Around the Rinks: 27 Feb – 3 Mar
Goldline Scottish Curling Mixed Doubles Championship, Dewars Centre, Perth, Thursday 27 February – Sunday 1 March
Review
The Goldline Scottish Curling Mixed Doubles Championship provided four days of world class curling at the Dewars Centre, Perth. The competition used a unique format in order to keep the schedule within four days while ensuring the teams that made it to the end of the weekend were thoroughly tested.
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Thursday and Friday saw all twenty teams play the round robin stage in four sections, the results were ranked by win-loss order and those on same number of wins were separated in the ranking list based on their Draw Shot Average. The three unbeaten teams in their sections (on 4 wins) were joined by the five teams with 3 wins, and those eight teams played double knock out on Saturday, with the top four advancing to Page Playoff on Sunday. The four teams that were eliminated through the knock out were: Brown/Goodfellow, Gray/Waddell, Morrison/Brydone and previous champions Stirling/Kingan.
Sunday morning saw the classic page playoff, in the game of the top two teams Aitken/Andrews beat Dodds/Mouat 11-6, sending Aitken directly to the final. Meanwhile in the 3v4 page, Muirhead/Lammie beat A.Spence/K.Smith 11-7, so Muirhead faced Dodds in the semi final and Dodds won 8-5.
The championship final was a tense affair with the teams tied on four each after six ends. Then Dodds scored 4 in the seventh when the final stone for Aitken over-curled, giving up a steal of 4. In the eighth end Dodds hit all the yellow stones out of the house to deny Aitken the chance to catch them, so the teams shook hands before all the stones had been played. The final score was 8-4. Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat lifted the trophy as winners of the 2020 Goldline Scottish Curling Mixed Doubles Championship, Jennifer for the first time and for Bruce Mouat this is his fifth time he has won this event. Bruce said,
“This was the hardest win for me at the Scottish mixed doubles, but it’s quite special for me to get my fifth gold medal in this competition.
“Jen will have a bit more time to recover after her world championship, but I’ll be trying to get a lot of rest in where I can and try to get some time away from ice rinks!
“As for the game, the first five ends were a bit ropey, but we called a power play in the sixth which really put the pressure on Aitken which then allowed us to capitalise on their errors. We played a lot of really good games with teams who rose to the occasion.”
This year both players have been part of the winning teams at the Scottish Curling Championships on 15 February. They will have a busy eight weeks ahead of them as Jennifer heads to Prince George, Canada for the World Women’s Curling Championship 14-22 March, then Bruce heads to Glasgow for the World Men’s Curling Championships 28 March-5 April. Finally the pair head to Kelowna, Canada for the World Mixed Doubled Championship 18-25 April. We wish all of our teams good health and good curling at their respective World Championships and particularly Jennifer and Bruce as our newly crowned champions.
It was an intense and high quality four days of curling in Perth and all the players demonstrated good sportsmanship and excellent technical shot making and tactics.
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The Henderson Bishop Trophy, Curl Aberdeen, Thursday 27 February – Sunday 1 March
Murrayfield teams at the double in The Henderson Bishop and The Cherrystone finals at Curl Aberdeen.
Morna Aitken, Jenny Barr, Morag Wellman, Susan Kesley, Fran Stretton, Robin Bishop
Susan Kesley’s Murrayfield 2 team retained the Henderson Bishop Trophy and the Murrayfield 1 team skipped by Kerry Clark won The Cherrystone.
Robin Bishop, the Grandson of the late Andrew Henderson Bishop whose trophy was first presented in 1929 was in attendance to support the event and present the trophy.
Betty Gibb, Katie Wood, Kerry Clark, Robin Bishop, Margaret Nicol, Maggie Barry, Morag Wellman
Since last Thursday twenty ladies’ teams representing ice rinks from all around Scotland have had a busy time both on and off the ice. The social events included a reception at Curl Aberdeen on Thursday and a race night and raffle on the Friday where £650 was raised. This will go to The Anne Malcolm Foundation. The traditional Saturday evening dinner included the draw for the semi finals from The Henderson Bishop Trophy.
On Sunday morning, The Cherrystone semi final matches saw Aberdeen 1 skipped by Irene Duncan and Dumfries skipped by Anne Johnston having a close tussle until the fifth end when Dumfries scored a two against the head which gave them the breathing space to secure their spot in the final. The second semi final was very much a game of two halves. The Kinross rink skipped by Pat Macfarlane took the first four ends while Murrayfield 1 skipped by Kerry Clark put in a strong second half performance to take all four ends and edged into the final by one shot.
The four section winners from the round robin contested the Henderson Bishop Trophy finals. The first match saw Perth, whose team were all Henderson Bishop debutants, playing the Stranraer rink skipped by Kate Adams. A well-constructed four in the second end from Claire Milne the Perth skip had Kate and her team chasing the game and after Perth took a further three in the sixth end, handshakes were offered.
The second semi created much anticipation from the large crowd behind the glass, and the match up of last weekend’s newly crowned Scottish Seniors Ladies skip Jackie Lockhart and runner up Susan Kesley was a tense and close affair. The turning point came in the sixth end when a steal of two for the Murrayfield 2 rink gave them the momentum to win the game.
So, to the finals. Last year’s winners Murrayfield 2 versus Perth in The Henderson Bishop and Murrayfield 1 versus Dumfries in The Cherrystone.
Claire Milne, Mairi Milne, Lynn Cameron-Thomson, Catriona Davidson
Ann Johnstone, Caroline Donaldson, Marion Mather, Fiona Hardie, Susan Morrison
Both Murrayfield teams appeared to be on mission and some great shot making from Susan’s team of Fran Stretton, Jenny Barr and Morna Aitken and Kerry’s teams of Katie Wood, Betty Gibb, Margaret Nicol and alternate Maggie Barry had their respective opposition under pressure from start. The Murrayfield teams kept the good play up and ran out comfortable winners with handshakes offered by Claire’s team of Mairi Milne, Lynn-Cameron-Thomson, Catriona Davidson and alternate Rachel Simm after six ends and Ann’s team of Caroline Donaldson, Marion Mather, Susan Morrison and alternate Fiona Hardie after seven ends.
Thanks, must go to Prime Four Business Park for their generous sponsorship and all the staff at Curl Aberdeen for their hard work to ensure the competition ran smoothly.
To conclude this picture of the Dumfries and Murrayfield alternates Fiona and Maggie watching the Cherrystone final together epitomizes the spirit of our sport – Fun and Friendship.
Key Principles of the Delivery and Introduction to Sweeping, Borders Ice Rink, Friday 28 February and Saturday 29 February
Following hot on the heels of a packed weekend of courses in Inverness, the Borders development group organised a weekend of workshops for its coaches the last weekend in February. Over 20 coaches attended two workshops, Key Principles of the Delivery and an Introduction to Sweeping, two of Scottish Curling’s most popular workshops.
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Developing Playing Styles Through Tactics, Forthbank Stadium, Stirling, Tuesday 3 March
The much awaited tactics workshop went live on Tuesday in Stirling. Scottish Curling tutor and British Curling coach Alan Hannah, delivered the course to a packed room of 30 coaches who had travelled from Forfar and Dumfries and everywhere in between. There was a real mix of experience in the room, which generated a great deal of discussion and learning for everyone.
