STEWARTRY v AYRSHIRE

12/05/2012 – KIRKCUDBRIGHT

Well a new season starts as always full of hope and expectation and Saturday was no exception. Kirkcudbright was bright with only a small shower expected during the afternoon and that is the way it turned out. The pace of the green was good for this time of year and all credit to Willie Thomson for having the green as well prepared and playing as it did.

The game itself was actually well contested although the final score may not reflect that. On speaking to a few of the Ayrshire lads after the game they were really surprised at how the score changed since all through Stewartry kept the game tight and it was only in last few ends that the gap appeared.

After 10 ends it was 54 – 57, at 15 ends, 76 – 95 and Ayrshire looked to be pulling away. However at 18 ends across the green it was 91 – 106 and Stewartry were digging in to try and reduce this deficit. Unfortunately it was Ayrshire that found the finishing burst to take Ayrshire safely home 100 – 132.

Although Stewartry only had one winning rink with Captain Keith Richardson winning, Stevie Richardson was very unlucky at peels playing the last and trying to convert a head lost a 4. I have to commend Stevie for resisting the temptation on his 3^rd last end not to try an ambitious take out for a 6 and settle for drawing a second, with the overall score down to just 11 at that point. Putting the big board first meant the team was only single figures behind, unfortunately we couldn’t sustain it. Graeme Maxwell only lost by one in a great game against Graeme Campbell and that could have gone either way. Alan Davies on the show rink just couldn’t get his rink to relax and play their normal games and as a result was always chasing the game. This will be a good learning experience for him for the future. Geordie Brown who over the past couple of seasons has been very effective also found his all Kirkcudbright rink struggling on their home green and were never able to get in front. Finally Scott Davies also had a difficult time against Colin smith and his rink were always chasing the game.

Plus points for the team and manager the debut of James Cruikshank was really good and hopefully James can build on that. Also Gary Davies possibly the forgotten Davies boy finally produced a really good performance and needs to build on that for the rest of the season. Also a quick mention and thanks to Stewart Tait for making his debut and hopefully may be available in the weeks to come.

I have made some positional changes for this coming week and also brought a couple of players, so hopefully we can use Saturdays experience to help us at West End next Saturday. Again if anyone is unavailable please contact Hugh Robertson on 07425622104.