Junior men:
One team has dominated the Scottish Junior Men's Championship this week at Curl Aberdeen - Ally Fraser (skip), Steven Mitchell, Scott Andrews and Kerr Drummond. They went through the round robin undefeated, and waited to see who would come out of the semifinal to challenge them. Glen Muirhead's team, the pre-event favourites, should perhaps have given them a closer game than they did.
Ally counted a three at the fourth. Then when Glen rolled out in his attempt to count a pair at the fifth, Team Fraser promptly posted another two on the scoreboard to go 6-2 ahead.
The shot that won the game though, was a tapback past a guard, pounded by the front end, which gave Ally's team three more, and a 9-4 lead. It was more than enough. Ally, Steven, Scott and Kerr are the Scottish Junior Champions!
Junior women:
This was a closer game. Jennifer got first blood with a pair at the second. Lauren's team were applying the pressure and twice stole singles to get back the initiative. Then came the fateful seventh end. There were lots of stones in play and Lauren was in a good position to steal another. After a lot of thought, Jennifer let fly a big weight. She missed her target and split away her second counter, allowing Team Gray to steal two, rather than the single, and be 5-2 ahead after seven.
Jennifer was forced to take her single at the eighth. Two up with the hammer, Lauren was forced to take her single at the ninth to go three up, and Dodds conceded. Lauren Gray, Claire MacDonald, Tasha Aitken and Caitlin Barr are the Scottish Junior Champions!
The linescores are here.
The winning teams will represent Scotland at the World Junior Curling Championships in Flims, Switzerland, March 6-14. The event website is here.
Presentation pics later.
