British Curling performance foundation quartet Team Laurie came through a worrying moment when one of their team members suffered a nasty looking fall during the final of the European Junior Curling Tour (EJCT) event in Baden to claim a morale boosting tournament win.
The all-Scottish line-up of Tia Laurie, Cara Davidson, Amy Mitchell and Holly Burke had just taken the upper hand with a three to move 5-2 ahead at the fifth end when Burke lost her balance and tumbled to the ice with her hands still on the broom as she swept a stone into the house, leaving her unable to protect herself.
However, she quickly returned to her feet and, in spite of some bruising to her thigh and elbow played a full part in helping her team wrap up a 5-3 win victory over the host nation’s Team Blackham to complete an unbeaten run through the event. 
“Holly’s a bit sore, but luckily she didn’t hit her head, so she said she was ok to continue,” skip Laurie reported afterwards.
“It was a close final against good opposition, only exchanging single points till end five where we got a three after capitalising on opposition errors which shifted the momentum of the game and helped us get the win.
“It was a strong field with lots of good teams, so we were very happy to go undefeated throughout the competition.”
Laurie’s women were the last Scots left in the competition after their compatriots Team Soutar, the current Scottish Junior champions and Team Seftor were both knocked out in the quarter-finals.
With three Swiss teams carrying the home nation’s flag at that stage, they edged out Team Jerger 5-4 in the semi-finals to earn their place in the title decider, while Team Blackham were beating compatriots Team Schwaller.
“We just took it one game at a time and are very happy to come away with the win this weekend at the first EJCT event of the season,” said Laurie. 
“Our next event is the U21 Slam in Greenacres, this win boosts our confidence knowing we are able to play well against some of the top junior teams. We hope to carry the momentum forward into the rest of the season.”
Their performance meanwhile provided further evidence of the benefit of British Curling staging a high class event on home ice at the start of the season, allowing its leading and up-and-coming players to tune up for the season ahead as Laurie acknowledged, saying:. “We enjoyed playing at the ESS and had some close games against some of the top women’s teams, which gave us a confidence boost coming into this junior competition.”
Team Laurie
Tia Laurie
Cara Davidson
Kirsty Gallacher
Holly Burke
Amy Mitchell
Team Soutar
Callie Soutar
Eva Hare
Holly Clemie
Alison Hamilton
Results
Images: EJCT Baden & British Curling/PPA
