Press Report

Not for the first time with recent games, it proved a real struggle to get the 24 players needed to make up the team.  It was perhaps unfortunate that the game was so close to the 4 Nations Championships and so many people could not commit themselves to traveling, either due to the expense or getting the time off. 

That being said, after some gentle persuasion and arm twisting from Julie, the 24 player target was eventually reached on the Wednesday and a team was selected.

With 19 players from Scotland and 5 from England it is not exactly the normal British team that I would like to see on the green but in the coming months hopefully this can be changed accordingly.  The fact that 10 of the Scottish players opted to travel down on the Sunday, the day before the game, to get themselves “acclimatized to the conditions” showed real dedication!!

With the 48 players in attendance, a glorious sunny September afternoon and what looked like a good surface, it was time to let the battle commence.

Across the green it was a mixed start with some rinks catching the green quicker than others.  After 5 ends we had 4 of the 6 rinks trailing their opponents with Jim Bryce’s rink the worse off at 8-1 down.  That being said, with good starts from Alan McGuinn’s rink (9-0) and Andrew Clarkson’s rink (7-1) it was the Fire Service that pipped the big scoreboard at 24-23.

Over the next 5 ends it was the Fire Service that took a strong grip on the game by outscoring our opponents by 45 shots to 26.  With Rab Donaldson’s rink scoring 9 unanswered shots from ends 6 to 10 and Malcolm George’s rink outgunning the Civil Service by 14 shots to 1 in the same 5 end period it was only Jim Bryce’s rink that were left banging their heads against a brick wall by moving to 18-5 down which included losing a 6 and a 4.

With now having a 20 shot difference it was time to consolidate our position and concentrate on keeping the ends tight, and in very uncomfortable conditions, with the heat soaring (and there being no ice behind the bar!!) the team did fantastically well.

In fact, from ends 11 to 15, every rink on the green held their own and really snuffed out what chance there was of a Civil Service comeback. With rink one edging the 3^rd quarter 4-3, rink two 5-4, rink three 7-4, rink four 9-3, rink five 4-3 and rink six 4-7 the victory was now there for the taking.  With the 33-24 score line for the 3^rd quarter it meant that the Fire Service had broken the 100 shot barrier (102) and in my experience, 9 times out of 10 it is the 1^st team that does this that goes on to win the match.

There were some outstanding performances from our players and I think that the brilliance of John Budge, who had been moved back up to the back end with Malcolm and some magical shots from Alan Mcguinn helped to inspire those of us around them.  I don’t like to single people out but I think it would be harsh not to mention just how good a game these two ambassadors of our section had.

With the hard work now done it was time for the finishing straight, but all credit to the Civil Service, it was our opponents that didn’t give up and had the better finish.  With only 2 rinks getting the better of our opponents over the final 6 ends, they slightly dented the margin on the big board, but enough had already been done.  I don’t know if it was the heat, drink or the comfortable margin we had, but we took our foot of the pedal slightly in the latter stages of the game, but I’m convinced that this would not have been the case if the game had been much closer.

Over all it was an excellent display from a team that had only been gathered at the 11^th hour.  To the players who stepped in at the last minute to help us out of what would have been an embarrassing situation, I thank you all very much, and I’m sure that I speak on behalf of the whole UK Fire Service section.  It was great to get another victory, that’s two on the bounce now, and hopefully we can move on from strength to strength.

                                              Rab Donaldson 

                                              Team Manager