Surprising defeat for champs
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Nigel Murray, Sutherland’s curling champion, was surprisingly beaten in his final outing last week by Brora’s Bill Watson while there was encouragement for next season when Alan Munro skipped his Ross-Sutherland Young Farmers to an end of season win over Scott Lyon (Loch Fleet).
Rogart’s Murray brought his championship line-up of Joan Fraser, Colin Wilson and Hamish Fraser to a struggling Brora who’d won just three games all season.
Halkirk’s Bill Watson, now skipping the Brora rink until Ted Gregory returns next season, managed to find three shots in the final end to shock the champions by turning a one shot deficit into a 9-7 winning score.
Playing to get away from the foot of the table, Alan Munro, Sam Grant, Andrew Bridgeford and Alan Brown were quickly in front against Loch Fleet.
In the final end Lyon was lying six shots to pinch the points but a tap back by Munro cut Fleet’s count back to just two and Munro took a 7-5 win to leave Dornoch propping up the table.
With two Dornoch stalwarts, Ian Mackay and Russell MacKenzie, ruled out, Dornoch were forced to concede their points to the Locheye first rink of Tony Watson.
Ian Mackay was on his way to Canada to represent Scotland in the World Left Handed championships. Wife Maureen, also a "lefty", is in the ladies’ competition.
Richard Mackenzie and the North Highland Curling Trust second rink held onto their second place in the league with the one point they escaped with in their tie against Coreen MacRae. NHCT were three behind in what they expected would be their last end where they got a single.
Managing to get an eighth end under way before the time bell rang, Mackenzie salvaged his point with a steal of two shots to peel at five shots each.
Deposed league champion, Hugh Mackay, and his NHCT first choice rink was overtaken in the final league table by Locheye’s Alan Mackenzie who brought his season to an end with a six shot bang to go from 4-5 behind and win 10-5!
