Game 13 Recap

Another heartbreaking loss brings the record down to 7-5.  Starting off the second half 1-2 is pretty bad for our second half championship chances.  The final score was 7-6 after an extra end.  The opposing team was also a B level team so no points for either team and it was nice to have the whole team back together again.  This was a fairly memorable game for me so we'll go through the last few ends.

In the shot below, it's the sixth end.  The score is tied at 4-4 and the opposing tam has hammer.  My team is yellow and it's my first stone.  I felt good that we had a lot of guards and I thought we'd have some good opportunities with that.  (In an earlier end, the opposing team had six guards in front of the house and there was basically nothing for my shots.)  At this point, we can see that their rock is just barely closer.  We figured that our rock only has to move up by an inch or two to be shot. 

As indicated by the arrows, there were two shots available.  Lead and I were thinking about going for the double raise (the arrows on the right) and Vice and Second were thinking about going for the takeout (arrow on the left).  The double raise was the more difficult shot but if made, it would take some sort of double takeout to remove it.  However, if I made the takeout and got the roll, that might put the team in position to steal two.  I thought that possibility was enticing, but I ended up going just a little too wide for the takeout.  As it turns out, their next shot was a guard on that takeout and then my next shot was the original double raise that I had first envisioned, which I also missed.  They scored one for the end; it's now 4-5.

So now we're in the seventh end and while my team has hammer, we're in a pretty tight spot for my first shot (I think it was my first shot).  They have shot rock and we figured we had two choices again. There's the double take out (arrows on the left) or the raise takeout (arrows on the right).  I felt like the angle on the double takeout was easier to hit, but there's also a good chance that you only get the front stone.  The angle for the runback was more difficult as it has to get by the guard and hit at a specific point, but I felt a little better about moving our rock instead of theirs. 

Unfortunately, I barely missed the runback.  They ended up stealing one so now the score is 4-6 and we're in the eighth end.  My team again has hammer and they did very well placing their guards again.  (I think we had some high guards in play, but I don't remember and they're not really relevant here.)  Just to let you know that I can occasionally make good shots, this was the setup for what could've been the last shot of the game.  I didn't feel good about trying to go through any of the ports so the runback was the shot, but I did make it to send it to an extra end.  

However, my team didn't have hammer and we would only be playing one stone each.  Lead and Second's rocks ended up being too light.  Vice made a takeout and then I made the shot in the four foot so below is what the opposing skip had to deal with.  Of course, in retrospect, I should've had less broom so that my rock would be behind the guards, but we were worried it might curl a little too much and then crash into the guards. 

But the opposing skip made his takeout for one and took the game.  Oh well.