Baljaffray Update

The High Road winners of the Baljaffray U17 at Greenacres yesterday were the local team of James Carswell (skip), George McConnell, Ben Bremner and Peter Dagen. They beat Ross Whyte (skip), Zack Stewart, Fraser Kingan and Chris Howat, from Dumfries, in a one sided game.

Winners of the Low Road were Katie Murray (skip), Sophie Jackson, Gayle Allan and Lucy Morton. The Stirling team defeated Stranraer's Scott Wilson (skip), Calum Lammie, Neil Topping and Euan Kyle 6-3 in a tight game.

Thanks to Janice Howard for the report.

Baljaffray at Greenacres

It was only the briefest of visits to Greenacres yesterday but I caught a little of this game between Bruce Mouat's side and Rachel Hannen's team.

Here are the other members of Team Hannen. Rachael Halliday is delivering, and Lauren McIntyre and Alison Fyfe are the sweepers.

Alastair Mitchell (behind) encourages his front end, Jack Brisbane and John Graham. Andrew Morton is in the head.

Naomi Brown and Shaun Rennie.

Naomi is thinking, "I wonder if Santa might bring me a hat like Karina's?"

(Apologies to Karina Aitken as she has already appeared in a caption competition!)

Meanwhile, the other members of the team, Laura Barr and Sophie Sinclair, are hard at work.

Shaun Rennie, whose team was Andrew Maitland, Janine Philips and Rachel Ireland.

Katie Murray, who had Lucy Morton substituting for the injured Kirsty Morton today, with Sophie Jackson and Gayle Allan as usual.

Findlay Kingan delivers his skip's stone, with the front end Fraser Morton and Callum Wright ready to sweep, Chalmers Porteus in the head.

Heather MacDonald is the one scratching her head as Carolyn Baird and Emma Reid follow her stone. Their skip, Mhairi Strang, is in the house.

Rebecca Morrison

Rebecca was skipping the Curl Aberdeen team against the Cameron Bryce team (Neil Sutherland, Callum Potts and Amy Bryce) from Borders.

And here are the Aberdeen team, Kirsty Lockhart delivering, and Alasdair Izat and Emma Scott on the sweeping.

Photo of the Day. "Enthusiastic supporters watch the action." (I'm pretty sure Calum Greenwood is NOT asleep, but I might be wrong!)

Here is the Gavin Barr team from Murrayfield. George Sinclair and Hamish Logan are the sweepers. I think Fraser Ewen will be in the head.

Craig Joiner skips the Forfar team of Adam Flint, Euan MacDiarmid and Ewan Maguire.

"Don't look now, Jenni, but he's pointing the camera at us again!" Jenni Cannon and Lauren Morgan.

Hard working umpire Ron Tosh is closely supervised!

The results are all here.

As usual, let me know if I have any names captioned incorrectly, or if I've got team lineups wrong. Photos © Skip Cottage.

Catching up on the Baljaffray

Thanks go to Ian Taylor for this photo of the winning team at the Greenacres U-17 competition at the weekend. L-R: Angus Dowell, Robert Fawns, Stuart Taylor and Duncan Menzies (skip) with the Baljaffray Trophy. You can find linescores here.

Ian provides this report, admitting himself that he's somewhat biased!

"Forfar Young Curlers had four teams travelling to the event and all four managed to qualify for the second day, which was a great achievement considering the age and experience of some of the teams. Lesley Young and her all girl team reached the quarterfinal of the low road but were defeated by a strong Stuart Marshall team. The other low road quarterfinal was the young Craig Joiner team against Sophie Jackson from Dumfries with three Forfar Young Curlers in her side. Craig won this exciting game 8-6 having pulled back from 5-0 down after two ends. Craig’s team ran out of steam in the semifinal but should take great pride it this achievement ahead of the Scottish Qualifiers where they have received a late entry.

Andrew Neilson beat young Ross Whyte (Great Whyte Shark) 5-4 in the final of the low road.

The Duncan Menzies team made it through to the high road semifinal undefeated where they met a very plucky young team from Stranraer skipped by Calum Lammie. Duncan eventually won 6-5 after an extra end. In the other semifinal Gina Aitken defeated Kyle Waddell 7-5. Kyle required a 2 to win in the final end but crashed on the guard trying a hit and lie on Gina’s stone in the four foot.

Duncan’s team were comfortable winners of the final to take the trophy home to Forfar."

Many thanks Ian, and a 'well done' to Duncan and his team, and all the competitors at Greenacres.

Baljaffray winners

Margaret Paul presents the Baljaffray trophy to the winners of the U-17 event at Greenacres. L-R: Bruce Mouat (skip), Derrick Sloan (third), Elspeth Lean (lead) and Lowena Kerr (second).

Mouat's team defeated Duncan Menzies, Stuart Taylor, Robert Fawns and Angus Dowell in the high road final.

Find all the results here.

Thanks to Hugh Stewart for the photo and information.