Draw 15 - PEI versus Newfoundland/Labrador

Well, we woke up this morning, after having the TSN broadcast cut off for hockey last night, to find that PEI had finished its match against Team Canada with back-to-back steals of 2 and stand atop the leaderboard with 2 matches to go.
TSN sensibly chooses their game against Newfoundland/Labrador, whose ambition for the day is likely just to spoil things for PEI and BC.

END #1 A bit of a choppy start for both teams; after the first third rock NL have a rock touchjing the back of the four-foot in the center, behind NL And PEI rocks at the top of the house. NL Guard cleared. NL put a rock in the front eight foot in the center. PEI hit that rock and stick but bump the rear one under cover and scoring at the moment. NL wreck on one of the front PEI rocks and roll out. Carmody, seeing about half the rock, hits and sticks and now PEI count three, one skip rock to go for each team. NL want to hit and roll behind cover. Instead they hit and roll slightly more open. Carmody has done this once now, and does it again and PEI are up 3-0.

END #2 It would sure be nice if CurlCast was coming through but it won't load here.O'Rourke and Rogers both make major mistakes, each going through the house. O'Rourke starts removing guards instead. The first PEI third rock does not curly quite enough, and NL could now hit and roll behind the front guards. Ledrew hits but does not roll, rather just sits. Ramsay removes that rock and splits the house. Ledrew comes up light and, heading for skip stones PEI has three in the house, with two NL rocks at the front of the house. Carmody punches one of the PEI rocks behind the two NL guards into the eight foot in front of the button. The NL guards are in difficult positions to raise. Nichols does a nice job getting a rock into the four-foot just behind the T-line. O'Rourke asks Carmody to freeze to it. She's heavy, but taps the NL rock back so the covered PEI rock is shot. Now Nichols is heavy and yields a steal of one. 4-0 PEI.

At this point I will go off to start filling my crock-pot with what should become a few evenings worth of suppers.

END #3 Piles of NL rocks when I return from the frypan. Russ Howard congratulates O'Rourke for an aggressive call and for her coolness, but Ramsay misss, though not badly, getting arock into the house. NL are not managing to draw into the house.

By the way, Ontario is up 2-1 over Nova Scotia after 3. Each team has fought just to score its 1 in each end.

PEI have a bunch of raisable rocks at the front of the house, and NL's onbe raise chance is guarded by their rocks. Carmody makes a big miss, going too long, and leaving Nichols a port into the house for her single. Beauty draw to the four foot.

END #4 This is shaping up a bit better for NL with two rocks in the front of the eight-foot, guarding a rock ofeach team in the four-foot. O'Rourke tries to clean up a bit and does - things now look nicer for her. I was going to try to describe the situation now but Ramsay just cleaned up the house, not full of well-place PEI rocks and a NL rock. Nichols has now decided she needs to blast some rocks out of the house, and Russ chuckles in agreement. Ledrew almost gets the triple with a rocket, but moves the remaining PEI rock to the back of the house. Ramsay hits and rolls to the button to sit three - no guards are left. Nichols fires her rocket but she thinks it picked and she removes only one PEI rock. Russ Howard thinks she was simply heavy. Carmody splits the house beautifully, leaving Nichols no triple of the three PEI rocks in the house. Nichols fires another rocket but barely misses the double, and PEI has an open draw for three. Carmody makes it.

TSN had the camera on Carmody's parents a few minutes ago, and Russ Howard was folksily humorous: "Typical parents, they're three up, and about to score three, and they look like somebody shot their dog." Apparently the parents came to the Scotties with return tickets for Saturday, but seem willing to pay the penalty for changing their flights if need be.

END #7 I've lost a little focus with thh score 7-1. Russ Howard points out something interesting - the first PEI rock was called to come into the front of the house but wound up as a guard. O'Rourke called the second rock to peel the first, something Howard points out is legal, though not everyone knows.

Ontariop-NS continues to be tight. Maybe they could switch to that soon.

Meanwhile, Nichols has a hit and stick for two on her last rock. Which she makes. 7-3 PEI.

Somehow I am not surprised that the NL team are so charming and full of good humor even in such dark hours. We hear the call 'A deuce!', likely from Nichols, as TSN cuts to its ads.

YIKES!! Ontario now lead Nova Scotia 6-1. While I am off cooking I just keep missing things.

END #6 NL steal 1. 7-4 PEI. My interest picks up a bit, especially as the food situation stabilizes.

END #7 Ramsay is heavy but the miss is not quite fatal as she removes NL's shot rock. Still, the look on her face is worthy of a thousand replays as she watches the shot on the arena screen. Nichols misses a draw badly. And then she finds the front of the four foot. PEI want to blank, so this will be a rocket, with about a third of the NL rock visible. Carmody is perfect.

END #8 Carmody is making great skip stone shots, but Ramsay, though I have described a couple of misses, is making some fabulous hits. Who are these masked men? I cannot bother with details at this point. Shelley Nichols, knowing she is down to desperate measures, tries a monster rocket raise double that just misses. Carmody plants a beauty on the button, scores 2 for PEI. 9-4 PEI no handshakes yet.

TSN has implicitly made the handshake, switching to the New Brunswick game. Russ Howard enjoys this one, as his daughter is clearly a curler in NewBrunswick and plays a lot against this New Brunswick team. I am however less motivated so will likely not be back until the next draw.