Scotland Women book Worlds spot at European Championships

Skip Eve Muirhead insists it is full steam ahead at the European Championships, despite victory over Germany booking Scotland women a place at next year's Worlds.

Scotland were in charge throughout against the Germans, opening with a score of two and, after going into the break tied at 4-4, they scored another two in the sixth end for a 6-4 lead.

In the seventh end Germany skip Daniella Jentsch was facing three Scottish counters as she played her last stone, and it was light, to give Scotland a steal of one shot and a 7-4 lead.

Germany managed to cut that back to 7-6 with a score of two in the eighth end but the Scots bounced back with a single shot in the ninth for 8-6, after which they ran Germany out of stones in the tenth.

The victory not only kept Scotland unbeaten at the top of the pile but also guarantees them a place at the World Championships in Beijing – although Muirhead isn't ready to take her foot off the pedal.

"That was another strong performance," she said. "That was a pretty good game and we played well, we took our twos when we had hammer and forced them when we didn't. The ice conditions were great and the team played great, and that always makes my job easier.

"I think we played the touch shots very well, and when you can do that well, that's what beats the other teams.

"We've got a bit of momentum going now and we can see the play-offs looming, so we want to keep the wins going to keep our confidence high – it's all going pretty well.

"It's always pressure to try to qualify Scotland for the World Championship – for us, that's the first goal and we've managed to do that – to secure Scotland that spot is really crucial this year because Olympic points are at stake, so I'm glad that's done."

Meanwhile, Scotland men endured a difficult day with a 6-5 loss to Finland followed up with a 4-2 defeat by Germany.

Tuesday’s two losses now place Scottish play-off hopes in real jeopardy, a fact not lost on skip Tom Brewster after the game.

“We’re playing well but we just can’t seem to get games over the line, I don’t know why,” said Brewster, with Scotland now needing to beat Italy and Russia on Wednesday and hope other scores go their way.

“We didn’t take our chances when we created them. We got a bit unlucky at times. It was just little bits. We had a chance in the tenth and didn’t take it.

“We’re still alive – two wins tomorrow and we’re good. We know we’ve got a lot of great curling, but we’re just missing a couple of shots here and there, that’s all it comes down to. Two wins tomorrow and we’ll be in decent shape.”

Sportsbeat 2016