Muirhead and Lammie’s clean sweep in Geneva
Eve Muirhead truly has The Midas Touch after the Olympic gold medallist and Bobby Lammie beat hosts Switzerland 9-7 in yesterday’s final at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Geneva.
It was the only major honour missing from Muirhead’s glittering CV and saw Scotland retain the title won last year by Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat.
The Scots did it in style, too, as Muirhead and Olympic silver medallist Lammie won all 11 games in Geneva.
Yesterday was the first time they had been seriously tested all week after the home crowd
inspired Alina Paetz and Sven Michel to bounce back from a dire start.
Scotland counted four stones at the opening end and added a steal at the next on their way to establishing a 7-2 half-time lead.
Back-to-back Swiss twos launched a spirited fightback from the 2011 champions, but Muirhead and Lammie calmly landed a two of their own before seeing the match out at the last end.
“I’m absolutely delighted to get another gold medal, and it’s really special for me to have completed the full set,” smiled Muirhead.
“It’s been a phenomenal year for myself and the rest of the girls, so to round it off by playing here with Bobby was really special.
“It was the first time at this event for both of us and we produced a lot of good curling. We didn’t drop a game all week, and that just shows how consistent we were.
“Mixed doubles is never over until it’s over so, although we
had that early five-point lead,
you always know that one or two half-shots could let them back into it.
“We gave up that big steal of two at the sixth end, but we kept our composure and we knew that if we scored at the next end then we’d be in good shape.”
■ Rory Stewart was the matchwinner as Scotland beat old rivals Germany 3-1 in yesterday’s bronze medal playoff at the European Team Squash Championships in Eindhoven.
The countries were meeting at this stage for the seventh time in the last nine championships, and the Scots prevailed on this occasion after also taking bronze in 2016 and 2019.
A fierce struggle was expected after the teams drew 2-2 on Wednesday, and Scottish No 1 Greg Lobban rallied from two games down to beat Raphael Kandra 13-11 in the deciding game of the opening rubber.
Inverness youngster Alasdair Prott then scored his third win
this week when he defeated Valentin Rapp again. Ten-time Scottish champion Alan Clyne lost match three to former world No 3 Simon Rosner, leaving Stewart to face Yannik Omlor in the final tie.
The unbeaten Crieff giant posted his fifth victory of the week and clinched bronze for his compatriots when he beat Omlor 12-10, 11-6, 6-11, 11-4.
Scotland’s depleted women’s team finished seventh following
a 2-0 defeat to Germany.