Two of the Irish men’s team did a bit of team bonding at the weekend in Dublin.
James Russell and Arran Cameron warmed up for the trip to Romania for the European ‘C’ League by watching the rugby game between Leinster and Ulster. Ulsterman Arran had to watch his team go down to the home team 21-18 in the Aviva Stadium.
The C League begins in Brasov on April 12th.
John Wilson, who will represent Ireland at the World Mixed Doubles in Norway next month, warmed up with a great win in the Perth Mixed Doubles at the weekend.
John’s playing partner was old friend Linsey Spence from Lockerbie as his Irish mixed doubles partner Louise Kerr was busy curling in the Irish Mixed Championships at Dumfries.
John and Linsey won the final 8-6 against Sean and Janie Clemie.
Well done John!
James Russell with his team of Ailsa Anderson, Craig Whyte and Niamh Begley won the Irish Mixed Championship at Dumfries at the weekend and win the right to represent Ireland at the World Mixed Curling Championships in October.
The champions were put on the back foot on the Saturday, losing their first game to Team Gray (Bill Gray, Louise Kerr, David Whyte and Nina Clancy) 6-3 but recovered to beat Team Kenny (Johnjo Kenny, Jan Ward, Ross Barr and Jacqui Davidson) 9-6 in their second game.
As Team Gray beat Team Kenny 6-3 in the round-robin, Team Kenny were eliminated and the two remaining teams fought out a best of three on the Sunday, with the round-robin game counting as game 1. After a very close and tense game in the morning , which Team Russell won 5-4, it went down to a decider for the title and Team Russell outplayed Team Gray in the last game 9-3, taking a five in the sixth, when Team Gray conceded.
It was a double celebration for the winning third player Ailsa Anderson who got engaged last month. Congratulations to the winners, and double congratulations to Ailsa!
Thanks go to John and Eleanor Burns who acted as umpire and timer respectively during the weekend.
The Irish Mixed Championships start tomorrow at Dumfries Ice Bowl.
Three teams have entered skipped by James Russell, Johnjo Kenny and Bill Gray.
Game times are 10am, 3pm and 6.30pm on Saturday and at 9.30am and 12.30pm on Sunday. The winning team will earn the right to represent Ireland at the World Mixed Championship in the autumn.
Results will be posted here.