Friday Mixed

A short post about Martin vs LeBlanc last Friday. Hai got the nod to throw skip stones although icky would call the game and throw third. We gave up a steal of 2 in the first but then icky got the drama going in the second, with one of the most incredible takeouts through a port ever.

The size of the port is shown above and it is not exaggerated. Leblanc was sitting 1 going into icky's last third stone. His first instinct was to call the in-turn through the port as that would have been the easier way to get through the hole based on the staggering of the rocks. However, as icky was sliding down the ice, he thought that it would be hard to hold the shooter with the in-turn as the rock would be curling away from the blue stone being hit. There also seemed to be just enough room to get through the port with firm weight by playing the out-turn, which, if made, would guarantee the shooter staying. Thus the call was the out-turn (unfavourable stagger) through the port takeout. Part of the difficulty was this was end 2 and icky wasn't completely sure how much ice to give. The rock was well thrown. Icky calls them off and on the stone with his yells of "hard" and "whoa". His yelling always seems to attract attention from adjacent sheets as that usually indicates icky is attempting a difficult shot. The rock skinnies by the top blue, grazes past the red, and makes perfect contact to sit 3. There was a buzz from the Baigent vs Harris game beside us and Paul couldn't believe there was even enough room to get through that port. Incredible.

The rest of the game was a seesaw battle. Hai played a nice hit and stick with her last in 6 against 2 to close the gap to 1. We stole 2 (flukily) in 7. With 10 minutes left, Roger didn't think there was time, but we insisted there was. Hai throws a nice draw on her last for shot. Roger hits it out cleanly to take 3 and win. Our losing plans finally succeed!