Junior curlers off to confident start
Scotland’s Team Craik, based in Stirling, moved into the second half of the roundrobin stages at the World Junior Curling Championship still unbeaten after contrasting wins over Germany and Italy on the third day of action in Sweden.
Their opening match of the day, against the Germans, had been a top-of-the table clash against one of only two other teams that had won their first three matches and it was as tight as was expected with the teams tied at 4-4 for three ends after the Germans levelled things at the sixth, before the Scots scored a crucial two at the ninth end before running their opponents out of stones at the last.
Their match later in the day looked like it might be another difficult encounter when the Italians opened with a two and, after the Scots matched that at the next, reclaimed the lead at the third end.
However, that was to be their last score as twos at the fourth and sixth, either side of a blanked fifth, put Craik and his men in control, before a four at the seventh wrapped up a 10-3 win.
“That was another really good two win day,” said skip James Craik.
“Those were both really tough games against teams we’ve played before, so we’re delighted to maintain our 100 per cent record through the midway point.
“It puts us in a really good spot ahead of the last push towards the play-offs and hopefully we can secure a berth.
“It was particularly good to get a win over Benny Kapp and the boys from Germany.
“They’ve had the jump on us this season, being 3 and 0 on us previously, so it was nice to get that win against them and hopefully we’ll get another one at the end of the week.
“It was a really convincing win against Italy, though. They came out fighting in the first five ends and really made us work, but we just had to stay patient.