Monday 30 January 2012

Scottish Junior Championships 2012

Our week at the Scottish Junior Championships started on Wednesday, a day later than the mens section, with our first two games against Maggie Wilson and then Hannah Fleming.

Our first game began well stealing a 1 against the head from the Wilson side, then stealing a further 2 in the 4th leaving the score 4-2 at the 5th end break. Wilson started off the second half of the game with a steal of 1 but Team Smith followed this with a confident 3 in the 7th end and a 2 in the 9th to post our first win on the board, 9-4.

The next game of the day was against Hannah Fleming and her team, the game began with the 1st and 2nd ends being blanked then Fleming gained a 3 in the 3rd. A fight back from our side left the score 5-4 to Smith after 9 ends, but as time ran out the Fleming side won by default.

Thursdays first game began with Mhairi Paul's team, we began this game with consecutive steals in the first 3 ends and the score at the 5th end break was 4-1. A convincing 3 at the 8th end left the score 8-3 to us and the handshakes were offered.

Next we played Jennifer Martin's team, Martin stole a 2 in the 1st end after a few mistakes by our side but we got ourselves back on track with a single in the second end followed by 3 consecutive steals of 1 to leave us 4-2 up at the 5th end break. We continued our strong performance after the break and a 4 in the 9th end secured our victory 10-5.


After 3 wins and 1 loss and only 2 more round robin games to go Friday's games were all to play for. Our first game on Friday was against Lesley Young's side this was one of our closest games, with hammer we took our 2 in the 1st end and forced Young to her 1 in the 2nd, the score was 4-2 at the 5th end break. Young then went on to steal a 1 in the 6th and we follwed by taking a 1 in the 7th. The next 2 ends were blanked by Lesley's team and they took their 1 in the 10th leaving the score 5-4 in our favour.

Next we played Katie Wright's team from Stranraer, with hammer we took our 3 in the 1st end and Wright took her 1 in the 2nd, we then went on to blank the 3rd end and take a 3 in the 4th, a convincing win after 6 ends left us with 6 wins and 1 loss going into Saturday's game.

Our last round robin game was against Jennifer Dodds team who were on the same win/loss record as ourselves, with the winner going on to play Hannah Fleming's team later on that evening in the page 1 v 2 to determine the team who would go straight through to the final. This however was not to be our game with Dodds blanking the 1st end and then taking their 2 in the 2nd and a steal in the 3rd, the game was 4-1 to the Dodds side after the 5th end. Scores of 1 were swapped in the 6th, 7th and 8th ends before the Dodds side took a 3 in the 9th to secure their victory.



In the page 1 v 2 game Fleming stole the first 3 ends from Dodds making it 7-1 after 5 ends, leaving Dodds gambling for a win. This concluded unsuccessful and the game ended 8-2 to Hannah after 8 ends who went straight through to Sunday's final.

So it was going to be a Dodds V Smith semi final on Sunday morning, with the winner playing Fleming in the Final.



We had hammer, Dodds forced the 1 for us in the 1st end, then Dodds took a 3 in the 2nd. We then took a 1 in the 3rd and stole the next 2 ends leaving the score 4-3 after the 5th end break. Dodds then took their 1 in the 6th followed by us in the 7th, then Dodds again leaving the score 6-5 to Smith's side by the 9th end. A draw by Hazel in the 10th for the win was only slightly heavy and brushed passed the shot stone so it was to be an extra end. With last stone we tried to keep the end simple and when Jennifer's last stone was only half buried Hazel played a perfect hit to remove the shot rock and take us to the final.



Next up was the final, Smith against Fleming.

With hammer the Fleming side blanked the first end and took their 2 in the 2nd end. We then took our 1 in the 3rd followed by a big 4 for Fleming's side as a freeze wasn't quite made by the Smith side. By the 5th end break it was 6-2 to Fleming. Nothing was going well for us and the next 3 ends were taken by Hannah and we shook after 8 ends.





Well Done to Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Alice Spence and Abi Brown who will go on to play at the World Junior Championships in Sweden in March later this year. In the boy's final Kyle Smith and his team beat Jay McWilliam's side to secure their right to represent Scotland in Sweden. Good luck to both teams!

All above photo's courtesy of Bob Cowan
Our Silver Medal
Team Smith would finally like to thank everyone who has helped and supported us throughout this week and the whole season!

Team Smith xoxo