Scots women storm back to rekindle medal hopes

Curling: Muirhead rink beats Chinese and Swiss to keep on track for play-offs

Two solid wins have put Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and her team back on track for the weekend medal play-offs of the world women’s curling championship in Beijing.

The Scots beat hosts China 8-6 and followed up with a 7-4 win against Switzerland to move into a tie for the crucial fourth play-off slot.

Against China, the Scots made an early breakthrough when skip Muirhead drew her final stone of the third end into the house to score three points for a 3-2 lead.

The Scots led by 7-6 as they went into the 10th end and the game eventually came down to a draw to the eight-foot ring for Muirhead, which she confidently made.

In the game against Switzerland, both skip Muirhead and third player Anna Sloan produced outstanding scoring statistics on the way to victory.

This came despite a complete miss on a takeout attempt by Muirhead in the third end that gave up a steal of one. The Scots recovered well and a Muirhead draw for one shot in the fourth end levelled the score.

In the fifth end, Switzerland’s skip Alina Paetz scored one for a 3-2 Swiss lead at half-time.

Another draw by Muirhead for one in the sixth levelled the score again, at 3-3, and then, after Switzerland had blanked the seventh end, a good shot by Muirhead to lie three forced Paetz to draw for one.

In the ninth end, two good draws by Muirhead gave the Scots three shots from the end and a 6-4 lead. The Scots then went on to dominate the 10th end and finished the game with a

“We knew what we had to do today after a poor day”

“As usual, we don’t like doing it the easy way”

steal of one and a final score of 7-4.

Muirhead said: “We knew what we had to do today after a poor day at the office yesterday and that was to get two wins to keep us in the competition. We did that. We were playing against two tough teams, so we’re really pleased. We couldn’t really have asked for much more from today.

“Hopefully, now we have a bit of momentum going. As usual, we don’t like doing it the easy way.

“We need to continue that play into tomorrow now.”

The Scots conclude their round-robin play against Germany and then the Czech Republic, with both of these teams also fighting for play-off slots.

GOING FOR IT: Scotland’s Eve Muirhead releases a stone against Switzerland, while, inset, fellow Scot Anna Sloan shouts instructions to guide her team-mate