Eve Muirhead hailed a thoroughly professional display as Scotland women hammered lowly Estonia 10-1 in just six ends to keep pace in the European Curling Championships in Esbjerg.
The Scots dominated from the off, taking a 3-0 lead in the first end, and had stretched it out to 5-0 after three.
Estonia got on the board in the next end before Muirhead blanked the fifth. However it was in the sixth end that Scotland cut loose, adding five more to make it 10-1, at which point Estonia conceded.
Muirhead said: “When you have games like that, they’re all banana skins you can slip up on.
“They beat us last year in the round-robin, so we knew we had to be strong and focused and that’s what we did and played great.
“We didn’t give them much chance. That’s another one done.
“We have our last two round-robin games tomorrow, so same again will put us in good shape for the play-offs.”
Meanwhile leaders Denmark were beaten for the first time, losing 8-5 to Norway, and are now tied at the top with Russia, who thrashed Finland 9-1.
Switzerland emerged victorious from their high-scoring clash with Germany, 10-8 and Sweden cruised past struggling Hungary 8-2.
Earlier in the day Scotland had beaten Germany 8-6 in a hard-fought encounter as they enjoyed a fine day overall.
They take on Switzerland and Norway on Wednesday in their final two round-robin games before the knock-outs begin on Thursday.
On the men’s side Scotland’s men enjoyed a better day as they beat Finland 7-3 to remain in contention.
Trailing early on, the Scots came from 3-2 down after four ends to record the win, but only led 4-3 after nine ends.
It all came down to the final end, and the Scots held their nerve to score three and seal the win, their second to date.
“We’re feeling a bit better than yesterday,” said skipper Kyle Smith.
“We took our time to get into the game and made a few mistakes, but we made up for them with a few good shots which we haven’t done in previous games.”
Scotland take on Italy and Russia on Wednesday as they look to build on that win over Finland and stay alive in the competition. © Sportsbeat 2015