Campbell Climbs to Summit.

There was a full curling programme this week at Moray Leisure Centre in the Moray Province East League. After the season’s third round of fixtures only 2 teams in the Province have unblemished records. Jim Gault’s Aberlour rink and Alan Campbell’s Buckie team.
In a rearranged Division 3 game, the experience of Gault and co was just a bit too much for Katie Gordon’s Juniors whose first end single shot was their only counter in a 15-1 defeat.
In Division 1 , Campbell found himself behind after an uncharacteristic loss of 4 shots in the second end, but consecutive counts of 3 and then 4 took the Buckie outfit clear and a further deuce in the sixth was enough for a table topping 10-6 win. With their best team out, the Campbell rink are extremely strong right through the rink with Rutzler and Seton at the front end and skip Campell always reliable at third. Fourth player Steve Rankin is as energetic as a squirrel on speed and his experience in top quality curling is a further intimidating factor for most opponents. McPherson’s Tennis team are always steady and give most teams a decent run for their money. The normally sartorial Roy Thomson was uncharacteristically nervous this week as he constantly seemed to be changing his attire. Starting in red, he had changed to grey by the third end and had also removed his bunnet, perhaps conscious of the fact that when he stood next to lead player Martin Brown, the pair of them strongly resembled a pair of forest dwelling elfin twins . Second player Colin Anderson and Dave McPherson meanwhile clearly buy their garb from Scarecrow.com.
Charlie Watt jnr got back to familiar winning ways albeit with a touch of good fortune as opponent Andy Cameron’s attempted last stone inturn draw just fell out to rub off Watt’s back 8 foot counter and give the Forres team a 2 shot steal to leapfrog to a 7-6 victory.
Wilson Burnett and Mike McDonald shook hands on a 6-6 draw. 4 ends apiece and a mirror image scoreboard showing a 3 and 3 single shots was a fair reflection of a hard fought contest.
In Division 2, Sunninghill are setting the pace after skip Angus Gunn steered the hotel based team to a comprehensive victory over Darnaway’s Alan Douglas. Douglas’ last end 3 was scant consolation after a miserable mid game slump, as Gunn picked up 10 of his counters between ends four and seven.
In the absence of Alan Durno, currently standing in as a Sean Ryder lookalike in the Happy Mondays reunion tour ,Mike Watt skipped his Fochabers rink to a convincing win over Bob Stewart. Mid match counts of 4 and 3 then 2 single steals were enough to keep team Durno in the mix at the upper end of the Division.
Durno’s old Fochabers mucker Abby Duncan found himself 4-0 behind after 2 ends as last week’s Province Points winner Owen Watson’s good form continued, but a count of 4 in the third end and then a 3 shot steal put Duncan back on track. The teams were tied at 7 apiece going down the last, but , holding the hammer, the Fochabers skip’s vast experience came to the fore as he eased his team to a 9-7 win with a count of 2 .