Congratulations to (L-R) Jay McWilliam, Colin Dick, Grant Hardie and Billy Morton who won the inaugural Stirling Invitational at The Peak today. Hard to believe that's five events of the Goldline Scottish Curling Tour now completed!
In a game that went to the last stone, Jay's team pipped Ewan MacDonald, Graeme Connal, Pete Loudon and Euan Byers in the final. You can download all today's results from the link at the bottom left of this page.
Here are Graeme and Pete working hard on Euan's stone!
Ewan MacDonald
Billy and Grant doing what a front end does on their skip's stone.
Jay's team had beaten Oskar Eriksson's Swedish team in the semis in a one-sided game, after they got away to a five shot lead in the first two ends. They had earlier defeated Logan Gray in the quarterfinals.
Kristian Lindstrom played fourth stones for the Swedish side.
Ewan's team met Kyle Smith, Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Waddell and Kerr Drummond in the semifinal. This game went to the final stone. With two MacDonald stones side by side on the tee, in front of a couple of Smith counters, Kyle played an up-weight takeout, removed the opposition stones perfectly, the backing stones going as well. The Smith team - and all the supporters - watched in dismay as the shooter bounced backwards and trickled out the front of the house, leaving a MacDonald winger as shot!
Kerr Drummond delivers, with Kyle Waddell and Thomas Muirhead. A great performance by this young team who had beaten Tom Brewster's side in the quarterfinals.
The Stirling Curlers Group have donated this splendid old trophy for the new competition. The Alexander trophy was first played for in the 1930s at the Falkirk rink. Here's hoping it will have a new long life with the Stirling Invitational.
I did not have the names of the Marco Pascale team when I photographed them yesterday, but here are the Italians today. L-R: Lorenzo Piatti, Marco Pascale, Stefano Castelli and Elvis Molinero. Welcome visitors to Scotland and the first to say they want to come back and play again next year. And of course as they left The Peak this evening, I was able to say, in all honesty, "Elvis has left the building!"Photos © Skip Cottage
