THE reigning European champions Hammy McMillan, of Stranraer, and his

team of Roger McIntyre, Mike Hay, and Norman Brown, got off to a fine

start in this year's Macallan Scottish Curling Championships with three

wins in their playdown section at Perth.

McMillan opened with a 12-3 win over Andrew Stevenson, of Glasgow's

Summit Centre, and followed that up with a 7-4 victory over Dan Stark,

of Forfar, and then a 10-6 win over Mark Fraser, of Inverness, late last

night.

However, Aberdeen's David Smith lost out by 10-9 after an extra end to

Graham Shaw, of Forfar, then went down by 7-2 to Simon Hartley, of

Murrayfield.

Defending Scottish champion Colin Hamilton, of Livingston, had two

victories yesterday, at Glasgow's Summit Centre.

The district qualifiers for the Royal Bank of Scotland Ladies'

championships are also being staged this weekend and in these, both

Kirsty Hay, of Perth, and Jackie Lockhart, of Aberdeen, finished

yesterday's play unbeaten at Forfar with three wins each.