OPENING SALVOES FIRED IN DIVISIONS 1 AND 2

The top two Divisions in Moray Province East kicked off this week with a loss for defending Division 1 champions Andy Cameron’s Aberlour rink who went down in straight sets to Elgin Tennis Club. In the absence of skip Andy, son Gavin was in command , but the Speysiders could only count 3 single shots as the Tennis lads , under the control of the smartly dressed Roy Thomson started strongly with a count of 3 in the opening end to ease away to a 7-3 win.
Alan Campbell, looking like a mobile advertising hoarding in his Canadian curling jacket,eventually overcame stand in skip Greg Stephen in the Buckie versus Forres clash. A neat looking scorecard showed 5 counts of 2 and It was 6 apiece after 6 ends then 8-6 for Campbell as they went into the final end with the Forres team holding the hammer. A clutch of short stones gave skip Campbell the chance to play a perfect in turn draw round the cover to lie shot, leaving Stephen nothing but a Hail Mary. The Forres skip nearly pulled off an angled wick off his own outside stone but just slid across the top of his opponent’s counter to lose a wonderful match 10-6.
If you fancy a flutter on a dark horse for the title, then how about putting a shilling on serial promotion man Charlie Watt jnr? The Forres man was always ahead against Wilson Burnett’s Fochabers’ rink. A well thought out last stone double takeout and lie in the third end gave the Forres team a count of 5 and a perfectly played last 2 stones gave him another count of 3 in the sixth end to put the polish on an 11-5 victory.
It was Sweet Sixteen for Sunninghill as Angus Gunn ( neither sweet nor sixteen) skipped the Donald Ross rink to a big win over Bob Stewart’s Elgin team. Stewart was another Skip absentee and a loss of 6 in the fifth end and 3 counts of 3 against , made up the bulk of his Elgin team’s 16-5 defeat.
It was good to see Abby Duncan back on the ice after missing all of last season and the vastly experienced Fochabers’ gunslinger ensured his team picked up counts at 6 of the 8 ends played as the village people opened their league campaign with a 7-2 win over Darnaway’s Alan Douglas.
Any aching curling muscles now get a chance for recovery as we slide into the Tattie Holiday recess.
BJ.