Moray Province curling season gets underway as Division 1 champion Charlie Watt meets his match on day one
Aberlour’s Andy Cameron laid down a marker for his intentions in the new Moray Province East curling league season.
Having been just pipped for last term’s title, the Speyside rink had no difficulty in ruthlessly dispatching their Fochabers opponents.
Wilson Burnett and his team may have thought they were in a contest having counted two shots at the opening end but thereafter, their only consolation was a single shot in the sixth end.
Cameron’s count of four at the fourth gave his side a huge 9-2 lead and handshakes were exchanged on an 11-3 win.
On an adjacent sheet of ice, last year’s champions Charlie Watt’s Forres rink came a cropper, losing big time to Steve Rankin.
Like Cameron, Rankin’s rink were also leapfrogged to the Division 1 title by the Forres man but on this occasion, a 10-1 thrashing was at least a degree of revenge for the Buckie team.
In Division 2, Mike MacDonald got his campaign off to a fine start with a 10-6 victory over Jim Gault.
Trailing 3-1 after three ends, the Forres lads took a five at the fourth and stole at the following two ends to ease out a 10-3 lead. A consolation three at the last end was at least some consolation for Gault’s Aberlour rink.
Guile and experience were the keys to Dave McPherson’s win over the fancied juniors of Ben Rankin.
Skipped skilfully by Roy Thomson, McPherson’s tennis club rink opened proceedings with a count of four shots and two single shot steals to lead 6-0.
The second half was much more even, but in reality the juniors never really threatened to get the result they would have liked in a 7-4 loss.
A special mention is due to the ice team at Moray Leisure Centre for producing good, keen ice, a task that is never easy in the relatively mild conditions of early season autumn.
Results.
Moray Province East League.
Division 1:
W Burnett (Fochabers) 3 A Cameron (Aberlour) 11
S Rankin (Buckie) 10 C Watt jnr (Forres) 1
Division 2:
J Gault (Aberlour) 6 M MacDonald (Forres) 10
B Rankin (Moray Juniors) 4 D McPherson (Elgin Tennis Club) 7
