TEAM KENNEDY BAG SCOTTISH MIXED TITLE WITH EXTRA END STEAL IN ALL-AYR FINAL
Many congratulations to Team Kennedy (Neil Kennedy, Margaret Agnew, John Agnew, Sheila Kennedy) (Ayr) who are the 2024 Scottish Mixed champions. The quartet beat fellow Ayr side Team Morton (Kyle Smith, Rhiann Stagg, Billy Morton, Barbara Morton) with a single steal in the final’s extra end.
Team Kennedy were off to a flyer, celebrating three comfortable wins from three fixtures on the opening day. They carried that form into Day 2 when they bagged another confidence-boosting success over Team Mitchell (Andy Ferguson, Layla Al-Saffar, Ewan Mitchell, Shannon Whatley).
Just about the same applied to Team Morton too though who, despite some tighter results, had stayed on a perfect record throughout Day 1 and the morning session of Day 2. A first meeting between the two Ayr sides was scheduled, but, with the pair already confirmed as table toppers, they opted to give the round robin fixture a pass.
Team Kennedy agreeing with Team Morton to forfeit the game allowed them to play the page play-off earlier. Team Kennedy gave away the right to stone colour and hammer for the play-off fixture.
After an uneventful first half that featured multiple blanks, the page play-off teams came out firing at the restart. Team Morton were leading by a point with one end to go, having stolen a single in End 7, but Team Kennedy played their hammer advantage to perfection to score two and progress straight to the final.
Team Morton still had another chance though in the semi-final where they faced Team Reid (David Reid, Fiona Reid, Alan Smith, Nancy Smith) (Greenacres).
The Greenacres side had played a rollercoaster round robin, winning their opening fixture before losing out to the two Ayr teams. Going into Day 2, they bounced back with an early win versus Team Hare (Frazer Hare, Eva Hare, Sean Clemie, Holly Clemie) (Stranraer) before victory versus Team Mitchell in the final draw bagged them third place in the table standings.
After a blank opener Team Morton got the first point on the board and stole in the next two to build a 4-0 advantage. Team Reid only managed a single in return and when Team Morton scored three in End 6, handshakes were exchanged early.
And thus an all-Ayr final between Teams Kennedy and Morton was set. The sides traded singles to start before Team Morton could only answer Team Kennedy’s deuce with a one and fell slightly behind. However, when they stole in the next end proceedings were all square again. This time Team Kennedy only got the one while Team Morton responded with a two, but a successive single to Team Kennedy meant there was nothing separating the sides after eight ends played.
The match went into a tense extra end where Team Kennedy bagged a single steal that gave them the win and the national mixed title.
Full results are available here.
