Lanarkshire Ice Rink

Words by a Special Correspondent
Pictures below by Bob Cowan
Picture Gallery of the event by Richard Gray - click here

A very large crowd gathered at Hamilton on Sunday to watch the semi-finals and finals of the Scottish Senior Championship, hoping to see some quality curling played in the spirit that we have become used to in this event. They could not have been dissapointed.

The ladies semi-final line up saw Isobel Waddell, skipping the side entered by Lynne Stevenson, finally finishing top after a close tussle with Stirling's Annette MacDonald and Jeanette Johnston coming from behind to defeat Mary Barr from Kinross, mainly thanks to a count of 5 in the penultimate end.

After 5 ends of the final Isobel was 3 shots clear but a 2 and then a steal of 1 by Jeanette meant the scores were level playing the last. Isobel held her nerve throughout a tense final end however and recorded a well-deserved victory.

Our picture shows (L to R) Elma McCulloch 3rd, Kathleen Scott (standing in for Edna Nelson) 2nd, Isobel Waddell skip and Lynne Stevenson lead

The Mens semi-finals saw Gordon Butler, who had beaten Forfar's Andy McGlynn in a playoff the night before, take on last year's runner-up David Clydesdale from Kinross. This was a very tight affair all the way through with Butler only just failing to secure the 2 he required for victory in the 8th end. David then made good use of his last stone advantage to force the win in the extra end. The other semi matched Gary Macfarlane from Braehead against the 2007 and 2009 champion Keith Prentice. Prentice had gone on to win World gold in 2007 and bronze last year so this was always going to be a difficult ask for Macfarlane. Matches between this pair are usually close, however and this was no exception, that is until a very tense 7th end saw Macfarlane's last stone roll a couple of inches too far allowing Prentice to remove it and score 4 shots to seal victory. As many had predicted the Mens final was a repeat of last year's.

Since both teams were unbeaten in the competition, last stone advantage in the first end was decided by the toss of a coin. Prentice won the toss and this was to prove crucial. One miss from the Clydesdale rink coupled with a 100% end from the holders yielded a score of 2 shots. Prentice was still 2 ahead playing the 6th end where, a steal of one moved him 3 ahead. The 7th end had both teams losing an important stone to a pick-up but, after some good play, Clydesdale found himself with a tap- back round a guard on a swinging hand for 3 shots. Despite determined sweeping his shot feathered the guard and went through leaving him with just 1 shot. Prentice and his team were then able to keep the last end clear and the Championship was theirs for the 3rd time in 4 years.

L to R Robin Aitken 2nd, Lockhart Steele 3rd, Keith Prentice skip and Tommy Fleming lead.

Both teams will represent Scotland in the World Senior Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia from the 17th to the 24th of April.