Monday 11 March 2013

Final Mixed Results and Skills Award Winners

Sorry about the clumsy title but wanted to make sure that you read to the end of this post are there are two distinct stories included.

ECA Mixed Championships

In my previous post I said

"Results so far point to a Sharp v Zachary final as both should win their games tomorrow morning at 0930, but this is curling......"

After 7 ends and 15 stones in the respective last session round robin games John Sharp was peels at 7-7 and had a half hidden stone to remove from the rings to win his game against John Brown, while Bryan Zachary, also tied at 7-7, could only wait and see if Fiona Hawker would outdraw his last stone.

In the end John did and Fiona didn't and we had a final between John who was undefeated and Bryan who had only lost the one game (to John) in the round robin. If Fiona had drawn the shot to beat Bryan then we could all have gone home early as Bryan would have been 2 wins behind John in the final standings.

And the final also went the distance - one down with the hammer, John had to draw the 4 foot to get his 2 and win the Championship and this he duly achieved to win 5-4 and so a trip to Scotland in September for the European Mixed Championships awaits John, Lorna Rettig, Nigel Patrick and Alison Hemmings, all of whom are Scottish born and took up curling while still youngsters in Scotland.


ECA MIXED CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS - Alison Hemmings, Nigel Patrick, Lorna Rettig, John Sharp (Photo courtesy of  Stephen Hinds)


John won the Scottish Schools and Scottish Juniors while Lorna was runner-up in the Scottish Schools and Nigel was runner up in the National Pairs in their past lives. Alison was in Sweden for the Europeans this year with the English ladies, Lorna has played in the Europeans 6 times, and also in the World Mixed Doubles while John has played in 4 World Mixed Doubles, 1 with Lorna and also in the World Junior Championship for Scotland and the World Senior Championship for England!!

Final round scores:

Andrew Woolston 11 Ken Maxwell  4
John Sharp 10 John Brown 7
Bryan Zachary 8 Fiona Hawker 7

Final round-robin standings

John Sharp 5-0
Bryan Zachary 4-1
Andrew Woolston 2-3
Ken Maxwell 2-3
Fiona Hawker 1-4
John Brown 1-4

Junior Skills Awards Winners

Following the example of the RCCC, the ECA has started a Junior Skills Award programme for the many young curlers coming to Fenton's,  and this is also available of course to Juniors elsewhere in the country.

The first assessment evening was held last Tuesday and 6 of the successful candidates received their Orange Award certificates on Sunday at the Mixed Championship presentation as shown below. It is hoped they will go on now to the higher grades - Bronze, Silver and Gold and that others will follow their example. There is a lower Yellow Grade also available.


ORANGE SKILLS AWARD WINNERS: Ben Fowler, Rebecca Watts, Sarah Decoine, Amy Burnett, Shannon Conlin, Kitty Conlin (Photo courtesy of Stephen Hinds) [Not present was Bonnie Marsden]

Saturday 9 March 2013

More results

Saturday evening and after a hard 3 session day, John Sharp leads the way in the ECA Mixed Championships having won all 4 games so far.

In the evening session tonight he did not let Fiona Hawker get a look-in after covering the button with his Last Stone Draw and then taking a 4 at the first end after which he continued to steal singles until, after 6 ends, hands were shaken at 9-0.

Bryan Zachary remains in second after beating Ken Maxwell by 9-3. He is guaranteed to finish second overall now in the round robin and will play a final against John Sharp if he wins tomorrow against Fiona Hawker. However if he loses and John beats John Brown then John Sharp will win the Championships as he will be undefeated and have two more points than Bryan.

Results so far point to a Sharp v Zachary final as both should win their games tomorrow morning at 0930, but this is curling......

John Brown won his first game of the weekend when he beat Andrew Woolston 7-4. Win-loss record now is:

John Sharp 4-0
Bryan Zachary 3-1
Ken Maxwell 2-2
Andrew Woolston 1-3
John Brown 1-3
Fiona Hawker 1-3

RESULTS FROM ECA MIXED CHAMPIONSHIP

More results from ECA Mixed Championships

Ken Maxwell 8 Fiona Hawker 5
John Sharp 6 Andrew Woolston 4
Bryan Zachary 9 John Brown 4
Bryan Zachary 8 Andrew Woolston 2
Fiona Hawker 9 John Brown 8
John Sharp 7 Ken Maxwell 5

So after 3 games:

John Sharp 3 wins
Bryan Zachary 2 wins
Ken Maxwell 2 wins
Andrew Woolston 1 win
Fiona Hawker 1 win
John Brown 0 wins

ENGLISH MIXED CHAMPIONSHIPS

It is the English Mixed Championships at Fenton's this weekend. Six teams have entered and they will be playing a single round robin with a final unless one team is undefeated and two wins clear of the second team.

First round scores

 Bryan Zachary     3       John Sharp       7
 Ken Maxwell         8      John Brown       4
 Andrew Woolston   8     Fiona Hawker    6


The Draw and teams entered are as follows



NATIONAL MIXED CHAMPIONSHIP, 2013

Fenton’s Ice Rink, March 8th to 10th

DRAW

Friday 8th March                       1900

1          Bryan Zachary               v          John Sharp
2          Ken Maxwell                  v          John Brown
3          Andrew Woolston          v          Fiona Hawker

Saturday 9th March                  0930

1          Fiona Hawker                v          Ken Maxwell
2          John Sharp                   v          Andrew Woolston
3          John Brown                   v          Bryan Zachary

Saturday 9th March                  1330

1          Bryan Zachary               v          Andrew Woolston
2          John Brown                   v          Fiona Hawker
3          John Sharp                   v          Ken Maxwell

Saturday 9th March                  1730

1          Fiona Hawker                v          John Sharp
2          Ken Maxwell                  v          Bryan Zachary
3          Andrew Woolston          v          John Brown

Sunday 10th March                  0930

1          Ken Maxwell                  v          Andrew Woolston
2          John Brown                   v          John Sharp
3          Fiona Hawker                v          Bryan Zachary

Sunday 10th March                  1400

FINAL

TEAMS PARTICIPATING

Bryan Zachary               Lauren Pearce               Kerr Alexander              Naomi Robinson
Harry Mallows               Lucy Sparks                    Ken Maxwell (skip)        Katie Dolan
Andrew Woolston          Anna Fowler                  Ben Fowler                    Hetty Garnier
John Sharp                   Lorna Rettig                  Nigel Patrick                  Alison Hemmings
John Brown                   Jean Robinson              Steve Amann                Niamh Fenton
Fiona Hawker                Mark Wilkinson              Angharad Ward             Gary Tapp