MacLennan still looking to ignite his season
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WINNER of three Ross Province curling trophies last year, Allan MacLennan’s new curling season has not yet got in to gear with just one league win — and already the redemption of one of his trophies.
The Invergordon skip went under twice last week, firstly to Peter Fraser’s Belmaduthy outfit in A League then, surprisingly, to Ross Urquhart (Muir of Ord) in the semifinal of the Allangrange competition. With a stolen single in the final end of their round four league game, Peter Fraser won the key fixture against MacLennan by five shots to three to go ahead of the Invergordon rink in the table.
In the nine rink league, Caberfeidh’s Charlie Munro was the skip who sat out round four. He saw his share of first place lost to Peter Fraser’s nephew and protégée, Iain Fraser, in charge of the Belmaduthy third rink.
Dornoch
The eight Locheye curlers who form the second and third Invergordon rinks in A League had a fourth round derby meeting which number two skip Richard Mackenzie won 8-6 over club mate Douglas Gordon.
In the B League, Ian McIntyre (Caberfeidh) and Ross Urquhart (Muir of Ord) both won again and opened up four point leads.
McIntyre, the Caberfeidh 8th skip, recovered from being four shots behind with three stolen shots over ends six and seven to steal the points from Neil Gillies (Killearnan). Urquhart had a fixture against club mate Finlay MacDonald who was substituting for Muir of Ord’s third skip, Duncan MacKenzie.
It was a second half turnaround that maintained Urquhart’s unbeaten run. Fighting back from two shots behind after four ends in the quick-moving game, he got an eighth end in to play where he completed a run of four single shots to win 6-4.
Coreen MacRae (Alness) moved off the foot of the table with her first win, 6-4, over her husband Calum and daughter Rachel in Mike Paul’s Belmaduthy rink, while Marion Burns and her Ross Ladies booked a middle-of-the-table ranking from a resounding 10-5 score, which included two four shot ends against Frank Nicol (Caberfeidh).
Just two games had a competitive result in the C League championship for the Robertson Trophy and in the third scheduled tie a 6-0 result was awarded to Muir of Ord’s Richard MacWilliam after Ted Miles (Strathpeffer 1) arrived with only three players.
Heather Gill, Helen Vass, Helen Jones and Claire Robertson preserved their unbeaten league run to open up a two-point advantage after a 9-5 result over the Strath’s second skip, Brian Fraser. MacWilliam, after his awarded points, is in second place.
The two Caberfeidh skips in this league faced each other and following a first score of three shots to Angus Christie, Douglas Gilchrist, Dave Elder and Jim Thomson they followed up with a repeat triple in end five to record a 9-5 win over their club mates Linda Munro, Hugh Mackay, Karen Crawford and Ian Morrison.
Results
A League — A MacLennan (Invergordon) 3, P Fraser (Belmaduthy 1) 5; D MacLennan (Belmaduthy 4) 11, R MacDonald (Avoch) 3; I Fraser (Belmaduthy 3) 11, I Mackay (Dor
B League — D Mackenzie (Muir of Ord 3) 4, R Urquhart (Muir of Ord 1) 6; C MacRae (Alness) 6, M Paul (Belmaduthy 2) 4; I McIntyre (Caberfeidh 8) 6, N Gillies (Killeranan) 5; M Burns (Ross Ladies) 10, F Nicol (Caberfeidh) 7) 5.
C League — H Gill (Ross Ladies 1) 9, B Fraser Strathpeffer 2) 5; A Christie (Caberfeidh 3) 9, L Munro (Caberfeidh 5) 5; R MacWilliam (Muir of Ord) 6, T Miles (Strathpeffer 1) 0.
Allangrange Trophy
BEATEN in last year’s final, Ross Urquhart and Iso Meldrum aided by two more Muir of Ord curlers Finlay MacKenzie and substitute Richard MacWilliam have taken their club mate Duncan MacKenzie’s rink back to the final of this season’s Allangrange KO Trophy on Monday night when they will meet Ronnie MacDonald’s Avoch rink in the Inverness Ice Centre.
MacDonald ended the trophy aspirations of Neil Gillies and his Killearnan rink 5-3 while the big semifinal upset was the 6-4 win by stand-in skip Urquhart over the trophy holders from Invergordon.
