Three Dumfries teams made the journey to Forfar Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday for the final round of the Asham U17 Slam series.
With slightly fewer numbers taking part in the rearranged fixture, there were only three sections and the Dumfries sides managed to avoid each other.
Section A saw Team O Carson go head-to-head with Team Jackson from Stirling, with the Dumfries side sitting top of the overall leader-board and the Stirling side in second place. With both sides winning their respective opening two matches, it came down to a winner takes all final qualifier.
Team O Carson hoped to secure a win, as they had previously topped their sections in every leg of the series. The first end saw Team Carson take a two in the first end and this proved to be the difference as they traded singles for the rest of the game to win 4-3.
Section B had the first all-girl Dumfries side Team Archibald take to the ice, the results mirrored the outcome of group one as going into the last game Team Archibald were undefeated and needed to win to secure top spot. They played Team Thomson from Perth who are one of the stronger teams competing this season, unfortunately Team Thomson got off to a great start, but the girls dug in and after losing a six in the first, kept scoring when they had hammer, taking three ends which resulted in them being best runner-up in a group and securing the fourth qualifying spot in the high road semi-finals.
Section C had the final Dumfries representatives and second all-girl side, Team Jahn. They travelled without their skip but Eve Marchbank moved to skip with Jodi Bass subbing in along with regulars Hannah Green and Rebecca Dalgliesh.
After a good start the girls’ form dropped slightly before recovering in their last section game to record a good victory, which put them into the Low Road semis.
After a slow start in the semi-final, the girls struggled to get back into the game and had to settle for a third/fourth place play-off. They played Perth Juniors in the playoff, who had narrowly beaten them in the round-robin stages but Eve Marchbank rallied her team and they ran out convincing 12-1 winners.
The High Road semis saw Team O Carson up against Team Thomson from Perth. With all of Team Carson playing well, they knew they had a chance of getting to another final. Lead Charlie Gibb was in good steady form and set up the first end to enable skip Orrin Carson to manufacture a three in the first end.
The next two ends saw Archie Hyslop and Logan Carson making some great double take outs to leave no opportunities for the opposition to score. The game ended with a 5-1 score for the Dumfries boys.
The other semi saw the currently undefeated Curl Aberdeen, take on Team Archibald. This was a difficult test for the Dumfries team, as Curl Aberdeen had recorded some big wins already. Skip Erin Stewart managed to guide her team to a steal of one in the first before Katie Archibald, Katie Donald and Jessica Trotter created some good ends to enable the girls to win 6-4.
The final saw Team Archibald start well by forcing Team O Carson to take a single in the first but this only appeared to concentrate the boys’ minds to the game in hand and they ran out 8-0 winners to secure their fourth win in this years slam series.
Best placed female team were Team Mitchell from Greenacres, who had Kirsty Gallacher and Jodi Bass in their ranks. With both Team Archibald and Team Jahn following closely on their heels, who have both grown in confidence and ability as the season has progressed.
