Frustration for Muirhead teams

Eve Muirhead and her team were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Portage Women’s Classic in Manitoba last night.

Saturday’s defeat by Korean Un-Chi Gim had left them staring at an early exit, but back-to-back sudden-death victories over American defending champion Nina Roth (6-5) and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Clark-Rouire (6-0) saw them through to the last eight.

Local skip Kerri Einarson ended their run there after swiftly opening up a four-stone advantage. Muirhead, Lauren Gray, Vicki Chalmers and Jennifer Dodds closed the gap to just two but then conceded a three at the fifth end as Einarson went on to win 8-2.

The Scots now face a quick turnaround as they are due to play their opening fixture at the Canadian Masters Grand Slam event in Nova Scotia on Wednesday.

Muirhead’s younger brothers Glen and Thomas and Perthshire team-mates Kyle and Cammy Smith narrowly failed to claim their first title together after losing yesterday afternoon’s Champery Masters final in Switzerland.

The Scots pulled off a massive morning upset when they shocked triple world champion Niklas Edin 7-5 in the semi-finals, denying the Swede a hat-trick of Champery titles.

They then faced home favourite and Olympic bronze medallist Peter de Cruz in the final as they attempted to become the first Scottish winners since Tom Brewster’s rink – featuring Glen Muirhead – in 2014.

Despite trailing 3-0 early on, they recovered to lead 5-4 going to the last end.

De Cruz counted two stones there to scrape home 6-5, consigning the Scots to the same fate as Greg Drummond’s team last year.

Scotland’s previous eight wins at the Mixed World Championship in Kelowna, British Columbia, counted for nothing as Perth’s Robin Brydone and Leeanne McKenzie left empty-handed after losing to hosts Canada in the quarter-finals.

The Scots nicked a two at the last to take the match to an extra end but the Canadians counted three stones there to win 8-5.