FAMILY AFFAIRS IN MIXED KNOCKOUT

Clan Cameron and the Rankin Family will contest this year’s Moray Province Mixed Knockout Final . Father and son Andy and Gavin well supported by Louise Marshall and Susan Mackenzie came from behind to beat Wilson Burnett in a game that was closer than the final score might suggest. Burnett’s team steadily collected single shots and a fourth end deuce to lead 5-3 after six ends but there was always a feeling that they were tampering with a time bomb and sure enough,in the seventh end the bomb exploded with Cameron counting 4 to take a 2 shot lead into the last end. Finding a way to a locked in opposition counter proved to be an impossible task and Burnett had to shake hands on an 8-5 loss.
It was a different story on the adjoining sheet as a full hand of Rankins blanked an unfortunate Linda Hardie. With Dad Steve and Mum Janice calling the shots and siblings Ben and Zoe paddling the canoe, the contest was virtually decided by the third end after counts of 4 then 3 propelled them to a 12-0 victory.
In Moray East League Division 1 , Aberlour’s Andy Cameron has climbed to the top of the League following a 12-7 win over Elgin Tennis Club. Despite winning only 3 of the 8 ends played, a ruthless Speyside team scored heavily with a 4 and a 6 to effectively put the match beyond McPherson’s ball boys and raced to a 12-2 lead after 5 ends. The Tennis club with skip Roy Thomson resplendent in his red Noddy outfit won the last 3 ends to put a more respectable sheen on the final scoreboard.
If one were to borrow a tree analogy, and quite frankly I don’t know why one wood, the match between Elgin’s Kenny Oswald and Fochabers’ Skip Wilson Burnett would be billed as the Birch sapling versus the mighty Oak and at the bell, the gap between their respective teams was somewhat akin to the inverse proportion of their trouser size.
Back in the world of reality,Oswald finally picked up his first win of the season with a 9-4 victory over his Fochabers ‘ opponent . An opening end loss of 3 apart, the Elgin team of Susan Mackenzie, Jim Barron ,Louise Marshall and Skip OswaId never looked in any danger, scoring at all of the next 4 ends to extinguish any lingering Fochabers’ hopes. OswaId himself was in particularly fine form, nominating and successfully playing several terrific shots on ice that seemed to change a bit in the second half of the match.
In Moray Province West Division 2, Nairn’s Mike McInnes scored a comprehensive victory over Dalcross’s Ian Thomson to reach the joint Division lead. Locked at 2 apiece after3 ends, McInnes and co powered away , winning the last 3 ends to ensure a solid win.