Curling: Bryce siblings hit form ahead of Scottish Championships

After winning all three of her group games, Amy’s team then contested the knockout stages defeating Team Wood from Murrayfield in the quarter-final by a convincing 8 shots to 3.

Then a much tougher Semi-Final against Team Teedle from Stirling saw Team Bryce trailing 3-1 after 4 ends of the 6 end game before Amy played a fine draw to gain 2 shots and level the game. After a blank final end Amy and her team controlled the extra end stealing a 1 for the win.

The final was a nail-biting affair and it looked like Team Gilmore from Stranraer had the upper hand by using their last stone advantage to go 3-1 up after 3 ends with Amy being forced to take 1 shot in the 4th. The 5th end was blanked by Gilmore leaving him with last stone advantage in the final end but Team Bryce were not to be outdone and stole a 1 to once again take the game to an extra end. The extra end was played perfectly and Amy rolled her 2 stones around the guards that had been placed leaving Gilmore with a very difficult shot to remove which he failed to do meaning that Team Bryce won the 2015 Baljaffray Trophy.

This win sees Amy’s team climb to the top of the Girls standings after gaining maximum points and is now 3rd overall in the Slam competition but what made this win all the more remarkable is that no “all girl” team has won this trophy for many many years and Amy did not have last stone advantage in any of her knockout games which is no mean feat.

While Amy was at Greenacres Ice rink, her elder brother Cameron was competing in the European Junior Curling Tour event in Thun, Switzerland where his team came a very creditable 3rd overall after topping their group but losing out narrowly in the Semi-Final to the Italian national team skipped by Pimpini. Cameron was very pleased with his team’s performance which was a good warm up for the Scottish Junior qualifiers held just last weekend at Dewars centre in Perth.

As there is no qualifying for the Girls this season, Amy’s 2 brothers - Cameron and Angus were competing at Perth, both managing to qualify for the Scottish Junior finals which will take place at Curl Aberdeen in January with Cameron remaining undefeated after only having to play 4 of his 5 games.

Angus, who curls with Team McNay from Lockerbie are the only non-funded RCCC team to qualify for the finals in both of the past 2 seasons – and he is still only 13 years of age.

All three Bryce siblings curl at Border Ice Rink.