Men and women face crucial final games

Published on Wednesday 9 December 2009 23:11

DAVID Murdoch's Scotland team beat Italy by 9-4 at the Le Gruyère European Championships in Aberdeen last night to keep alive their hopes of defending the title.

Despite going down 6-5 to Switzerland in the morning, last night's win means the Scots will play France at noon today for the right to take up the fourth and final qualifying slot.

Norway and Sweden finished first and second at the end of the round-robin stage to qualify for the play-offs. The Scots shared third place with France and Switzerland, but the Swiss went through with the best draw shot performance.

The Scots controlled the game against Switzerland only to slip up with the last stone of the match, but they dominated the game against Italy.

Murdoch said: "We did what we needed to do. There was only one game where we were out-played and that was the Norwegian game. Apart from that we've dominated every game that we've played. We've maybe not quite achieved all the results, but in a week like this, you need the luck as well, and that's not happened so far.

"We're still here at the business end of the week. Any team that is coming up against us won't be looking forward to playing us because they've seen what we've done in previous championships, and how we fight hard at the end of the week."

After a wobbly start early in the week, Scotland's women have found their form at the right time, but must beat Denmark this morning to keep their hopes alive.

Eve Muirhead's team defeated Norway 7-5 yesterday and are now one of five teams sharing second place behind Switzerland going into the last round-robin match.

Muirhead said: "What a change from the start of the week, which was all up and down. Our consistency has definitely increased, and I hope we can continue that."