Scottish hopes hang in the balance
SCOTLAND missed out on the direct route to the Final at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship in Victoria, Canada when they went down 6-5 to European champions Sweden.
The Scots can still join Sweden in the Final but must now beat Canada in the semi- final after the Canadians triumphed 8- 6 over Denmark in their play-off game.
Sweden made the early breakthrough against the Scots when they scored two points in the second end for a 2-1 lead.
In the fifth, Swedish skip Niklas Edin drew with his last stone to score one and move onto a 3-2 lead.
Scotland then levelled the game in the sixth end when skip David Murdoch drew for one point but, in a seesaw game, Edin then scored two points with a draw in the seventh to re-establish a lead, at 5-3.
Murdoch then played a delicate tapup in the eighth for one point to reduce the Swedish lead to 5- 4, then, in the ninth, Edin missed a take-out attempt, handing the Scots a steal of one point to level the game at 5-5.
In the 10th, Edin was facing three Scottish counters as he played his last stone but he drew nicely for the one point that gave Sweden a 6-5 win and the direct berth in the final. The Scots now go on to the sole semi-final game.
Afterwards, a disappointed Scottish skip Murdoch said: “That was disappointing not to get through to the Final at the first opportunity.”
BOWLS — East Lothian celebrated a record-setting sixth SIBA Robert Horn Jewellers Scottish Knock- out Cup title at Aberdeen, ending the hopes of a first ever title in the event for Abbeyview 86- 69, while Arbroath ended the reign of Coatbridge in the women’s Final at Falkirk 92-61.
East Lothian trailed until the sixth end of the match when they went 21-18 ahead and they held the upper hand throughout the remaining 15 ends, where both teams finished with two winning rinks each.
The Meadowmill men took their wins courtesy of Derek Oliver, who only dropped six ends in his 27- 8 win over Paul Brown, while Scott Kennedy added a 23- 18 win over Kenny Bald, offsetting a 22-19 defeat for Alex Marshall from Stuart Pagan and a 21- 17 loss for Billy Mellors to Jim McGuire.
HOCKEY — In the Arthur MacKay Men’s Scottish Cup quarter- finals, Dundee Wanderers lost 3- 2 to Grove Menzieshill, whose scorers were Gav Tomlinson, Craig Falconer and Paul Martin. Fergus Sandison and Bobby Ralph scored for Wanderers.
In Division Two, AGSFP’s 2- 1 victory over Falkirk makes Dundee Wanderers almost uncatchable in the title race. In the Ladies Division One, Dundee Wanderers lost 2- 1 to Western.