Ready for the next step?
The regular season portion of the Capital Curling League is over and we missed out on a first round exemption by a single point.
It's been an eventful last few weeks - a truly terrible fortnight - followed by a good string of results that puts us in a good position heading into our match with John Lilly this Sunday.
Perhaps we thought we only needed to show up during our games with Gary Welsh and Greg Hawthorne and it would be two wins but the exact opposite happened. Losses of 10-2 and 10-1 dropped us back in the pack and forced us to go back to basics. Considering it was our first real slump, I stated to the boys that it was better we go through this now instead of later.
This proved true as we rebounded to paste Sandy Amey 10-1 in five ends and though we suffered a tough 8-7 loss to Lilly two weeks ago, I thought it was tough on us and we showed good character to win 10-7 over Peter Richardson in our make-up game later that day.
Last week, we faced Sandy Chisholm, needing a win and help to secure fourth place and a first round bye. Phil was battling a bruised tailbone after a fall the previous night so I was worried how we would perform but he stepped up and played a great game as did our fearless leader, Peter Boudreau.
Chisholm had already clinched the bye so he didn't have much to play for but games against the Cadiens are adjacent to Flames versus Oilers in the NHL so a lack of passion would not be an issue in this one. The key to beating Chisholm is to put a lot of rocks in play and force him to make difficult shots and this is what we did.
Steals in the first two ends put us 3-0 ahead and although Chisholm took three in the third, we managed a deuce in the fourth and stole the next three ends to go out 9-3 winners. Again I have to pay tribute to Peter and Phil for playing an excellent game, the former made some great draws and both Phil and myself made the majority of our hits and that's all you can ask for.
A 9-7-1 record and a fifth place tie is about where we deserve to finish. Neil Whyte and Stewart Slaunwhite finished first and second respectively as they were the class of the league this season. Paul Hunt Jr. and Chisholm tied for third on 20 points and we tied Hawthorne on 19 but lost the tie-breaker as we lost the season series.
The turn-around in fortune this year as been maintaining our excellent steal record of 40% and increasing our hammer efficiency from 27% to 35%. I had stated at the end of last season that if we could get this percentage into the 35-40% range we would have a winning record and this hypothesis proved correct. We have also forced teams into taking a single point almost 50% of the time when they had the hammer which is outstanding.
So now its John Lilly in the first round of the post-season. We split the two games this year with the good guys winning 6-4 in November and the recent 8-7 setback a couple weeks ago. I think if we can play at the level we displayed last week then I truly believe we can advance but its important not to look ahead.
We've made many strides this year and it would be a shame if it came crashing down with a big thud. We just have to take things one end at a time and the rest will work itself out.
We have a great playoff record in the CCL going 6-2 the last two seasons so lets hope we can build on that history and make a run at the title.
Cheers,
Terry
http://www.geocities.com/rajuncadiens/curling
It's been an eventful last few weeks - a truly terrible fortnight - followed by a good string of results that puts us in a good position heading into our match with John Lilly this Sunday.
Perhaps we thought we only needed to show up during our games with Gary Welsh and Greg Hawthorne and it would be two wins but the exact opposite happened. Losses of 10-2 and 10-1 dropped us back in the pack and forced us to go back to basics. Considering it was our first real slump, I stated to the boys that it was better we go through this now instead of later.
This proved true as we rebounded to paste Sandy Amey 10-1 in five ends and though we suffered a tough 8-7 loss to Lilly two weeks ago, I thought it was tough on us and we showed good character to win 10-7 over Peter Richardson in our make-up game later that day.
Last week, we faced Sandy Chisholm, needing a win and help to secure fourth place and a first round bye. Phil was battling a bruised tailbone after a fall the previous night so I was worried how we would perform but he stepped up and played a great game as did our fearless leader, Peter Boudreau.
Chisholm had already clinched the bye so he didn't have much to play for but games against the Cadiens are adjacent to Flames versus Oilers in the NHL so a lack of passion would not be an issue in this one. The key to beating Chisholm is to put a lot of rocks in play and force him to make difficult shots and this is what we did.
Steals in the first two ends put us 3-0 ahead and although Chisholm took three in the third, we managed a deuce in the fourth and stole the next three ends to go out 9-3 winners. Again I have to pay tribute to Peter and Phil for playing an excellent game, the former made some great draws and both Phil and myself made the majority of our hits and that's all you can ask for.
A 9-7-1 record and a fifth place tie is about where we deserve to finish. Neil Whyte and Stewart Slaunwhite finished first and second respectively as they were the class of the league this season. Paul Hunt Jr. and Chisholm tied for third on 20 points and we tied Hawthorne on 19 but lost the tie-breaker as we lost the season series.
The turn-around in fortune this year as been maintaining our excellent steal record of 40% and increasing our hammer efficiency from 27% to 35%. I had stated at the end of last season that if we could get this percentage into the 35-40% range we would have a winning record and this hypothesis proved correct. We have also forced teams into taking a single point almost 50% of the time when they had the hammer which is outstanding.
So now its John Lilly in the first round of the post-season. We split the two games this year with the good guys winning 6-4 in November and the recent 8-7 setback a couple weeks ago. I think if we can play at the level we displayed last week then I truly believe we can advance but its important not to look ahead.
We've made many strides this year and it would be a shame if it came crashing down with a big thud. We just have to take things one end at a time and the rest will work itself out.
We have a great playoff record in the CCL going 6-2 the last two seasons so lets hope we can build on that history and make a run at the title.
Cheers,
Terry
http://www.geocities.com/rajuncadiens/curling
posted by curlerboi @ 10:30 p.m.
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