A streak?
A rough double-header took place for us 2 weekends back, with a noon game in the Mixed League and an evening game in the Novice. Sunday afternoon was rough. Early afternoon is “matinee time” and I found that sparking energy is just as difficult in curling as it it on stage. When acting, I can cover it. Most audience members would never know that I was feeling sluggish. I’m not a good enough curler to cover it, though. Between that and having not played since Monday, I felt that little was going right. Yet somehow we managed to eke out a narrow victory. A lot if it had to do with our skilled back end making up for it.
We did have a fun time, though. Our opponents were a group of people who simply don’t take things any more seriously than they need. We were laughing and joking all afternoon. After the match, I learned that one of our opponents is a bagpiper and is going to give me some information on the band. As some of you may know, I’ve dabbled in bagpipes and its always been on my “list,” so perhaps this is the time to cross it off.
The evening game was a beginners game against Mike and Mary’s team. I was going to be stuck skipping the whole match until our club buddies and opposing team captains suggested that we rotate positions. I kinda liked skipping now that I had a little better feel for it. Everyone played fairly well, but we managed to eke out a narrow victory.
Ecstatic from 2 straight wins, I headed to Monday’s match ready to make it three, and we came out strong in the first few ends only to lose the rest. DT is taking it rough. I try to keep his spirits up but he says he just hasn’t been having fun this year. I think part of it is that it’s lonely in the house. You feel responsible for everything because you make the strategic decisions and you have to make the big plays at the end of the end. He won on Friday in a nailbiter…they came to a 9-point lead by end 2 and ended up in tie going into 8, but they pulled it out. He was in good spirits, and it was nice to see him clowning around again.
Almost had a streak going…
We had a grudge match against M&M’s mixed team on Friday. Clan Cherelli showed up to watch along with Ron and Roseanne who valiantly endured the entire match. It was pretty fun to have some people there watching. It was a pretty exciting match and everyone was in good form. We took two in each of the first two ends, and then we traded deuces for the rest of the match. We went into 8 with a hammer and a 2-point lead and managed to hold them to one for the win.
This marked our last match of our first mixed draw, so we had a little party afterwards. After curling a lot with MikeR, he and is wife are going to be scarce for awhile as they are expecting in the spring. Hopefully they’ll still make it out for social events even if they don’t curl. We’ll miss them.
Next year should be interesting. The veritable onslaught of new members from the fall class means that X and I will be classified as an “experienced” front end. Usually newbie front ends get paired with experienced back ends and vice versa to keep things in balance. Well there are so many inexperienced front ends that we will now be paired as an experienced front end with an inexperienced back end (of course back end players are at least experienced in their own right) so it will be a good chance to really build some skills since we may not have a dead shot to rely on in the back.
Tonight - Mens match. This will be the last match for me until 2007. It seems like a recurring theme that just as you start to hit your stride, you end up on a break!