Elgin Academy’s young curlers retain the Crabbie Trophy at the national schools champions at Curl Edinburgh while Forres Academy claim the Low Road silverware to complete a Moray double
Two Moray schools triumphed at a national curling competition in Edinburgh.
Elgin Academy were the overall winners, claiming the Crabbie Trophy for the second year running in a competition involving 14 schools from across Scotland.
And Forres Academy also picked up silverware as the winners of the Low Road competition.
The Elgin team included brothers Fraser and ben Rankin, whose mother Janice was part of the Winter Olympics gold medal-winning Team GB rink at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
The Rankin boys teamed up with fellow Moray Junior Curling Club stars Lilia Clarke and Robert Walls to storm to victory on the Curl Edinburgh rink.
Competing in group A, Elgin Academy won all three matches in their section, defeating Dollar Academy 7-3, High School of Dundee 12-1 and Forfar Academy/ Webster’s 9-2.
That put Elgin through to the High Road competition semi-finals for the two group winners and runners-up.
They duly defeated Bell Baxter 5-3 to reach the final, and in an even closer showpiece match the Moray school just edged out group B winners Kinross by a 6-5 margin.
Forres Academy had competed alongside Kinross in group B and found the Perthshire school a tough opponent, losing 14-0.
However, the Forres foursome of Robert MacAndie, Cameron Turnidge, Isla Ure and Erin Bryceland won their other two group fixtures against Mary Erskine’s (5-1) and Stewart’s Melville (3-2).
That was enough to clinch fourth place in their section and qualify for the Low Road semi-finals.
A thumping 8-2 win over George Watson’s took Forres through to the final where they beat Dollar 9-4 to grab the silverware.
