Coveted curling contests staged at Kelso rink

The Border Ice Rink recently staged one of its most prestigious competitions – the Matthew Templeton.
The Matthew Templeton wining rink featured Ewan Pate, Graeme Baxter, Phillip Brand and Luigi Massari at Borders Ice Rink in Kelso.The Matthew Templeton wining rink featured Ewan Pate, Graeme Baxter, Phillip Brand and Luigi Massari at Borders Ice Rink in Kelso.
The Matthew Templeton wining rink featured Ewan Pate, Graeme Baxter, Phillip Brand and Luigi Massari at Borders Ice Rink in Kelso.

The competition had an excellent turnout, with a full 16 teams meaning there was a change of format to a knockout system, instead of playing two pools.

The losers of the first round were fed into the low road to fight it out for the Bibby.

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The Bibby final was contested between seven Ayton Castle members and Dave Prentice of Greenlaw, who skipped the team but let Bruce Porteous throw final stones.

It was a tight final, with Bruce and Dave scraping through in a 6-5 win over Colin Martin.

The final of the Matthew Templeton was fought out between last year’s Bibby winners, Graeme Baxter, and last year’s beaten finalists, James Stark.

Graeme started well, taking a three in the first end, before James pegged him back with a two and a steal in the third.

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A couple of singles in the fourth and fifth ends saw Graeme take control again before losing a one and another steal, to see the scores tied up going down the final end.

James, needing to score against the hammer, required a hit and roll with his final stone.

It was well played but agonisingly spun inches past the shot stone.

This meant Graeme Baxter lifted the trophy with his rink of Luigi Massari at lead, Ewan Pate at second and Phil Brand at third.

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It was an excellent night of curling, with a good-sized crowd passing opinion from the gallery.

The event wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work by the ice technicians – especially Josh Hogarth, who worked tirelessly to help find players for some of the teams – the generous sponsorship of NFU Mutual and Border Safeguard and the excellent catering from Lorne and Leigh of Brown’s Catering.

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