Mouat and Muirhead both on song in Tallinn
Edinburgh’s Bruce Mouat defeated Olympic bronze medallist Peter De Cruz at the European Curling Championships in Tallinn yesterday, while fellow Scot Eve Muirhead got her title defence back on track following two defeats on Sunday.
World bronze medallist Mouat and his team-mates Hammy Mcmillan, Bobby Lammie and Grant Hardie won their opening two round-robin matches, but were surprisingly beaten by Russia on Sunday.
Swiss skip De Cruz had already lost two out of three, and Mouat handed him another damaging defeat. The Scots led 3-1 and 5-2 before clinching an 8-4 victory with a two at the penultimate end. They play Poland next.
“That was a good bounceback after Sunday,” said Mouat. “Switzerland are a world-class team, as they proved with their bronze at the Olympics, so that was obviously a big win for us there. I’m feeling pretty good right now.”
Muirhead urgently required a win after losing to Czech Anna Kubeskova on Sunday night, and she got the result she wanted against Italy’s Veronica Zappone. The Perth skip and her colleagues Lauren Gray, Vicki Chalmers and Jennifer Dodds frittered away an early 4-1 lead and briefly trailed 6-5, but Muirhead nailed a two at the last end to win 9-7. They face Latvia next.
“We knew we needed to get a win, so I’m really pleased,” smiled Muirhead. “It was a game of patience and we really stuck together as a team. Every game could go down to the last end and the last shot, and you have to be confident about making shots like that.”