fox | and home again

So how's this for going around and coming around: in our first Kayser, in 2003, I viced for

datlowen and we won the third event. In our first Challenge, in 2004, I viced for

darthrami and we won the third event. This year, in my last Kayser, I skipped a team and won the third event; and this year, in my last Challenge, I skipped a team and won the third event.

[insert statement of extreme curling profundity here]

Recap:

Game 1, Thursday night: We played fine, and actually all made our shots, but one critical sweeping error by the front end on one of mine and a handful of line-calling mistakes by self and Teammate E at vice, and we were goners.

Game 2, Friday noonish: We played like crap. They took 3 in the first and stole 3 in the second; we fought back and were within a point or two after six, but they took four in the sixth and I only got one in the seventh, so we called it a day.

Game 3, Saturday morning: We played better, against a team that hadn't played together much at all. (The other team from Cape Cod, as it happened -- and, in an Evil Cape update, apparently Friday evening Teammate E overheard Good Cape telling some other team how they'd heard all sorts of bad things about their next opponent, i.e. me, from their clubmates. Oh, that skip you're seeing tomorrow morning, she's noisy and foulmouthed and unpleasant and and and. (Pft.) But as it happened I didn't utter a single questionable word in our whole game Saturday morning, and I was sweet as can be, and Good Cape thought I was a doll -- so either they were very good at faking it, or they were a little puzzled by their clubmates' predictions. HA. Take that, Evil Cape. (Extra side note: it was actually only the front end of Evil Cape that was evil. At the time they scolded me -- when, recall, my third had just released her shot so I kind of needed my attention to be elsewhere -- their back end were in the house at the other end of the sheet still discussing what shot to play. This made it even more wrong that they got up in my grill; my teammates thought it had been their skip who spoke to me, which would have been bad enough, but honestly, the front end's job is to STFU and sweep. Seriously.)) They took one, we took three, they took three, we took three, so we're up 6-4 after four, and I think we gave them one in the fifth and took one or two in the sixth and stole one or two in the seventh, and had a three-ish lead coming home and ran them out of rocks. Shouldn't have been even as close as that, but they were pleased not to have been crushed, so that was nice.

Game 4, Saturday afternoon: We played really well, against a team that struggled. We stole three in the first, stole two in the second, I forget what happened in the third and fourth, and in the fifth, well, listen. I had two rocks over on one side and two in the back. She had one in the back, out-counting my two back ones, and one over on the side but clear enough that I can hit it. I look at the shot and decide I need to come and hit her rock such that it goes out the side rather than jamming on the two rocks I've got over there; and failing that, there's a port in the back I can shove it through, if it curls wrong. There's no double of the two of them, I explain, so I'm hitting for three (if I lose the shooter) or maybe four (if I don't). But y'all, it turns out the double was totally there, and I know because I doubled out her two rocks for five. (!!!) I missed a hit in the sixth, giving her one (I think); and in the seventh, omfg, up six I had three rocks over on one side and she had one on the button and I totally fanned it, so instead of taking four and ending the game, I gave her one and was up five coming home with hammer. Ran her out of rocks.

Game 5, Sunday morning: We played really well against a different team that was struggling. They actually stole one in the first and one in the second, but then we took three and stole two and got some more points in the fourth and fifth, and we were up a zillion to two in the sixth when their skip told me this would be the last end if they didn't score. (I said of course it was totally up to her.) High points of that end include (1) her vice's stabilizer falling apart as she came out of the hack, so she didn't even get a chance to deliver her shot; I saw her fall, and thought oh, that's a damn shame, and then I saw her getting up with the thing in two pieces, and I said oh, for heaven's sake, that kind of equipment failure is not on, give her the rock back and let her throw it again (at which point she threw a draw through the house, alas, but that's a much better reason for missing a shot); and (2) my rocks making an almost perfect YMCA logo in and in front of the house. Shame nobody took a picture of it. Anyway, we stole one in the sixth and that was that.

Game 6, Sunday afternoon: We played fine for four ends, going up four or five to one; and then in the fifth end, I don't know what happened, but we totally lost our shit, and between the four of us -- that is, over eight shots -- we made exactly half a shot. (K hit a rock out but we lost the shooter.) Through a miracle involving the other team playing a really mysteriously conservative game, they only got two. Then in the sixth, we failed to regain our shit, and it sucked, and yet somehow -- again, the other team's completely inexplicable caution -- we made a shot and a half (abka hit but rolled out, leaving one of ours in the back instead of two, and I finally made a decent draw with my last rock) and managed to get two points, the ugliest deuce I've ever taken ever. (We named it "assey-deucey".) In the seventh, we shook it off, played our game again instead of hers, and stole two. So we're up four (I think) coming home, and I have E throw through, and opponent puts up a guard, and I have E throw through, and opponent puts up a guard, and K peels one of them, and opponent puts it back, and K throws a perfect double peel that goes between the two guards in a way that should have been physically impossible. We couldn't believe our eyes. Opponent throws a draw that fails to bury, and abka throws a hit that fails to curl and just sails by without hitting a damn thing. I am beginning to fear for my life; this isn't like the time cmshaw tried to steal when she was up five coming home without -- I've done the right tactical things!, and I'm still in trouble! Opponent throws another draw that fails to bury, and abka throws a really nice hit that we're all confident is perfect, and I have already instructed E to sweep the roll, and the fucker ticks a guard and removes nothing. I am gobsmacked. With a four- (or possibly five-!) rock lead, you should not be depending on skips' rocks to win. Opponent does another draw, and there are now three in the house and two guards not really preventing the hits much; I throw a decent hit, thank god, that doesn't wreck on anything, and actually rolls nicely behind the guards (I can no longer really afford to roll out). I am now shot, with two of her rocks in the house, two guards, and two out of play. She does another draw; I hit it and roll the other way, so I'm now counting two, with one of hers in the house, two guards, and three out of play. She looks long and hard at the house and works out that she can't, with the one rock she has left, possibly remove both of mine and raise both her guards and get in with the shooter, so she doesn't bother throwing it and we win. BUT MY GOD YOU GUYS, that kind of lead ought to be safer, ykwis?

We hit the road around 4:30; teammate E got us to the NJ Turnpike, and then I drove the rest of the way while she and

abka dozed intermittently. This was completely fair, and totally easy for me, because although we played six games this weekend -- one Thursday night, one Friday, two yesterday, and two almost back to back today -- I hadn't, we must admit, actually done any actual work. (I give skips enough shit about not working when I'm out front that it's only right to grant that I'm not working when I'm back in the house. I mean, really.) Have been home for maybe an hour.

Tomorrow and Tuesday are spring break, thank god. Plan for tomorrow is laundry and knitting, and possibly building of an end-table-file-cabinet thing, and rehearsal in the evening. Plan for Tuesday is to take the car to the shop.

That's five-and-under curling over for me, then. Next weekend nothing, and then in two weeks

datlowen is in town for the Cherry Blossom. \o/!

and home again

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