Curling: Scottish Curling Championships

Mar 9 2010 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

OLYMPIC skip Eve Muirhead bounced back from the disappointment of Vancouver to savour victory on home ice in the Columba Cream Scottish Championships.

But hopes of an historic family double were dashed at the Dewars Centre when brother Glen was edged out by veteran Perth star Warwick Smith in a hard-fought final of the Bruadar men’s championship.

Smith turned back the clock to defeat the young pretender from Blair Atholl 5-3 in Sunday’s final and admitted title number eight felt just as sweet as his first.

Incredibly, Warwick and his battle-hardened team of David Smith, Craig Wilson and Ross Hepburn have notched-up 27 national titles among them, with David Smith claiming his tenth crown.

Defending champion Eve and her rink had to overcome the loss of experienced player Jackie Lockhart, who suffered a painful knee injury in the warm-up, before defeating 2008 winner Gail Munro to retain the Columba Cream title in a tense 8-7 extra end head to head.

The ice-cool 19-year-old said: “It was a hard game but we can hold our heads high after the disappointment of Vancouver. We put that out of our minds and we knew we had the potential to bounce back. Now we have to focus on the world championships which will see us return to Canada to represent Scotland at the event at Swift Current.”

Lockhart’s injury paved the way for Annie Laird to join Kelly Wood and Lorna Vevers.

Eve, who was disappointed brother Glen couldn’t trigger double celebrations in the Blair Atholl household later in the day, added: “Now we’ve got something else to look forward to this month.”

Eve and her team were presented with a new Jubilee Rose Bowl donated by Pitlochry’s Kathleen and Robbie Scott to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the ladies branch.

Glen Muirhead has an equally bright future ahead of him and underlined that by claiming the scalp of David Murdoch and his Olympic rink, the current world champions, in the semi-final.

But the experience of Warwick Smith and his players paid dividends in a tight final.

After a win which sees the Perth rink back in the international spotlight, he said: “Number eight is just as good as title number one.

“We kept Glen’s team pretty quiet, and that was the main thing. He had an unfortunate pick-up in the seventh when he looked like getting a two, but apart from that, it was all pretty tight.”

Now the Smith team is on countdown to the men’s World Championship in the Italian town of Cortina next month.