Game 16 Recap

Finally, a win; the final score was 8-4.  We haven't had a win since Game 11 and that was roughly six weeks ago.  This brings our record to 8-6 with 2 incomplete games and I'm not sure yet if/when we'll get around to those incompletes. 

But before we get to my own game, I actually subbed in a game right before.  I warned my skip that I had a game in two hours so if they went long I might not make it.  Of course, as it turns out, in the last end, the opposing team scored three to tie up the game (my skip had some bad misses).  So we had to go to an extra end, but I really just had enough time to throw my own rock so I didn't sweep any rocks in that last end.  Fortunately, they were able to pull out the win. 

I want to spotlight one scenario from this game.  My team has hammer and is red.  If I recall, we were up by two or three.  It's the first shot for my team's third. 

Now, I tend to play a bit more of an offense game, but I thought the most logical shot was to take out one or more of the guards.  Really, I figured you would just throw the rock down the middle (shown in red) and you couldn't help but hit something.  My thinking is my team is up and this end is ripe for a steal if the other team can make a nice raise. Instead, my skip called the hit and roll off the rock in the house (shown in black).  For both of the third's rocks, we went for that shot and missed it on both sides.  Fortunately, the other team basically missed all of their shots (too bad after setting up a nice end).  Then, with his last shot, my skip was able to draw in a rock (shown in green) to score one, though I think that shot was more difficult than it needed to be.

On to my game.  I had hoped to have my whole team together for the first time in a little while, but alas, Lead was sick.  He had tried to call me, but I was subbing.  Oh well.  We just played with the three of us.  We started out pretty poorly.  In the first end, the opposing team was sitting four, but because we had hammer, I was able to cut that down to them just stealing one.  Fortunately, we settled down after that. 

I can't really remember any major strategy decisions, but here's a shot I should've made. I guess like most other skips (I assume), I remember shots I missed.

In this situation, my team is up two (I think), we're yellow, we have hammer, and it's my last shot.



The obvious goal is to take out the red stone and then we'd (hopefully) score four.  How to call it?  Well, we knew rocks tended to curl a little more to the outside on that side.  So I had Vice hold the broom on the edge of the four foot (as opposed to right next to the red rock) and then I threw takeout weight (the black arrow).  To our surprise, the rock curled all the way over to our own stone (the green arrow) so we only scored two.  Of course, in retrospect, I now wonder if I should've thrown an in turn (the red arrow) and thrown back line weight and used the red rock as a back stop.  I'm now thinking there would've been a greater chance to score three.  But I guess it didn't matter as we won by four.

Anyway, it was a good two games and it was good to get back on track.

Curling Source Shot of the Week #1

The Curling Source just posted their "Shot of the Week".  "It is a tie game in the 8th end of an 8 end game. You are shooting yellow and have last rock. It is your third's second rock of the end. What should you do?"
1. Hit and roll for shot
2. Draw top 4 for shot
3. Peel the guard
4. Run/Peel the gaurd into the top blue stone

Just thinking about my team, the easiest shot is a takeout for shot rock.  Now, to precisely get the correct roll is always kind of random for my team.  We're thinking about it, but we're never really sure whether or not it will happen.  And my first fear is always whether or not a shot will make it around a guard so I might call for a sweep a little too early just to make sure that I at least get the desired takeout.  And then once the rock gets past the guard, then I'll see about getting the roll. 
However, in this particular scenario, I'm more likely to call a freeze for Vice, though I'll ask for back line weight.  Ideally, the freeze makes would make our rock very difficult to takeout.  Depending on where it lands, it could be shot, or I could throw a rock that makes it shot.  If there's too much weight on that the shot and it ends up moving that stone back some (or out), that's not a terrible scenario either.  Our rock would most likely be open for a takeout, but as my team has hammer, I think I'm OK taking my chances with that, at least against the teams that I see on a weekly basis.  There's also the possibility that the shot ends up being a draw behind the guards for shot and I'll take that too.  I ask for more weight than is necessary mainly because I don't want the shot to be short and then act as a guard and then I'll have to do a more difficult runback.

Choice 4 would probably never occur to me.  To do a raise with that much distance needed is just too difficult for me to get that angle correct.  I think that's when someone knows that they're really good, when they can call and consistently make a raise from that far up.  But while peeling the guard isn't my first instinct, it's probably not a bad strategy if you have hammer.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.  Post your thoughts here or at The Curling Source.

Game 8 Recap

We had a game a few weeks ago, but I've been out of town and didn't get a chance to do a recap.  This was a close game, but not nearly as exciting as the week before.  We gave up two points to our opponents again this week, but this seemed more deserved as they hadn't won a game yet all season and they have two first year curlers on their team.  Also, I had my entire team together for the game, which actually hasn't happened for a little while.

I'm thinking that the key shot of the game, at least for the opposing skip is shown below.  As you can see, my team is sitting shot, but my opponent is second shot, and then I have two more rocks bunched up in the center.  The situation is my opposing skip has hammer and it's his last shot.  My team is up by one I believe, but the score may have been tied. 

The opposing skip decided that his shot would be to play off his rock and then get a roll sideways into his own rock, which would take out shot rock.  He ended up hitting his rock square and didn't get a roll at all.  My team scored one.

Someone was watching this from upstairs and really believed that there was a way to get all three of my rocks out.  At least for me (and the opposing skip), predicting what would really end up being an explosion of rocks is pretty difficult.  I had also thought it would have been possible for the opposing skip to draw (or possibly throw a takeout) to his rock and then take out my shot rock.  While that's possible, there's also the danger that you take out your own rock and now I'm scoring two or more for the end.  I actually think the call was correct because while there was a high degree of difficulty for the shot, the risk that something worse could happen was fairly small compared to some of the other alternatives.

Game 7 Recap

This one was a heartbreaker.  My team had the game in hand, but we lost on the last shot of the game when the opposing skip made a beautiful draw that barely made it past multiple guards.  Final score was 9-7 and that takes our record down to 4-3.  Sigh.  I'll break down the final four shots of the game here.  It's the eighth end and I'm down 1.  With my first shot, I play a guard to block off any shots on the right side.  I actually threw it light, but my guys barely swept it across the hog line.

With his first shot of the end, the opposing skip went for a takeout on shot rock and his rock stayed.

With my shot, I also went for a takeout.  I thought the shot was perfect because my rock rolled behind a little bit of cover.

But then the skip made an absolutely gorgeous shot to win the game.  That rock barely made it past both guards.

It was really the most exciting game I've been a part of.  I made some pretty dumb mistakes early on.  For example, I had to make a takeout to score four, but then messed it up and the other team scored one.  At one point, my team was down six, but I made a beautiful (and very lucky) double takeout to score three.  The other team played really well though.  I was surprised that they're a D level team and got two points against us.  But I don't think I could've done any better on that last end.