Lanarkshire Ice Rink

Hamilton had 6 juniors playing in the finals of the Scottish Junior Championship at Aberdeen at the weekend. In the Junior Mens event Andrew Ballantyne was playing third in the team skipped by Gary Cannell (Braehead). They had come through their qualifying section at Ayr unbeaten but were unable to find that sort of form this time, eventually finishing 6th equal with a 2 wins and 5 defeats record. Kyle and Craig Waddell played second and lead for Hamilton McMillan (Stranraer). Despite some good wins - one in particular over Graeme Black, the defending champion - they finally finished just 1 win short of a play-off place on 3 wins and 4 defeats.

In the Junior Ladies competition Rachel Hannen played lead for Mhairi Baird's Murrayfield team. They finished 6th equal on 2 wins. The highlight of the week, however, was the performance of Helen King. Helen and her team of Hazel Smith, Jennifer Paul (Braehead) and Eilidh Templeton (Galleon) started the first stage of the competition very well indeed beating one of the favourites, Hannah Fleming (Lockerbie). There followed 3 defeats which could have meant an early exit. Other results went her way however and victory in a play-off saw her progress to the second stage.

I think its fair to say that no-one at Aberdeen, even among her most ardent supporters were prepared for what happened next. A chance meeting with Fiona Steele led to Fiona agreeing to coach Helen and her team in their remaining matches and this seemed to spark confidence into their performances. Wins followed against Mhairi Baird and Lauren Baxter (Greenacres). This form continued into the game against Lauren Gray (Stirling), another of the favourites. This time, although they played a very good game they were edged out in an extra end. This performance coupled with that over Hannah Fleming in the first game proved to them that they were good enough to beat the better teams. This confidence could not have come at a better time for they now faced arguably the best junior ladies team in the competition, Anna Sloan from Lockerbie. Only a win would keep Helen in the competition. The game started well for Helen and she led 4 - 0 at the 5 end break. The more experienced team produced a great fightback and the game was tied playing the last end. With her last stone Helen had only one shot - a draw to the button. With minimal sweeping she covered the tee for victory.

This left 3 teams tied for the remaining semi-final place. Since King had beaten Sloan and Fleming they had to play to decide who would face King in the final play-off game (at 7:30am on Sunday morning) with the winner going through to the semi-final. Fleming beat Sloan late on Saturday evening to set up a repeat of King's opening game.

This game was also a tense affair as you can see from this picture of the team talk with Fiona Steele at the 5th end break.

Helen held her nerve and a succesion of accurate strikes in the last end saw them into the semi-final against Lauren Gray.

The semi-final did not start well, however. A loss of 2 at the first end was followed by singles at the 4th and 7th ends and although Helen opened her account with a single in the 8th, it was by then too little too late and Gray won 6 - 1 after 9 ends.

Everyone at Hamilton can be very proud of their performance - 3rd place was way beyond their expectations - and, with another year as a junior who knows how far she can take her young team next year.

Lauren went on to beat Jennifer Dodds (Murrayfield) in the final.

            L to R           Lauren Gray, Claire Macdonald, Tasha Aitken, and Caitlin Barr

The Junior Mens Event was won by Ally Fraser (Inverness) who beat the 2008 winner Glen Muirhead in the final.  

          L to R            Kerr Drummond, Scott Andrews, Steve Mitchell and Ally Fraser

Every year at the Junior Finals there is a girls and boys sportsmanship award, voted for by the competitors themselves. This year there was a tie for the boys award and the picture below shows David Aitken, son of the awards founder, Jim Aitken and a former World Junior Champion himself, presenting the award to Michael Goodfellow and none other than Hamiltons own Craig Waddell.

Pictures by Bob Cowan