East Edge West in Open Knockout Quarters

There were 3 quarter finals played this week in the Moray Province Open Knockout competition. In one of the rare occasions when East meets West, the curling was hotly contested with the East teams coming out on top in 2 of the 3 matches. On unfamiliar Inverness Ice Centre ice, Fochabers’ Mike Watt somewhat upset the odds with a solid win over perpetual Inverness curler Mike McInnes. Watt and co opened proceedings with a 2 shot count and were never behind, a 3 shot pick up at the fifth end proving to be the decisive blow.
Last year’s winner, Ally Fraser kept himself firmly in the mix , but only after a tough match with Alan Douglas. It was all to play for going down the last end , Douglas 5-6 down but holding last stone advantage. The Fraser combo however, have seen it all before and used all of their big match experience to grab a single steal and pocket their semi final spot.
Tom Pendreigh and Steve Rankin’s contest could not have been tighter,trading 3 shots apiece in the opening two ends and going knock for knock to be tied at 7-7 after the closing end.The game would be settled by a draw shot challenge,curling’s equivalent of the penalty shootout, with a player from each team throwing one stone, the winner being the team whose stone finished nearest to the button.Team Pendreigh skip Blair Fraser’s shot was just beyond the back 4ft circle ,piling the pressure on his opponent Steve Rankin whose stone was swept all the way into the 4 ft for a dramatic 8-7 win.
The fourth quarter final will be between Gus Forbes and Andy Cameron , whose rink are competing this week in the Scottish Championships in Dumfries .The semi finals will be Rankin v Watt and Fraser v Forbes or Cameron to be played at Moray Leisure Centre on Tuesday 25 th February.
In the more mundane realms of the East Province League, the Division 1 match between club colleagues Gordon Fraser and Wilson Burnett, resulted in a win for the Fraser rink.
6-0 up after 4 ends, Fraser and co had exhibited more jam than the Robertson’s Marmalade Museum as a series of wicks,nicks and rubs contrived to drive Burnett into a state of severe consternation. A second half fight back was too little too late however and Fraser ran out a 6-4 winner.
In Division 2 Dave McPherson’s Tennis Club team consolidated their table top spot with a gripping 5-4 win over Jim Gault. In an exclusive post match interview, a Tennis Club spokesman reported that their concentration had frequently been broken by glimpses of Aberlour third player Adrian Firth’s extremely loud multicoloured trousers. Despite this, a 3 at the sixth end gave McPherson a 5-3 lead and Gault could only manage a last end single in a hard fought finish.
Mike MacDonald kept his promotion hopes on course with a convincing 9-4 win against Andrew Allardyce. A first end single shot loss was followed by a 6 shot MacDonald collection over the next 3 ends and despite losing a two in the fifth,the Forres rink pulled away to pick up their win.