Kinross Hogmanay Pairs (Game 8)

Kinross Hogmanay Pairs
Kinross Curling Rink, 18th December 2011


H 1 2 3 4 5 Total
David Jenkins & Alistair Wallace 0 3 1 1 x 5
Julia Cormack & Ben Cormack * 3 0 0 0 x 3

Generations collided in this final B-road game as two former club Presidents faced off against one another.  Julia Cormack (nee Halliday, President 1990 – 1991) teamed with her young son Ben against current Secretary David Jenkins and Alistair Wallace (President 2007 – 2008) with progression into the latter stages of the Kinross Hogmanay Pairs at stake.

Jenkins’ draw to the back of the eight foot with his first stone proved to be key to the opening end.   The younger Cormack’s reply was a draw to the front twelve-foot, guarding the Edinburgh shot.  Another Cormack stone followed later, nudging his own shot and leaving two in the front twelve, burying Jenkins’ stone.  Still lying shot, Wallace flooded the path to the button with guards, rendering any attempt on the Edinburgh stone nigh-on impossible.  The elder Cormack, though, demonstrated the skill that earned her a club Blue, playing a beautiful angled raise on her own stone in the twelve-foot into the Edinburgh shot stone to take an unlikely three.

This would be the last points for the Cormacks, though, as the Edinburgh University pair took control of the game.  A nice tap from Jenkins left the students sitting two, before Cormack wrecked on a guard to push another Edinburgh counter into the eight-foot.  Another mistake pushed a fourth Edinburgh stone into the house, before Cormack senior hit one out.  Wallace overthrew his draw for four, but still took three.

A steal of one followed in the third, though it could have been more for the students.  With Edinburgh sitting with a very well-protected three, Cormack cleared out the guards and then hit the second-lying shot on the nose.  So it would remain until the end’s completion, when Cormack proved unable to raise her own guard into the Edinburgh stone.  A further steal in the fourth confirmed the result when, with the Cormacks lying three, Wallace used his last stone to promote his own guard to the button;  Cormack’s hit attempt wrecked on her own stone in the front of the twelve-foot.

While the Cormacks dropped into the C-road, Jenkins and Wallace advanced to the knockout stages of the competition, with the other Edinburgh University team potential opponents.

Michael Nicholson