Posted by Britt
So we had a late afternoon game on Friday aginst some curlers from Utica, the host club. We won a tight match and advanced to play this afternoon at 5 PM. So your first question should be, why am I hearing about this win so late. Well the answer is simple...I was drunk. We all were drunk, except for David who does not drink. But I digress, we had a blast at the banquet, the prime rib was excellent and the company was fabulous. Its amazing how even the most competitive of teams will relax at thebanquet and just have a good time. It really made for a wonderful evening.
That leads me to today. We had a 5 PM draw against Rochester who had to win at 11:30 today just to get to us. The game was great, they curler fabulusly, we did not curl as well. We made a greta match of it but in the end fell short in the C division quarterfinals. I must say they were a great bunch of guys and I've always had no problem losing to a superior team, and tonight they were dead on and we faltered a bit. My shots in particular were poor, but at this point we were 2-2 as a first year entry into this tourney and we'd already had a blast.
I cannot encourage you first, second, fourth years enough to get out of Bridgeport and go on the road. While we represented Nutmeg valiantly, I cannot help but think we could have done so much more with another team or two out here and having curled with so many of you over my three years, I can honestly tell you that you guys are as good as anyone out here this weekend. Not to mention, its a tremendous party and a great time. Now I know they picked a terrible weekend to have this event, Valentine's Day is never th best time for a male only event, but next year, we here in Utica sincerely hope you'll come out with us. We have already discussed keeping this team together for at least another year and would love the company. I think we have one of the best clubs around and its time we shared the good times we have with the rest of the GNCC. Ok, I'm done and its time for more drinking, we'll see you all soon. -Britt
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Second Day
Posted by Britt
Ok, so I'm the only one interested in posting it seems. Anyway, we just had our second game and lost to Utica dropping us to the third event. I hit two shots in this game...yes, you heard that correctly, two shots. I was terrible in this match. And it cost us. Sean had difficulty with his weight and none of swept very well... all in all its probably the worst game we played as a team all year long.
There's just something about that second draw with this team. We did the same thing in Schenectady. That time we were able to pin it on a little too much partying the night before, but I got no one to blame this time around but ourselves. And give credit to an excellent Utica team. They played phenomenally, I can honestly say if we had played our best game, it would have been a tight match and I don't say that very often. Their third was a high school curler in his fifth year and at my absolute best, this young man could order me to get him a sammich! The skip called an excellent game, had a great working knowledge of his team and was able to make some very good shots when he needed to. There were times I thought we might steal two to climb back in (in fact had we stolen 2 in the 7th like we were set up, we would have been down one without the hammer coming home, which is not an impossible situation), and he cleared us out on a very difficult double to take more points!
Worst of all, I lost my cool out there today. I slammed my broom down on the ice once, I felt like my skip was ignoring my advice and making poor line calls, and ultimately ended up distracting our lead. not to mention a tremendous blunder on my part in the 6th, which I'll talk about in a second. I let the frustration of our back end's poor play get to me. If there was a shot there, I'd miss it outright and Sean would come up three feet short, we were terrible. He got himself together after the 3rd end & made some great shots down the stretch, but I never recovered. I did manage to not yell at him, but I caused a distraction for my team and that's the last thing I want to do. Anyone who tells you that the 5 and under bracket doesn't have competition is insane. It may not be anything to the scale that Clarissa or Jeff or Derek are undertaking, but these guys are out here busting their butts and I do, which is good that I'm getting this experience, so I can improve. This is the only way for me to learn this stuff, and ultimately if taking a beating this year makes me better prepared for my fourth year, then its absolutely worth it.
So my blunder in the 6th. Utica's skip delivered his last rock and took us out to sit on the button. His vice looked at me and said, "1 red?". I looked down the ice and did not see any rocks. I thought we had hammer but also realized I could have been mistaken, so I said, "Yeah, I guess so." and we both kicked rocks. Sean screams from the other end and sure enough, he has one rock left. Bad miss on my part. The reason I saw no other rocks was because Mike had moved it in front of the hack for Sean out of courtesy. I should have looked at the scoreboard when I had that second thought and I almost cost us big time. fortunately, their vice conceded the error had been his and we were able to reset the three stones we had moved, but I need to be more on top of that stuff.
So we're in the third event now and basically face elimination this afternoon against another Utica team. I really want to try and apply the lessons I learned this morning to the afternoon draw. Keeping myself focused and not letting the fact that I stink get to me. Keep us in your thoughts everybody.
Ok, so I'm the only one interested in posting it seems. Anyway, we just had our second game and lost to Utica dropping us to the third event. I hit two shots in this game...yes, you heard that correctly, two shots. I was terrible in this match. And it cost us. Sean had difficulty with his weight and none of swept very well... all in all its probably the worst game we played as a team all year long.
There's just something about that second draw with this team. We did the same thing in Schenectady. That time we were able to pin it on a little too much partying the night before, but I got no one to blame this time around but ourselves. And give credit to an excellent Utica team. They played phenomenally, I can honestly say if we had played our best game, it would have been a tight match and I don't say that very often. Their third was a high school curler in his fifth year and at my absolute best, this young man could order me to get him a sammich! The skip called an excellent game, had a great working knowledge of his team and was able to make some very good shots when he needed to. There were times I thought we might steal two to climb back in (in fact had we stolen 2 in the 7th like we were set up, we would have been down one without the hammer coming home, which is not an impossible situation), and he cleared us out on a very difficult double to take more points!
Worst of all, I lost my cool out there today. I slammed my broom down on the ice once, I felt like my skip was ignoring my advice and making poor line calls, and ultimately ended up distracting our lead. not to mention a tremendous blunder on my part in the 6th, which I'll talk about in a second. I let the frustration of our back end's poor play get to me. If there was a shot there, I'd miss it outright and Sean would come up three feet short, we were terrible. He got himself together after the 3rd end & made some great shots down the stretch, but I never recovered. I did manage to not yell at him, but I caused a distraction for my team and that's the last thing I want to do. Anyone who tells you that the 5 and under bracket doesn't have competition is insane. It may not be anything to the scale that Clarissa or Jeff or Derek are undertaking, but these guys are out here busting their butts and I do, which is good that I'm getting this experience, so I can improve. This is the only way for me to learn this stuff, and ultimately if taking a beating this year makes me better prepared for my fourth year, then its absolutely worth it.
So my blunder in the 6th. Utica's skip delivered his last rock and took us out to sit on the button. His vice looked at me and said, "1 red?". I looked down the ice and did not see any rocks. I thought we had hammer but also realized I could have been mistaken, so I said, "Yeah, I guess so." and we both kicked rocks. Sean screams from the other end and sure enough, he has one rock left. Bad miss on my part. The reason I saw no other rocks was because Mike had moved it in front of the hack for Sean out of courtesy. I should have looked at the scoreboard when I had that second thought and I almost cost us big time. fortunately, their vice conceded the error had been his and we were able to reset the three stones we had moved, but I need to be more on top of that stuff.
So we're in the third event now and basically face elimination this afternoon against another Utica team. I really want to try and apply the lessons I learned this morning to the afternoon draw. Keeping myself focused and not letting the fact that I stink get to me. Keep us in your thoughts everybody.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
First night in Utica
Posted by Britt
Hi, everyone. So here we are in Utica for the Dykes Memorial. Its a pretty large event with 36 teams registered. Its a men's five and under.
We were pretty disappointed that we were the only Nutmeggers that were making the trip. Some of the clubs up here have sevral teams. Schnectady, Utica and Philadelphia all have at least 5 teams here. Next year, I think we need to make a real effort to make folks aware of this event and encourage people to attend. The whole idea of this blog is to do that to some extent, and to give an easy place for people to follow our progress.
Our first draw was this afternoon at 3 PM against our sister club Norfolk. Let me start by saying, these guys were super nice and I really enjoyed playing with them. After three ends we were down 6-2 after they made what I can only call an improbable shot in the third. We had three stones all frozen in a straight line. They tried to outdraw and when their skip came heavy and straight, they decided to cut us down to two by hitting the row. Do not ask me how, I dont really understand it myself, and I was there, but the stone hit nose, somehow transferred handle peeling the front stone off to the right, which sent the second stone left and the transfer of momentum sent the third stone out the back. A triple take out. I could not believe it, it was amazing. the shooter planted and all of a sudden an opportunity for us to steal, became us surrendering three to make it 6-2! Sean brushed off the end and led us to take four with the hammer, tieing the match. From there on out, we were able to control most of the tempo and won the match 10-7
We curl tomorrow at 8:30 AM against a team from the host club Utica. I decided to call it a bit of an early night as the drive took it out of me. If I could complain about anything so far this trip it would only be the drive. Because we had a 3 PM draw and it is a solid 4 hour drive, we left this morning at 8 AM, so I'm going to bed. We have a double tomorrow and I'll try to update more then. -B
Hi, everyone. So here we are in Utica for the Dykes Memorial. Its a pretty large event with 36 teams registered. Its a men's five and under.
We were pretty disappointed that we were the only Nutmeggers that were making the trip. Some of the clubs up here have sevral teams. Schnectady, Utica and Philadelphia all have at least 5 teams here. Next year, I think we need to make a real effort to make folks aware of this event and encourage people to attend. The whole idea of this blog is to do that to some extent, and to give an easy place for people to follow our progress.
Our first draw was this afternoon at 3 PM against our sister club Norfolk. Let me start by saying, these guys were super nice and I really enjoyed playing with them. After three ends we were down 6-2 after they made what I can only call an improbable shot in the third. We had three stones all frozen in a straight line. They tried to outdraw and when their skip came heavy and straight, they decided to cut us down to two by hitting the row. Do not ask me how, I dont really understand it myself, and I was there, but the stone hit nose, somehow transferred handle peeling the front stone off to the right, which sent the second stone left and the transfer of momentum sent the third stone out the back. A triple take out. I could not believe it, it was amazing. the shooter planted and all of a sudden an opportunity for us to steal, became us surrendering three to make it 6-2! Sean brushed off the end and led us to take four with the hammer, tieing the match. From there on out, we were able to control most of the tempo and won the match 10-7
We curl tomorrow at 8:30 AM against a team from the host club Utica. I decided to call it a bit of an early night as the drive took it out of me. If I could complain about anything so far this trip it would only be the drive. Because we had a 3 PM draw and it is a solid 4 hour drive, we left this morning at 8 AM, so I'm going to bed. We have a double tomorrow and I'll try to update more then. -B
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Schenectady: The First Night
Posted by Britt
We arrived in Schenectady and got checked in to the hotel in the afternoon. This gave us an hour or two just to relax and unwind. Our first draw was scheduled for 8:30 PM, but there was an early draw starting at 6 PM and our colleagues from Nutmeg would be playing in it, so we wanted to go and watch. This of course had nothing to do with the fact that I was hungry or that David & Mike wanted to scout out the ice, of course.
The club is beautiful. A large warm room with a fireplace a large bar area and everything you could want short of a restaurant in there. the folks are very friendly. and dont get me started about their locker room, its massive. I love nutmeg, but this if I have to travel, this is the kind of place I'd want to travel to.
Our friends from Nutmeg 2, fought valiantly and played a very close match. Joel kept them off guard by stealing a few ends early but in the end they could not pull off the win. They played one Hell of a game and I was honored to congratulate them coming off the ice. they play again today @ 12:30 and we will be there, so we wish them well. I think they have a very good chance of going to the 2nd event final and had fate been a little kinder, the 1st event final.
We played a team from Schenectady who could not have been a nicer group of guys. We took 4 in the first end and just cruised from there. We kept waiting for them to make some sort of comeback attempt and played consistently and aggressively, but they couldn't mount a comeback and we won the game 13-2 after 6 ends. We play today @ 9:30.
We are having a blast, the people here are fantastic and I have met so many nice people. The level of competition is strong but there are teams here with only a year of experience. The lead on the team we played last night, is in his first year, so anyone who gives you the impression that you have to have a certain amount of experience before you go to one of these events, is a fool. there, I said it. The team we played last night was no better or worse experience and skill wise than anyone I've played at the club level. The blessing and curse of the 5 & Under bracket is the time frame. You're learning the game and unsure of your skills but you only have a limited amount of time to develop those skills before these events are inaccessible. DO NOT WAIT! Go to a Bonspiel, if you think you're not ready, you're wrong. The game is only half the fun and trust me you will have fun.
I'm finishing breakfast and getting ready for the morning draw as I type this. I was nervous last night until I stepped on the ice, and I'm more nervous right now. We set a pretty high standard last night and I only hope we can keep it up. Last night was easily the best game I've played all year and it will be tough to top it, but I'll try. Keep us in your thought. -Britt
We arrived in Schenectady and got checked in to the hotel in the afternoon. This gave us an hour or two just to relax and unwind. Our first draw was scheduled for 8:30 PM, but there was an early draw starting at 6 PM and our colleagues from Nutmeg would be playing in it, so we wanted to go and watch. This of course had nothing to do with the fact that I was hungry or that David & Mike wanted to scout out the ice, of course.
The club is beautiful. A large warm room with a fireplace a large bar area and everything you could want short of a restaurant in there. the folks are very friendly. and dont get me started about their locker room, its massive. I love nutmeg, but this if I have to travel, this is the kind of place I'd want to travel to.
Our friends from Nutmeg 2, fought valiantly and played a very close match. Joel kept them off guard by stealing a few ends early but in the end they could not pull off the win. They played one Hell of a game and I was honored to congratulate them coming off the ice. they play again today @ 12:30 and we will be there, so we wish them well. I think they have a very good chance of going to the 2nd event final and had fate been a little kinder, the 1st event final.
We played a team from Schenectady who could not have been a nicer group of guys. We took 4 in the first end and just cruised from there. We kept waiting for them to make some sort of comeback attempt and played consistently and aggressively, but they couldn't mount a comeback and we won the game 13-2 after 6 ends. We play today @ 9:30.
We are having a blast, the people here are fantastic and I have met so many nice people. The level of competition is strong but there are teams here with only a year of experience. The lead on the team we played last night, is in his first year, so anyone who gives you the impression that you have to have a certain amount of experience before you go to one of these events, is a fool. there, I said it. The team we played last night was no better or worse experience and skill wise than anyone I've played at the club level. The blessing and curse of the 5 & Under bracket is the time frame. You're learning the game and unsure of your skills but you only have a limited amount of time to develop those skills before these events are inaccessible. DO NOT WAIT! Go to a Bonspiel, if you think you're not ready, you're wrong. The game is only half the fun and trust me you will have fun.
I'm finishing breakfast and getting ready for the morning draw as I type this. I was nervous last night until I stepped on the ice, and I'm more nervous right now. We set a pretty high standard last night and I only hope we can keep it up. Last night was easily the best game I've played all year and it will be tough to top it, but I'll try. Keep us in your thought. -Britt
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Openers
Posted by Britt
Hi everybody. I wanted a place I could post my thoughts and progress as we head out on the road this season. I'm traveling with David Asano, Mike Hope & Sean Mayne. We are hitting Schenectady for the USWCA 5 & Under before heading to the Dykes in February. We leave in a little under a week and I thought a blog would be an ideal place for us to all post our ideas.
So stay tuned, I'll be asking the other team members to post as we travel and represent Nutmeg on the open trail this year. I'm both excited and scared to be heading to Schenectady this week. Excited to get a taste of competition outside the club walls and terrified to experience competition outside the club walls. I'm reassured that I'm traveling with a wonderful group of teammates, all of which bring something different to the team. Sean brings a consistency in the 4th slot that is hard to find anywhere else. He is one of the few people I have ever met who has been able to take the lessons he learned in his 15 years of bowling and be able to adapt them to curling. In all the years I've known him, I've never met anyone with a more consistent approach to bowling in the way he approaches each and every shot. Mike has traveled a bit already and has experience out in bonspiels. He'll know many of the teams we will face and will be able to help us evaluate teams and identify our own weaknesses as well. David is as enthusiastic as anyone I've ever met at the club and is willing to go out there and have a great time. He has helped me fine tune my delivery a great deal in the last month or so and has a depth of knowledge that is rivaled in many with his level of experience. All in all, the only one who does not seem to have a particular purpose on this team is me, so I've busied myself with helping on the preparation front, organizing practices and communications. So far its been a lot of fun and we haven't even left home yet.
Our draw comes out Monday & we leave Friday. Wish us luck, we will need it. -Britt
Hi everybody. I wanted a place I could post my thoughts and progress as we head out on the road this season. I'm traveling with David Asano, Mike Hope & Sean Mayne. We are hitting Schenectady for the USWCA 5 & Under before heading to the Dykes in February. We leave in a little under a week and I thought a blog would be an ideal place for us to all post our ideas.
So stay tuned, I'll be asking the other team members to post as we travel and represent Nutmeg on the open trail this year. I'm both excited and scared to be heading to Schenectady this week. Excited to get a taste of competition outside the club walls and terrified to experience competition outside the club walls. I'm reassured that I'm traveling with a wonderful group of teammates, all of which bring something different to the team. Sean brings a consistency in the 4th slot that is hard to find anywhere else. He is one of the few people I have ever met who has been able to take the lessons he learned in his 15 years of bowling and be able to adapt them to curling. In all the years I've known him, I've never met anyone with a more consistent approach to bowling in the way he approaches each and every shot. Mike has traveled a bit already and has experience out in bonspiels. He'll know many of the teams we will face and will be able to help us evaluate teams and identify our own weaknesses as well. David is as enthusiastic as anyone I've ever met at the club and is willing to go out there and have a great time. He has helped me fine tune my delivery a great deal in the last month or so and has a depth of knowledge that is rivaled in many with his level of experience. All in all, the only one who does not seem to have a particular purpose on this team is me, so I've busied myself with helping on the preparation front, organizing practices and communications. So far its been a lot of fun and we haven't even left home yet.
Our draw comes out Monday & we leave Friday. Wish us luck, we will need it. -Britt
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