Fochabers curler Abby Duncan's rink maintain perfect record in Moray Province East Division 2 on Moray Leisure Centre ice
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After the international excitement of last week’s match against the USA touring curlers it was back to league duty in the Moray Province East League.
In Division 2, Abby Duncan is clear at the top after another good win.
Gordon Fraser must be the league’s finest caretaker as he once again steered the Duncan ship to a fifth straight victory in the continuing absence of skip Duncan.
Leading 5-1 after the third end and seemingly in total control against Forres’ Charlie Watt jnr, even a loss of three at the sixth end couldn’t prevent the Fochabers four adding both points to their unblemished league tally.
Alan Douglas’ Division 3 title aspirations took a dent as the wily and experienced Andrew Allardyce put one over on the Darnaway team.
A 6-1 Allardyce advantage after five ends still managed to withstand the loss of two consecutive deuces and a cleverly played last end allowed the canny Elgin skip to ease away to a tight victory.
Snow White herself must have raised a cheer as Helen Downey just missed out on a jackpot eight ender with a score of seven shots in the second end against Forres’ Linda Hardie.
The Forres team sheet read like a Jane Austin novel as the Bennetts - Carol and husband Carl - bookended the foursome. Literary references aside, there was no recovering from that early hammer blow and the Hardie rink lost 11-5.
Division 4 produced unquestionably the result of the night as the Buckie rink of newcomers skipped by fly tying Sandy Howie defeated Janice Rankin.
An early trading of deuces had the making of a tight tussle but Howie and his newbies found ice conditions to their liking, a count of three at the last end giving them a convincing 9-4 win.
Jodi Best ensured a fine night for the Buckie club as her rink of rookies scored heavily through the mid-match ends to take the points in a 7-4 win against Katie Gordon’s Moray Juniors and move her team up into title contention .
In the Province east v west open knockout quarter finals there were east wins for Alan Durno over Ali Fraser and Andy Cameron over Mark Fraser whilst Mike McInnes’s win over Bob Stewart and Ali Asher’s draw shot challenge win after a 4-4 peel against Alan Campbell were the west victors.
Results
Moray Province East League
Division 2
A Duncan (Fochabers) 7 C Watt jnr (Forres) 5
Division 3
A Allardyce (Elgin) 7 A Douglas (Darnaway) 5
L Hardie (Forres) 5 H Downey(Elgin) 11
Division 4
J Walls (Buckie) 9 J Rankin (Moray Firth Ladies) 4
J Best (Buckie) 7 K Gordon (Moray Juniors) 4
