Moray East Province Division 1

It' has been a while since the last post, apologies. 

 All five leagues in Moray Province East are well underway.  

Gordie Kennedy and his rink of Steve McGingle, Ryan Mackenzie and Tony Duncan have got off to the best possible start in Division 1 winning all three of their opening games.  

In their first encounter of the season they overcame Neil Durno's Fochabers rink 7-4 before coming out on top in a close encounter with Darnaway's Gav Nicol, winning 9-8.  Their last game was a re-run of last seasons title decider, this time the good guys came out on top when Gordie and co posted an impressive 7-3 win over Steve Rankin.  

Hopefully we will have a more detailed account of the games for you in the coming weeks.

The teams next game is against Kenny Oswalds Elgin rink who, surprisingly, have yet to win a game.  

                                  Province East Division 1 table.

Wait for it.........................

Well, It has been a long time in coming (four and a half months to be exact) but Ballindalloch is back online and soo to be back on the ice.  The Moray Leisure Centre opened for curling last Monday afternoon and I poped in to see if I could still maintain my balance and delivery a stone ( I did both, just! although we wont mention where the stone actually stopped)

MLC ice rink,  I wonder how many weeks before the house is a blur?!

The rink has had its annual make over and looks pretty good, as does the ice.  If the ice staff can keep the conditions to the standard experience last week then I'm sure there wont be many complaints (even if the price of a game has gone up to £11 a player)

Ballindalloch again have three rinks playing in the Moray Province East divisions.   Gordie Kennedy and his rink of Steve McGingle, Ryan Mackenzie and Tony Duncan will no doubt be in the running again this season in Division 1, having come so close to winning a second top league title.  Competition is fierce though with Steve Rankin, Neil Durno, Gav Nicol and Kenny Oswald, all previous winners, aiming to add to their over sized glass winners trophy collections!

Lynn Scott and her team are back for a crack at Division 3.  Having played so well in the first half of last season before utter melt down after Christmas led to a brush with relegation, they will be looking to challange this time around.  The task will be no easier though as both Mike Macdonald and Alistair Maltman will be expecting to bounce straight back to Division 2. 

Stuart Mackenzie, off the back of a great season in Division 5 is scaling the leagues again, having already skipped his way through the leagues in the past.  As with Team Scott he will have a good chance but there are a few tough teams, even down in Division 4. Andy Cameron and Douglas Howie, who both pulled out of Division 1 two seasons ago, are tough competion for any team!

League play doesn't get underway until the first week in October,  good luck to all the teams, Good Curling.

Moray Province Points

Eilidh Yeats

 On Monday 4th March Eilidh Yeats,17, became the youngest winner of the Ballindalloch points competition.  Having scored 34 points Eilidh and runner up Lynn Scott would go on to represent Ballindalloch at the Moray Province Points final.

                                                                      Lynn Scott

Lynn reports:

'The standard was high this year, although only 12 players took to the ice, after all 9 disciplines were completed Ann Munro, Alistair Maltman and Alan Stanfield were tied on 33 points each.  After a play off Alan Stanfield came out on top' 

Both Lynn and Eilidh posted respectable scores of 28 and 26.  Well done girls!

                                                   Province Points Winner Alan Stanfield.

Millennium Bonspiel 2013

The 2013 Millennium Bonspiel turned out to be another great day of curling in the excellent facility that is Curl-Aberdeen.  Four strong Ballindalloch teams took to the ice to compete for the Millennium Trophy, against four Fochabers rinks complimented by three Uigie members, Dot Moran and Rebecca Morrison, playing for their own trophies.  The Grant Ice Bucket was also up for grabs, the club with the highest combined scores from all games claiming victory. 

The competition was fierce in the games for the Millennium Trophy, Dave McGaan shot into an early lead when his rink took a 7 in the second end of their opening match before posting a 14-1 win! Gordie Kennedy and Neil Durno fought out a tough game, peeling 3-3.  While Willie Jamieson claimed the win in his opening game and Lynn Scott narrowly lost. 

I would go into detail but,due to a few refreshments between games,  I can't quite remember all the results! After his opening win Dave McGaan posted another win before losing two games, as did Lynn Scott.  Gordie Kennedy followed up his opening peel with three hard fought wins to put himself in contention for the trophy, but in similar fashion to last year, Willie Jamieson saved the best til last, winning his fourth match of the day with his last stone and with it putting his name on the Millennium Trophy for the second year running. 

When the dust had settled on the days play it was obvious, with the commanding results posted by the Ballindalloch teams, the Grant Ice Bucket would be coming home to one of the biggest names in Scottish Curling!!

Another great day, good curling, wonderful facility, lots of 'refreshments' and above all a great laugh.

The Winning rink, L-R, lead Brian Marr, second Tony Duncan, third Ryan Mackenzie, skip Willie Jamieson and representing the sponsor, Eilidh Yeats.

Runners up,  third Robert Bremner, skip Gordie Kennedy, second Eilidh Yeats and lead, Ray McGaan.

Third Place lead, Mark Jacklin, third Dave Kelly, skip Dave McGaan, second Ruth Kennedy and Eilidh Yeats.

Fourth place, second Gav Mackenzie, skip Lynn Scott, third Alan Mcintyre, lead Calum Jacklin and Eilidh Yeats.

Thanks must go to Brian Yeats for his continued sponsorship of the Bonspiel. 

Millennium Bonspiel 2013

The Millennium Bonspiel, Sponsored by McKerron and Milne, will be hotly contested this weekend in Aberdeen between four Ballindalloch and four Fochabers rinks.  If they can make it to the rink in one piece( you know what Ballindalloch/Fochabers Bonspiel buses are like!!) skipping the Ballindalloch teams this year will be Dave McGaan, Geordie Kennedy, Lynn Scott and Willie Jamieson.  In the rank and file will be Alan '100% record' Mcintyre, aiming to win the bonspiel for the fourth time, Eilidh Yeats, aiming to cap off a great season, by wining the Bonspiel for the first time.  Dave Kelly will bring a bit of colour to the affair and Brian Marr will hopefully bring his legendary drinking antics to the fore, and  give his skip Willie 'hollow legs' Jamieson a run for his money!  Buddha is aiming to go one better than the runner up spot he has had to settle for in three of the last four years and Ryan Mackenzie is desperately trying to avoid taking yet another wooden spoon home to Vicky!

Let the games begin :)

check back next week for a Bonspiel report and maybe a few snaps!! 

Scottish Junior Championships underway

The first national championships of the season are underway in Aberdeen.  Eilidh Yeats, club member and member of Alison Woods Kinross team are playing for the chance to represent Scotland at the World Junior Championships in Russia.

To follow Team Wood's results click Here


Good luck girls :)

The Norther Scot, last week, ran an article regarding Eilidh's participation in the Junior Championships, to view the article click Here

Scottish Seniors Qualifiers

Well they have done it again!

Congratulations to Willie Jamieson and his team of Gordie Kennedy, Dave Kelly and Simon Elder for reaching the finals of the Scottish Senior Curling Championships for the third year in a row.

Please click Here for an indepth report on the event.


Hopefully Gordie will report back with details of each game when he has recovered!!