19/02/2014 Curling

Whilst the Olympic title is being decided in Sochi,

here in Perth, there's a national prize up for grabs,

as rinks from all across the country

try and put themselves in the frame to become Scottish champion.

The Dewars Centre in Perth played host to

the National Curling Championships.

And beyond the title Scottish Champions 2014,

a chance to represent the country at the World Championships

in Beijing in March was added incentive for the curlers.

In the men's competition,

there were ten teams with multiple Scottish titles between them.

They played each other once each in a round robin format

and here is how the tournament progressed.

Ewan MacDonald first won a world title in 1999.

15 years later, the 38-year-old was

still at the top of his game

and he took a clean sweep

into the knockout stages.

Rinks led by David Edwards,

Logan Gray and John Hamilton

made up the qualifiers,

and team form throughout the week

was reflected in the knockouts.

Team MacDonald proved both confident and competent in their Page 1v2,

taking the match 8-4

and advancing straight to the final.

And the third place qualifiers led by skip Logan Gray earned

themselves a semi final place against David Edwards,

with a 7-3 victory over John Hamilton.

The semi final went to the wire.

The lead had changed hands three times before the final end,

where, with Team Edwards a point down,

and just one stone to throw, disaster struck for Logan Gray.

After an outrageous turnaround in their semi final,

Team Edwards booked their place

alongside Team MacDonald in the final.

Before we get to the final, a quick reminder of the basic rules.

Teams consist of four players,

each player delivers two stones per end, and there are ten ends.

The stones closest to the centre of the house are the vital ones.

Ewan MacDonald's rink have swept away all before them

on the way to the final, dominant in the round robin stages.

But Dave Edwards rink really had that dramatic semi final against

Logan Gray and maybe they're hitting top form at just the right time.

This should be an epic encounter.

Ewan, so far, a pretty good week for you.

Yeah, I don't suppose I could've asked for a lot more, really.

Ten from ten.

It's been a good week, guys have played great, ice has been great.

We've got a real good feel for it.

We came to get to the Scottish Championship Final and win it.

We want to represent Scotland again, go to Beijing,

so it would mean a lot to us.

Every Scottish Championship is very important.

The more you win, the better.

Dave Edwards is looking to make up for a disappointing end

to the 2013 Championship.

We lost out on the last stone in the semi final last year,

which was Saturday night heartbreak,

so very disappointing going home last year,

but to turn that all around in a tight game last night

and win on a really tight last stone shot, was fantastic.

We're over the moon last night to get the opportunity to get

a chance in the final and have a go.

We've been trying for years to get here.

Team MacDonald took a 2-0 lead at the end of end one.

After two successive blank ends, Team Edwards drew level in end four.

We join the action in end five, and Team MacDonald has the hammer,

or the last stone of the end.

Describing the action are Robin Copland and Bob Kelly.

Great sweeping. Oh!

Now, that is a big miss.

Well, it is.

Leaves two red stones in the house and MacDonald playing in,

tried to hold this.

Even their power sweeping

just the finest of contacts,

but that's all it takes.

Having just scored 2 in the last end,

the last thing you want to do is

give up a 2 or a 3.

Well, a bit of work to be done for Team MacDonald to convert this.

Macdonald's left his two yellow stones out front,

which are potentially in a good position

or an end saving position for him.

Won't relish the prospect of throwing a draw around about them

to get themselves out of trouble, but he may have that.

This is looking rather nice. Duncan Fernie trying to come up.

Get in behind, and I think he'll be happy with that.

David might want to bail out here a little bit. I don't know.

He's got an open hit there on the shot

that's on the right side of your screen.

That shot is open.

It's only just open, isn't it?

There is a potential runback double in the stone behind Edwards's feet.

-I agree.

-That's an option.

Not too many other options.

He could try and come through

the hole between the two yellows.

Quiet weight. And potentially get a...

..double there as well.

I think it'll need to be a quiet weight

to get to the nose of the red stone.

-Do you want to run it?

-Just what you think.

What do you guys like?

-I think we'll run it to try and get out of 3.

-OK.

OK. Probably heard the discussion there.

Certainly don't want to lose a 3.

Resigned that it might be a 2,

but they're going to try damage limitation here.

They're going to run that yellow at the bottom of the screen.

Run that back into the reds. Right on the nose, was the call.

If he can get it right, he can pick out a couple of these reds.

This looks easy when you see the hammer there,

-but this is a difficult shot.

-You're right.

The difference between making this

and not hitting anything behind is very little.

20 yards or so.

And exactly that, in fact.

That was very close to getting something, but doesn't get anything.

And the downside, of course, is that that yellow stone there,

which I felt was probably a little bit

in David Edwards's favour to keep that one...

He's now removed it.

It's going to be interesting to see where Ewan MacDonald

goes with his next one.

Looks like a fairly tight guard.

Going to try and cover these two red stones that are close together,

try and stop the double, and there's a pretty simple double on them.

He'll try and get one right in the middle of those.

Pretty tight to the rings. Do you think that was the call?

I think that was the call, Bob. A yard short, maybe.

So, Duncan Fernie.

Great position here for Team MacDonald.

Let it sit, it needs to stop!

Not bad.

Over cuddled a little bit on him. He certainly got cover on one red.

I don't know if the double is still available.

He really had to hit the left-hand one, as we look at it, first.

I don't there's a double there, is there, Robin?

Well, unless...

He's actually thinking about coming off the stone that John Penny's

brush is right in front of. Getting the double that way.

Can he get enough action on that to spring over and get the other one?

He can get it moving but I don't know if it'll go out.

Either or! As tight as you like past the guard and you'll get the either.

If you miss the top red, you'll get the other double!

He's trying to keep his options open here. You can hear the discussion.

Thinking of the double, from the one he's going to hit to the

one in the back ring, trying to get rid of two that way.

So, a few options here.

I just wondered whether he could get enough action on the second one.

A really good try, but only managed to get rid of one.

But he leaves the shooter in there in a good position.

You could see John was desperately trying to...

He can't touch it, of course, because it's in front of the T.

You can only sweep a stone, an opposition stone,

when it's behind the T line.

So he was willing it away.

That was a good shot of what Ewan MacDonald faces.

Going to play a quiet weight.

Lovely idea, getting to the inside of that, the right-hand side,

getting a wee roll in behind the red short stone.

We saw Euan Byers play this stone earlier on this end.

The shot is there.

It's interesting...

If Ewan MacDonald manages to score a big end this end,

-it came out of a mistake from Euan Byers initially.

-Yeah.

His first one which ended up on the centre line, short.

I think he threw that a little tight.

Well, that wasn't his best throw. They were on that very quickly.

I don't think he got out to the brush with that one at all

and that's a big let off for Team Edwards.

I think that's a huge let-off for Edwards.

-It actually sets him up for a steal.

-He's got nose hit with this one.

For two or if he can get the inside roll...

As you say, he can even set up a steal.

It just shows you, Ewan was playing the game where

he didn't want to play it, down the middle, with hammer.

It would just take one mistake and this is what happens.

David's got to make this shot.

Looking definitely for rolls or an inside roll.

Oh, it's a good shot.

Lovely roll from David Edwards.

This end has turned round in the last couple of shots.

It was all MacDonald, and now he's got work to do.

Facing 2.

A perfect little roll.

I say perfect, maybe just rolled a little into the gap there, in fact.

I think that's what Ewan MacDonald is going to go after.

I think he's going to be coming through that little gap,

short stones. The red and the yellow.

That's the gap that David Reid came through,

if you recall, earlier in this end.

-I think it's a little smaller now, though.

-Is it smaller?

He's not taking a lot of ice here, so I think he's throwing big weight.

-This could be a game changer, this stone.

-It's a big shot, isn't it?

Big, big shot.

If he doesn't get through that hole, I don't there's a plan B here.

It's going to be a steal of 2 for Edwards.

Even if it gets through, it might even run and give Edwards 1,

so a big shot for MacDonald.

Well, his first one was a bit slack,

but there was nothing wrong with that one at all.

-Back on from for MacDonald.

-A superb shot.

A score of 1 for MacDonald there.

So, at the halfway stage, five ends gone,

Team MacDonald 3-2 Team Edwards.

With Ewan MacDonald having pulled out one of the shots

of the day to win end five, he leads by 1 as we join the sixth end.

Colin Campbell trying to come round again

and face two stones in the house.

Sweepers working really hard.

I don't think they're going to get it all the way there, are they?

Past the guard. You know they are.

Great sweeping job from the guys again.

Superb stuff.

I don't know how they got that stone anywhere near the house.

-I agree.

-Astonishing sweeping.

-I think this is how.

That is brilliant.

I tell you, it's part of the game I think has come on a lot over the

last few years, I think maybe with the slight professionalism,

shall we say, of the game.

The Olympic games stuff coming on

and the amount of training these guys do...

at the power of the sweeping.

I'm sure it's a lot more than we used to have in the old days.

I think also, though, there's a scientific understanding

of what sweeping does, which we didn't really have.

We just thought it worked.

But these guys actually know what works

and they know what they have to do.

It's about pressure, speed of action,

and you've got to be aerobically fit to do it properly.

Absolutely.

I remember some time back, probably the Olympic Games in Torino,

they produced a sweeping ergometer, they called it,

which measured all sorts of pressures and forces...

and frequencies of the stroke

to try and maximise the effect.

Oh! That shaved the guard.

Very tight past the guard.

Another heavy one from The Destroyer.

Oh! Unlucky to jam red-to-red at that speed.

Leaves one red in there.

Dave Reid.

Son of Ayrshire.

Yeah, the Ewan MacDonald team are actually from all over, really.

Euan Byers, Lockerbie.

Ewan MacDonald is Inverness.

They get together not really all that often to play.

I was speaking to Tom, their coach, and he tells me that Dave Reid,

where he lives in Ayrshire,

he's got seven ice rinks within about half an hour of him, so he can

get plenty of games, even if it's not with the rest of the guys.

Duncan Fernie, even though he's got an hour

and ten minute trip up to Inverness, has been going up

and playing Superleague games with Ewan MacDonald in Inverness.

That's a bit of dedication, spending almost two and a half hours

in the car for a game of curling,

but that's what you have to do to get together

and get some understanding of each other's play.

MacLeod.

Well, had the speed that time, but not quite the accuracy.

But the short one's gone and these are the three stones left in play.

-A really bad slide.

-Sideways!

-Really bad.

Well, we've seen some power sweeping on this ice,

and it's amazing how the ice surface actually stands up to these

brushes, cos there's a little bit of pebble in the ice.

It doesn't run on a flat surface, the curling stone.

A spray is put on, and, depending on how they do that, it depends on the

amount of curl and the speed, and what we've had here

throughout these championships has been really fast ice.

It's actually almost, on some occasions,

been a little bit too quick.

It makes the difference between throwing a draw to the T line

and one, say, at the back line.

Really quite hard to feel as the players are sliding out,

but they do get used to it.

And...they have been having these conditions all week,

so I think they're pretty much used to this fast stuff.

The surface was described to me as like an orange peel.

-In terms of the bumpiness of the surface.

-Yep.

That's the pebble you were talking about.

So John Penny...

A good shot.

Good shot.

Well, nicely played by Penny.

I wonder if he's left a little bit of an angle on the two yellows.

A wee bit unlucky.

Made the shot, made the promotion, but the shooter,

the one rolling to the right,

might have ended up just leaving a bit of an angle to the two yellows.

I hate to say it, Bob, but I think that's what's happened there.

-They're quite flat...

-Duncan Fernie can throw a bit of heat, as well.

What you need for a shot like this.

Trying to hit it through quarter stone.

Oh! What a shot!

Well, I'll tell you, what precision there was there,

at that weight as well.

That was really a great shot.

Well, wonderful.

So, three MacDonald stones in play in the house.

Edwards with the last stone, remember.

They're pretty much bunched up,

so John Penny, trying to get rid of a couple of these.

Two in the top of the house, close together.

Even got it onto the third one,

couldn't get it out the rings, of course, but...

But it has opened that...

Has indeed opened things up, which, em...

I think David needs probably to bail out this end, now.

COMPETITORS TALK

It's coming in perfect, you know? It's right on the tee.

What, a tight guard? If you split the house, you go from one...

OK.

So, tight guard is called.

By that, I mean a guard that is actually possibly biting the house.

I think he changed his mind there, Robin.

He was...I think he was originally going to draw the other side,

draw away from it, but he was in the hack,

he was talking about playing with the tight guard,

then I think he decided to go with his original plan and just...

Which is what he's doing -

yeah, just separate the two of them,

get this up to the tee line,

if he can.

Get it into lie two.

It's not going to the tee line, this time.

It is going to get into the rings, I think.

And that's the key, from his point of view.

I suspect he's trying to force a 1, here.

I think the idea would have been, if he'd thrown the tight guard,

he was maybe looking to steal,

cos the stone he has got in the rings is, well...

We can see it there - it's actually biting the 1-foot,

so a guard on that could possibly have set up a steal.

Worried, of course, if he throws the guard

a little bit short of what he means to do,

that David Edwards could come round and freeze on that one

and maybe set up to make a 2.

So just erred on the cautious side, there,

went to throw a second shot into the house

and is really trying to force David Edwards

to take a 1 in this end

by making him face 2 when he comes to play his last.

This is Edwards' first.

So an out-turn takeout.

Controlled weight, I would think.

They've got to get a roll off this...

Oh, and out of the rings. He wanted to hold that one.

Would have liked to roll in behind the red,

top of the picture, but...maybe went for that a little bit too much.

Yeah, that curled, I think, a little bit more than David expected.

Maybe he turned it in slightly,

played it slightly tight off the brush.

It seemed to curl quite...

They didn't jump on it right at the start,

but...it curled more than he thought it was going to.

So Ewan is now going to try and use this red stone -

you see it top right-hand side of your picture,

and going to try and come in and...

Kind of round behind that, use that almost as a guard.

And again, try and force David to the 1,

one suspects that David will probably draw the 4-foot at that point.

Unless he feels comfortable about a double.

Well, actually, again, Robin, that was an option they discussed,

but I think he's decided to go round to the other side.

Yeah, that's the call.

They'd put a power of sweeping in the first one,

just to get it to the rings.

He's obviously thrown a bit more on this one.

Has he over-compensated?

Just has to hang...

Well, a bit lucky, there.

It does the job, though.

Just had to get two counters to force Edwards to take 1.

There's no double, of course,

but another couple of inches running,

and they wouldn't have had the 2.

So, looking for nose hit here, I think...

..from Edwards, should be good enough.

Purpose here to score a 1 -

are you surprised he's not going for the draw here, Bob?

Yeah? He's got a lot of room to draw, too, hasn't he?

He's got the whole eight-foot and half the 12-foot.

You would think this'd be a riskier shot, wouldn't you?

If he hits and runs off this one, he would give up a steal a 1.

A lot of room to roll on the inside of the left, as we look at it.

Ah, nicely played.

I think you go with what you're comfortable with.

I think that's right - clearly, that's the shot he wanted to play.

So that'll be a score of 1 for Edwards.

Ties the game up after six ends.

It's three apiece.

The surface here at The Dewar Centre is regarded by many

as some of the best ice in Scotland.

But what constitutes good ice and just how vital is it?

# Ice, ice, baby... #

The ice here is absolutely perfect.

I've played in just about every ice rink there is in Scotland.

I've played in ice rinks in Canada, Switzerland, Norway.

Perth is probably one of the best ice rinks I've played on.

The ice surface has got a big bearing on the result of the stone -

it can be different speed, a different amount of curl.

The ice is prepared, they cut as flat as possible,

and then put a small pebble on.

Little droplets of water are thrown up into the air

and they drop down on top of the ice and freeze instantly

so the stone runs on a very small, thin running band

across the top of these droplets of water.

Different ice conditions can suit different teams massively.

Certainly, curling, if we've got curling ice,

it certainly suits us a lot,

cos we like to be aggressive.

We're throwing what we call a split time of 3.2 seconds to the tee line

and it's a draw of between five to six feet,

which is perfect for championship curling.

The ice here, it's been curling really, really nice

and it enables you to play all the shots and as a curler,

and at the level we're at, then all that's you can ask

and if you've got that then we're happy.

End 7 saw a cluster of stones in play

and came to an exciting conclusion

with MacDonald trying to edge

out an Edwards stone with his last shot to take two.

The stone jammed and it went down to a measure for the two

but, by a fraction of an inch, it was just a single

and the scoreline went 4-3 to Team MacDonald.

-OK?

-Yep.

End 8, and with a couple of guards in place,

Euan Byers is looking to put the pressure on with his second stone.

-Needs to curl, needs to curl.

-Just wait a bit, boys, I think. Yep, go.

Go now, guys.

Really hard, come on, guys.

Come on, hard, hard, hard.

Working hard on this one. Nice shot by Byers.

APPLAUSE

With these guys pounding the ice the way they do, it does take

a huge amount of punishment...

..and in these later ends, sometimes that can have an effect on the ice.

Especially in a warm...

ice rink that we have here.

-Go!

-You, you.

-OK.

-OK.

Well, a couple of slight errors there from Colin Campbell

and now we've got four stones in play.

Those three in a line, though, not great for David Edwards.

They're near that centre line and he's got last stone.

Opportunity for Ewan MacDonald to ask for a second player,

David Reid, to come right round about them,

get one on top of the button, on top of the 4-foot.

-Line's good.

-He'll have plenty of protection.

-Hard! Really hard, come on, guys!

-Harder.

-Hard! Still there.

-Hard!

They're working this one really hard to try

-and get it round without touching that red stone.

-Come on, go, go, go!

They don't want to bounce off it, I think they've got it though.

Well, just a little bit, just slightly short-weight there.

Yeah, that's all it was.

Well, I wonder if David Edwards thinks

he can get rid of both of these.

-He's got the power of Scott MacLeod of course.

-Hard!

Plays the hard one, the high, hard one.

Well, moved it out of that line which is good.

Nose in the rings but keeps his shooter.

Yeah, the key there is that it's out in the open now where before it

was covered by two guards.

Just a controlled takeout here from David Reid.

Hack.

It's coming this way.

They're trying to get the yellow and lie two reds.

-Nice shot from Reid.

-Well played.

It's going to be interesting to see how hard David Edwards goes

to try and get a 2 in this end,

there's a lot of stones in play at the moment

so it's looking a little less likely that you'd get away with

a blank here so he really wouldn't want to be forced to take 1.

So, it'll be interesting to see how hard he goes to try

and get a 2, whether he's prepared to gamble.

Not that much at the moment anyway, cos this is a takeout.

Good shot.

Moved behind that cover there but it's actually done quite well,

where it's gone.

-So, precision shot been called for here.

-Yeah, probably have to.

-Go this way.

-OK.

Yep, going to try and make the takeout on yellow.

Obviously, they have to be careful that it doesn't overcurl

when you pick your own red going out and leave the yellow in there.

The barrier awaits.

A little bit of a down-weight, controlled-weight shot.

Good shot from Duncan Fernie.

Don't know if there even was an option, really, to roll that one in

behind the two short ones, I think it would have set up a double anyway

so happy to roll away, get a bit of separation between the two reds.

Duncan's played well today.

He's come to the party,

he's shooting 89% so far which is good by anybody's standards.

Now, John Penny chasing a double.

Looking for half-stone, this one.

Hard! Hard!

Hard!

Over-curled onto the nose.

But sits in the house means

MacDonald will certainly have to play the takeout.

Doesn't want to leave any yellow stones in the house.

Doesn't want to give a chance of a two.

Would love a chance to draw round

the stone at the top of your picture, the red, and the yellow,

but can't afford to do that at the moment.

Doesn't want to leave a chance of a score of two or more

for his opposition, so playing it cagey, biding his time.

Keep it firm.

Duncan Fernie with the takeout.

Yes!

Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Good shot again.

Well done.

Just slightly over-swept it.

Think he was looking for a bit more roll to get in behind those stones.

Certainly no double on the reds

but there is a hit and roll off the right-hand one there.

For David Edwards, in fact.

Got in behind this line up on the centre line first.

John Penny going to have a go at it.

Hard. Hard!

Well, it's going to hold the rings now.

This is going to be the decision for MacDonald.

Is he going to have a go with the draw?

He lies one. Or does he lie one? He's just checking.

It is red, aye.

It's red.

Come here.

MacDonald would have loved that yellow stone

to have just rolled out the rings,

then he could have a free draw round these short stones.

He's taking a little bit of chance if he goes to the draw now

if he leaves a double.

That yellow stone at the back could come into scoring position.

Doesn't want to give up two,

but he sees a chance to apply a bit of pressure here.

It's probably the right call.

Got to take it on, haven't you?

You think, Robin?

Yeah. No, I think the draw round here is a good call

especially as I think... If... It depends.

The stone at the front of the house,

if they nose that, they're not lying.

So even if he gets the double,

David Edwards isn't lying,

so this is a good call from Ewan MacDonald,

in-turn draw round behind the cover.

Hard. Hard!

Hard! Hard!

Just touched that yellow stone, as you saw,

and that's pushed it out into the open.

That's just about back where it was before, wasn't it?

The one that John Penny hit,

so the same shot, I would think, for David Edwards.

He'll have a pretty good idea how the ice is running down here,

looking for the roll-in behind the centre line of stones again.

Stick the roll, guys.

John's moved a heck of a lot at the end, guys.

Looking for the roll.

Hard!

Whoa, whoa.

Well, I don't know what happened.

Was it a pick or did he just throw it really poorly?

-I'm not sure what happened.

-Yeah.

They didn't come onto it early on

which suggests to me that maybe it jumped.

It jumped across, perhaps.

A slightly puzzled look on Dave's face,

but it was certainly miles away from what he was looking for.

Nowhere near getting the roll. I can see all the stone

and a bit.

He might just put it down to a bad throw.

Not a good time to do it, if that's what it was, but...

Well, he's going to be facing at least two reds now,

and Ewan MacDonald is going to try and put another one in there,

I would think, trying to get right into the top of the 4-foot.

In behind that yellow stone, using the yellow stone as a guard.

Now a chance to apply pressure.

MacDonald.

This line!

Line's good.

-Six!

-Whoa!

This is looking wide, though.

A high line. Needs to curl a long way.

Curl!

Well, that wasn't what he was looking for.

The weight wasn't bad but the line was way off again.

I say again - similarly to David Edwards.

And he just bunched the two reds,

so disappointment on the face of MacDonald.

It was a great chance.

Basically, the shot here for David is just to nose that red

that's beside the brush head that you can see in the picture

and the two reds go but he lies short.

But, on the other hand,

-the one has been forced.

-Yeah. Yeah, you're right, Robin.

I think Ewan would have wanted to steal here.

I think it was a stealing opportunity

but he won't be too disappointed. The force is a good result for him.

Got to get the nose.

And he does!

Didn't get it out the house

but that's not important. Shooter stays, moves it far enough.

Good shot from Edwards. Scores that single point.

And we've got a tied game once more.

After eight ends, it's MacDonald 4, Edwards 4.

End nine ended with disappointment for both teams.

MacDonald's first stone gave Edwards a chance to tap back.

But Edwards' stone was swept all the way

and, agonisingly, clipped a guard.

With the chance to score three and put daylight between the teams,

MacDonald was slightly heavy with his last stone...

..scoring just two and leaving the door open for Team Edwards.

Would MacDonald rue that missed opportunity?

We rejoin the action at the beginning of end ten,

MacDonald leads 6-4.

On its own.

Well, tenth end underway.

Euan Byres, Team MacDonald.

They have a two-shot lead.

So the call here is Top 4.

No.

Just over-curling a little bit.

APPLAUSE

The weight was perfect. He'd have liked it on the centre line

but that's pretty good.

Well, that was a big let-off for David Edwards.

He made a mistake with his last stone in end nine,

gave MacDonald a chance for three.

MacDonald heavy so just the two.

A three would have been a really tough call.

Still not going to be easy for Edwards, two down.

Come on.

Needs to score. He must score a two here,

even to take the game to an extra end.

And the corner guard from Colin Campbell.

In play but really wanted that a bit closer to the rings.

A draw round behind that could still be removed by MacDonald team

at a quiet takeout weight.

So Byres with his second.

Just here? Yep, yep, yep.

-Two most difficult words in curling, Bob - same again.

-Absolutely.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, two nice stones there from Euan Byres.

-Yeah.

-David just looking for a slightly better corner shot

so he wants one closer to the rings.

The normal play would be to throw another

corner guard on the other side,

but he knows the one played by Colin first was rather too long,

so he'll actually draw round behind it

and use Colin's first stone as a guard for the guard,

if you're with me. That's the call.

It'll mean if he can keep this one in play...

Mind you, he's supposed to be a bit deeper and past that yellow.

It's not going very far past.

A little bit.

Yeah, they wanted that another yard closer,

because that'll be a runback territory for somebody later on.

Yep. In fact, Ewan knows exactly that the top yellow stone there

is really too far from the house to be much use,

so he's ignoring that one and just trying picking out

the one just played. He could go for the double kill here

but happy just to take the one that could cause him most problem.

-Oh, well.

-Colin's first guard has done its purpose.

-It did work.

-That's a slack one from David Reid.

-It was.

He won't be happy with that.

That does leave the corner. That's in a much more usable position.

Now, what does he do now? Does he go round the corner guard

or does he kind of try and play around?

Yep, it looks as if he's calling to go round that corner guard,

ignoring these two stones.

The higher the better, guys.

The other option, if he doesn't want to do this,

is to throw another corner on the other side.

OK. Trying to use the corner.

Scott Macleod with a draw.

Of course, David Edwards always has to be aware that

those two lead stones of Euan Byers are still in the house.

He has to deal with them at some point.

Happy to leave them at the moment,

trying to use the corner he has, get this round behind,

get it hidden.

Looks like a pretty good effort from Scott Macleod.

Nicely played.

So, Euan electing to take that corner guard off now

with this stone.

That's a better one from David Reid.

So, the Edwards stone now exposed.

David can either throw a guard on it or can try and make

a little play on the red stones.

Just going to throw a guard this time.

He knows that it'll just be peeled by MacDonald.

It needs to swing, guys.

Line's good. Line's nice. Go a bit at the end.

Hard. Hard!

Whoa.

Good throw there from Scott Macleod.

Euan marches purposefully up, gives the ice.

That's the peel. Now, John Penny's first stone.

So, that's the third, so there's four stones to go.

He's trying to score a two here.

At some point, he probably needs to do some work on those two reds

you see in the picture there.

Did you see the call, Robin? Is he asking for the draw?

-Is he coming round the red?

-I think he's possibly coming round the red.

-It looks by the ice he's giving, it looks like a draw shot.

-Yep.

Trying to come down the two reds.

If he can get it to the back of the 4ft,

behind those two reds cos they're at an angle...

He's good. He's good.

Come on. Hard, guys.

Hard! Hard! Whoa. Whoa.

-Just overcurled.

-It did.

-The weight wasn't bad.

Maybe a little down weight. Needed another yard, 4ft, perhaps.

What do you fancy?

-That one?

-Yeah.

-What, just peel it?

-I think so.

-Yeah.

-What's he did do?

-Going here, aren't I?

-Straight back then.

If he goes here and you try and go for the face, it'll lock in...

-You're probably better peeling it, I would have thought.

-OK.

Yeah, Ewan MacDonald thinking a few shots ahead there

to decide whether they want to hit this on the nose or not.

Hit it on the nose and then come round the short yellow one

they played, they're going to drive it back.

This one might get in the way.

He just wants to hit and run. That was what they were looking for.

-Keeping it simple.

-Yeah, put it so you're two up.

-Exactly.

If he loses a two here, MacDonald, it's not a disaster.

He would go into an extra end. But with the hammer,

I would fancy his chances from winning that position.

Not guaranteed, of course. Would love to finish it here

by limiting Edwards to a single point.

John Penny with his second.

It's all right. Looks good.

Hard.

Come on. Hard.

Hard. Line's good. Come on.

-Hard.

-Back up.

Yep, yep, yep.

Well, a great effort.

Just about got it there.

-The thing he's doing here is, he's asking questions.

-He certainly is.

It's not a bad place for him, actually.

That's going to be difficult.

Would be nice if you can make that. I think you can peel that.

It was interesting, Euan Byers coming in and contributing there.

He's always been, even with the Olympic teams they had,

although he was lead position, always had a lot of input

into the tactics. Calls the game extremely well

and Euan will always listen to him and he really talks a lot of sense.

They're just going to peel this top yellow stone.

All the quiet talking is from the Greg Henderson Spy School.

Yes, exactly!

Difficult to see. I'm not sure exactly what he said,

but Euan certainly took it on board. So, this is the peel.

If he gets it thin,

might just catch the red...

to the right-hand side, as we saw there.

Not that he really wants that.

-Just picked it clean.

-Good shot.

Working on the assumption that David Edwards makes a play

on the yellow on the right there to try and get the red

in the 4ft out of play, both the yellows are going to be moving

to the right-hand side, probably out of shot position

and close together and I think David Edwards realised that as well

so they're not even going to make that play. He's coming round

the other side, then I think he's actually going to have to try

and draw this one almost behind the red stone in the 4ft,

half around that.

First of his two stones.

OK, guys. Line's good.

Hard!

Line's good, guys. Hard!

Come on. Hard! Come on!

Right behind the red. Super line. Really good weight.

A great shot from Edwards.

Really couldn't have done much more than that.

That was an absolutely cracking shot there from David Edwards.

Two sweepers worked really hard.

Real team effort.

That sweeping can take the stone, they reckon, 7, 8, 9ft further on.

The shot he's going for, he's going to try and come down here,

he's going to try and catch this.

He thinks the red will come across, get this other yellow.

He's trying to get both these yellows out of there and effectively

only leave one stone for Dave Edwards to play

and win this championship.

So this is a big shot.

I think the angles work. We'll soon find out. McDonald.

He's got it.

He worked it out correctly.

The two yellows go.

Ewan McDonald, Duncan Fernie, Dave Reid, Euan Byers -

Scottish Champions 2014.

-What a fabulous shot that was from Ewan.

-What a great way to finish.

MacDonald absolutely dominant throughout the whole week

and the weekend. Undefeated, 11 straight games.

David Edwards pushed him hard in a great final but just came second.

Look at that. Got the angles absolutely right.

The yellows disappear, leave the reds there.

One stone left for David Edwards.

Not enough. He needed two.

Superb stuff.

Ladies and gentlemen please give it up for

Euan Byers, Dave Reid, Duncan Fernie and Ewan MacDonald -

Co-operative Funeralcare Scottish Champions 2014.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So very happy faces there, but the boys are here with their gold medals on.

Scottish Champion once again. You must be very happy.

Thank you very much. That sounds good.

It's been a few years so it's nice to get back on that winning podium.

Absolutely delighted, thanks.

And also skipping again.

It's been a while since you've been skipping to the Scottish Championship,

but that is a nice thing as well.

Yes, absolutely. Ten years in fact. It's been a wee while since I've skipped at the Worlds,

but looking forward to it.

Got a great team. The three guys in front of me are playing superb,

so just keep doing what they are doing

and make my job easy as they've been doing all week. Happy days.

Dave, going into the final, you had obviously won all your matches.

Does that put a wee bit more pressure on you,

given the fact you think, "We might slip up at some point?"

No, I don't think so. The way the guys seen it was more of a positive.

We had pre-game chats and we talked about what to do

and it was just more of the same really, so I think

we just carried on every game and kept the momentum going.

Duncan, I've got to speak to you as well because you played absolutely

fantastically there and just keeping that momentum going and

playing part of a team is absolutely key in this game isn't it?

Totally, yes. We had a really good week.

It was good to keep the momentum going.

The last two round-robin games I think we were first place

anyway, so it was really important to keep it going.

And in the 1-2 yesterday

and the final again today we played a lot of good shots.

Euan, of course, playing lead

and it's such an important thing to get you off to a good

start and put pressure on your opponents

because Dave's rink did put pressure on you at times.

Absolutely, yes.

My job is quite simple.

It is to try and get stones in the right place and get the end building up for the guys

and put some pressure on the opposition, rather than them doing it to us.

We're going to look at a couple of shots. Talk through the first one. This is the fifth end.

We reckon this was an important one.

It was 2-2 at this point.

You were lying potentially 4-2 down and you've basically got to

thread the eye of a needle here.

Mm hm. Yes, I missed my first one at this end, which set us

up pretty good, but

managed to throw a good one there and thread it through the port there.

That was the important one.

Giving up two in the fifth end wouldn't have been good so that was a good one to make for sure.

And this was the last shot. Duncan, talk us through this one

because there's nothing you can do here.

There's not much sweeping to be done.

You know he's going to throw the weight and this is for the Championship.

Totally. I was just hoping it wasn't going to be tight

and hoping he wasn't going to be wide. He nailed it perfectly.

Right down the stick and just a steady sweep on it all the way down and it was perfect.

It certainly was perfect.

Another World Championship you're going to next month.

That's a good thing.

You're three-time World Champion heading off there

and skipping again at a World Championship for Scotland.

Absolutely, yes. Just can't wait.

Really looking forward to getting out to Beijing.

For all of us we all want to represent our country.

We all want to wear Scotland on our backs. It doesn't matter how many

times you do it, it's a great thrill.

It will be a really proud moment for all of us.

We will go out there and do our absolute best and try

'and represent our country as best we can.'

I'm sure you will. We've had a great week and Team MacDonald have reigned supreme.

Thanks so much for your company. Bye for now.

MUSIC: "Stop The Rock" by Apollo 440