Muirhead rink notches victory
British Curling’s women claimed another confidence building tournament win in high quality company when Eve Muirhead led Team Red to victory in the final of The Challenger in Switzerland.
It was the third event of the season that has featured The PEAK-based nine-player squad, playing in different combinations of four and five players.
This time around the teams were close to last season’s formations and it was the quartet of Muirhead, Vicky Wright, World Mixed Doubles champion Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff who came through the round-robin qualifying stages, winning three of their four round-robin matches.
In the semi-final they defeated Silvana Tirinzoni’s World champions 7-5 and repeated that scoreline in the final.
“For all four of us it means a lot to get a win on the European Tour,” Muirhead said afterwards.
“We’ve all adjusted very well to the different combinations so far and it was nice this week to have a four player team to have a bit of consistency moving forward and I think we managed to build on some good performances going from game to game. “
With British Curling having to put a women’s team into the final Olympic qualifying competition for the first time ever this season, Muirhead is acutely aware of the importance of early season form as players vie for inclusion in that event.
“The next two events it’s also going to be very beneficial being back on the international circuit,” she said.
“Every event we play just now is really important for the coaches to see and for the players to be able to put in their best performances before selection.”