ROUND-UP CURLING

Perthshire curler Eve Muirhead made a sparkling return to curling after winning her opening two round robin fixtures at the September Shoot-out in Stirling yesterday.

In their first match since the Covid lockdown, the Perthshire skip and her team-mates Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds and Lauren Gray began by thrashing Aberdeen’s Maggie Wilson 9-1 in a repeat of February’s Scottish Championship final. Muirhead and company were then pushed to the limit by Murrayfield’s Gina Aitken but held on to win 6-4 as they stayed on course for a place in Friday evening’s final.

There was disappointment yesterday for Kinross youngster Beth Farmer who lost 7-3 to Greenock’s Fay Henderson, while Forfar’s world junior bronze medallist James Craik suffered back-to-back defeats to Ross Paterson (8-3) and Cameron Bryce (3-1).