End of Season Round Up

First off - have a look at this picture. It's from the front cover of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club's Your Curler magazine. 
 

Morna Aitken and Gina Aitken in Stavanger
Photo courtesy of WCF and taken by Tom Rowland

Recognise anyone?  It reflects great credit on the Aitken family that the RCCC chose to publish a picture of Mother Morna and Daughter Gina, both of whom had Scotland on their backs - Morna in the Scottish Ladies team playing with our own Susan Kesley and Fran Stretton, ably assisted by Vicky Gumley in the World Senior Ladies Curling Championship, and Gina, partnered by Scott Andrews, playing in the World Mixed Doubles Championship.



Team Scotland at the World Senior Curling Championships in Stavanger
Pictured here after winning the Scottish Senior Ladies Curling Championships
(from left) Fran Stretton (third), Morna Aitken (lead), David Aitken (coach)
Susan Kesley (skip) and Vicky Gumley (second)

Susan's team was coached by David Aitken so it was a real family affair out in Stavanger in Norway.  As members will know, Susan, Fran, Vicky and Morna came agonisingly close to a medal, just losing out to Switzerland in the Bronze Medal play-off game, having earlier lost the semi-final to a strong Canadian team that went on to win Gold in the final.

C&B's own Gina Aitken with Scott Andrews
Photo courtesy of WCF and taken by Tom Rowland

Gina and Scott finished ninth in the World Mixed Doubles Championship, losing in the round of 16 to Estonia.  Though they were disappointed not to have progressed further, the fact of the matter is that anything can happen in a one-off game in the knock-out stages of any competition.