Perth pair help Scotland secure quarter-final slot

Perth curlers Robin Brydone and Leeanne McKenzie helped defending champions Scotland to become the first country to qualify for the quarter-finals after notching their sixth straight win at the Mixed World Championship in Kelowna, British Columbia, yesterday.

Skip Brydone, McKenzie, Rebecca Morrison and Ross Whyte maintained their 100% record in Group A with a 10-3 victory over Viktor Kim’s Kazakhstan team. It was all-square after three ends, but the Scots then counted four stones at the fourth end to seize control of the match.

They face Germany next, who are no longer undefeated after losing 4-3 to England.

Meanwhile Eve Muirhead’s team has travelled to Canada to compete in the Canad Inns Womens Classic in Portage before heading on to the Grand Slam of Curling in Truro.

These events will be the team’s first tournaments in Canada this season and only the second competitive outing for skip Muirhead, who marked her recent return from rehab following hip surgery with an impressive quarter-final appearance at the Stockholm Ladies Cup earlier this month.

“We have worked really hard in training both as a team and technically in our individual session with respective coaches,” said Muirhead. “As a team we are looking forward to our trip to Canada to compete in Portage and the Grand Slam.”

Muirhead’s siblings, Glen and Thomas Muirhead, along with fellow Olympians and brothers Kyle and Cammy Smith, also make their second competitive outing of the season as Team Glen Muirhead, at the Curling Masters Champery which starts tomorrow.

“We are looking forward to Champery. Our first event in Basel helped us work out a lot of things as a new team and it was a good experience although we didn’t get the results we wanted,” said Glen.

“We can move forward with more vision and focus, we can relate back to scenarios from our first completion and take that on board to improve on areas and the dynamic is good, the team is in good spirits and there are things we can improve on in Champery.”