Nutmeg little rockers at Ardsley

When most kids have vision of sugar plums dancing in their heads, these kids had visions of drawing to the button and making double takeouts.

Olympic Trials schedule finalized

The USCA has posted the schedule for all the playdowns HERE.

For those interested in making the short trip down to Ardsley, Charrissa will be playing:

Wed. 4:30 Thur. 9am, 2pm Fri. 9am, 2pm Sat. 9am, 7pm Sun. 1pm

I will try to say this as gently as possible. This is serious competition. Decorum in the warm room while watching is most important. Do not cheer misses or bang on the glass. Cheering a great shot is appropriate.

Jeff

Olympic Trials

Nutmeggers Derek Surka and Charrissa Lin are both playing in the Olympic Trials. Derek and his team will be at The Country Club in Brookline, MA and Charrissa and crew (with Joseph Smith coaching) will be just down the road at Ardsley.

The playdowns start on Wednesday January 7th for both. There are games all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

If you have all recovered from New Years, take a short drive to Ardsley to support Charrissa, Tanya, Karen and Nicole. The schedule is not quite set but will be available HERE soon.

Or if you are looking for a road trip, take the longer drive to Brookline to support Derek, Tim, Sean and Ron.

Both sites feature prior US national champions so the curling will be great.

JH

Competitive League week 7

A shake up at the top as Team Hannon handed Team Surka their first loss of the season. In the battle of the Smiths, team J Smith kept pace with a win over team T Smith. Three teams tied at the top right now with one loss each.

In the upset of the season so far, Team Purkey dropped Team Mannick into second place by winning their first game. Team Purkey dropped a five on team Mannick in the second end and never looked back.

The after game festivities ran late as most games started late. The Merritt was closed and 95 was a parking lot. Much discussion about the Golden Handle, Olympic playdowns and Club National playdowns.

Two more games to go spread over four weeks with a two week break for Christmas and New Years. Then the serious season starts with the next round robin to determine the jewelry winners.

JH

Nutmeg at the Calder Cup final results

Back from the Great White North were it was still snowing when we left today. A great time was had by all and the Saturday steak dinner was typically wonderful.

Team Haggis with Terry Smith, Star Childs (Norfolk), Jason Sethi and Jeremy Vanderhouton (both Potomac) lost out in the third event on Saturday. They won their first game with Terry absent due to jury duty, then lost the second to NY Caledonian who went to the first event final. Then a loss on Saturday afternoon freed them up to enjoy dinner and a evening of watching curling.

Team Hannon with Jeff, Rob Reihl, Alan Alward and Dave Hirx lost the first two to also hit the third event. A well played third game got them to the semi final on Saturday night as the evening entertainment. A very well played game on both side saw neither team score more than one per end. Team Hannon stole the sixth to take a two point lead into seven and held the Norfolk team to one. Up one with the hammer coming home all looked good until the last skip rock overcurled just a bit and Norfolk stole two for the win.

A great men's spiel with wonderful food and fun for all. Very competitive curling this year as seven of the sixteen teams are part of the GNCC Men's Curling Tour.

Norfolk also host a very nice mixed bonspiel in February. Get a team together and take the short drive up RT 8 to play.

JH

Derek in Madison

Hi everyone -
Derek is indeed in Madison with his men's team. I'm not sure what link Jeff put in his message, but I've been able to follow line scores from the curlingzone website. You have to look up the Madison spiel (may be called Madison International). They just finished a really tight game against Pozihun from Thunder Bay, Ontario. They lost in an extra end unfortunately. I haven't heard from Derek to get the scoop - but from the line score, it looks like they played well but just couldn't figure out how to score more than one with hammer.

More Nutmeg on the road

I just discovered that Derek Surka is also on the road this weekend. He and his playdown team are in Madison, WI playing in a cashspiel. It may be possible to follow the results HERE. Not sure if this will be updated or not.

Otherwise, hopefully Charrissa can update this site (if Derek calls her).

JH

Nutmeg on the road

The Norfolk Men's bonspiel will be held 12/4 to 12/7. Nutmeg will be in attendence.

Jeff Hannon, Rob Reihl, Alan Alward and David Hirx will be carrying the Nutmeg banner. Terry Smith will also be in attendence with his GNCC Curling Tour team.

Games start on Thursday night. Since Norfolk is still "frontier territory" there won't be any blog entries until the teams return on Sunday. Even cell phones don't work very well in the Great White North.

JH

Competitive League week 5

Team Surka and Mannick continue to lead the pack with unblemished records.

In action last night, Team Bagley came very close to putting a loss on the record of Team Surka. A very well played game and Team Surka pulled it out in the end.

Team Terry Smith were missing their skip but still hung in there to win. Terry is still a bit under the weather now nursing a sore shoulder. Team Hirx got a tough break on a last rock pick to miss a chance to get back in the game.

Team Ryan played a tough game against Team Hannon. Once again a game that was much closer than the score indicated. A couple of tough breaks caused skip Rob C. to miss out on chances to win. Sitting behind the glass, Sally was heard to say "I thought Jeff was gonna lose that one."

Team J. Smith continues to roll along and kept Team Purkey on the schneid. Joseph just returned from Canada where he must have picked a little of that curling magic.

Big match next week with Team Mannick playing Team J. Smith. Steve and Sil are also in Canada this week so we will see if that plays into the equation.

Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.
JH

Nutmeg at the Harvest final results

Jeff, Sally and Rob tried their best but finished runner-up in the first event for the second year in a row. The opponents, Utica, played very well and the Nutmeggers just could not get anything going.

Karl and Elly lost the semi-final of the third event on Saturday evening. Watching from behind the glass they had a really tough game as well.

I realized that I have forgotten another Nutmegger who was in attendence. Sorry Peter. Pete DeJong was playing with his brother John, Sister-in-law Karen and niece Elizabeth. They were the team that eliminated Karl and Elly on Saturday night. Peter and family then went on to win the third event.

For an idea of the fun that occurs at the Saturday night party, click HERE.
JH

Saturday Brantford Update

Unfortunately, the wins didn't happen today either. The women's team of Charrissa, Tanya, Karen and Nicole got behind early and tried to fight back but couldn't quite get there. So we're heading home on Sunday. It would have been nice to get a couple wins and a few more games but there are plenty of positives from the weekend that the team can build upon for playdowns. Next stop - Ardsley!

Nutmeg at the Harvest Bonspiel

Jeff, Sally and Rob along with Philly member Nancy Ellis won their game this AM to advance to the first event final. They play on Sunday at 11:30 for the Liberty Bell trophy against a team from Utica.

Elly and Karl with Stephanie (Broomstones) and Ken (Philly) handily won their game this morning. A steal of six in the fifth end sealed the deal. They are the evening entertainment tonight to advance to the third event final tomorrow.

JH

Nutmeg on the road

Sally and Jeff Hannon with Rob Reihl are at the Harvest in Philly. They played a mixed team today of Elly and Karl Bockley and two non Nutmeggers. The Hannon's won a really close game with a steal in the eighth end to win and advance to the first event semi.

Karl and Elly are playing with Ken from Philly and Stephanie from Broomstones. The loss drops them to the third event with a game mid-day on Saturday.

JH

Brantford Cash Update

Charrissa's team started the day out with a great game against the Chinese. It started out tight then the Chinese put together a bit of a lead midway through the game but Nicole, Karen, Tanya, and Charrissa kept fighting and came home down 1 without the hammer. They played the last end well and the Chinese skip had to thread a port and hit a stone on the button to win the game. What a great confidence builder that game was!

This afternoon's game didn't go quite as well against Christy Jenion from Winnipeg. Charrissa's team just ended up on the wrong side of the inch a few too many times and couldn't keep the game within reach.

All the women are curling very well and there were a number of great shots made (ask Charrissa about her triple against the Chinese!) Anyone watching the games would never guess that these were the first two games this team had ever played together. The team is off to a solid start and hopefully the W's will happen tomorrow. Good luck!

Charrissa and team in Canada

The Olympic hopeful team coached by Joseph Smith is off to Brantford Ontario this weekend. A big cashspiel to get their feet wet. First game is Friday morning at 9:00 against the Chinese team. The Chinese team finished second last year in the Worlds. They are professional curlers as all they do is curl. They go to Canada starting in September and live there the entire season, playing in events and practicing.

You can follow all the game action HERE The draw and teams are all listed just by clicking on the tabs. Scores will also be updated. All the top US teams are playing there as well.

Good luck to Charrissa, Tanya, Karen and Nicole.

JH

Competitive League week 4

The big news this week is Team Surka did not win. Of course, they did not play so maybe not so big.

Teams J. Smith, Mannick, Bagley and Hirx all were on the correct side of the scoreboard. First win for teams Bagley and Hirx. Both looked much improved. Team Mannick continues to roll along like a well oiled machine. Team J. Smith scored a big end on team Hannon and they just couldn't recover.

Team T. Smith was at a slight disadvantage as skip Terry is a bit under the weather. They will make a comeback once Terry gets back to his old self. Team Ryan continues to battle hard and lose very close games.

Lots of subs needed for next week if anyone is available.

Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.
JH

Flowers Cornwall Mixed

Derek and I went to the Flowers Cornwall Mixed this past weekend with our mixed competitive team (Rachel Sethi and Sean Murray from Potomac). The weekend was a hectic blur as our travel plans got thrown into disarray. We had decided to fly to Ottawa (Cornwall is about an hour from Ottawa) rather than doing the 7-7.5 hour drive figuring that we would have more time up there and be somewhat more rested. So we got up early Friday morning (4:40am to be exact), schlepped down to LaGuardia, and did all the parking/checking in/security things. Then they announced that our flight was cancelled due to the heavy fog (in fact the flight from Ottawa had been en route, but was turned around because it couldn't land in the fog) - they were going to try and reroute us through Montreal or Toronto, but they had no idea if those flights would get going, delayed or not. So we had to make a quick decision and we decided to get our bags and our car and drive up to Cornwall. So much for rest!

We arrived at 3:30pm on Friday and left on Sunday around 3pm. Within those 48 hours, we played 5 games and I tried to get some work done - crazy. The competition was good, the ice was good and fast (although dished) - it was great to play on keen ice. We won our first two, lost our third which caused us to drop into the B event, won the semi and then lost the B final (different than in the GNCC, if you lose your first game, you drop to the C event not the B). I have mixed feelings about it all - happy to be in a final in Canada, but still feeling like we can do more - those two losses were definitely winnable.

It was a very fun and friendly club, they were really excited to have some Americans there, and the Saturday banquet was delicious (prime rib, yum).

Competitive League week 3

Week 3 in the league sees three teams without a loss so far. They are team Surka, Mannick and Hannon. Team J. Smith follows closely with just one loss. Team J. Smith plays team Hannon next week in a big match.

In action last night for the first time was new experienced curler Cindy Pick, late of Ontario. Cindy moved down here for work as a nurse at Yale. She was happy to find Nutmeg and was recruited heavily for several committees at the post game table. She has little rocker coaching experience as well as entertainment experience at bonspiels. President Jennifer will have a new member of the Golden Handle chorus it looks like.

Team Bagley was looking sharp against team Hannon but couldn't find the range on a couple of draws that would have made the difference. Robert Kwan seems to be figuring out the ice at Nutmeg and looked impressive on the neighboring sheet. Opponents for that game was team Ryan and vice Rob Chebetar was making a lot of doubles to bail out his team from trouble. Team Surka played the early game against team T. Smith so not much to report from that game. In the late game, team J. Smith ran away early from team Hirx. Skip Dave reported after the game that a missed draw in the third was the difference as there was a 5 point swing on the scoreboard. It was a closer game than the scoreboard showed.

Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.
JH

Founder's bonspiel at Plainfield

Jeff and Sally made the trip down to NJ for the Founder's bonspiel. They played with two curlers from Plainfield. Twenty two teams in all were competing for shovels. A win on Saturday night got them to Sunday morning (good) but they lost the semi final game of the third event (bad).

They did get a chance to play against and spend some time talking with the team from Columbus (OH) curling club. This is a group of curlers who until this year were curling on hockey ice. They raised some money, rented space in a warehouse and put in two sheets of dedicated ice. If you haven't been to the website to check out the pictures you should. They are also having a bonspiel this year in the middle of December with free beer and wine included. The ice equipment they bought will support four sheets and they have hopes to start building a warm room after this season.

The next bonspiel at Plainfield is the Thrifty at the end of January. Low cost and lots of fun. If you are looking for the that first away bonspiel, put a team together and make the short drive to NJ.

JH

Update

The Duluth Curling Club website is not providing any real information it seems. Derek's team lost a close one yesterday mid-day and won their game at night. I'm not sure what's happening today yet (b/c my husband never calls me... sniff)

Follow the action in Duluth

This weekend Derek Surka will be playing with his men's team (Tim Ho, Broomstones; Sean Murray and Ron Aubin, both of Potomac) at the Duluth Cashspiel. It doesn't look like they'll have line scores, but you can still follow the overall progress of Derek and his team through the draw and root them on from afar!

Try this link: http://www.duluthcurlingclub.org/CashSpiel.asp

Who has Reserved the Most Practice Ice Time at Nutmeg?

At last count she had over 200 hours ice time booked with much more for the rest of the season. She is my Hero!!!!

Competitive League

Nutmeg curlers did not really travel anywhere for this event. The opening draw of the competitive league took place the other night. Lots of familar faces and a few new ones as well. Experienced curler Robert Kwan, late of Rochester, looked very good playing vice for Steve Mannick. They played a close game against George Bagley who is newly returning to the skip role. Team Hannon played the Terry Smith rink who was looking to shake off the rust. Turlough recruited a ringer for his rink after a little draw scoping but did not prevail in the end.
Team Purkey took on Team Ryan/Chebetar in a very close match. Only seven ends where played, have to get faster out there. Defending champion Team Surka returned with a new front end and continued where they left off last year, a win against Team Joseph Smith. Team Surka did some nice recruiting over the summer as they now have Phelicia "party girl" Howland at the lead spot. Always nice to have someone who really likes to play the front end and is a great sweeper. However, as the season progresses and party girl gets her sea legs back, will Derek and Charrissa be able to hang with the late night crew. Absent due to a bye was the new Team Hirx. This team could suprise some other teams as the season progresses. Team Hirx opens the season next week with a game against Team Mannick. Hey David, remember that a broom to the knee (accidentially) is totally in "the spirit of curling".

First week was all about remembering the bad habits and breaking in the bartender.

Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.
JH

Broomstones Mixed Doubles

Wow - a blog, now I feel like Jeff! I'm famous! Ok - I see there's only one other person who is reading the blog so far, so maybe famous is a stretch.
Derek and I went to the Broomstones Mixed Doubles bonspiel this past weekend. It was a great time. There were 16 teams in all and there are lots of reasons that it's a great spiel. Because of the mixed doubles format and the small set of teams, the first draw wasn't until Friday at 6:30pm - so not a lot of time needed off from work. They have a very nice banquet on Saturday night at the club where one of the extraordinary chefs at Broomstones puts on a show. This years' dinner was cooked by Sharon Cutter and even featured wine pairings with a couple of the courses. Everything was delicious, but particularly memorable where the goat cheese and red pepper phyllo triangles as one of the appetizers and the pumpkin bread pudding (and I don't even really like pumpkin).
The curling conditions were decent as well - lots of curl as they have recently sandpapered their rocks - ~4ft of curl. The hits were curling a lot as well, so I'm wondering if maybe the sheets were a little dished? We really struggled to get a guard up anywhere out to the sides even if we put the broom way out there - they kept overcurling - which I think led me to my thought of possible dishiness.
We were fortunate enough to win the 1st event. There was some great competition and we were lucky enough that when one of us struggled, the other one was generally playing pretty well. Diane Muldowney and Joseph Smith were also at the event and, after losing a tight first match against Karen and Grayland Cousins, they went on to win the 2nd event.
It's a great event and I definitely recommend that others try it out in the future.

Inaugural Bonspiel

Second event runner up finish for Nutmeg. Team of Joel Leneker, Jim Meinhold, Diane Muldowney, Joseph Smith (L to R).

Welcome

The Nutmeg Curling Club is expanding its web presence by adding a blog. This will be used for bonspiel stories, general Nutmeg stories and hopefully other items of interest.