Playing for the "B" championship

Curling is still going. We are in the playoffs now, and we seem to be on quite the roll. Unfortunately, we are in the "B" playoffs. We have been competing with some of the leagues elite in both leagues, but we ended seeding as the top "B" level team.

Personally, I curl to give myself a challenge. I do not care to win games over teams that curl socially. I understand that they are out there to have fun, but I'm looking at becoming competitive. Although these games are usually relaxed and sociable, I am not getting enough out of the games. I have fun, but not as much fun as competitive play can offer. I'd rather lose against a good team, than win against a bunch of social curlers.

At this point in the year, I'm hoping things will end. I suppose we should prove to people that we can win the "B" championships, but with work getting so busy, it's becoming quite the hassle to go curl against some pretty weak teams.

Game #6 - City of Ottawa Bonspiel (Ottawa Curling Club)

On Saturday, we only had one game to play. It was a do or die scenario where we had to win to stay in. At this point, we have been pretty tired of playing in the tournament and was looking forward to some birthday celebrations in the evening. If we had won, we would have to play at 9am Sunday morning.

We played a team from the RCMP curling club. They were a seniors team and were very friendly gentlemen. Before the game, we were delayed slightly by my teammates' tardiness and I had a chance to chat with a couple of their players. It was a very nice way to break the ice and have a very friendly game of curling.

We controlled this game. The team from RCMP had given us a lot of credit for "not giving them a chance" to get back into the game. This was not completely true. The team had a great chance to have one big end, but my team escaped that threat due to a key miss from their skip.

It was very nice to curl out of the Ottawa Curling Club. This was my second time curling there, and I have been considering joining the club for next year. It is about a block away from my newly purchased home, and would like to be involved with a club with many competitive teams and a rich history. I also really like the fact that they have a kitchen and draft beer. This will be quite handy as I will likely be working a lot of hours and may not have the time to prepare meals for myself.

Anyways, we won the game and we had to play at 9 am. We were quite relaxed and played a much better game than we had been having. It was unfortunate that we would have to play so early the next day. We were going to go out for 4 of my friend's birthdays (Robert, Kyle, Tyler, and Derek) and St. Pats day. It was going to be rough.

Late night ticker - City of Ottawa Bonspiel - Game #2

We lost 7-2 after 7 ends. We fell behind early and we were chasing the whole game. It was a very frustrating game. We had at least 4 rocks that picked. We certainly could have played better, and could have done ourselves a couple of favours, but the picks were certainly demoralizing. Tomorrow, we play two games. The first is in Kemptville at the North Grenville Curling Club. We expect another tough game as the team we are playing against had just taken the defending champions to their last rock in their game tonight. Hopefully, our luck, confidence, and shot-making ability will improve for the next game.

Late night ticker - City of Ottawa Bonspiel - Game #1

It's pretty late, but I thought I would mention that my team had won tonight. The game was out of hand early, and we never faced any real threat from our opposition. The final score flattered the other team from Rideau 9-4. We had built a 7-0 lead after 3 ends of play, and a 9-0 lead after 5. The other team had very little experience and continued to want to play. Instead of playing a clean game the rest of the way, we played things messy to allow for the other team to get some points. We had discussed quitting after 6, but continued for a 7th end because the other team wanted to play some more. It was agreed that the game would be called after 7 regardless of the score, so the other team was able to get additional points and the final score would flatter them a little more.

Our next game, Wednesday night (7pm) at Cityview Curling Club should offer a better challenge. I do not expect to have any more of those games going forward.

City of Ottawa Bonspiel

Next week, my curling team will be curling in the City of Ottawa Bonspiel. I don't know how well they update the website, but I assume that you can track our progress through the website. I will be curling with Michael Dean, Robert Dean, and Ryan Cox. Hopefully, we will do the HCC proud.

Curling season

The curling season is nearing its end. The regular season is almost over, and my Monday night team has a solid chance of making it to the "A"-side playoffs. Monday nights are the competitive team night, so it would be great for the team to make it there. When the season first began, we had signed up a brand new curler (Tom Downey), recruited a junior curler (Nicol McNiven), and had two players that hadn't really played in the last 3 years or so (Ryan Cox and myself). The expectation for the season was pretty low and a .500 season was the goal. As this was a pretty competitive league, this goal seemed attainable and reasonable.

After 15 games, we have a 9-6 record. We are guaranteed to finish the regular season with a record above .500 as there are only two games left.

We have a big game on Monday night against Team Guthman. Guthman is a guy that we've had trouble with beating in the past. He's a very good curler and he represented our region at the provincials in the past. It's going to be very tough to beat him.