Hamilton Young Curlers

We rounded off our season on Saturday with our closing bonspiel. We had a great turnout of members, parents and a couple of coaches to form 16 teams, playing in a progressive bonspiel with the usual break in the cafe.
There was a brief practice for those that needed some help.
With so many new members the teams were a bit less experienced than usual and there was often more pressure on back end shots to get a score.
The scoring was close in the end, while one team won on +7, there were three teams on +5, this tie was resolved by counting ends.
The winners were Alasdair Walker, Amelia Russell, Daryl Russell and skip Josh Watson and the runners up were Elena Amochkina, Sonia Amochkina, Aaron Watson and (skip) Ryan Watson.
The quiz was won by Ezra Baxter, Lewis Martin, Margaret Gray and Oliver Dodds.
After playing in the Hamilton Skins last night Kyle Waddell returned to present the prizes and a question and answer session for the young curlers.
An Paralympic cap went to Adam Reid as a bonus prize from the quiz. This was a great opportunity to get insights into the day of an Olympic curler, and Kyle's own memories of Hamilton Young Curlers.
Our thanks to Kyle for coming along with World Championship T-shirts and Olympic badges, and Luke Carson for T-shirt and an Paralympic cap.
We will be back in October.

5 players from Hamilton competed in the Newcomers Trophy at Greenacres today. Matthew was skipping a three player Team 2, and topped the league after the round robin. They went undefeated, dropping only a single point in their last game when they were held to a draw by Team 6, who had Aaron playing 3rd. Lucca was playing 2nd for Team 4 and qualified for the 3vs4 play off, where they would meet Aaron and Team 6. Kerr (skip) and Harris (3rd) were both playing in Team 5 and finished the day strongly, despite playing all day with only 3 players, just missing out on the 3vs4 playoff. Hamilton representation in both 1vs2 and 3vs4 matches, with both games going to the final stone in the final end. Lucca's Team 4 pipped Aaron's Team 6 for 3rd, while Matthew's Team 2 narrowly missed out in the final. Good curling played by all. Some tired players at the end of the day! Well done all!

There are 5 of our players at the Newcomers at Greenacres today. We could not manage one per team, so no guarantees of a winner today (It did happen once when we had 11 players in the 8 teams).

Best of luck to all the curlers and keep calm (for spectators as well as curlers!)

HAMILTON WIN THE UNDER 12 QUADRANGLE

Hamilton Young Curlers play in an under 12 Quadrangle with the Young Curler clubs from Stirling, Perth and Kinross.
This season our team played at Kinross, Perth, Hamilton and finally Stirling, playing 2 end games and a draw shot competiton against each other club at each venue. At Kinross our team were 3rd, then 4th at Perth but they improved to a close 2nd at Hamilton before a win this time at Stirling. In the overall table they tied with Stirling on 12 ends won (the others clubs were not far back on 10 and 9), but with better shot difference they won overall.
In the final games at Stirling, Stirling were ahead going into the last games, but lost to Perth. In the final end Matthew's last stone came in off a Kinross stone to clear out the shot stone and take the end required to tie the 12 ends of Stirling and win overall on shots.
In the draw shot competition Hamilton won again but this time the individual winner was Bethan, after Peter won at Hamilton.
Congratulations to Bethan, Wendy, Peter and skip Matthew on a well played season. (Kerr and Heidi M also played for other teams when they were short of players).
Our thanks to Stirling as organisers and of course our parents for making this possible. Photo credits to Stirling and parents.

Our team came 3rd - well done Team Watson

Calendar updated with Closing Bonspiel on Sat 28th March, needs to be pre booked.

UNDER 17 LOCKERBIE AND END OF SEASON REPORT

At the start of the season Team Drummie (Adam, Ryan, Daniel and Oliver with coach Tom) were a new unproven team who had already needed one substitute after the summer barbeque circuit. At the curling season start practice began in a hurry with the first Under 17 Slam coming up fast. This was a great success with a win at Perth.
While the Hamilton and Greenacres results were not as good things came back together at Forfar in December with a high road runner up spot.
And so to the last event, the Lockerbie Under 17. At least 4 teams could still win the overall Asham Under 17 title, for Team Drummie and Team Skea a high road win here would be enough to win the overall championship.
On Saturday Team Drummie opened the first game with a steady start for three ends, followed by a run of 9 consecutive ends won to complete their two round robin games. As they had a bye for the third this made then top qualifiers and so straight to the High Road semi-finals.
In the semi final a good win over Team McRobert reversed the result in the Forfar final to set up a final against Team Skea.
A poor start led to two steals against to be 0-3 down. The third end saw lots of Team Drummie shots in the house and Team Skea unable to stick amongst them. A five was scored which nearly became a six. An exchange of singles left Team Drummie two ahead without hammer for the sixth and last scheduled end. It was a fairly open end but by the final shots Team Skea lay two at the back corner, partly guarded. The final takeout somehow managed to get between the Team Skea shots and their last drew to score three. Congratulation to Team Skea on the win in the event and the overall Slam series but also congratulation to Adam, Ryan, Daniel and Oliver on a tremendous season and results beyond any expectation at the start. Their final runners up spot made them the winners in the boys' team competition.

Team Ward were also playing the Slam, following their win in the Low Road final in Forfar they won all 3 of their round robin games in Lockerbie to qualify for the High Road quarter final against Team McRobert. A great steal of one in the first started an exchange of singles, and although they just missed scoring a two in the fifth end a single for McRobert in the last would lead to a extra end with hammer for Team Ward. Unfortunately the end did not work out as Team McRobert scored three to progress to the semi-final game with Team Drummie. Of course the Hamilton part of the crowd were hoping for the Ward-Drummie clash.
Overall Team Ward qualifed for play offs in all 5 events with a high light of a Low Road win, and were third in the girls table.

(The video at the end is Oliver's draw to secure the fifth end with a close freeze).

Today is the last under 17 Slam of the year - we wish Team Drummie and Team Ward all the very best today in the knockout stages of the event.

‘Keep calm and carry on curling’

💥 Deadline extended!💥

You now have until 5pm on Saturday 7 March to apply for a MMCF supported place at Trillium Curling Camp 2026

➡️ head to www.mattmurdochcurlingfoundation.com for an information pack, and to apply.

Tag any young curlers (aged 15-17 in August) who you think might be interested! 👀

A good outing for Matthew, Aaron, Kerr and John at the Mhairi McAughtrie Under 12s in Stirling yesterday - all played well, finishing 4W-3L (winners were on 5-2). Aaron won Take-out of the day and Matthew Overall shot of the day. Much excitement as the prizes were presented by curling royalty, complete with Olympic medal...