Inverness curler Kinghorn and her rink had finished top of the Silver League with 10 victories and only two defeats to put them into the final where they faced Stranraer’s Gail Munro.

Having already come through a tie-break match against Jacqui Byers, the Silver League runners-up denied former Scottish junior champion Kinghorn a place in next season’s Gold League when they ran out 7-4 winners.

Level at 2-2 after six ends, Munro looked to have gained the upper hand by claiming two shots in the seventh only for Kinghorn to pick up a two of her own at the following end.

With two ends to play, there was no margin for error on either side and it was Munro who retained her composure with two shots in the penultimate end and a single helping clinch the win.

Meanwhile, Inverness curling coach Tom Pendreigh was pleased with the efforts of the Scottish wheelchair curling team, despite the defending champions losing their World Championship title in Sweden last weekend.

Scotland, who also won the title in 2005, had to settle for bronze following their semi-final defeat by the Swiss.

The Scots had finished second to Canada after the round-robin stages following victories over Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Japan and Korea, but were beaten 7-4 by Switzerland in the semis.

This put Scotland into a bronze medal match against Canada — the team that had beaten them in the final of the 2006 Paralympic Games.

Despite trailing 3-0 after two ends, the Scottish side fought back to win the match 7-4 and take the final podium spot behind gold medallists Norway and second placed Switzerland.

“We were pleased to make the semi-final spot with such an inexperienced team,” said Great Britain head coach Pendreigh, who travelled to the competition in a mentoring role.

Alison Kinghorn, delivering stone, failed to win promotion to the Gold League last weekend.

“It has helped us gain precious Paralympic points for the Vancouver Games, which is crucial even at this early stage in the Paralympic cycle.

“The support for this team from Scottish Disability Sport and the Scottish Institute has been paramount to the success so far.

“The game has moved forward so quickly and the standards have risen greatly, even since the Paralympic Games only a year ago.”

The Scottish team was made up of Michael McCreadie, Angie Malone, Aileen Neilson, Jim Elliott and Jim Sellar.

Gordon Kennedy, the former Highland Curling development officer and now regional development manager for the Royal Caledonian Curling Club led his local Ballindalloch rink of Lynne Scott, Ray McGann and daughter Katy to a first time success at Area 10’s Bonspiel competition.

Ballindalloch came out on top with four points and plus 18 shots at Inverness Ice Rink after a 14-2 victory over Inverness (G. Sim) 14-2 and a 10-4 triumph at the expense of Highland and Moray Juniors (D. Clark).

The Locheye Curling Club, from the Ross Province, were runners-up under the guidance of skip Tony Watson.

Meanwhile, prominent Cawdor club member and Super League skip Hugh Robertson was part of the Bob Kelly (Gogar Park) team who lost in the final of the Scottish Men’s Senior Curling championship at Greenacres.

Kelly, a former Scottish champion, also had playing with him another former champion, Gordon Muirhead, and they were favourites to lift the title, but Keith Prentice’s Borders rink surprised the Kelly team in the final as they swept them aside in an 8-1 win to take the title.

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