PCC Stone Substitution

I played in another Bonspiel this weekend. We sorta. I Subbed for a Philly team that went to the PCC (Plainfield Curling Club) Stone Men's Bonspiel. We were a bit out matched in our first draw. We happened to play a team who's skip has the highest attendance number (25 years I think). But honestly we kind of held out own. We ended up getting 3 points over 2 ends and all in all I felt that we were curling quite well.

The second draw was much more exciting. We gave up 3 points in the first end managed to steal a point in the second and gave up 3 more in the 3rd. It was looking rather bad for us at the beginning of the 4th end. We were facing a pretty large point gap and the other team seemed to be getting a ton of breaks. There were a number of times in the first 3 ends where we just barely missed a shot which then allowed the other team a chance at a double take out (which they made).

But things started looking up during the second half of the game. We took the 4th, 5th, and 6th ends and going into the 7th we were tied. Not only were we curling well but our skip was playing a winning strategy that was beginning to get into the head of our opponents. on 2 occasions we kept putting up targets for the other team to take out all along planning on using out last stone to knock a point in from the other side of the house. Both time this worked the other team never attempted to guard this shot. Of course this type of strategy requires the skip to also make the shot but fortunately we were able to make the shot as well.

We ended up giving up a point in the 7th, but this wasn't to bad because this also left us with the hammer in the 8th which gave us a much better chance to end up with 2 points. The 8th end was going pretty well until finally our opponents got a break and ended up with a stone close to the button and guarded well. By the time the skips stones game we had only one opportunity to come away with a point and force an extra end. We had to make a double raise (the shooting stone hits once stone which in turn hits another) and drop our stone in on the button. It seemed as if it were going to be out night. Our skip made the shot and we were able to sweep the stone an inch or two closer to the button leaving us shot. The opposing skip who had missed a number takeouts and raises earlier was forced to raise one of their stones into ours and not knock theirs out as well. He ended up making the shot taking our stone out of play but he also moved their stone as well. We had once last chance to draw to the out side curling around a number of guards to land in th eighth foot for a point. Apparently victory wasn't in the cards for us last night as we came up about 4 feet short and the stone came to rest just out side the 12'.

All in all it was a great match and I had a very good time. As always the teams we played were great to hang out with after the game and we had some great food to boot.

Of course it is near 50 degrees today.... the curling season is quickly coming to and close.

Philly Curling Club Brings the MACA Trophy home!

It couldn't have been a better day. Well the day could have started a bit later. Mary and I arose before the crack of dawn to pick up Troy and head to the Potomac Curling Club for the last Mid-Atlantic Curling Association (MACA) event of the season. Unfortunately Christa was ill and would not be joining us for what would be CPK's biggest win yet.

So I was a bit nervous about getting to the event on time. I wasn't sure how this ran. I didn't know if we should plan go getting there an hour before hand (for registration, and what not) or 15 minutes. I decided to play it safe. Well things ended up going smoother than we imagined. I had built in about an hour of lag time so we could all move slowly in the AM, hit some traffic and still be a bit early. As it turns out we were all ready to go and ended up at the club by 8:30!! Thanks in Part to Nuvi not getting us lost at all!

So we decided to see what Nuvi had listed in the area. In searching for nearby shopping we came upon Costa-Rica Laptops. And figured why not check it out, they probably weren't open at this hour, but it might be interesting to window shop. Well window shopping for this company would be more like being a peeping Tom. Apparently Costa-Rica Laptops (I could not find a web page for this company) is a home business, or was a home business. Nuvi led us to an apartment complex and got us as far as a building. We decided to end our shopping trip with out window shopping.

By the time we got back to the Club it was near 9 Am and we figured we would go in and see what was going on. The club is attached to a hockey rink so in the worst case we could watch a few minutes of hockey practice or something. It turns out that there were people there setting up. We offered to help, but they had pretty much finished up. Se we registered and just hung out for a bit. People started arriving shortly so we figured we should get changed. Troy needed to "Get his curling pants on.", as did I.

The MACA events are designed to be ultra social events between a small group of "close" clubs. The idea is different from a normal bonspieal where you enter a team of 4 to compete against other teams. This is a random format where each club send 8 curlers (or is supposed to) for a total of 32 curlers or 8 teams. The teams are made up by a random draw. So team are comprised of curlers of all levels and from different clubs. This is a great way to meet a number of people form different clubs and learn alot as well. Aside from the random draw each player switches positions after 2 ends, so you get to curl at every position.

So I ended up on a team with one person from Philly and 2 from other clubs. And we did pretty well. We ended up winning both of our games. Game one was 9 - 6, and we all had some very good shots. Game two was against Mary's team and the score was fairly lop sided. I think the final was 17 - 1. The score came down mostly to personalities on the opposing team.

Ultimately Mary's team had a member who played a different game than we had been working on. In our short time at curling one of the pieces of advise that have been given to us over and over again was to not try and throw heavy take outs. Ultimately we aren't accurate enough to make them and since we miss we just end up sending potential points out of play leaving the competition with a change to guard their points. Well this teammate was a new curlier who liked to throw heavy takeouts, and call for them when it was his turn to skip. So we were able to take advantage of a few missed shots and stack some points up in the house.

Fortunately, Mary played an excellent game she made all the shots that she was called to make and at then end of the day we all had a very fun time. The only unfortunate thing is that the warm weather in Potomac signaled the fast approaching end of the curling season.
br> The scoring of the event is complex and took the event coordinator about a half an hour to work out. Basically the scoring favors attendance. Fortunately for us the team we were in second place to at the start of this MACA had an event at their club and didn't send any one down. It made finishing second place almost impossible. So of course we ended up taking 1st place in the event this year and returning the trophy to Philly for the first time since 1994!

The trip home was rather interesting. We all recognized the need for dinner and Mary was Jones'n for some BBQ ( a pulled pork sandwich to be exact). So we figured we would hit a local BBQ joint. apparently the 'burbs of Philly is not the place to get BBQ. and as expected M$ data was insanely wrong. So troy brought up the internet on his phone and searched M$ live for BBQ places near KOP. He found a Smoky Bones restaurant sorta near the curling club (according to M$). So we called some friends had told them to meet us there. We get a call a little while later.... "um there isn't a Smokey Bones in Frazer, PA" so we look again and look at a map... "sure there is, it is right by the intersection of PA 29 and PA 30". So we give Kate the phone number (strange Area code that we don't recognize) and she calls them. a few minutes later we get a call back from Kate, this Smokey Bones is in Frazer County out near Pittsburgh (about 6 hours from us!) So we again look for BBQ places and every one we call is out of business. We ended up at the Sly Fox, which is a brew pub that has a great pulled pork sandwich. So if you are in the KOP area and looking for BBQ check out the Sly Fox.