Start full of eastern promise
Perthshire’s Eve Muirhead has made a positive start to the World Women’s Curling Championships in Beijing.
The 26-year-old secured three wins in her opening five matches - against the USA, Russia and Denmark - to leave the Scots placed nicely.
There was a blip for Team Muirhead with a 7-6 defeat at the hands of Italy and then a loss to Sweden.
Coach Glenn Howard, himself a former world champion, said:“They came up against a very hot Italian team.
“The skip made a ton of shots against us and we just could not pull off the win, but I was really proud of the girls. Eve Muirhead
They brought it up a notch and, unfortunately, we lost that game but that is the way it is.
“The first half of the second game against Russia was probably the best five ends of curling that the girls played this year. They came out with incredible intensity and desire. You could tell they really wanted that match.
“Unfortunately the next three or four ends were a little rough. That kind of let the Russians back into the game but the good news is that they finished it off and we got another win.
“So I am pretty happy at this point and hopefully we can build on that but we have to maintain the intensity for the ten ends.
“Overall it’s a really good set-up here as the venue is five minutes’walk from the hotel. The venue is impressive and been well filled with locals with well over a thousand at every session.
“They are definitely mainly new to the game but keen to see curling and cheering loud for China of course.”
Next up for Eve is a match against Korea.