Bill Gray blogs from Murrayfield Ice Rink after this morning’s quarter-final:

The battling Irish retaining the same lineup again, narrowly missed making the semifinal at the Edinburgh Seniors International.

They were drawn against Graeme Adam’s Greenacres rink and after a nip and tuck game which included the guys narrowly missing out on a big 4 in the 5th end, it came down to the  last two ends.

At the seventh, 1 down, JJ had the option of drawing for a two or taking his last stone out for a blank to retain the hammer. A draw for two was the decision.

In the last end – one up – Neil’s first stone picked up which was a bad sign for later. After a few stones Adam lay shot and guarded. JJ drew down to lie shot whereupon Graeme Adam played an excellent raise to pick out Johnjo’s  stone. Attempting to play the same shot, the unfortunate Irish Skip suffered a pick-up to leave the Greenacres team with a free draw to score two and win. They tried hard to redress the balance but Adam’s final stone stopped just in time (by just a couple of inches) to break Irish hearts!!

This was a particularly gutting way for the guys to go out but there were huge positives to take away from the weekend.