World Junior champion Fay Henderson has made a significant breakthrough with a first victory on the senior tour after claiming the women’s title at the Aberdeen Classic.
The 21-year-old from Dumfries had gone into the event full of confidence after performing superbly in high class company the previous weekend to reach the final at the Euro Super Series Mixed Doubles at the National Curling Academy and the benefit of that was evident as, along with teammates Hailey Duff, a gold medallist at last year’s Winter Olympics, Amy MacDonald and Katie McMillan, she sailed unbeaten through the event at Curl Aberdeen. 
Four victories in their pool matches took them into the final, where they met Team Synackova, who had beaten fellow Czechs Team Hronova in the semi-final and controlled the match from the off.
A blanked opening end allowed them to maximise the advantage of taking the hammer and last stone advantage at the outset as they then claimed their two at the next and forced their opponents to a single at the third and they stayed ahead throughout, ultimately running out 7-3 winners.
“It was great to get my first women’s title,” said Henderson.
“To reach two finals two weeks in a row has been a great experience and shows a lot of the hard work we have put in this season.
“We definitely built on last weekend’s momentum and we managed as a team to go five and O which was a great result.
“We just need to keep building on that.
“I think the confidence from last week was definitely there for me and I think that was then felt throughout the team to help us really believe in each other and support one another.
“At this stage in the season to go unbeaten against some good teams out there, especially when we were not the top ranked team in the field has given us the confidence that we can start working our way up the world rankings.”
The weekend’s performances only added to Henderson’s sense of being at home from home in the venue where she won two Scottish Junior titles, but the Dumfries-born curler is now looking forward to the prospect of contesting next year’s senior Scottish Championships in the town in which she grew up and learned to play the game.
“Winning a few junior titles as well as my first senior title at Aberdeen means it’s a venue that has a lot of good memories for me and it was great ice again this weekend,” she said.
“I think ahead of the Scottish Championships in Dumfries this shows a few teams out there that we definitely are improving and we have a bit more momentum now as a unit and hopefully we can keep building on that and we can only go up ahead of the Scottish.
“It has been a great weekend for the whole team.
“We are getting on really well, have good dynamics and all have a really good game so I think it is now about getting more consistency moving forward.
“This weekend shows we can play those games up in the 80’s as a team and quite a few of them as well.
“Next up we have the Perth Masters and the field will be a bit tougher but we have shown we can go unbeaten and can definitely put those teams under pressure for wins there.”
In the men’s event Germany’s Benny Kapp led his men to victory, beating Switzerland’s Team Stocker 7-2 in the final.
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