross and Katherine Golding, representing Athelstaneford.  This makes three wins for Athelstaneford in the  'Nicoll Trophy'.  In this instance they beat Haddington's Shelagh Main and Lindsey Nicoll by a score of 5 - 1  (which I am advised was not representative of the game, but I await an eyewitness report)
It should be noted that three of the four finalists were ladies, so congratulations girls.

The Low Road was won by Callum Harvey and Graham Elder, for Dirleton.  They won the 'Doo'cot' Trophy with a score of  4 - 1 against Yester

The full results were:-

Murrayfield Proposals - Launch

Below are the current proposals from our curling rink and an invitation to the official launch

A Load of Bull - Presidential Postcscript

Well done to all the curlers who so impressively brought home the Black Bull to East Lothian Province!

 

I was delighted to receive the news of your outstanding victory on my way home from Stranraer (where we weren’t quite as successful!).  Many thanks for representing the Province so well, I’m grateful for all your efforts to be making my first (proper) year as president so fruitful.

 

I hope you all enjoyed the event and will be willing to help represent East Lothian again in the future.

 

Many thanks again and congratulations from one very chuffed president!

Cheers

Dave