Back in the Saddle

Yesterday my team curled in the Senior Bonspiel at the Bowling Green Curling Club in Ohio. It's a good club and a fun place to be. We went 1-1, finishing fifth. I skipped the second game and we got some breaks and the boys played good in front of me. We won it, 10-5.

It's the first game I've played skip in around 7 years. I don't mind saying I was intimidated by the prospect. I threw last rocks almost all the time for around twenty years, but you need a different mentality for being skip. You have to want it, you have to want to throw the rocks which generally mean the most to the outcome of a curling match. 

But as I said, we caught a couple breaks and the boys played well in front of me. I did manage to shoot a tight port to punch out a stone to score four. We still had time to play, but I knew with that four spot we would win.

It felt good. Yes, the shot, but being skip again really made my day. I appreciate the guys letting me. I've said many times that curling is a great game, but it's the people who are the best.

Tier 55

Curling season draws soon to a close; there are about three weeks left it seems. I'm glad I did not say farewell to the sport last year as I had threatened. Folks did not believe me then, when I said so. But I meant it. I was ready to call it a day. You can only do so much, then the curtain must fall.

But aye, it appears the curtain was not so ready to drop as I had supposed. I returned for this year, intending it to be a swan song. Instead, I found it a refreshing swig of the curling grog.

Today is my last Tier 55 bonspiel of the season. I'm having a grand time at it, this transference to senior (over age 55) curling. Yet still, I partake of the more regular competitive and league curling which I've enjoyed for so long. I might do both now it seems. The best of all worlds, perhaps.

I've always loved baseball. Part of the reason is that baseball grows with you; the dimensions of the game grow along with you. I see now that in curling the dimensions also grow with you, but in another sense. You simply graduate along with your peers.

So I look forward to today thinking about how great next year will be. What a difference a year makes.