Scotland teams stay in Euros hunt

An 8-3 win over the Czech Republic in yesterday morning’s seventh session of round-robin play gave Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and her team a place in tomorrow’s semi-finals in the Le Gruyere European curling championships at St Gallen, Switzerland.

Scotland were in joint second place when they faced the Czechs and they opened strongly when Muirhead hit out a stone in the first end to open the scoring with three points.

The Scots then scored two shots in each of the third and eighth ends and a single steal in the fourth end was enough to give them an 8-4 win.

It puts them in the semifinals alongside unbeaten Sweden and hosts Switzerland.

Muirhead said: “Since we dropped the first game to Sweden we’ve built a lot

“We played really well. We’re in good flow and we’re making a lot of good shots”

of momentum. We played really well in this game, the girls are playing great. We’re in a good flow and we’re making a lot of good shots.”

The Scottish women conclude their roundrobin programme against the Swiss.

The Scottish men are still in the medal hunt in the event, But following their 9-4 loss against hosts Switzerland yesterday, they must beat Germany in their last round-robin game today to guarantee a semifinal slot.

Switzerland had already qualified for the semi-final when they faced Scotland,.

In the eighth end, with Switzerland in the lead, Scotland’s skip Kyle Smith drew into the house to score one point and reduce the Swiss lead to 6-3.

But in the ninth end, Switzerland’s fourth player Benoit Schwarz hit out a Scottish stone to score three points for a 9-4 scoreline and seal the win for the host nation