Mens Finals: Martin vs Elgie. Right click to save.

The night started with the AGM of the UofT Curling Club. Free pizza and beer! Seems like lots of people forgot to come. As was planned, Team Martin annexed the club exec positions: ikey as president, icky as vice president, hai as treasurer, and ada as admin.


End 1: Playing on sheet 3, ikey lost the toss but Elgie gave us hammer. He thinks rock 7 is a bit slow. I must say I didn't find rock 7 that strange. The first end featured lots of hits, but the crucial one was on icky's first when he made a nice hit and roll behind cover.
Elgie attempts a draw that was 2/3 exposed, leaving icky a easy hit and stick for the deuce. 2 for Team Martin.

End 2: Elgie tries to get some rocks in play but we played another bunch of hits. Elgie faced the below situation on his last against 2 blue Martin stones. He barely made it for shot and nearly crashed on the guard, but he gets his 1 to cut the lead in half.


End 3: We got one buried early and protected. Icky's last was an open draw to the 8-foot for the second point, but he sails it well long.

End 4: Trouble started brewing in end 4. It started with a draw that was to the back of the button and progressively got more ugly.




Elgie sat three around the button, frozen, guarded, and with backing. Icky's only remaining hope was to throw peel weight at the corner of the rock he could see to squirt two of the rocks out. The shot was there but had to be thrown precisely and with good weight.

Some tension filled moments with the sweeping (and from the crowd), but we make it. The result was about as good as we could have gotten: 1 red Elgie stone remained shot, but we sat 2nd and 3rd. Dennis has to draw to the full 4-foot for the deuce but is about an inch too long. We escape with a 1 point lead.

End 5: The end was set up nicely for us with two buried early. However, a hogged guard by ikey leaves the opposition third a double which he makes. On icky's first, he tried to skinny through a port for a takeout. He gets a nice roll as well to sit half buried. Elgie crashes on his attempt and icky has another free draw for the deuce. Again, he sails it right through.

End 6: Team Elgie is finally able to get their deuce when they drew right to the button for their second point.

End 7: Team Elgie, in a tied game, decides to throw his first into the house. A bit unorthodoxed strategy but they were hoping for a miss by us to force us to 1 and at the same time making sure we didn't get our deuce. In the end, icky had this hit and roll out for the blank which he makes.


End 8: Despite Elgie's belief that icky called a "retarded" shot for iszy's second rock (and iszy was also a bit confused), icky had a plan for the unconventional strategy. And the plan worked. The shot put icky in his confort zone, with various options being available on his rocks and maybe confused Elgie or even got him overconfident about his prospects. Either way, Elgie's last draw attempt went through the rings, leaving icky this routine hit without needing to hold the shooter for the win.
After a good slide and a few tension filled moments we all knew it was good and Elgie hangs his head in defeat as his fate was sealed. It was a perfect display of how we used not only great shot making, but also how we played to elgie's overconfidence, temperament, and need to complain to win the game. My odd strategy put the pressure back in Elgie's court, and what he suggests as a simple shot - the easiest shot in the game that even icky should be able to make with last rock - he couldn't even put in the paint. Dennis: point proven! A cold draw isn't that easy when you've got all the pressure and the game hangs in the balance. He succumbed to the pressure of the moment and couldn't even show some grace in his defeat. Watch out when icky learns to play some draws. When that happens, you wont have a chance against Team Martin.

Team Martin finished the year in style, demonstrating improvement and their ability to play well when it counts. Although the season started slow, we hung in there and then the tides really turned after the victory against Marianchuk, after which we must have had one of the best records of any team. By the end, we beat every team we played, including McCoy and Elgie in the last two games, and went undefeated against Marianchuk, Ritchie, the varsity girls, and the varisty guys (although we only played each of them once). What a great finish to cap off an outstanding season.