Scottish Student Sport League
Dewars Centre, Perth, 30th November 2011

Edinburgh University once again found themselves up against opposition from Clydeside in this Scottish Student Sport league fixture, mere minutes after succumbing to a Strathclyde 1 onslaught. The team remained unchanged from the Strathclyde game, with Andrew Grieve, Dionne Clark, David Jenkins and Fraser Stockton taking to the ice against Glasgow 1, hoping to avenge their defeat at Glasgow 2s hands earlier in the season.

The first end opened very defensively, some lovely guards and draws to the front of the house being played by both leads. Some tit-for-tat takeout play followed, until Clark stepped up for her second shot and played a delightful hit and roll behind a guard to lie shot. Glasgows skip couldnt get close to it but, faced with a draw for two, Grieve missed and took just a single. An uneventful second end saw parity restored as Glasgow collected a point of their own.

Stocktons first shot in the third was hogged, allowing Glasgows lead to put both of his into the house, but atonement for the Edinburgh lead came with a lovely double takeout to clear things out. Another tense end of guards and draws followed, with Glasgow reaping the benefits as Grieve under-threw his first draw before seeing his second wreck on a guard

After conceding two, Edinburgh bounced back to take three ends in a row, all single points. A more aggressive fourth end saw them lying shot after a good takeout by Jenkins. A slew of hitting ensued, leaving Grieve with a simple draw in for one with his last. Glasgow spurned an opportunity to take five in the fifth end, their skips takeout missing Grieves not particularly well-guarded shot stone, while in the sixth, another beautiful hit and roll behind a guard from Clark proved beyond the Glaswegians to remove.

Edinburgh couldnt keep up the momentum in the last two ends, though, their front ends struggle to find draw weight leaving the back end with few options. A risky tap up in the penultimate end didnt come off for Grieve and an important three points were lost, undoing the good work of the previous three ends. Edinburgh found themselves lying two in the last end, with just one stone each left to play. Glasgow attempted a takeout but instead hit their own guard, which- to the incredulity of Grieve and his rink- was pushed into the shot position. Grieve missed a takeout on that stone, which would have handed his team three points and the match, and yielded a single point.

This game will certainly be viewed by Edinburgh as a missed opportunity; the result could easily have gone the other way, had the team not tailed off in the last two ends. Edinburgh continue to linger at the bottom of the SSS league table at the mid-point of the competition, and remain the only team not to have won a single league point. With two months to go until the next league fixture, Edinburgh now have the time to regroup and analyse what needs to be done to halt their terrible run of form.

Michael Nicholson