All to play for as curling hits halfway mark
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HALFWAY through the six rink C League Championship, Heather Gill (Ross Ladies) and Brian Fraser (Strathpeffer) remain locked at the top of the table.
Heather Gill holds the bragging rights having beaten Fraser in their first encounter last November so the title and the Robertson Trophy could hinge on when they meet for a second time in February.
Last week, Gill’s ladies, Helen Vass, Claire Robertson and Liz Mackenzie scored their second success over Strathpeffer when they put the Strath’s first skip, Ted Miles to the sword by six shots to two.
Brian Fraser and Carol Casey who make the long journey into Inverness from Dundonnell to link up with Ian and Diane Pallett got away to a three shot start against Angus Christie (Caberfeidh) then scored another three shots in end four to set up their 8-5 win.
Linda Munro, the new skip of Caberfeidh 6 had both points in her pocket until she had a worrying final end against Richard MacWilliam (Muir of Ord). Seven shots in front Munro just stopped short of dropping a point when MacWilliam’s last end count tallied up to six to just allow Munro win her first two points of the season from a 9-8 score.
C League Results Round 5 — H Gill (Ross Ladies) 6, T Miles (Strathpeffer 1) 2; A Christie (Caberfeidh 3) 5, B Fraser (Strathpeffer 2) 8; L Munro (Caberfeidh 5) 9, R MacWilliam (Muir of Ord) 8.
• ON THE end of three defeats in one week when playing in Sutherland, Ross-shire and Inverness Super League ties, Rogart farmer Nigel Murray rediscovered his noted bonspiel form to carry home the Dr John Anderson Trophy in the Glen Ord Distillery/Angelic Gluten Free joint sponsored Ross Province bonspiel last Saturday in Inverness.
It is the second time in three years that the trophy has crossed the Dornoch Firth Bridge. Murray plays his Ross shire curling for Invergordon by way of his Locheye membership and last Saturday co-opted his elder sister Christine Mackenzie (Locheye) and two more Sutherland curlers, father and son, Bill and Roy Watson to complete his line-up.
Murray’s Rogart and Dornoch’s Iain Mackay skip of the previous Sutherland winning rink were in the same section as the holders, from Belmaduthy, Iain Fraser’s family rink, and after their four short games of four ends where wins, peels, shots and ends earned points Rogart came out on top with 75 points, Dornoch 73 and the holders 70.
In the other section of eight rinks Killearnan’s Neil Gillies, Duncan Clark, Alan MacDonald and Hugh Logan were the high scorers with 69 points.
The destination of the trophy to either Dornoch or Rogart, was only determined in the final end of play between the two Sutherland clubs. Rogart was in the ascendancy over the first three ends and led 4-1 but in the final end with Dornoch lying three and still a final stone to play Iain Mackay’s final effort to regain the trophy was just a bit heavy and the honours were shared at four shots each to preserve Murray’s earlier overall lead.
