Wonderful Day for Currie and Balerno Ladies at the Henderson Bishop Finals

Kinross was the venue for the Henderson Bishop finals this year and what a competition it was for our two ladies teams, named Murrayfield 1 and Murrayfield 2.

Murrayfield 2, skipped by Kerry Clark with Scottish Mixed Doubles champion, third Gina Aitken replacing Margaret Nicol (get well soon, Margaret), Maggie Barry and Betty Gibb fought their way through their section undefeated and finished with a maximum eight points.

Henderson Bishop Winners (from left): Betty Gibb,
Maggie Barry, Gina Aitken and Kerry Clark

In the semi-final on Thursday morning, Kerry was unavailable, so Rebecca Kesley stepped into the breach.  The team was playing against a strong looking Lockerbie 2 team skipped by Claire Sloan with sister and former Scottish Junior Champion skip Victoria Mullen at third and found themselves four shots down after two ends!  They must have thought that the writing was on the wall, but scores of 2, 2, 2 and 1 in the all-important middle ends were enough to let them ease through to the final where they met Stranraer.

That the two finalists were the only two undefeated teams left in the competition was somehow fitting.  Kerry was back in harness and if truth be told, our ladies had a relatively easy time of it in the final compared to the semi-final.  They ended up going one better than last year and won the magnificent Henderson Bishop trophy - the second time in five years that Currie and Balerno curlers have been successful in the competition.

Meanwhile Murrayfield 1 and former winners of the competition Susan Kesley, Fran Stretton, Morna Aitken and Jenny Barr had a tougher time of it in the round-robin but managed to secure second place in their section, thus qualifying for the low road semi-final in the Cherrystone trophy competition.  Our ladies ran out winners against the team from Aberdeen to secure the double.

Many congratulations to both teams on marvelous performances that do the club much credit.  When I get pictures of the trophy ceremony, I will post them and we may even persuade some of the team members to report to the rest of us how they did it...!

Penny for Betty Gibb's thought, by the way!  What a stellar season she is having.  I think I might go for a long cruise this summer...!

Cherrystone Trophy Winners (from left): Jenny Barr
Morna Aitken, Susan Kesley and Fran Stretton