Curling: Edinburgh quartet lay claim to final berths

Capital curlers John Hamilton, Ross Hepburn, Colin Dick and Colin Campbell have all qualified for next month’s Scottish Championship finals, but Struan Macnee narrowly failed to join them after losing a sudden-death tie-breaker in Perth yesterday.

Murrayfield’s Hamilton won all five of his weekend qualifiers to top Section A with ex-world champion Ewan MacDonald. Macnee found himself in a three-way tie for the final qualifying spot, only for Inverness skip Blair Fraser to end his challenge with an 8-6 victory.

Hepburn enjoyed a perfect 100 per cent record with David Smith’s Perth rink while Dick also progressed from Group B and Campbell recovered from last week’s stuttering start to go through in Pool C.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s ladies went out in yesterday’s quarter-finals of the the Glynhill Ladies International in Glasgow, losing 4-2 to the rink of Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni. Edinburgh Annie Laird set out the match in favour of European champion Eve Muirhead.