Martin vs Ritchie

I realize my curling posts have been dull as of late for my loyal fans. So I am going all out with this post, another Martin vs Ritchie classic last Thursday (A2 vs A3). Ritchie got the better of us in the first game, needing a final rock draw to the 4-foot for the win. Team Martin was out for redemption.

End 1: Plying blue rocks on sheet 1 (yellow in the image below), Ritchie was sitting 3 going to icky's first rock. While icky could have tried to outdraw the Ritchie shot stone on his first, the ice was very very slow and icky nor the sweepers had any idea what to throw. Instead, icky opts for the hit and roll to sit behind cover and shot as shown below. A miss would mean icky would be playing against 3 on last rock with no idea what draw weight was.



Success! Icky is left with a draw for the second point and he throws hack and only comes up top 12 with sweeping. This missed final draw shows how important that perfect hit and roll was on icky's first as Team Martin could have been down 3-0 otherwise.

End 2: We are again threatening to steal, but icky needs to make another precise hit and roll to seal the deal on the steal. See what happens below.



End 3: Now up 2-0, we continue to mount the pressure with another single steal in the 3rd after a great draw behind cover by indy (previous known as sandman) and some perfect guarding by irby (aka irobot, aka robert).

End 4: Team Ritchie finally threatens to score in the 4th, sitting a single half buried (see video). Icky attempts to remove it with a precise hit on the curly side of the ice.



The shooter even sticks behind cover, leaving Ritchie with a draw to the 4-foot for his single. It comes up short. A steal of 2 means a 5-0 lead and Ritchie shaking his head.

End 5: Two errant hits back-to-back by indy and irby leads to a 3 spot. 5-3.

End 6: Icky, facing 2, needs a hit and slight roll inside to score the single. The roll goes the other way and Ritchie cuts the lead to 5-4.

End 7: In the 7th, icky makes back to back draws to take a deuce and put the game almost out of reach at 7-4.

End 8: We run them out of stones, with icky capping off a solid game with a double takeout.

Endnotes: Elgie's tie against Gosselin puts them atop the standings at 2-0-1. Martin and Ritchie follow at 2-1. The rest of the pack will be fighting for the final div A staying spot.