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Play-offs go against seedings in Inverness Curling Super League


By Robin Wilson

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Inverness’s two top seeds in each league were beaten in the semi final play-offs – but with the Ice Centre closed there is no date for the finals, which were supposed to take place tonight.

The semi finals were seeded so that the league champions met the fourth-placed rinks and the runners up played the third finishers.

First to leave the ice as a beaten semi finalist was the Division One champion Iain Fraser, beaten by Ewan MacDonald’s rink.

Inverness Super League Division 2 curling winners, The Thomson Rink brothers Brian (left) and Graeme (centre) with third player Gary McAra. Their fourth league winning team player Jim Brown was not at the ice rink.
Inverness Super League Division 2 curling winners, The Thomson Rink brothers Brian (left) and Graeme (centre) with third player Gary McAra. Their fourth league winning team player Jim Brown was not at the ice rink.

MacDonald himself, being out of the country, missed the tie but sent another former Scottish champion, Duncan Fernie, to skip his rink.

Fernie won two Scottish titles in 2014 and 2015 as third player to MacDonald, and he easily fitted into the skip’s role alongside Tom Pendreigh and juniors Sorely MacDonald and Jake MacDonald against the Ross-shire based champions – Iain Fraser, Peter Macintyre, James Fraser and Scott Fraser.

Both skips threw caution to the wind and attacked from the first end, which began with three shots to Fernie followed by two more.

The tie ended after nine ends with the score standing at 14–8 to the substitute skip and the MacDonald rink progressed to the final.

League runner up Rhuaridh Greenwood and third-placed Aly Fraser (Ardclach) were in a tight game, drawing at four shots each through nine ends.

Greenwood’s final guard on his pot-lid shot stone looked a winner, but he had left the narrowest of ports for Fraser to get through and with his final delivery he won 5–4 to meet MacDonald in the final.

Division Two champion Graham Thomson went out in an extra end to Tain’s Richard Mackenzie.

Twice MacKenzie gave up winning positions to hand Thomson an extra lifeline, but in end 10 MacKenzie’s last stone was perfectly weighted to beat the champion 8–7.

The ‘father of the league’ Innes Rankin still had the guile to cut Andy Wood’s winning two stones down to one in end 10 for a 7–6 win and a place in the final – leaving Wood bemused after taking six of the 10 ends.

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