Salute the champions

Back L-R: David Hay (coach), Euan Byers, Pete Smith, Ewan MacDonald, David Murdoch
Front: Anne Laird, Rachael Simms, Karen Addison, Eve Muirhead, Isobel Hannen (coach)

The winners of the Bruadar Scottish Men's and the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies' Championships.

Pic by Bob.

The Women's Final

The gladiators enter the arena.

The Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship title was on the line as Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood matched up against Eve Muirhead, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird, in a repeat of the Page 1-2 game.

Wood elected to choose the stones rather than to go with last stone advantage in the first end, but got the first shot on the board anyway as Muirhead missed with her last stone in trying to blank the end.

Not a lot went right for the Muirhead team in the fifth and Eve was facing six Wood stones when she went to throw her first. She removed three, but was looking at four opposion counters when she went to play her last of the end. She drew perfectly to the four foot for shot. The score 3-3 at the break.

Wood faced the pressure too in the eighth, drawing to the tee with her last stone with a bundle of Muirhead counters facing her.

The break for Muirhead came in the ninth, a count of two giving her team a 7-5 lead coming home. A double takeout by the Junior Champion skip on her first, saw off much of the danger. Then when Wood failed to freeze perfectly, Muirhead had a straightforward clearance for the game. Eve Muirhead, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird are the champs, and bound now for Korea!

Linescores and playing stats are here.

Top: Kelly Wood and Eve Muirhead

Rachael Simms, Karen Addison, Anne Laird

Jackie Lockhart in the head for skip Kelly Wood's stone.

Rachael and Anne sweep their skip's draw for two in the eighth.

Eve Muirhead

Team Wood timeout in the last end.

This was the photo we were going to use if Eve had lost! She's pondering how her team got in to such difficulties in the fifth!

L-R: Annie Laird, Rachael Simms, Karen Addison, Eve Muirhead, Lindsay Wood, Lorna Vevers, Jackie Lockhart and Kelly Wood.

Pics by Bob.

Perth update

Right, where are we? We missed the Page 1-2, which was won by Kelly Wood's team after Eve Muirhead was a couple of inches heavy with her last stone for the game. That put Eve, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird in the semi with Claire Hamilton, Claire MacDonald, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr, the survivors of last night's playoffs.

It came down to the last end. Hamilton was one up without the hammer, got into trouble, and jammed her clearance with her last, leaving Eve a draw for two, which she made. Whew! Team Muirhead now meet Kelly Wood for the Columba Cream Championship title tomorrow morning. Find all the results here.

Eve Muirhead

Tom Brewster lost to David Murdoch in the Page 1-2 of the Bruadar Scottish Men's Championship, and faced Glen Muirhead's junior team, who got past Peter Loudon's side earlier in the page 3-4.

Here is Glen and third Greg Drummond with lots of stones!

Glen Muirhead

And the rest of the team - Scott Andrews on the left, Scott Macleod on the right.

Tom Brewster was fired up for this one - here he is getting excited!

Oops, you want to know who won. In a good game, Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell always held a slight advantage, and came down the tenth one up with the hammer. Tom drew the four foot for the game. All the results and stats are here.

Pics by Bob who promises to be more coherent tomorrow!

Second tiebreaker

What a great game of curling! Claire Hamilton, Claire MacDonald, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr took a pair at the first and always had their noses in front for seven more ends. One down in the ninth without the hammer, Gail went for it... and was looking at three when she went to play her last. Her attempted freeze was heavy and slipped through and she conceded. Gail, Lyndsay Wilson, Sharon Stewart and Kerry Adams will not be on the ice tomorrow.

The linescore is here. The shooting percentages are here, and these show that, on the night, the Hamilton team were the stronger.

Claire's side will meet the losers of the Eve Muirhead v Kelly Wood Page 1-2 game which is at 2.30 Saturday. The 'semi' is at 8pm.

But listen, we need to say more about these girls who were battling it out as the clock ticked towards midnight. So here is the Ed's salute to all tonight's gladiators!

Gail Munro

Lyndsay Wilson (and umpire Pat Edington)

Sharon Stewart

Kerry Adams

Claire Hamilton

Claire MacDonald

Rhiann Macleod

Caitlin Barr

"Psst. What time is it Claire?" "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Pics by Bob

First women's tiebreaker at Perth

Gail Munro got past the first hurdle in getting to this year's Columba Cream Ladies Curling Championship playoffs when she and her team of Lyndsay Wilson, Sharon Stewart and Kerry Adams beat Mairi Milne, Claire Milne, Lynn Cameron and Katie Loudon in the first tiebreaker at Perth this afternoon. The Munro side now meet Claire Hamilton's team later this evening.

It was a tight game, with Munro going into the last end one behind with last stone advantage. Mairi played her last and corner froze it to a Munro counter at the back of the tee. Gail was on target with her last to push the Milne shot away and count four, more than she needed for the win.

Find all the results, linescores and links to the stats, here.

Top: Kerry Adams and Sharon Stewart bring Lyndsay Wilson's stone into the house as Gail checks if it's level with the other Munro stone in the house.

Mairi Milne and Gail Munro

Defending champion Gail Munro

Then there were five

Eight women's teams started out in the Columba Cream Scottish Curling Championship last year at Curl Aberdeen, and after the double round robin, five are still in contention for the 2009 title. The teams skipped by Kelly Wood and Eve Muirhead finished tied for top spot with 11 wins, and three teams, skipped by Gail Munro, Claire Hamilton and Mairi Milne were equal on seven wins. Wood and Muirhead will play the 1-2 Page game, the loser of that will play who ever comes forward from the tiebreakers tomorrow. These are set up as Munro v Milne at 2pm, the winner to play Claire Hamilton at 8.30pm. See the RCCC website here.

Here are all the surviving skips!

Eve Muirhead (above) and her team of Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird beat the Gail Munro side in the last round robin game.

Kelly Wood (above), Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood beat Claire Hamilton in their last game.

Gail Munro, Lyndsay Wilson, Sharon Stewart and Kerry Adams are still battling away.

Claire Hamilton (above) had to recruit Claire MacDonald as third for this week, as Lauren Gray is off winning medals in Poland with the GB girls' team. But with Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr as the front end they have done really well to be in the mix for tomorrow's tiebreakers.
After a slow start, Mairi Milne and her team of Claire Milne, Lynn Cameron and Katie Loudon, recovered from being the Curling Today Team of the Day (here) and won their place in the playoffs by beating Gillian Howard today.

More Perth Thursday

It was the battle between the two GB Olympic Squad teammates this morning in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship at Perth. And it was Eve Muirhead and her team that came out on top against Kelly Woods' side. Two behind in the ninth, the Scottish Junior Champ made a raise takeout for a pair, and in the tenth, with the end set up well by her team, she placed her last two stones perfectly. Kelly was left with a delicate raise to the button. She was close, but not close enough, and the two teams share top spot in the rankings, which you can see here.

Jackie Lockhart and Kelly Wood discuss options.

Claire MacDonald (left) is substituting for Lauren Gray this week as third player in Claire Hamilton's side. They took a three from Gail Munro this morning in the seventh end and ran out 8-6 ahead. Hamilton and Munro are jointly third on the standings now, on seven wins apiece.

Sharon Stewart, Gail Munro and Kerry Adams.

Pics by Bob.

Thursday

The skirmishings are almost over in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship. I'm writing this as the eight teams are practising before the start of their penultimate match of the double round robin. The top four teams in the rankings battle with each other today. Wood plays Muirhead and Munro plays Hamilton this morning. In the afternoon Muirhead is up against Munro, Wood against Hamilton. Howard and Milne are not necessarily out of it yet, depending on the results of these games. Only the top three go forward to the playoffs.

Find all the results and linescores here.

The Bruadar Men's Championship is still very open after five rounds, with four round robin games to go. Note that Colin Hamilton and Lee McLeary sides have fallen off the board - actually just out of sight at the bottom of the rankings in the photo above. Follow the results and linescores here.

Elsewhere in the curling world you should keep an eye on our GB young curlers in Poland here, and our students in Harbin (here). I note Sarah Reid's team lost their opener to Bingyu Wang's Chinese side.

Focus on seconds

I've decided to carry on the serious tone in last night's blog. We are all concerned with the consequences of the recession and looking to save the pennies. So today's blog is all about 'seconds'. Not 'first quality' today. All seconds. Is there anyone out there who still remembers when the player who delivered the third and fourth stones for the team was called the 'silly second'? The main qualities of that player was the ability to make takeouts, keep his or her mouth shut, and be able to count, this latter attribute being useful for keeping the scorecard up to date.

So, as a former member of the Front End Union myself, I give you.... the seconds at Perth!

Steven Mitchell is second player for the Iain Watt team, and Scottish Junior Champ too.

Richard Woods is a stalwart of Pete Loudon's side.

Lorna Vevers is second for the Kelly Wood team, and a member of the GB Olympic squad, see here. Horses and quad bikes are passions outwith curling.

Scott Macleod, here trying his best for a Wallace and Gromit impersonation, is second for Glen Muirhead.

Jennifer Priestley is usually lead for the Gillian Howard team. But today, with 3rd player Alison Kinghorn sidelined with illness, the team had to play with three. So Jen was having to work hard as the single sweeper! In vain as it turned out, as the team went down to Kelly Wood.

Ross Paterson is number two for Hammy.

Eyes of the Day award goes to Ron Brewster, from the Tom Brewster side.

Sharon Stewart delivering here - this season she's second stones for Gail Munro. Seen here with 3rd Lyndsay Wilson.

Robbie Stevenson from the Ross McLeary team. He's the one with the perspiration problem - see yesterday's blog! Wearing his sweat resistant outfit today.

Always popular on the blog, here's Team Claire Hamilton's second Rhiann 'I've got a friend to lean on' Macleod. Caitlin Barr is the friend in this case.

Well kent television commentator - amongst many other talents - David Smith from the Warwick Smith side.

Rachael Simms is second with the Eve Muirhead team. She's my favourite colour on the ice.

Everyone knows Pete Smith from Team Murdoch.

Lynn Cameron is second for Mairi Milne. There's been a huge amount of interest (well, one comment) since we highlighted the fact last night that she can pass her body through a wire coathanger, see here.

David Reid from Alan Smith's team.

Karen Strang is in the programme as lead in the Judith McFarlane team, but today certainly she was playing second stones.

Barbara McFarlane, second for Sarah Reid whose team this week is being skipped by third player Kerry Barr as Sarah is in China at WUG where the curling begins tomorrow.

And today's caption competition. This is Billy Johnston from Colin Hamilton's side.

Find all the serious stuff here and here.