Team Carson won their second victory of the series when they competed in the second leg of the Asham U21 slam at Lockerbie Ice Rink at the weekend.
Dumfries Young Curlers were well represented in both the boys and girls competition with three teams having Dumfries interest in the boys’ section and six teams in the girls.
The teams were split up into two boys’ sections and two girls’ sections. Section A consisted of the previous competition winners Team O Carson, who were hoping to repeat their success of Greenacres, along with Teams Rutherford, Craik, Rankin and Zen.
Team O Carson had to play most of the tournament with three players, as second Archie Hyslop was still struggling with an injury, however, the Dumfries side were focussed and achieved a perfect four wins out of four games against some good opposition.
Section B had Stewart Kyle playing with Team Thomson, and Jack Halliday turning out with Team Grant. Team Thomson also secured their play-off position with a perfect record, whilst unfortunately Team Grant just failed to qualify this time round. The semi-final saw Team Carson take on Team Brewster, and Team Thomson take on Team Rutherford.
Over in the girls’ sections Teams Laurie, Tiler and Hutchison saw the less experienced teams of Teams Tiler and Hutchison miss out on qualification as they both picked up a single win each. Meanwhile Team Laurie qualified in second place, missing out on top spot only on head-to-head, as they recorded three wins to a loss.
Section B was not a happy hunting ground for Team Huntly, who played well but didn’t convert this to any wins. Team Trotter fared slightly better, picking up one win. The third Dumfries team was Leigh who had a good tournament but narrowly missed out on qualification on their draw shot average as the three top teams had beaten each other. This gave the semi-final line up in the girls’ section as Team Soutar versus Team Seftor and Team Watt versus Team Laurie, the only remaining Dumfries interest in the girls.
Team Laurie went into the semi-final as slight underdogs against the more experienced Team Watt who play out of Stirling.
In the early ends, it looked like experience was going to win the day as Watt took a three shots to two shots lead into end six. The teams played out a blank in six before Team Laurie stole two shots in end seven, giving them a one-shot lead into the last end, where they stole another shot to complete the victory.
With Team Seftor from Edinburgh winning the other semi-final, it set up the reverse of the last tournament with Laurie versus Seftor the Championship match and Soutar versus Watt the third-place match.
This weekend saw teams gain revenge over their opponents with team Watt beating Team Soutar, and in the final, Team Seftor beating Team Laurie. It would appear that there will be an interesting outcome to this year’s girls event with any one of four teams in with a shout of victory overall.
Meanwhile Team Carson took an early control of their game as they led 6-2 after five ends before blanking end six, then stealing a single in end seven to secure their final spot.
In the other semi-final, Team Thomson took an early lead before Team Rutherford came back at them with Thomson leading 5-3 after five ends, a single then a blank was enough to see Thomson into the final.
In the third-placed match, Team Rutherford secured their second third place in two competitions with a good victory over the Aberdeen side of Team Brewster.
The final was a tight game with very little between the two teams but Team Carson were in a mean mood and weren’t for giving up any chances, running out 5-1 winners after seven ends to record their second victory of the series. Team Thomson also recorded their second runner up spot to keep the pressure on Team Carson at the top of the leaderboard.
Next up for Dumfries Young Curlers will be the Leslie Ingram Brown U14 mixed doubles being played this weekend at Dumfries Ice Bowl and this will be a good chance to see some of the youngest curlers playing in the mixed doubles format, followed by the U17s travelling to Hamilton for the next leg of the Asham U17s Slam series. The U21s will be focussing on the Scottish Junior Championships in Aberdeen in the middle of November, with the winners going on to represent their country at the World Championships.