Week Beginning 19 September

Despite the unseasonably mild weather and early evening daylight, the curling season has resumed at Moray Leisure Centre.
Division 2 proved to be a more challenging environment for serial winner Charlie Watt jnr. The Forres rink opened their account with single shot scores against the head at the first two ends before an experienced Alan Durno outfit skipped in the farmer’s absence by Mike Watt levelled with a two and three more doubles in the latter ends to ease away to an 8-3 win. Abby Duncan was also in absentia as stand in skip Gordon Fraser steered his team to a comfortable victory. 5-0 up after 2 ends and another deuce in the fourth end was too much for a spirited Bob Stewart who, despite single scores at the last 3 ends ,fell just short.
Aberlour’s Willie Cameron made it a trio of absent bosses as Olympian Gregor Ewen and sidekick Jim Gault were instrumental in handing Mike MacDonald an opening night thrashing. Only 3-2 down after 4 ends, the Forres rink could not trouble the scoreboard further as the Aberlour juggernaut ran away to an 11-2 win.
Division 3 provided the week’s most exciting game as Forres’s Linda Hardie came back from a 3-0 deficit to lead Elgin’s Helen Downey 5-3. Helen could only manage a single shot at the last end to be pipped at the post in a 5-4 loss. Alan Douglas found himself 4-0 down against Andrew Allardyce after the first 2 ends and although the Darnaway rink fought back strongly, they were always just behind as the Elgin team eased to a convincing 8-4 win.
In Division 4 it was a story of Master against Apprentice as Janice Rankin, skipping a new team of Moray Firth Ladies was too powerful for the Juniors skipped by Katie Gordon. The Juniors managed two single shot ends but a count of 5 in the third end and a couple of late end doubles gave the Olympic Gold Medallist a big opening game 11-2 victory.
Division 1 will open hostilities next week.