Greenacres Masters Finals

Well done to Lauren Baxter (4th), Maggie Wilson (skip), Dionne Clark (2nd) and Claire Dagen (lead) who won the women's competition at the Greenacres Junior Masters today. They beat Jennifer Martin's team in the final. All the linescores can be found here.

Skips in the head.

Lauren played last stones for the team.

And here's Claire and Dionne, the front end.

Good to see Kimberley Smith, left, on the ice again after a season away. She was substituting this weekend, but she and Jennifer worked well together as skip and third. Fiona Telfer is the other sweeper in this pic, on Mhairi Anderson's stone.

One for the family album this! Candid camera indeed. Team Martin were one up coming home - always a difficult position - and gave up three when Lauren was right on target with her last stone.

Kyle Smith, Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Waddell and Kerr Drummond, here with coach Robin Halliday, were the winning finalists in the junior men's event. It was a first win, in their first competition together, for this Royal Club Academy (Gold) team. Job well done.

Team Smith was against Bruce Mouat with Derrick Sloan, Ross Fraser and Colin Mouat in the final. A three at the fifth, then a stolen single at the sixth when Bruce missed when trying to blank the end, were the key moments in the final.

Kyle and Thomas work on Kerr's stone.

Here's the skip.

And here's Colin and Ross sweeping Derrick's stone.

All the results and linescores are here.

Photos © Skip Cottage

Greenacres Masters Saturday

You should be able to find all the results from the Greenacres Junior Masters here. The U21 competitions, with twelve junior men's teams and eleven junior women's teams, are sponsored by Greenacres Curling Ltd. The semifinals and finals of both events are tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.

I had my camera at the Renfrewshire rink today, so here are just a few shots to give you a flavour, not comprehensive, and in no particular order! Please let me know if I have made any errors with names.

Lauren Gray and Hannah Fleming. "Hannah, do you think Bob will ever take a good photo of you?"

Perhaps this one will do. The eyes have it!

Here's the hard working front end, Abi Brown and Alice Spence are ready on their skip's stone.

At 14, Forfar's Craig Paterson was the youngest skip on the ice in the junior men's event today, with his team of Bruce Keillor, Allan Grant and Sean Davidson.

Gina Aitken encourages her sweepers, Rowena Kerr and Rachel Hannen. Katy Richardson is in the head.

This is the Robin Brydone team from Perth. Robin is in the head, Calum Kinnear and Kerr Sands are sweeping James Hay's stone.

Hazel Smith has moved up to skip this season with her team today of Naomi Whyte, Sarah Wood (substituting for Louise Mansion) and Eilidh Templeton. This team has its own blog (here), so you can follow their exploits this season.

Here's the Bruce Mouat team in action. Colin Mouat and Derrick Sloan are sweeping Ross Fraser's stone.

Kerr Drummond encourages Kyle Waddell and Thomas Muirhead. Kyle Smith in the head.

And here is skip Kyle Smith delivering.

The Royal Club's Assistant Performance Development Coach Brad Askew multitasking!

I'll leave you to decide on a suitable caption for this one. That's Heather Morton in the middle, flanked by Gayle Allan and Lorna Shaw.

Gayle and Aileen Rennie at work.

Skip Rebecca Steven is in the head. Here Rachael Halliday and Karen Munro are sweeping Jennifer Marshall's stone.

Jay McWilliam. Jay had Hamilton McMillan substituting for Grant Hardie today, with Colin Dick at third, and Billy Morton at lead.

Karina Aitken and Jennifer Martin. This game swung back and forward.

Here's the Martin team. L-R: Kimberley Smith (substituting for Tasha Aitken), Jennifer, Fiona Telfer, Mhairi Anderson.

We all have had days like these, Jennifer!

"Is it warmer up there?" Rowena Steven, Karina Aitken, Laura Barr. Hannah Findlay was the fourth member of this team today.

Duncan Menzies. Duncan's team is well established - Stuart Taylor, Robert Fawns and Angus Dowell.

Grant Barr is the colour co-ordinated member of the Stuart Marshall team. Full marks Grant. I'm looking forward to seeing all the team similarly attired! Thomas Halder and James Carswell are the other members.

"These guys look old to be playing in the Junior Masters!" Indeed.

In fact they are the Latvian men who have been training at Greenacres. The team are in the top division of the Euro Championships this season. Aivars, Normunds, Ritvars (the skip) and Ainars are good friends of the blog!

The Latvians had a practice game against David Murdoch's side today. David's team head to Canada on Monday to compete in two events in Edmonton and Saskatoon. The team have a Facebook page if you want to follow them.

Glen Muirhead, Ross Paterson and Richard Woods. Spot the mistake! Here's a clue:
Glasgow teacher, "What's your name, boy?"
Boy, "Paa arrson, sir. With two ts!"

And, should you not be from Glasgow and want to know how to do a 'glottal stop', there's a lesson here.

Photos © Skip Cottage

Greenacres nostalgia

Today's post was stimulated by the fact that the Greenacres Junior Masters, the first junior competition of the season, goes ahead this coming weekend. I look forward to seeing some of the play, and it is always great to return to the rink where I spent so much time in the 1980s.

Then, the Renfrewshire rink staged two weekends for juniors, a boys' competition and a separate girls' event.

Last year I met Diane Bell (nee Lyle) who mentioned to me that her mother had rescued a videotape of the final of the 1987 Junior Ladies' Invitation. It came as a surprise to me that video footage of the event existed, as I had no recollection of anyone filming on the final day. (And I still haven't. It's amazing how memories can be perfect in some things, and incomplete in others.)

The proof duly arrived from Diane in the form of a DVD. I've edited a few minutes from this, uploaded two clips to YouTube, and hosted the story on the Curling History blog. The link is here. Enjoy. And many thanks to Diane. That's her above on the left of a screenshot from the video. Why is she in tears?

I wonder how many juniors playing at Greenacres THIS weekend had mothers competing in 1987!

Sunday Masters

Yesterday's semifinals of the Greenacres Junior Masters saw Andrea Pilzer's Italian side (above) edge past Hamilton McMillan's team only after a last stone measure. All the details are here.

That put the Italian side into the final game against Bruce Mouat, in the head, above. Mouat's team had disposed of Jay McWilliam's National Academy side in the other semifinal, 9-4 after seven.

Here are the other members of the Mouat team. Colin Mouat and Darryl Russell are working on Derrick Sloan's stone.

It was to be Bruce's day! He played a long raise takeout in the seventh to tie the final, just as it seemed the Italians would go two ahead. Then he engineered a single steal in the last end for the win.

L-R: Colin Mouat, Darryl Russell, Derrick Sloan, Bruce Mouat with Rhona Martin who presented the prizes.

 

Scottish Junior Champion Lauren Gray counted three in the final end of her semifinal against the Hannah Fleming team.

And that set up a final game against Helen King whose team had beaten Lauren's side in the round robin.

Tasha Aitken, Caitlin Barr and Jennifer Dodds, with Lauren, made no mistake in the rematch, jumping to a 4-0 lead, a deficit from which the King team could not recover.

Sarah Wood and Hazel Smith sweep Eilidh Templeton's stone in the final.

And here are the winners with Rhona. L-R: Lauren Gray, Jennifer Dodds, Tasha Aitken and Caitlin Barr. All the results and linescores are here.

Pics © Skip Cottage

Greenacres Junior Masters

I looked in to the Greenacres Rink today, to see the Junior Masters U-21 event off and running. The twelve junior men's teams include visitors from Italy. That's skip Andrea Pilzer delivering, with sweepers Daniele Ferrazza and Roberto Arman at the ready. Third player Amos Mosaner is out of shot in the head. The Italian side opened their account with a win over Bruce Mouat's team. The results are on the Greenacres website here.

Here are just a few pics to give a flavour of the event.

Greenacres was really looking at its best, bedecked with flags in anticipation of the Euro Mixed next week. Michael Reid's side were much too strong on the day for the Kyle Smith team.

Ross Whyte, nearest the stone, is usually found skipping his own team. But today he was playing for his brother Ruaraidh, and sweeping alongside Chris Howat.

Local curler George McConnell in full concentration!

Jay McWilliam, above, and his team of Grant Hardie, Struan Wood and Ian Copland were outfitted in what the Skip Cottage fashion correspondent described as a 'retro look', but very smart it was, and they counted a win in their opening game!

Gary Cannell was the opposition skip in a tough opener.

Scottish Junior Champ Lauren Gray has a newish lineup this season with Jennifer Dodds, Tasha Aitken and Caitlin Barr. They finished ahead of Rebecca Steven's side in their first round game.

Katy Richardson, Gina Aitken and Mhairi Anderson brightening the day with their colourful tops! Vicky Wright was in the head for Gina, her skip, in this pic. The Aitken team took three in the last end for their win over Jennifer Martin.

Mhairi Baird and Rachel Hannen. Mhairi plays the last stones for the Martin team, Kirsten McNay second and Rachel, lead.

Abi Brown watches as Alice Spence and Becca Kesley look after her stone, Hannah Fleming in the head.

Naomi Whyte and Jennifer Paul. Jennifer's team of Fiona Telfer, Hayley Smith and Clare Lang came out on top in this game.

Here's the rest of Naomi's team - Heather Morton, Alison Fyfe and Erica McGeogh. There must be a good caption for this one?

If all goes well I'll be back at Greenacres for the final games on Sunday. In the meantime, I'll be following the results here.

Pics © Skip Cottage