Report on Strathendrick Rink (playing under Forest Hills Banner) progress, provided by Maurice Rennie.

A club rink comprising, Steve Holden, Ron Tosh, Jim Paterson and Maurice Rennie played in the Scottish Masters at Greenacres over three days from 19 to 21 November.

Day 1
On the first morning the Rink started well against a Kinross Rink skipped by R Johnson recording a 10-4 victory.

It was a different story in the second game of the day when a last stone, unintended, wick-in from the opposition skip J Stevenson from Greenacres landed on the pot lid and left the Strathendrick skip, Steve Holden, speechless and pointless after losing 6-5. This was a great disappointment, when a good position had been established and guarded and a hard won result seemed certain. Such is curling!

Still after day one with one win and one loss the rink was in good shape and hoped to get at least the same result on Wednesday.

Day 2
Following day one and its final stone, which meant that the Strathendrick four went into day two on a one win and one loss situation and all to play for, day two was a bit of a come down. Two games played and not a win nor even a draw.

An under par foursome went down heavily twice: to Robert Rae from Lockerbie in the morning winning only two ends and losing 12-3; later the team played slightly better but again went down heavily to a very strong team from Ayr lead by Jimmy Young. The score was 10-1.

At the end of day two the overall score was one win and three losses for two points but amazingly, with one game to play, a win in that would give the rink four points and a possibility of reaching the next round!

Day 3
A refreshed four performed much better in their remaining match where they were up against an experienced match play team from Harvies led by Willie Jack.

After winning with a single at the first end, Jack's team struck, winning three ends with one shot each time and then stormed into a 6-1 lead after taking three at the fifth end. Not to be outdone, the Strathendrick rink took four shots at the sixth end and, with two ends to go, the score stood at 6-5 to Jack. Unfortunately, however, the good work was all in vain and a single at each of the final two ends saw Jack's team win and safely qualify for the finals in February 2003.

How did the team feel after this experience? Disappointed naturally, but they all felt that the experience of playing in that type of competition would stand them in good stead for next year.