Curling: Eve Muirhead has to settle for role as a bridesmaid

Published on Sunday 12 December 2010 14:07

Scotland's women, skipped by Perth's Eve Muirhead, had to settle for silver when they lost to Sweden by 6-8 in Saturday's final of the Le Gruyere European Curling Championships in Champery, Switzerland.

This was an engrossing game, with the lead changing hands throughout. Muirhead's team - lead Annie Laird, Lorna Vevers, Kelly Wood and fifth player Anna Sloan - took the lead with two in the first end and were 3-2 up after four. However, Sweden's Stina Viktorsson fought her way back, scoring two in the fifth to take the lead at 4-3 and then stealing a single shot in the sixth when Muirhead, facing three Swedish counters, came up just short with her final draw.

It was then Muirhead's turn to score two, and steal a single in the eighth for 6-5, when Viktorsson failed to remove one of her stones.

In the ninth, Muirhead could only move one Swedish stone rather than the two she was looking for, and this gave Sweden a draw for another two and a 7-6 lead. The tenth end came down to Muirhead's last-stone attempt to shift all three of a Swedish cluster, but she either got it wrong, or the angle wasn't there, and the Swedes stole another, for victory.

Afterwards, Muirhead said: "For that last shot, we thought the angles were there. We could just have drawn the four foot on the other side, but we thought that last shot was there. We wouldn't have gone for it if we didn't think it was there. If my stone had swung another inch, we wouldn't have been far away. When those shots come off great, but I missed it."

More generally, she added: "Silver again, it's getting to be a bit of a trend. These silvers will make the gold even more valuable when it comes."

This was a reference to Muirhead's previous silver, at last season's world championship, but if she needs inspiration as she tries to make the final breakthrough to winning titles, she should look no further than Saturday's men's winners, Norway, led by Thomas Ulsrud, who beat Denmark by 5-3 to claim their first title.

As an elated Ulsrud explained: "We've been so close for so many years now - we've been in the 1-2 play-off for the last four years and been in the final for the last three years, so it's unbelievable, it's perfect."

It was a tense game, with three blank ends. The Norwegians opened with a single and, after blanking the second, the Danes, led by Rasmus Stjerne, levelled in the third. Norway took another single in the fourth and then, after blanking another end, Denmark levelled again at 2-2 with one in the sixth.

The first breakthrough came in the seventh end when Stjerne failed on an attempted double take-out, and Ulsrud had a hit and stay to score two for a 4-2 lead.Denmark could only reply with a single in the ninth end, and then, thanks to a nice double takeout earlier in the end, Ulsrud was able to draw his final stone right onto the button for one point in the tenth, and his historic win.

Stjerne, whose team's performance was one of the big surprises of the week, said: "I thought we played quite a good game, so I'm a little disappointed to lose, but we're excited for a nice silver."

Earlier, Switzerland had landed a bronze double when their women beat Russia by 9-5 and their men were victorious over Germany, by 7-4. The Scottish men finished fifth.