More Perth pics

Someone had to be first into the cheap seats! Jane Barr, Caitlin's mum. And here are more photos from Sunday, in no particular order.

This from the semifinal. Kerr Drummond had lost his voice by this time. His team have had a hard loss to thole, but we'll see more of these young curlers in the future.

Caitlin Barr looking worried in the semifinal.

The seating filled up later. I'll leave you to work out who this lot were supporting!

Becca Kesley sets out on a delivery with Abi Brown and Alice Spence in attendance.

Anna Sloan

Abi and Alice work on Hannah Fleming's stone.

Steven Mitchell doing the work to the encouragement of Ally Fraser and Graeme Black.

Coach Allan Hannah in a timeout with Graeme Black and team.

Sunday bling. Rhiann Macleod.

Thomas Sloan, Graeme Black, Steven Mitchell.

Graeme Black and Jamie Dick

Ally Fraser and Colin Dick ready to sweep Jamie's stone.

Jamie and Graeme

Lindsay Gray

Sarah Macintyre and Vicki Adams at work.

Eve Muirhead with Sarah and Vicki in attendance.

Hannah and Eve

Thomas Pendreigh, Blair Fraser, James Dunn

Claire Hamilton

Pics by Bob

The Junior Finals

Jamie Dick, Colin Dick, Lindsay Gray and Michael Goodfellow were the favourites going into the final against Graeme Black and his team, who had had little time to recover after their comeback win against Blair Fraser's side this morning.

But Graeme with Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell (sorry Steve for previous typo) and Thomas Sloan were on a roll. They took a four at the third, and in the fourth stole a two. Jamie had come up just short with a draw against two, and without waiting to confirm that his team had lost a single, Colin Dick kicked his team's stone away, and so it was a two that went on to the board. Black was 6-2 ahead. He stole again in the fifth.

Jamie and his team fought on valiantly. A superb split in the ninth saw the Edinburgh medical student get two back, to trail by just two, 8-6, going in to the last end. It was too little, too late. Graeme's team played it well in the tenth, keeping the front open, and with last stone had an open hit for the championship title. He was right on target.

Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Sarah Macintyre were the favourites in the girls' final. But Hannah Fleming, Becca Kesley, Alice Spence and Abi Brown were more than a match for the reigning champ.... for much of the game. The score was 4-4 after six. Then Eve and her team counted a big three, and they were on their way to Vancouver for the World Juniors. Hannah offered the handshakes after eight.

You can find a synopsis of the games here.

L-R: Sarah Macintyre, Vicky Adams, Anna Sloan and Eve Muirhead

L-R: Graeme Black, Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell and Thomas Sloan

Pics by Bob

Junior semifinals

The semifinals of the Scottish Junior Championships took place at Perth this morning. In the girls' event Hannah Fleming, Becca Kesley, Alice Spence and Abi Brown lined up against Claire Hamilton, Lauren Gray, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr. In a close, well fought game, Hannah's team counted two at the ninth to be two up coming home, and ran the Hamilton team out of stones for their win and a place in the final against Eve Muirhead.

In the junior men's semi, it was Graeme Black, Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell and Thomas Sloan against Blair Fraser, skipping the Kerr Drummond team. Kerr was playing third stones, Thomas Pendreigh second and James Dunn was lead. When Blair and his team stole a two at the sixth for a 5-1 lead, it should have been all over. Graeme and his team didn't think so. They took a single at the seventh and then stole three singles in a row to set up an extra end.

It came down to the last stone. Blair had a draw to the eight foot, but was too heavy. It would be the Graeme Black team which would contest the final agaist Jamie Dick.

Linescores and some comments on the game (that's new) here.

Top: The Murray Trophy and other trophies on show as play gets underway.

Becca Kesley calls line for her skip, as Claire Hamilton and Lauren Gray watch behind.

This was the shot that almost cost Team Black the game, as the red stone just finished a couple of sweeps short.

Graeme Black and Blair Fraser

Caption competition: "Now, what do you think we should play?".... says coach Marion.

Pics for Bob.

Perth Saturday

It looks to be an interesting Saturday at Perth as the Scottish Junior Championships reach their climax.

I've been following the results on the RCCC website here. In the junior men's event, Jamie Dick's side beat Glen Muirhead at an extra end in their last round robin game, and that has eliminated the holder from the competition. Now Jamie plays a tiebreaker against Graeme Black who also finished on a 6-1 win-loss record. The winner goes to tomorrow afternoon's final. The loser will play a semi against Kerr Drummond tomorrow morning at 10.00, the winner of that game going forward to the final too.

A similar situation has occurred in the junior women's event. Hannah Fleming needed to win her last round robin game to go straight to the final. But she lost to Jennifer Dodds. However, Fleming's 6-1 win-loss record was the same as Eve Muirhead's, both jointly in first place in the standings, and that has set up a tiebreaker to see who will advance directly to the final. The loser will play Claire Hamilton tomorrow morning for the second place in the championship game.

Join me at Perth tomorrow!

Even more from Perth

Some days are diamonds, others..... not. John Penny.

Team Glen Muirhead

The Paul Russell team

Michael Reid

Kerr Drummond in full voice

Jamie Dick

Graeme Black. Good to see him back skipping his team today.

Ally Fraser calls line on Graeme's shot.

Well, I've enjoyed my couple of days at Perth. Work to do at home tomorrow and Saturday (or there won't be a March Scottish Curler magazine), back up on Sunday. As usual I'll be following what happens thanks to the RCCC website. The results page is here.

More from Perth

Scary, what? Vicki Adams and Sarah Macintyre

The ABB Foundation presents the award for today's most colourful side to Team Claire Hamilton. (ABB= Anything But Black) This is Rhiann Macleod and Lauren Gray.

Team Howden. Find all the results and standings in the Junior Men's, after two rounds, here.

Men at work. Junior women's standings below.

Team Black: L-R Thomas Sloan, Ally Fraser (who skipped both games today), Graeme Black and Steven Mitchell.

Rebecca Steven rehearses her script.

John Penny, with Dave Hibberd and Robert McBride.

Paul Russell

Claire Lang and Zoe Bain work on Mhairi Baird's stone.

Eve Muirhead looks like she's having a wee nap in this game against Jennifer Marshall.

This guy looks a bit old for the Juniors! Former Scottish Champ Greg Henderson in an Aberdeen timeout.

I think Glen Muirhead wants his sweepers to sweep HARD!

Ally Fraser and John Penny

Abi Brown and Becca Kesley

Here are the standings in the girls event. The top four in Section A will go forward, Eve Muirhead leading the way. Section B has two games still to play.