Gina Aitken Skips her Team to Scottish Junior Championship Success

The eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise two C&B stalwarts in the picture below.  Many congratulations to Gina and her dad, David, on their recent success at the Scottish Junior Ladies Curling Championship in Aberdeen.

Rachel Hannen, Rowena Kerr, Naomi Brown, skip Gina Aitken and coach David Aitken

The 8-3 scoreline suggests a one-sided game but in reality the Aitken team had to work hard for their win.  A perfectly-executed Aitken tap-back secured a two and a 5-3 lead going into the ninth end.  The Royal Club's Brad Askew reports (you can find the full report of the game here)

The 9th end brought errors from both teams; with only skips' stones to come, Gina attempted to freeze on her own shot stone, but was a little heavy and created a nest for Katie to draw into.   Sweeping was required to keep Murray’s freeze attempt off the centre guard but unfortunately this resulted in the stone finding the port and leaving Team Aitken still lying 3.  Gina’s last stone came to rest on the top 12′ covering 1^st and 2^nd shots leaving Murray a difficult tap back, but with the cruellest of fates the stone picked up and curled toward the sidelines leaving Aitken lying 3 shots and a lead of 8 – 3, at which point, Team Murray conceded.

Gina joins a long list of C&B junior champions.  David Aitken, Graeme Copland, Kerry and Caitlin Barr as well as big sister Tasha are all past Scottish Junior Champions.  She and her team, as well as coach David travel to Flims in Switzerland to compete in the World Junior Curling Championships from 26 February to 5 March.  The whole club wishes them well!

Karina wins the Sportsmanship Award!

In other news from the Scottish Junior Championship, Gina's wee sister, Karina, won the sportsmanship award.  A good weekend all round for the Aitken family!