17 November 2024
With the second day of round-robin action now complete at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2024, defending champions Scotland and Switzerland share the lead at the top of the men’s ranking, on three wins and no losses.
The Scots faced England in their evening game – a fixture between two rival neighbours that carries an extra edge in any sport, amplified in this case by the fact that the Mouat brothers (Bruce for Scotland and Colin for England) were in opposition. And it was younger brother Bruce who took the bragging rights, as Scotland won by 8-1 in just six ends.
Earlier Scotland beat Norway by 6-5 and after that win, skip Bruce Mouat said, “It felt like we were the team in control. We’re trying very hard to make sure that we stick together, no matter what. We’re not going to make every shot perfect, so just trying to make sure that we remain positive.”
Switzerland followed up an early hard-fought 6-5 win over Sweden with a 10-7 victory over Czechia to stay undefeated. However, Sweden recovered from that loss to later hand Italy their first defeat so far, by 7-3. Czechia suffered two losses on Sunday. Before their defeat at the hands of the Swiss, they had gone down by 7-8 to the Italians.
Norway bounced back from their early loss to the Scots by beating Austria by 7-2, while Germany had two wins on Sunday, following up their 10-2 win over Austria with a 9-5 defeat of Netherlands.
After their morning win over Austria, German skip Marc Muskatewitz said, “We had a pretty good game yesterday as well [but lost it], but today we came back strong. This team just gets better as the tournament goes on.”
All these results leave Austria, Czechia and England at the foot of the table, still looking for a win.
There was only one game for the women on Sunday, and the results mean that Italy, Sweden and Switzerland still share the lead unbeaten, on three wins and no losses.
Italy played Hungary in this session. The game was tied at 6-6 as the teams played the ninth end. Italy’s skip Stefania Constantini then scored three points with a final open draw to take a 9-6 lead. Hungary conceded the game in the tenth, to give the Italians a 9-6 win.
Sweden were able to overcome a resilient Estonian side in this session. In the ninth end, with Sweden already ahead by 6-2, Estonia’s fourth player Erika Tuvike attempted a draw, but she was short in her attempt, to give Sweden a steal of two more points and an 8-2 lead. Estonia then conceded, to hand Sweden their third win.
Switzerland faced Scotland and the Swiss took advantage of a three-point steal in the fifth end to build a 7-1 lead. In the sixth end, Scotland’s fourth player Rebecca Morrison attempted a draw for one but came up short and handed Switzerland a steal of one for an 8-1 lead. The Scots then conceded giving the Swiss their third win. Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni said after the game, “You know you don’t play for short games, but if you end up having one then you take it for sure.”
This was the first win in the championship for a confident-looking Turkish side. The game started out as a close battle between them and newly-promoted Lithuania with only two points between the two teams by the fifth end. However, by the ninth end, Türkiye had built a 9-4 lead. Lithuania skip Virginija Paulauskaite then attempted a raise, but she caught a front stone on the way in and gave up a steal of three to the Turks, who moved onto a 12-4 lead. Lithuania then conceded to remain the only team without a win so far. Turkish skip Dilsat Yildiz stated after the game “We’re very happy about that first win.”
An initially close game between Denmark and Norway went the way of the Danes as they won by 11-4. The teams were neck and neck till the fifth-end break with only one point separating them, with Norway leading by 4-3. However, Denmark were able to capitalise on back-to-back three-point scores in the sixth and seventh ends, ultimately claiming their victory in the eighth. Denmark are keen to maintain their winning ways as skip Madeliene Dupont explained, “We’re in pretty good shape. Now, we’ll try to win one – or maybe even two – more tomorrow even.”
After four rounds of play in the men’s B-Division, both Group A and Group B have joint leaders.
Spain and Ukraine are unbeaten on two wins each in Group A. Spain defeated Türkiye by 6-4, while Ukraine beat Hungary by 9-3 in their only game on Sunday. The two joint leaders in Group B are Denmark and Ireland. Denmark beat Poland by 8-5 while Ireland sat out men’s session three on Sunday afternoon.
In the women’s B-Division, two teams – Czechia and Germany – share the same won three, lost none record at the top of the table. On Sunday afternoon, Czechia beat England by 8-4 while Germany were 8-6 victors over Finland.
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