Team Henderson claimed two victories as the women’s event got underway at The Hardie Engineering Scottish Curling Championships, but they were given a stern work-out as they began the defence of their title at the Dumfries Ice Bowl.
Starting with the hammer and last stone advantage, Fay Henderson’s rink never trailed at any stage of their opener, but they had to battle to the end to secure the win in a tense encounter with Team Watt.
In something of a rarity in the modern game, just one shot was registered in the first half of the 10 end match when Henderson was forced at the fifth after four blanked ends.
Watt was then forced at the first end after the restart before both teams scored matching twos at the seventh and eighth ends, but after being forced to take just one at the ninth, Team Henderson managed to earn a steal at the last two wrap up a 5-3 win.
They then followed that with a 9-1 defeat of Team Laurie in their second match of the day, leaving skip Henderson satisfied with the way they had worked their way into the event.
“It’s been great to start our title defence with a bit of a longer day with two games, but it’s great to be back on the ice with that Championship intensity and drive amongst the team,” she said.
“We had a tight game in our opener with Team Watt and it took us a while to get some stones into play.
“We had hammer and tried to set up a few ends, but they just didn’t go the way we wanted them to, so we just baled and managed to blank quite a few ends in a row.
“That doesn’t happen very often, but we managed to convert our two in the second half of the game and we also gave up a two, but managed to steal up the last end, which was great, playing a few good draws around the middle to control the top tee and fortunately for us Laura was a little bit heavy with her last draw.”
With two-time former champions Team Morrison also registering a brace of wins on day one, beating Team Laurie 7-2 then Team Smith 9-3, while Laura Watt’s women bounced back from their defeat to beat Team Leigh 7-2, Henderson knows that the week’s work is only just beginning, but playing on her home ice, the Dumfries curler is enjoying the environment.
“The intensity and the momentum just needs to keep building for the rest of the week, looking to gain good confidence no matter which game it is and the ice conditions are great for the week, the speed’s great, so hopefully that continues and we can play some really good quality curling,” she said.
In the men’s event Bruce Mouat’s world number one ranked line-up and last year’s beaten finalists led by James Craik top the rankings with three wins from three, while defending champions Team Whyte also have a 100 per cent record, but sat out the third round of matches.
Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan were made to work hard by Orrin Carson’s three-time Scottish Junior Champions before running out 7-5 winners, going on to beat Team Ross Craik 6-1.
James Craik, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell meanwhile beat Team Thomson 10-3 before registering a 6-2 win over Team Waddell, who have gone past them in the world rankings this season and had begun the day with an 8-1 defeat of Team Cameron.
Ahead of their evening off, Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Logan needed only six ends to build up a winning 9-3 margin over Ross Craik’s men, while Carson’s teenagers defeated Team Cameron 8-3 in their second match to stay in play-off contention with a record of two wins from three.
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Images: PPA/Graeme Hart