Team Henderson and Team Craik Scottish Junior Champions 2021
Congratulations to Team J Craik, and Team Henderson – the new Scottish Curling Junior Champions 2021.
The competition ran from Tuesday November 23rd at Curl Aberdeen and was the first flagship Scottish Curling national competition to take place since Covid restrictions began in March 2020.
Fay Henderson, Katie McMillan, Lisa Davie, Holly Wilkie-Milne
Bruce Crawford CEO of Scottish Curling said before the event:
‘’This is the twelfth time this event has been hosted at Curl Aberdeen, the on ice and management team are so experienced it always runs very smoothly. With the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year, we are delighted to be able to shine a light on the future champions playing here this week, some of whom will represent Scotland this season while others may do so in the years to come. ‘’
The men’s draws started on Tuesday, the women’s on Thursday, featuring teams hailing from the length and breadth of Scotland.
Scottish Curling Head of Development Maggie Wilson:
”All the Junior players here this week should be proud of themselves, for some this is the first time curling at this level and they performed fantastically. The venue, and the team here in Aberdeen have provided a safe and welcoming environment for the youngsters, their families, staff and spectators. It’s been incredibly inspiring to see the performance of our elite teams winning double gold at the European Championships in Norway yesterday; something for the future stars here to aim for..!’
Women’s winners Team Henderson who play from Dumfries, took on Greenacres rink Team Blair in the final at 3pm Sunday 28th November, after a strong performance all week. The final score was 3-8.
Skip Fay Henderson is delighted:
”We’ve all worked so hard for this week; this was our season goal, so I’m delighted. We came out firing, we took control which gave us a great chance tactically. I’m so proud of the team we’ve got better as the week went along. We are all so excited about the World Junior Bs, in January. Hopefully we can do the country proud…”
In the men’s draw Team J Craik who play from Forfar and Dumfries’s Team Strawhorn battled it out for the trophy, a final score there of 6-9.
Niall Ryder, Scott Hyslop, Angus Bryce, James Craik
Skip James Craik told us after the game:
”This win is sweet as it’s taken an extra year to get here; the guys played amazingly all week and backed me up all the way. I can’t wait to get out to Sweden, we’ve got that experience already with three of our team, so that puts us in a strong position going out to the World Championships. We can’t wait to get the Scotland jacket on and just see how far we can get…”
The Junior Women’s winners will represent Scotland at the World Junior B Championship in Lohja, Finland from 3-14 January 2022. If successful at that event they will go on to join this week’s winning men’s team who will represent Scotland in Sweden at the World Junior Championships, being hosted from 5-12 March 2022 in Jonkoping, Sweden.
