ECA Mixed Doubles Round-Up

Words by John Brown, ECA Secretary

The ECA Mixed Doubles Championship was held at Dumfries Ice Bowl in the middle of January with 8
teams participating, the first time so many had entered since the very first event in 2007. Multiple
champions Ben and Anna Fowler are taking a break from Mixed Doubles after securing England’s
spot in the World Championship when they finished 16 th in Geneva last April and so it would be a
new team that would be going out to South Korea for this year’s event.

The only previous champion competing was Lorna Rettig (London) who won the title back in 2012
with John Sharp and this year she was playing with Nigel Patrick (London) with whom she had won
the ECA Mixed team championship in 2013, 2014 and 2016. They were the most experienced team
playing but it was not going to be an easy ride for them as 4 times ECA men’s champion Michael
Opel (Cambridge) was entered again with his daughter Lina, having finished third last year.

Two more teams returning from last year were Owen Rees / Bethan White (SECC) and Andrew / Jane
Robbins (Preston) while there were new entries from Richard Hills / Desna Fielding (Preston), Eric
Mackenzie / Jennifer Medara (Cambridge), Kera Hunnisett / Owen Brackpool (SECC) and two young
juniors from Preston (Toby Hall and Marianna Ward).

A full round robin of 7 games among the 8 teams was scheduled with 2 games on the Thursday, 2 on
the Friday and 3 on the Saturday with any play-offs to be played on the Sunday.

The first 3 rounds went pretty much as expected with the Opels and Patrick / Rettig winning 3 games
and the returning Rees / White and Robbins winning two. The 4 th round say the meeting between
the Opels and Patrick / Rettig with the former scoring a 3 in the second end to lead 3-1. It was close
after 5 with score at 4-3 but then the Opels scored a 1 and a 2 to win 7-3.

Rees / White broke their tie with the Robbins to go into a tie for second place with Patrick / Rettig
while Hunnisett / Brackpool won their second game and Hills / Fielding broke their duck leaving Hall
/ Ward still winless. Jenny Medara had aggravated a muscle injury and was unable to sweep but
after being unable to continue in their third round game she doped herself up with painkillers and
would make her mark later in the competition.

The long day on Saturday started at 1000 and there were further wins for the Opels and Patrick /
Rettig while Hills / Fielding and Hunnisett / Brackpool both won their second game in a row. The
penultimate session saw further wins for the top 2 with Rees / White also back on the winning trail
and Hills / Fielding continuing their spurt of form with their third win.

Thus we were set for a final session with the positions as follows – Opels on 6-0, Patrick / Rettig on
5-1, Rees / White on 4-2, Hills / Fielding and Hunnisett / Brackpool on 3-3, Robbins / Robbins on 2-4,
Mackenzie / Medara on 1-5 and Hall / Ward on 0-6.

So it had all come down to this – if the Opels won and Patrick / Rettig lost then the Opels would be
champions as they would be undefeated and would have won 2 more games than any other team;
any other combination and there would have to be play-offs between the 2 teams. As Patrick /
Rettig were playing Mackenzie / Medara most bets were on both teams winning and play-offs being
required.

Halfway through the final session this was indeed looking a likely outcome as the Opels led 6-3,
helped by a 5 at the second end while Patrick / Rettig led 5-2. From there the Opels won 8-4 but
things were happening in the other crucial game and a 3 for Mackenzie / Medara brought the scores

level and then they stole 1 in the 6 th while Patrick / Rettig replied with their own single in the 7 th to
make it 6-6 playing the last. When Lorna was unable to freeze her stone onto the placed stone in the
house but Jennifer did the complexion of the competition suddenly changed and a defeat for Patrick
/ Rettig was on the cards. Without last stone they had leave guards up to try for the steal but in the
end it did not work out for them, Mackenzie / Medara took a 2 without needing to play their last
stone, the Opels were the new ECA Mixed Doubles champions and 13 year old Lina Opel was looking
forward to a trip to South Korea with her dad!