Another Championship Weekend

The finals of the Scottish Masters Championships, the over-sixties, get underway at the Greenacres rink tomorrow (Thursday). Fifteen women's teams play in three sections. Twelve men's teams compete in two sections. The top two teams in the each of the men's sections will contest semifinals. The top two teams in each of the women's sections will qualify for quarterfinals along with the two highest up third placed teams.

The Jim Stevenson and Annette MacDonald teams won last year, see here, and both are back in the draw again for 2012.

Your source for the draw and results is here.

The National Virtual Club Bonspiel is on at Kinross on Saturday. Play begins at 9am. Twenty Virtual Club teams from across Scotland will be playing to win the title, and Kinross will be defending the title as won last year at Lockerbie, see here. The event is supported by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club and the main event sponsors are Ailsa Craig Jewellery.

The National Funspiel U13 and U15 Finals are at the Dumfries Ice Bowl this Saturday, I believe. I can find nothing online about this as yet, but these are Royal Club competitions, and the Club website is where the results will be posted.

The SWCA 'Shotmaker' final will take place at Kinross on Sunday, at 10.00. Braehead, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, Kinross and Inverness will be represented.

The 'Shotmaker' is an individual competition and is made up of six tests: Draw through a port; Take out through port; Guarding, Tap up; Drawing from halfway, and Beat the Shot. Each of the ten finalists completed three 'Shotmakers' during the season and they achieved the highest scores which entitled them to a place in the final on Sunday.

Masters Update

I looked in at Greenacres yesterday, and it was great to see the rink packed with teams trying to qualify for the National Masters Finals, March 8-11. The first six of the qualifiers were declared today, the teams skipped by Jimmy Johnson, Michael Sutherland, Alastair MacNish, Jim Bryson, Gordon Russell, Jim Stevenson, Bill Linton and Sandy Nelson.

The other four qualifiers will be found next week.

All the results and standings are here.

Top: Jim Stevenson delivers, with George Lindsay ready to sweep. Above: Sandy Nelson. Photos courtesy of Hugh Stewart.

On the ice this week

The qualifying competition for the Scottish Masters gets underway today (Tuesday) at the Greenacres rink in Renfrewshire. Thirty-three men's teams have entered this year, playing in five sections this week, and next, to find the qualifiers for the National Finals in March. Find the results here.

At Braehead, the Open Mixed Doubles will be played this evening and tomorrow. As last year, the organisers have sixteen teams taking part in two sections.

What else has been happening?

The World Junior Curling Championships was not the only show in town at the weekend. I missed the Scottish Masters finals at Greenacres. I am grateful to Gordon McIntyre for sending these pics of the winners.

Above is Annette MacDonald's team, who beat Kirsty Letton's side in the final. L-R: Mary Paterson, Annette MacDonald, Fiona Glass and Irene Hird.

And that's Jim Stevenson's winning team after defeating Jim Bryson in the title match. L-R: Jim Stevenson, Robbie Scott, George Lindsay and Albert Rae.

Other updates from the weekend later.

Photos © Gordon McIntyre