INVERNESS CURLING CLUB
“26TH ANNUAL BONSPIEL”
(SPONSORED BY BRITISH WATERWAYS, SCOTLAND)
SATURDAY 20TH JANUARY 2007
PRESS RELEASE
Overcoming a heavy cold and a lack of voice, Ian Hay, with Mike Tough, Shona Fraser and Joan Macpherson, lifted the prestigious Ian Cairns Trophy by winning the 26th Annual Bonspiel run by Inverness Curling Club at the town’s Ice Centre on Saturday. It proved to be a close run event however, with John Barbour seeking his third win in a row and, for a while, with the Hay rink looking on helplessly as the last games were played out, it seemed like Barbour was going to achieve his goal. But he ran out of both stones and time and the eventual winners sounded an audible sigh of relief.
Sponsored by British Waterways Scotland, represented by manager Russell Thomson, the Bonspiel got off to a lively start in Section A with both the Hay rink and that of Gordon Eddie firing on all cylinders to record 11-2 and 12-3 wins respectively against the luckless rinks of Alastair Robb and Ormond Smith. Bob Pottie has his own designs on overall victory however, and won his opening game with an impressive 10-3 over Club President George Sim. In the remaining games, Garek Begg won his match against Jim Robb 8-2 and Louis Stewart ended Howard Spenceley’s aspirations by winning their game 7-5.
The opening games in Section B were more closely contested apart from that of Joan Maxwell who got straight into the groove and ended Peter Poole’s hopes with a 9-2 result. John Barbour, going for an unprecedented third successive victory, opened quietly with a 9-4 win over Mike Hulse, Brora’s Russell Jaffrey ran out losers by 7 shots to 9 against David Wright and past winner and octegenarian Jimmy Simpson was unable to wrest the laurels from Newtonmore’s Mabs Murray in a close fought 6-4 match. In the remaining match between Speysiders Yvonne Birnie (Aviemore) and Sandy Murray (Newtonmore) the match swung back and forth with the result going to the Birnie rink by 6 shots to 3.
After lunch Section A retook the ice sheet and the Hay rink lost no time in asserting their aspirations with an opening 4 which took the the Eddie rink by surprise and their backs were to the wall as the Hay rink opened up a six shot margin before Eddie hit back with a 2 at the fourth. The Eddie resurgence was short lived however, Hay hitting back with a three at the next end, adding singles to his tally in the closing ends to run out 11-2 winners and posting the target on the results board for Section B to address. The Jim Robb rink struck gold in the second end of their game against the Stewart rink with a five and a further three at the fifth to finish 11-4, which was enough to gain the team the Best Losers Award at the eventual prizegiving. The Sim rink got off to a four shot lead in the opening end against Spenceley, a further three at the fifth giving them a 9-3 victory, while on sheet E, the Smith/Alastair Robb match was evenly pitched until Robb eased to an 8-6 win by dint of singles against the head at the last two ends. Doing themselves no favours at all were the Begg and Pottie rinks who had a close game throughout, the Begg rink closing with a two to peel the game at 4 shots each.
The remaining games of Section B took to the ice and, of the opening game winners, the Wright/Birnie match got off to a quiet start but by the fifth, Wright took control with a two, a three and a further two to clinch honours by 10 shots to 4.
The Murray/Jaffrey game on sheet E was evenly contested throughout, the resultant 8-7 victory in favour of Jaffery probably a fair result given the way the pendulum swung during the game. The Simpson rink got quickly into their stride against Sandy Murray with three’s at the second, third and fifth ends easing them to a 10-6 win, while the Poole team hit back in the third end with a five against the Hulse rink to finish the game 9-5 up. But eyes were on the Maxwell/Barbour game (especially those of the Hay rink!) where Maxwell opened with a three. As one cynical observer remarked “that probably woke up Mr Barbour” and seemingly it did, since they rattled off a pair of twos before scoring a five at the fifth end to put victory out of reach of Maxwell. But could they amass enough shots to clinch overall victory in the Bonspiel? The Maxwell rink stuck to their task and thwarted Barbour’s efforts to build up match winning heads, the Barbour rink running out of both stones and time although they took the match 12 shots to 3.
After some encouraging words by the sponsors British Waterways Scotland, manager Russell Thomson handed over the awards to the winning rinks, with Mrs Ella Low handing over the magnificent Ian Cairns Trophy to Ian Hay, the winning skip. Winner of the two previous Bonspiels, John Barbour and his rink had to settle for second overall with the David Wright team in third place
……ends.
Overall results
Section A
Jim Robb 2 Garek Begg 8
Gordon Eddie 12 Ormond Smith 3
Ian Hay 11 Alastair Robb 2
Howard Spenceley 5 Louis Stewart 7
Bob Pottie 10 George Sim 3
Second Game
Spenceley 3 Sim 9
J. Robb 11 Stewart 4
Begg 4 Pottie 4
Eddie 2 Hay 11
A. Robb 8 Smith 6
Section B
John Barbour 9 Mike Hulse 4
David Wright 9 Russell Jaffrey 7
Peter Poole 2 Joan Maxwell 9
Mabs Murray 6 Jimmy Simpson 4
Yvonne Birnie 6 Sandy Murray 3
Second Game
Simpson 10 Murray 6
Barbour 12 Maxwell 3
Wright 10 Birnie 4
Hulse 5 Poole 9
Jaffery ` 8 Murray 7
Overall Winners;- Ian Hay (skip), Mike Tough, Shona Fraser, Joan Macpherson
4 points +18 shots
Second:- John Barbour (skip), Ted Gregory, Tom Wright, Shirley Campbell
4 points +14 shots
Third:- David Wright (skip), Janet Brodie, Jim Seton, John Fraser
4 points +8 shots
Best Losers:- Jim Robb (skip), James Milton, Gill Silver, Fiona Carter
(after 1st game)
--ooOoo--
Thanks to Ormond Smith for this Report
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