The MacLeod Cup       New member Alister B enjoys his first game with the club       Alaister F delivers a stone in the match between Paul R and George E       Maryel F in action for George E's team       Sandy D prepares to deliver a stone against Paul R's team       David B "messes about" as he and Neil A walk off the ice         After the bonspiel, Kenneth MacL and Alaister F discuss the finer points of a match on the main rink

The MacLeod Cup is played for annually between the two parishes in Bridge of Weir - Houston and Kilbarchan.  It is the oldest trophy in the club, and was presented to the club by Alexander McLeod of Burngill in 1892, when outdoor conditions were just right for the local derby between Norlanders (Houston parish) and Soulanders (Kilbarchan parish).  This season's bonspiel took place at Greenacres on Saturday, 2nd February 2008.  The format for the bonspiel consists of 2 four-end games for each team against the opposite Parish.  This season's competition had five teams taking part - literally an odd number to choose for a bonspiel!  This was achieved by having George E's team play once for Houston and once for Kilbarchan, with his scores counting for the appropriate parish, but not counting towards the highest-up team.  The teams are listed at the foot of the report.  In the 4:00 p.m. session, George E's team (playing for Kilbarchan) got off to a flying start against Paul R (playing for Houston), and eventually overwhelmed their opponents 9 - 1.  In the 5:30 p.m. session, Paul's team were back on the ice this time facing Sandy D (playing for Kilbarchan.)  A much closer game occurred.  By the time the last stone came to be played in the final end, Sandy's team were 2 - 1 ahead, and lying 3 shots.  Paul required to play either a draw shot through a very narrow port to tie the match, or make a triple take-out on Sandy's stones to win the match 3 - 2.  He nominated the triple, and made it, much to his (and everybody else's) surprise.  (Watch a video clip of Paul's shot below.)  In the other match in the 5:30 session, David B (Houston parish) managed to gain a relatively comfortable 6 - 2 victory over Sheila D (Kilbarchan parish).  So with three matches played, and two still to come, Kilbarchan were leading 13 - 10.  In the final session at 6:30 p.m. session, George E 's team (this time representing Houston) continued their good form from the 4:00 p.m. session, trouncing Sheila D's team by the same margin that they had had over Paul R's team in the previous round (9 - 1).  On the adjacent sheet, David B's team controlled the match against Sandy D from start to finish, winning 6 - 0.  So at the end of play, the winner was declared to be Houston parish with a final shots-up difference of +11 over Kilbarchan parish, and thus avenging their defeat by Kilbarchan in Season 2006-07. The highest up skip in the victorious parish was David B, with a +10 shots difference, while Sandy D was highest up skip for Kilbarchan. Unfortunately the Committee repeated its forgetfulness of Season 2006-07, and again forgot to locate the cup before the event, so the presentation of the cup will be made to David and his team at the AGM in April.

Bleak midwinter - Greenacres 2/2/08       George E calls the shot in the match against Paul R       Bill C keeps a close eye on the line of his stone       David B delivers a stone as Neil A gets ready to sweep       Skips George E and Sheila D assess the situation in their match       Ken Greer lines up the shot on sheet E, while David B and Bob B discuss tactics in their match against Sandy D       Guest Ernie B delivers a stone for Sandy D's team

After the matches, the teams adjourned to the bar, where the Greenacres staff served a meal well up to their usual excellent standard (your reporter particularly enjoyed the Tiramisu, hedonist that he is).  After the dinner, President Alaister F thanked the members and guests (Alison Templeton, and Ernie and Carol Barnes) for a good turnout and for making the evening such a success.  He particularly thanked extra-special guest and member Kenneth MacLeod, whose grandfather originally presented the cup to the club), and wished him many happy returns for his 90th birthday next week.  Finally, he thanked the Club committee for organising the match, praised Greenacres for its good quality ice, and thanked the Greenacres staff for yet another fine meal.  In reply, Kenneth thanked Alaister for his kind words, and said how much he had enjoyed spectating at the matches.  Elma then asked the company if anyone had lost a mobile phone, as she had received a call from Tom Wood of Neilston CC saying he had found a mobile in the changing room.  Laughter erupted when Paul R checked, and reported that YET AGAIN his mobile had indeed vanished. Andy T then entertained the diners with his digital photo frame showing us the photographs he had taken of the matches, many of which appear alongside this report.  His position as official club photographer is assured! A surprising postscript to the 'lost phone' story emerged the following day.  Paul drove to Neilston to collect his mobile from Tom, and he found out why Tom had taken it home, instead of leaving it behind the bar at Greenacres.  On finding the phone Tom lifted its screen cover and it displayed a reminder about the MacLeod Cup.  It turns out that Neilston CC also have a bonspiel called the MacLeod Cup, which is played the week after ours, so naturally, he assumed that the phone must have belonged to another member of Neilston CC.  After phoning around and determining that all the Neilston CC members who had played that night could account for their own mobiles, he phoned Elma to report finding the phone.  Unusual coincidence, or what??

	HOUSTON PARISH			|	KILBARCHAN PARISH
	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	|	Team 4	Team 5	Team 6
	Paul R (Skip)	David B (Skip)	George E (Skip)	|	George E (Skip)	Sandy D (Skip)	Sheila D (Skip)
	Alaister F	Bob B	Fiona E	|	Fiona E	Ian P	Kenneth G
	Ewen T	Neil A	Bill C	|	Bill C	Eileen A	Mary F
	Alison T	Alister B	Maryel F	|	Maryel F	Ernie B	Carol B

 

Note: You'll need Windows MediaPlayer to view this video.  Click the ["Play"] button below the video screen to download and play the clip.  The download phase should take about 10 seconds via broadband, or up to 2 minutes via dial-up connection, during which the video screen will either show the MediaPlayer logo or stay blank.  The clip should then start to play automatically.

 

[Click on any photo above to enlarge it - it may take up to 10 seconds to display.] (Thanks to Andy T for the MacLeod Cup photos and the video clip.)   © Bridge of Weir Curling Club - 2008