The latest from Neil:
Game 4 – “This game was against the Slovakian pair of Daniela Matuliva and Ladislav Derzsi. Unfortunately, yet again, we did not play nearly as well as we can, and the Slovaks were all over us. Three key shots of the game spring to mind; the last stone of the fifth end when we looked as though we had a good chance of stealing a one or two, Derzsi played a lovely angled-raise on one of his corner guards and pumped it right into the four foot to take a one; My last shot (playing the middle three stones) of the seventh end was a guard and we were lying shot with a counter in the four foot and were hoping to steal as there were loads of short stones. Unfortunately the guard was quite a bit short and although it covered the outer two-thirds of the Slovakian stone,that stone could be raised in for shot. We failed to realised that and we should have swept it another couple of feet to get another two or three inches of draw to cover more of the inside of the Slovakian short stone and finally, the shot after the last one I described,. The Slovaks played a lovely weighted raise, coming right round our guard and raising one of their stones onto our shot stone which disappeared out the back of the house. We couldn’t get into the house wit hour last and the Slovaks drew another in to take a four and leave the score at 9-4 to them. Game over.”
Game 5 – “A win at last! In this game we played the French-speaking brother and sister Swiss duo Fabrice and Celine Apotheloz. We played a lot better in this game and put the Swiss duo under pressure by taking a four in the fifth end to take a 7-4 lead. The Swiss team elected to take their power play in the sixth and closed the gap a bit by taking a two. We elected to take our power play in the seventh end- and played a near perfect end to take a three. The Swiss conceded and Ireland won 10-5!”
Judith Chalmers bit – “On the Sunday after watching some of the knock-out stages we had a wander round Aarau – which is quite a pretty wee Swiss town. We then decided totravel into Basel so that we could explore there a bit too. I was looking forward to reminicing about my first international experience curling for Ireland – the European mens championship ‘A’ league in December 2016. Unfortunately, it poured with rain and being a Sunday in February, nothing was open! We were a bit disappointed about that.”
Curling again – “Not the best tournament for Team Fyfe – but all good experience before the forthcoming World Championships in Lethbridge. Next up is the CCT Dumfries International towards the end of March.”