We're hot, they're hot, everybody's hot hot!

Since the last update, we have won two and tied one of our last three games in the Capital Curling League and now sit tied for second with Sandy Chisholm at 3-1-1.

The 6-6 tie with Greg Hawthorne was interesting in that we never seemed to get into first gear. We did pick up a big four points to go ahead 5-3 at the midway mark and led 6-4 with two ends to go but it was a case of nobody wanting to take advantage and I thought the tie was a just result. It was good in the sense that we didn't play well and still got a result so I thought it was a point earned instead of dropped.

Our next game was versus Sandy Amey's quartet, a group we had not won against in four tries. We started off slow again and fell behind 3-1 but we made some minor adjustments in terms of the straighter than usual ice conditions and rallied with seven unanswered points, including the last five on steals to win 8-3. It was a total team effort and it felt good to get the monkey off our backs.

With our custom made jackets ready to be put to use this past Sunday versus John Lilly, we left off the previous match with Amey by taking three straight points, including steals in the second and third ends to go up 3-0. It is quite amazing how well we play without hammer, I believe our steal percentage is well over 60% which is astounding.

But Lilly's group rallied to go ahead 4-3 as we missed a couple of opportunities to put the result beyond doubt. We were in need of a good shot but our skipper Peter Boudreau made a Plan 'X' double takeout, unplanned, and a mistake by Lilly gave us a shot at three. Peter made the takeout but just failed to keep the shooter in and we settled for two and a 5-4 lead.

I was happy to not have the hammer in the last end for obvious reasons and we continued our good run by stealing the eighth to win 6-4 and rise to second in the table. Having a closer look at the stats, we have stolen 14 out of a possible 22 ends and have taken points in 23 of 36 ends over the first 5 games which is a massive improvement from last season.

The schedule doesn't get easier over the final three weeks before the Christmas Break as we face Chisholm, Neil Whyte and last year's playoff finalists Jamie Mills. If we can win at least two of the three this will put us in a good position for the New Year and give us even more confidence as we chase a top four spot and that elusive first round bye.

On another note, I have heard a lot about this Ana Arce Team Sponsorship Curling Calendar that is out for sale and advertised on the Curling News Website.

This calendar features several of the game's hottest young ladies posing for the continuing growth of the sport. The calendar was first devised one year ago but I may buy this year's calendar as it features my favorite female curler, Debbie McCormick. Others posing include Christine Keshen of the Shannon Kleibrink team and former World Junior Champion Linn Githmark of Norway.

Perhaps our supporters will want to see a Rajun Cadiens 2007 Calendar. But between my pale skin, Darren's beer belly and Peter's twinkletoes, we may be lucky to sell ten copies to some trucker girls at the Irving Big Stop. I'll stick to looking at the ladies thank you very much!

Cheers,
Terry
http://www.geocities.com/rajuncadiens/curling

The Men in Black are back!

We are just two games into the new season and I can already sense we are turning the corner.

Although we came out of the pair of matches with a split, I think the one word to describe our performances was professional.

This seems a bit ironic since this is far from professional curling but I'm referring to our attitude and the fact that it was first class - no fancy fist pumping, no pointing fingers - we even received some good words from the flamboyant Paul Hunt Sr. of the Welsh team who said that he had 'a ton of respect for us and enjoyed our matches.'

Maybe its the fact that we finished off last year on a high and we have brought this confidence forward, but it is our third full season as a team (fourth overall for Peter, Darren and myself) so we should be improving and I believe a top four spot is not out of the question. If we do finish in the top four of the league this means a first round bye.

We lost the coin toss against Richardson which we didn't mind since stealing is as natural to us as drinking water or riding a bike. At one point, we had a shot at four or five, Richardson needed a good shot to limit the damage and he responded and we only took one. But steals of two, one and a further steal of one put us 5-0 up before our opponents finally scored with the hammer in the fifth end.

This ended our streak of not allowing a point in ten consecutive ends, dating back to last season's playoffs, which is almost unheard of in any league whether it be amateur or professional. It also stopped our consecutive steals streak at seven, again almost unheard of. Peter made a half lucky shot in the sixth to score a deuce and it was handshakes.

Despite the fact that Darren and Peter hadn't played a game and were signed up just to play in this league, they had an excellent match and they didn't show any rust although Darren was hiding the stiffness in is legs and back pretty good.

Sunday's game was crazy. We trailed 2-1 in the third when an opportunity arose to score a single but the raise had to be done perfectly or we would give up three or four. Peter's shot was on target but there was too much heat and the bump put our red rock out of the rings and Welsh stole four to go up 6-1.

We fought back with singles in four and five but a three pointer in the sixth put Welsh up 9-3 and it looked like curtains but in true Rajun Cadiens fashion we refused to throw in the towel. A deuce in seventh made it 9-5 and set us up for a wild final end.

Two red rocks were in the rings but they were wide open. To our amazement, their second and third (Hunt Sr) , missed both shots and we were lying four. After Welsh could only knock one rock out with his first shot, Peter had to draw in the rings to put us in position for the tie. He did this and Welsh had to make an awkward shot for the win.

He just had to knock one of the rocks out and he did this but we stole two and made the game more respectable. They weren't too pleased with their effort at the end and in truth it shouldn't have got to that point but never say never and despite a couple bad ends we thought we competed pretty well.

Our schedule for the next three weeks is pretty decent, matches with Greg Hawthorne, Sandy Amey and George Lilly, give us a great opportunity to create some distance from some of the other contenders. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but it's important to maintain that confidence factor.

And last but not least, our new jackets will be ready in a couple of weeks, we all look forward to showing those off!

Cheers,
Terry
http://www.geocities.com/rajuncadiens/curling