It's not in every post that I think about Chelyabinsk, and Ayr, together. No they are not twinned! Let me explain.The Scottish Senior Qualifying Playdowns will take place this weekend at two venues, Greenacres and Forfar. There are twenty-seven over-50s men's teams entered, looking first of all for a place in the Scottish Senior Finals at the Lanarkshire Ice Rink, Hamilton, February 8-10. From there the new Senior Champions will take part in the World Senior Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia, April 16-24.
Keith Prentice (above) with Lockhart Steele, Robin Aitken and Tommy Fleming are the current champions. They play in Section A at Greenacres and are up against Gordon Jackson in their first game this morning. There are fifteen teams at the Renfrewshire rink, in three sections, with the top two from each qualifying for the finals. At Forfar, two sections of six teams will compete to find three qualifiers from each. Look for the results here.
There are nineteen entries for the Senior Women's Championship, all of whom will compete at Hamilton next month.
Junior curlers are in action too this weekend, at Ayr, in the Junior Challenge, which begins on Saturday morning. In this event each young curlers' club fields two teams. At least two of the players must be female, and one of these must throw skip, or third, stones.
Galleon, Ayr, Kinross, Aberdeen, Stirling, Dumfries, Lockerbie, Stranraer, Braehead, Greenacres and Forfar will all provide two teams for the event. Hamilton will field two sets of two, and Gogar three sets of two. Play is in four sections progressing to the semifinals and finals on Sunday. The draw is here, and the results will be here.
Pic of Keith Prentice is by Bob.
