Rankin At Top of Tree At Christmas Break

As the final stone of the year slid to a halt at Moray Leisure Centre to count a single shot and rubber stamp a convincing win, Moray Firth Ladies retained their 100%record and still sit proudly atop Division 4 of the Moray Province East League. While Eve Muirhead further raised curling’s national profile with her third place in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year,our own Olympic champion Janice Rankin steered her Ladies to the top, scoring at each of the opening 4 ends to open up an 8-0 lead over Buckie newcomers skipped by Jodi Best.
A big 4 shot count gave the underdogs a whiff of hope, but too late and hands were shaken on a 9-4 loss.
Katie Gordon kept her Juniors in the honours hunt scoring a total of 10 shots over the middle 4 ends in her 11-5 win over Buckie’s Jim Walls.
In the Division 3 table top battle between Darnaway and Moray Juniors it was Alan Douglas who came out ahead and the teams are now joint Division leaders. In a Christmas cracker of a contest the youngsters lead 4-2 after 4 ends before Douglas picked up a decisive 3 at the fifth end. An exchange of singles over the last 2 ends gave the Darnaway rink the tightest of victories and a share of the Divisional lead at the Christmas recess.
Curling resumes in the New Year with a 4 rink match between teams representing Moray Province and the USA team who will be arriving in Elgin in early January as part of their Scottish Tour.