Muirhead hits back to defeat big rivals
Former world curling champion Eve Muirhead exacted revenge on Gina Aitken’s rink after her team reasserted themselves on the domestic scene with a 6-2 victory in the final of this weekend’s November Classic at the National Curling Academy in Stirling.
Muirhead and colleagues Lauren Gray, Jen Dodds and Vicky Wright had been beaten by Team Aitken’s newly formed line-up on their only previous competitive outing this season at the September Shoot-out at the same venue and they had lost to them again in the round-robin stages this time around.
However, after coming through a hard fought semi-final with Team Wilson, they gained the upper hand with a steal of two at the opening end of the final and maintained the upper hand throughout.
“I think we were in control from the start to the finish of the game,” said Muirhead.
“There were a few missed shots here and there, but overall we outplayed them. We played the scoreboard very well and listened to our coach Kristian Lindström a lot about how we were going to play the game and really went in with that view every single end, so I’m really happy.”
She admitted that it had been something of a shock to lose out in that previous final, but suggested that the increasing domestic competition will be to the benefit of everyone in the British Curling system.
“Losing back in September obviously wasn’t ideal, but it maybe gave us a shakeup to realise we need to play a little bit better and I do believe that this weekend we came onto a very good game,” said Muirhead.
As strange as this season has been, she is consequently looking forward to more of the same.
“They’ve done a fantastic job to put this together,” she said. “I’d probably have been in Canada four or five times and Europe four or five times, so it’s been bizarre.
“There’s no travel before Christmas, but there’s some more competitions planned inside the NCA, along with some mixed doubles to mix it up a little bit. So, there’s plenty going on to try to keep us enjoying it and I think that’s the main thing.”
In the men’s event Scottish champion skip Bruce Mouat meanwhile reckoned victory kept his team in pole position to represent Scotland at this season’s World Championships.
Coming through the round-robin stage undefeated, they maintained that form to the end, defeating three-man Team Whyte 8-3 in a repeat of the final and outcome at this season’s only previous competitive outing in the September Shoot-out.
It had been a gallant effort by Ross Whyte and his men to get to that stage after Euan Kyle and Duncan Mcfadzean dropped out because they had to selfisolate.since protocols meant that replacements could not be brought in, their coach Tom Brewster, a Winter Olympic silver medallist in Sochi six years ago, had to step in to accompany Whyte and Robin Brydone on the ice.
An extra end win over Team Paterson in the semi-final was a commendable achievement, but after conceding four shots at the opening end, they were in immediate trouble in the final and only half of the scheduled eight ends were required before they shook hands, having conceded another four at the third end.