Eight young curlers from Dumfries travelled to Prague at the weekend for the second leg of the European Junior Tour and the stand out performance came from Fay Henderson whose rink won the Junior Ladies Cup.
Team O Carson were the best placed local boys team and although this was skip Orrin Carson, Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb’s first overseas tournament, it didn’t seem to affect their play, although there were some tired boys on the flight home. Team Craik were the third team with local curlers Jack Carrick, Struan Carson and Scott Hyslop representing Dumfries.
Team Craik took to the ice first, they were up against Team Mjoen from Norway, and on what turned out to be the trickiest sheet in the rink, the boys struggled to get to grips with the ice early on and found themselves 1-6 down after five ends.
After this the boys got into the game and could have forced an extra end if it hadn’t been for the Norwegian skip’s last stone, cutting the boys down to a two for the win.
Following Team Craik onto the same sheet were Team O Carson who had been watching their fellow curlers and knew the sheet was tricky. They were up against Czech Team Matecijek and with a dream start to their first foreign competition, they stole a four in the first followed by a two in the second, finishing the game 9-2 winners after six ends.
Further along the rink, Team Henderson’s campaign started off well as they recorded a similar 9-2 victory over their Czech opponents Team Vasakova.
Team Henderson went on to record further victories against Team Abdel Halim from Germany 8-2 and another resounding 10-1 victory over Swiss side Muhmenthaler, and with some heavy scoring from skip Fay Henderson, Robyn Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne and Laura Watt, they dominated their section.
Meanwhile the boys were playing their remaining games with Team Craik up against arguably the best team there, Team Maeda from Japan. Having faced them twice at St Gallen, Team Craik were hoping for third time lucky, however, this wasn’t to be and the boys went down 8-2 with the Japanese team a step ahead of the field. The boys rounded off their section games with a win over Austrian side Hofer, with skip Ross Craik drawing the important winning shot into the four foot ring. The draw shot average wasn’t enough to see the boys into the quarters and their tournament finished with a 9 v 10 game win against Team Matecijek for their tournament to end on a positive note.
Team O Carson completed their section games with victories over Norwegian side Kongssund, although looking close after four ends, skip Orrin Carson called a change of tactics which saw them record a three then a two to overcome the Norwegians.
Their final game was against Jermann from Switzerland who have a good track record in the EJCT. The Swiss took an early 3-0 lead but another revival saw Team O Carson level the scores with a three, take a single shot lead in the fifth. With the Swiss blanking the next two ends, Team O Carson took a single shot lead into the last. With a great set up from his team Orrin Carson was able to steal a two in the last to seal the win and a quarter-final spot.
The quarter-finals saw Team O Carson play Norwegian side Team Kvarner. After a nervy start Team O Carson took a two and a single to go three up after four ends, a position they maintained throughout the game to secure a 6-3 win and a semi-final spot against current World Junior Silver medallists Team Kapp from Germany.
This was a step up in opposition for Team O Carson, and a combination of tiredness and Team Kapp’s experience saw the local boys lose a four in the second end, a position they wouldn’t recover from but they stuck in and caused a few concerns for the German side who ran out 6-4 winners.
The bronze match was a very exciting game with both teams holding the lead at various points through the game. Going into the last end it was Czech University side Hanak who held a two shot lead. With some good play Team O Carson had given themselves a shot for victory with a difficult hit and roll with their last, it wasn’t to be as the stone curled millimetres too much. This gave Team Hanak the hammer in the extra end which they duly converted for the win but it was a good fourth place for the Dumfries boys in their first overseas tournament.
Over in the women’s draw, Team Henderson continued to steamroll their way through the quarter-finals with an 11-2 victory over Dutch side Bomas, to take them into the semi-final against the Japanese side Miura. Like their male counterparts Team Miura were a great side who were well drilled and this posed Team Henderson with their biggest challenge to date.
It wasn’t looking good for the girls as they fell behind 4-2 after five, however, with singles in the final three ends, they managed to turn the score around for a well deserved victory and a place in the final. The final saw a return match against Team Vasakova from Czech Republic, with a similar outcome to the original game as Team Henderson took the victory by 7-3 and secured first place.
