Scotland skip David Murdoch is hoping to repeat the pattern of the week so far and bounce back from a bad day on the ice at the Curling Men’s World Championships in Edmonton, Canada.
After two wins on Sunday Murdoch’s rink returned to the ice on Monday but suffered two defeats to sit tied for eighth in the overall standings – with the top four making the play-offs at the end of the 12-team round robin stage.
The Sochi 2014 silver medallist began the day with a tie against China, and things started well as Scotland established a 3-2 lead after three ends.
But China eventually came out on top with doubles in each of ends four, eight and ten as skip Liu Rui held his nerve to take the vital points with his final stone.
It was a less even affair in Scotland’s second match of the day, though, as Murdoch’s men went down 8-2 to home favourites, and so far unbeaten, Canada.
The hosts were 7-1 up after just five ends, winning two stones with the hammer in ends one and three, and two against the hammer in the fourth.
“We started without hammer and they got two on the board and that’s always hard against one of the best teams in the world,” admitted Murdoch.
“We struggled with the rocks and we just didn’t place them in the right positions early on, so they were on the front foot.
“You get good days and bad days, so you get used to that as curlers. We’ve had a bad day and before that we had a good day, the way the week is going we should have a good day on Tuesday.”
The overall standings make good reading for home fans with Canada atop the table on five wins from five, while Switzerland and Sweden are tied for second with four wins, and there is a four-way tie for fourth as China, Italy, Japan and Norway all have three wins and two losses.
Scotland and the USA then have two wins apiece, while Germany have picked up just the one and both the Netherlands and Russia are so far winless.
Murdoch and his rink returns to action later on Tuesday with games against Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Sportsbeat 2017