Report for Forres Academy rink at the

Royal Caledonian Curling Club Schools Championship Finals at Murrayfield, Edinburgh

The Forres Academy rink of Molly Keen, Douglas Henderson, Grant Stephen and Amy MacDonald, who has earned their place in the school championship finals by beating rinks from Elgin Academy and Elgin High School, travelled to Edinburgh to take part in the Schools Championship finals. They were in an exceptionally difficult section which included rinks from the curling strongholds of  Lockerbie and Stranraer, a rink from Balerno which has 6 members of the Barr family who have been curling for generations and experienced rinks from Clydeview Academy and Webster High School. On Friday, it was possible the Forres rink were overawed by the reputation of the opposition and despite all playing well against Clydeview and Stranraer lost both games.

Things were very different on Saturday, and I cannot overstate the experience of the Balerno rink. They will have been disappointed to draw with Forres 6 shots all. A 2 ½ hour break and then Forres meet Lockerbie 1. What a result – Forres 10, Locherbie 2!.Locherbie 1 were one of  the favourites to win the competition!  Another 2 ½ hour break and during this time Skip Amy had worked out, with a formula that would test any mathematician or scientist, that it could be possible that Forres would get through to the 1/4 finals. Never mind – just go out and play the game against Webster High School from Dundee. By the time they get to the 8th end, Forres are winning 5 shots to 2 BUT they must win the 8th end to get to the quarter finals. This was a case of the last shot and the last stone – Forres have 2 stones in the house, which is reasonably well protected and the Webster High skip will have to play an exceptionally good shot to ‘wick in’ of the Forres stone on the right hand side and then remain in the house. He did play the shot very well and got the result the shot deserved, which sealed the Forres’ rink fate – Balerno were in the quarter final by winning one end more than Forres.

Although disappointed not to be playing on Sunday, the Forres rink did far better than, I think, they expected to and proved to themselves that the big guns in any sport are there to be beaten any day. All four curlers played well and improved as the competition progressed. I want to especially thank Douglas Henderson who stepped in at short notice due to call offs. Once again it was a pleasure to have be with the rink from Forres Academy – they are a credit to their families, school and sport. Sandra

A report was requested from Nairn Academy and will be posted when received