Yesterday's culring match featured Team Martin against Team Wilson. Here is an end-by-end chronicle with Team martin playing blue stones.

End 1:
Team Martin wins hammer and takes 1 point with a hit and stick.

End 2:
Team Wilson has the hammer. Sitting one in the 8-foot (rock 1), icky's final rock was a nearly perfect hit and roll behind cover as shown (rock 2). Wilson makes a nice draw to the tee-line to take one.


End 3:
Team Martin scores four with the hammer, capitalizing on a missed takeout through the port by Wilson's last rock. icky made a nice draw to the 4-foot with good sweeping.

End 4:
After Team Martin missed several hits, Wilson was left a routine takeout to counter for 3 points with hammer. The score is now 5-4 for Team Martin.

End 5:
The image shows the situation as icky plays his first skip stone. It was an attempted double takeout with the in-turn. The rock curled too much, so rock 1 was removed but rock 2 remained in place. Wilson placed his last rock in exactly the same position, so i had the identical shot. A better throw, a lot of yelling "hurry hard" and we managed a nose hit where rock 1 was driven back and just missed rock 2 by a centimeter or two. It was a steal of 1 and a tied game.


End 6:
With hammer, icky's last rock was an awkward double takeout. Because of the positioning of rocks, a successful double would result in rock 1 and the shooter counting for two points. However, the two rocks that needed to be removed had to be hit precisely (nose hit required) and with enough weight, and then they had to roll out while avoiding jamming into existing rocks in the 12-foot ring as shown. Unfortunately, I gave myself too much ice and called for too much sweeping, resulting in the removal of only one of Wilson's stones. Another steal of 1. The game goes to the 7th and final end (because of time constraints) with Team Martin down by one but with hammer.


End 7:
It all comes down to the icky's last rock. The two Wilson rocks are sitting closest to the house. A nose hit on rock 2 would not be enough. Feeling more comfortable with a hit than a draw, the decision was to hit rock 1 and roll slightly toward the centre to score one point and finish with a tie. Rock 3 was where my rock rolled to. Which rock was closer?

After inspecting both rocks, it was clear that rock 3 had rolled too far. A steal of one resulted and Team Martin had to settle with a heart-breaking 7-5 loss.