Peter Loudon, Logan Gray, Richard Woods and Alasdair Guthrie won the Inverness Skins yesterday. Robin Wilson takes up the story:"In the final they met a rink who were playing together for the first time, the five curlers drawn from Scottish Universities who will represent Great Britain in next February's World University Games in Harbin (China) - skip John Hamilton (Napier), Andrew Craigie, Thomas Pendreigh and Michael Goodfellow (all Strathclyde) and fifth man, Ian Copland (Glasgow).
The students after winning their section with £167 beat Aberdeen's Neil Joss in the quarters then brought off a great win in the semis over David Edwards with a last end carry over skin of £80 to meet Loudon, the Section C runner-up with winnings of £147.
It was almost an all junior final until Loudon pulled off the shot of the weekend with a crucial last stone against the other surprise rink of the competition, Graham Black's Lockerbie side consisting of local junior Ali Fraser, Paul Russell and Thomas Sloan. £124 was resting on the last end and and the bank pay-in slip was about to be made to Black when Pete denied the juniors when his classy final stone got the narrowest of edges on Black's shot stone, nipping it out to lie the required two shots to take the end and the place in the final.
In the final, with the students winning £120 - £80, and a game deciding last end pot of £100 on the line, Loudon had last stone but was this time blocked out from making the required two shots to win, and the encounter extended into a draw shot challenge.
Alasdair Guthrie hit the pot lid for zero measure, Richard Wood's stone measured 6 cm, and Logan Gray's 6.3 cm. That left their skip only a leisurely roll down the ice to find the house and win the final £180-£120, returning home with a bulging wallet of £542."
Thanks Robin. Purple prose!
Photo of the finalists is also by Robin Wilson: L-R Alasdair Guthrie, Richard Woods, Logan Gray, Peter Loudon, John Hamilton, Andrew Craigie, Thomas Pendreigh, Michael Goodfellow.
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