Sue Stevenson presents the Stevenson Trophy to (L-R) Kyle Smith (lead), Scott Fraser (3rd), Thomas Sloan (skip) and Thomas Muirhead (second). The Sloan team beat Duncan Menzies, Stuart Taylor, Robert Fawns and Angus Dowell in the final of the Lockerbie U-17 event, the second in the RCCC Slam series. All the linescores are on the website here.I'm a big fan of the U-17 events, and this one was great. There were sixteen teams, playing in four sections, with six-end games the rule on the Saturday. The top team in each section would qualify for the High Road. Team Sloan were the favourites - they are a strong team. Thomas himself is Scottish Junior Champion and has already bags of experience. He skipped the winning team at the Lockerbie U-17 last season. This year his team beat Jennifer Paul, Fraser Davidson, Erica McGeoch and Andi Lock in the eight-end semi.
Surprise of the weekend - and very much the 'team of the event' - was Ross Whyte's debut as skip in the U-17 event series. He directed Zack Stewart, Paul Donaldson and Chris Howatt to three points from his three section games, and was an end better than the three other teams in his section, all of who finished with the same points, to qualify for the High Road. In the semi, the Dumfries young curlers came second in their game against the Menzies side, but they bounced back to beat Jen Paul's team in the 3-4 playoff.
Did I mention that Ross is just eleven?
Gavin Reid, Kyle Waddell, Craig Waddell and Andrew Muir won the the Lockerbie and District Rotary Shield, defeating Mhairi Baird, Gina Aitken, Katy Richardson and Rachael Halliday in the Low Road Final.
There was a lot of talent on the ice at Lockerbie this weekend. I enjoyed the event thoroughly. I've taken lots of photos and I'll have some of these up to view tomorrow, all being well.
