2015 Sir Alexander Fleming @ Fenton’s Rink, England

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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