The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Winning start for Scots
CURLING: Team Muirhead unbeaten, while men take notable scalp at Euros
Both Scottish teams emerged from the opening weekend of the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships at Glasgow’s Intu Braehead Arena in good shape.
Eve Muirhead’s women remain unbeaten, following up a 6-5 win over Sweden with a 10-5 defeat of Norway in the evening session to top the table.
In their morning game, the Scottish women were up against Sweden and in the fourth end Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg drew her final stone into the house to open her account by scoring two points for a 2-1 lead.
Muirhead responded with two points of her own in the fifth when she hit out a Swedish counter to take the lead at 3-2.
The score was tied at 5-5 in the 10th and Muirhead sealed her 6-5 victory with a draw for the one point needed.
After the game, Muirhead said: “I thought we played great out there. My team were fantastic and that makes my job easier when you have your team playing so well.”
Against Norway, the Scottish women were always ahead, thanks to scores of two in the second, fourth and sixth ends.
Norway fought back in the seventh and eighth, scoring two and stealing another one after an umpire’s measure to reduce Scotland’s lead to 6-5, but good play by the Scots in the ninth gave them a score of four for the win that puts them at the top of the rankings and keeps their undefeated record.
After this game, Muirhead said: “That was a really solid textbook game. We managed to get our 6-2 lead.
“It was a tight measure for the one, but we just kept our heads and kept control.”
The Scottish women face Finland and then Switzerland today.
In the Scottish men’s only game yesterday, Aberdeen’s Tom Brewster and his team took the notable scalp of defending champions Sweden with a strong finish giving them an 8-4 win.
This, allied to their earlier 8-7 extra end win over Norway, keeps them joint second in the table behind unbeaten Switzerland, who they play today.
The defending men’s champions moved into a 4-2 lead against the Scots in the seventh when skip Niklas Edin drew his final stone into the house to score one point.
However the tide turned after that as Scotland skip Tom Brewster drew his final stone of the eighth end for three points and a 5-4 lead.
The Scots then set up the ninth end well and, with his last, Brewster drew into the house to freeze on to two Scottish counters already there.
This meant Edin was facing four Scottish stones. When the dust settled the Scots had stolen three as the teams shook hands with the score at 8-4.