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
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
posted by curlerboi @ 9:13 p.m.
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