Curling: Week Three

All week I was thinking about how big this game was...

Friday I get an email from our skip. She's not going to make it and has asked for a sub. So now I'm going to be skip. I've never been skip. I've only played two games as vice-skip. I'm not ready.

Saturday I see another email. Our first isn't going to be there and has asked for a sub.

I left for the game not knowing if we'd even have three. You can play with three, but if you only have two, it's a forfeit.

I show up and don't see any of my team members. I ask the people waiting on our sheet what team they're from, expecting them to say Dream Team, our opponent.

Woman: I'm on Hammer Time.
Me: Oh great, me too.
Woman: Oh, hmmm, I guess that makes five of us.
Me: (wtf?)

So I guess we won't be forfeiting. Turns out we had three subs show up, so we sent one of them to another match that needed one.

So we had four. I was the skip for the first time. We were yellow. Game on.

I start off awesome. In the first end I had the hammer and I knocked out a red one so they only scored one.
In the second, I get the hammer again and turn it from a red point to a yellow. 1-1 after two.

We get in a groove and score one point each in the third and fourth. 3-1 after four. The game goes quick when you're the skip.

In the fifth, we had four in the house prior to their hammer shot. I tried to lay a guard to protect our three, but it carried into the house. So I was thinking this is either four yellow or one red. And with a 3-1 lead, this would make it 7-1 and basically put us in the championship, or it would be 3-2 and a nailbiter.

The red skip nails it, right down the middle, perfect takeout and score. 3-2 after five.

(I've always considered the sixth a key end. Because you want the hammer in the eighth. So you don't mind if they score in the seventh. So you do whatever you can to score in the sixth. If you end up scoring in the sixth and seventh, great. But if they score in the sixth, now you need to score in the seventh and give them the hammer.)

So we've got the hammer in the sixth and we get a point. I didn't need to do anything as we had one in the house and it was well guarded.

So now we're up 4-2. By the time I get up, it's a wide open sheet with two yellow in the house. I place another in the house, but high enough to act as a guard. The red shot sails through and now we're up 7-2 with only one to play. Fuck yeah.

Halfway though the last end they had four out of play, so I knew that we had won. On my last shot I hit exactly what I aimed for, bumping a yellow back to takeout a red, the only stone in the house.

Final 8-2.

I won the first game I was skip against a 2-0 team. Now we're 3-0 and in the championship. Holy crap.