Just got back from the Plainfield CC’s “Bonsqueal” bonspiel, and holy cow!  What a party!  I haven’t seen anything like that since my college days.  It’s more like a party where the curling is incidental.  And this year, PCC had some bad luck within the last few weeks which rendered ice conditions to be - shall we say - less than perfect.  Greb’s Gulch on sheet 1 comes to mind! :-)  More on sheet 1 later.

Plainfield is a 2 sheet club and they manage to cram 32 teams into this spiel.  All games are 6 ends, except finals, which are 8 ends, so the games move along rather well overall.  Even I managed to move my games along, but then again, the vice & I were on the same page 95% of the time.

Paul & I picked up Heather & Mike around 11:30am on Thursday and then I moved us along to South Plainfield in 4h 30m; we were at the hotel by 4:00pm.  By 4:30 we were at the club with drinks in hands, priming ourselves for our first game at 5:15pm.  I will be the first to say that we at the Utica CC are very spoiled when it comes to ice conditions.  The ice crew - all of us, including our outside “consultants” - do a great job of trying to give participants the best curling conditions for every game.  We also have an advantage in that we have more than 2 sheets of ice; this means there is at least one sheet which isn’t a “wall” sheet.  Sheets next to an exterior wall need more care & attention for them to play nice. 

Apparently there had been a problem with the compressors and dehumidifiers at PCC within the last three weeks.  Plus, in a two sheet club, all the sheets are outside (”wall”) sheets.  :-)  Fortunately for us, Mike (vice) plays with a very good men’s team and that experience really helped me with reading the ice and all the crazy angles we had to deal with.  He also bailed us out a LOT.  Of course, then I shot and screwed up ths situation again.  Well … not so much, really.  Our final record was 5-1, so I didn’t screw up that much.  To sum up, the middle of the sheets - where sheet 1 met sheet 2 - was the top of “Mount Plainfield” and then sloped off to the wall on either side.  Of course, each sheet had its own “personality” and after five games in a row on sheet 1, I knew it, respected it, and was strangely sad to say “good-bye” to it.

We won our first game, albeit a bit shakily, against a nice team from Chesapeake.  Our second game was against Aaron Dubberley, ice guy from Plainfield.  Ice guys know stuff, so you can be very sure I watched his broom placement like a hawk stooping on her prey.  We did very well against his team but alas!  It was the last easy victory we would have.

Our next game was against a composite team from Plainfield, Pittsburgh & Potomac.  They taught us a lesson or two about sheet 1, which I think I learned for our next games.  We were now in the D event, doomed to early morning draws.  Did I mention most of us - especially Mike - do not like mornings?  Heather’s the exception; she starts her work day around 5am or 6am so she was amazingly chipper.  I think Mike had the right idea about the Tanguerays & OJ (English mimosa) in the morning.  Once in the D, it was win or be done with curling.  I don’t like to be done, as much as I detest 8am draws.  So here we go in our 4th game, against a Schenectady team.  I’m stressing, I’m not curling (or shooting) well, and we’re four down in the 5th end (out of 6 ends).  We’re running out of time.  All I have is a tap-up to the 4′ on the wall side where rocks will drift out to the wall with the wrong weight and/or broom.  The rock to be tapped up is just touching the 12′, about 4′ off centerline.  I remember letting the rock go and thinking, “Maybe … but too light. *&$%!!”  Paul and Heather want to sweep but can’t, because they’ll screw up the line.  I’m watching the rock and say, “Guess there aren’t any breaks for Shelley today,” and then the rock starts to curl back toward the target.  Mike calls for a sweep and it looks good - but is it heavy enough?  Paul doesn’t think so and starts kicking a couple rocks back in disgust (unusual for him).  Ted (the other skip) says as he zips past me back to the other end of the sheet, “It’s close but I think it’s you.”  I finally decide to really look and am shocked at what I see - it really could be us!  Mike & the other vice can’t decide, so they measure, and yes!  We made the shot!  Down three in the 6th, without hammer, I decide to play on.  Three, I can manage. 

The end sets up.  Ted has his lead throw into the 8′, teasing me with a target.  Yeah, right.  Heather throws up a corner, perhaps just touching, on the “uphill” side of the sheet.  I had found if you got some rocks in there - on the uphill side, they were much harder to remove.  Ted throws a few more rocks at that, and can’t remove it.  Meanwhile, I’m putting up another corner guard, tapping the rock in the house around, and before you know it, I’m sitting a possible three (the third’s a measure).  My first shot is a center guard, taking away any straight hits in the house and draw to the wall side - where at least one of my rocks is.  He removes it.  I tell Mike for my next shot, “This must be third shot, right here.”  Top center, full 12′ is exactly where it needs to be for any chance at a win.  We’re not sure of the third stone, but we think it’s us, but we’re not going to bet on it.  That far out of the rings, it could be anyone’s rock.  I deliver the rock, Paul and Heather sweep the heck out of it, and it’s perfect.  Right to full 12′, dead center.  I can’t believe it.  I don’t think anyone did, especially me.

Now Ted’s got some runbacks, maybe even a double, but all he really needs to do is either: remove one of the definite counters OR get in there for second, even third rock.  The first way is more likely to be a tie, the second, a win for him.  He ends up removing our fourth counter with a very heavy takeout, leaving us lying three.  Tie!  Ties are determined by skip’s rocks, with sweeping.  This is a bit of a gamble, and one I was sort of counting on.  I had just thrown two soft shots, a guard and a draw to the top 12′.  A draw to the button is only a bit more, but still close.  He had just thrown two heavy takeouts (and every skip thinks this so I’m pretty sure he was thinking the same thing) and draw weight isn’t even close to that.  My skip rock goes to full 8′.  Not bad, but I could have thrown it better, as it lost its handle and ground to a halt early.  His draw sails through the house to the hacks.  Yay for us!

The D semi final is Sunday at 8am.  Grrrr.  We start off well, up three after two and then Michelle checked out for a bit.  By the sixth, we were down three with hammer.  Eerily familiar?  I thought so.  Mike thought so.  We were laughing about it, apparently we liked being down by three in the sixth, we joked.  Setup?  Well - you saw what worked before.  It worked even better the second time.  In fact, the opposing skip went after the definitely NOT counting fourth stone (it was 5th, his yellow fourth counter was in the back 12′), hit the inside of it, pushed it towards the middle of sheets one and two to the edge of the 12′, still in full 12′; then his shooter rolled behind all our stones, and doubled himself out in the back, leaving us lying four.  No need to shoot that last stone!  Now I’m thinking I’m onto something here…

The finals?  First of all, a change of venue for us, as we finally got to play on sheet 2!  A very good game against another Schenectady team, even if tempers (on our side) were running a bit higher than normal.  Mine wasn’t though, I was strangely relaxed and calm.  Trust me, this is very unusual for me.  I certainly wanted to win - who doesn’t - but I had a bizarre detachment happening, and what the heck?  Let’s go with the flow!  We won the toss for hammer (our first), and took two in the first.  Paul burned the draw for three (I’m pretty sure it was good), but hey!  It happens.  Then we start giving up one’s.  We took one in the fifth.  And then the decision.

There’s a saying in curling that if you can’t take two with hammer, you should blank the end and try for your two in the next end.  I’m not a nationals level skip by any means, and I usually don’t do that.  I play very conservatively and take my one regardless.  Mike and I discussed my last shot of the seventh.  There was a chance to blank, and down one with hammer in the eighth is a very winnable scenario.  (You saw what happened when I was down three!)  But to blank, I had to be sure to hit the rock first and my takeouts were a bit shaky that game.  Along with the squirrely center line of sheet 2 (too much weight and the wrong line, your rock will float away towards the wall and shall never be seen again; but then again it was the “straight” side, where you should - when possible - always do your takeouts from), it was a level of risk that I was only just comfortable with.  But my instincts said, “Absolutely, this is correct,” and I listened.  I delivered the rock, it looked good for the take, and then I heard his call, “Go for the blank?” 

Yes.

A bit of sweeping, and the blank happened perfectly.  I don’t recall ever - as a skip - doing that so right.  Now for the payoff: could I set up the end for two? 

It started OK but turned rather quickly.  Paul’s first rock pushed in Art’s center guard to the top 8′.  (I gave Paul the wrong broom.)   Then Art thought he should now try to clear my corners, but the wall side came back to bite him.  Dan’s second rock floated just a bit, hit the outside of our corner guard and ran our rock onto his in the house, and then our rock spun a bit to sit in the top 4′, just wall side of center.  Paul then threw a guard.  Art tried to clear (I think once more), and then had Brian come in.  I knew a better draw than the counter in the house was entirely possible, but I had to protect our shot before I could even think about two.  And I knew that I would have to throw for the two most likely.

Brian’s rock was a little wide and heavy and somehow stayed straight and came to rest in the back 8′, just past the back 4′ on the sheet 1 side of the centerline.  There it was!  I knew that would be my two, somehow.  I forget what Art’s first shot was, but mine was a missed takeout, coming off centerline.  Shades of Rochester passed through my mind… but not again!  His last shot was a draw, but it was only just shorter than Brian’s, giving me a nice big target … to draw down to.  I almost protested Mike’s call but - I listened.  No more takeouts, let’s go with what I do well.  Heavy draw for the win.

Paul told me the split to throw - a 3.40 (from backline to hog) - and as I let it go, I knew it had a chance.  The split was dead-on.  I was even on the broom!  But it stayed out there forever.   Finally, finally, it began to move, and then … it slid towards the target rocks in the house like we expected.  It tapped the second counter back a foot or so, and rolled in 3″ for the win.

So now I am mentally spent and physically mostly so.  But it was a weekend well worth it, Heather & Mike were a blast.   I only wish we could’ve got some blue crab to bring back with us!