Scotland see off Canada to book place in World semis

Scotland’s Team Mouat produced their best performance of the week to beat hosts Canada to reach the semi-finals of the World Men’s Curling Championship in Calgary.

It was a near flawless showing by Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan as they ran out impressive 5-3 winners .

The teams had gone into the play-off with matching 9-4 records, so the Canadians had the hammer at the opening end by virtue of a victory over the Scots on the opening day of the event.

Mouat produced an exquisite draw with his final stone at the ninth end to nudge aside the Canadian stone that was lying second, partially on the button and squeeze in for the two that gave his team a decisive advantage.

“We were trying to come in with a bit of confidence,” Mouat said afterwards.

“We played really well against them in the first half of the game at the start of the week, so we knew that if we managed to hold that out for 10 ends then we had a chance and we did.

“I’m so proud of how everyone played there. It was maybe our best game of the week so far.”

That crucial shot at the ninth end epitomised the team effort as, typically, Mouat was swift to acknowledge.

He said. “It was obviously quite a tough shot, but we knew that the way that we were throwing it we could make those shots that are pretty narrow past both guards and Bobby and Hammy judged it and swept it to perfection and Grant called the line great.

“It was a great team shot. We all played our part to make that shot happen. We were extremely happy to make that shot and it gave us a lot of momentum going into the 10th end.”

The Scots were then forced to wait for the outcome of the second play-off match between the USA and Switzerland to find out who they will meet in the semi-finals.

Defending champions Sweden and RCF had qualified automatically for the semis, the play-off winner that finished lower in the round-robin would meet the Swedes.

However, the rest of the day’s play was postponed after four positive Covid19 tests were confirmed.

Organisers confirmed play would resume yesterday, with play-off games, semi-finals and the final due to take place.