Curling: Brewster and Muirhead make unbeaten starts

SCOTTISH champion Tom Brewster from Aberdeen tops the rankings undefeated after four rounds of play in Scottish curling’s European qualifying event, which are being staged in Perth.

In a key performance yesterday morning, Brewster defeated Lockerbie’s two-times world champion David Murdoch by 9-5 before going on to defeat his fellow-Aberdeen skip David Edwards for the second time, by 5-4.

These performances guarantee Brewster’s team at least a tie-breaker place as the tournament, – which will be used to decide Scotland’s representatives at December’s European championships in Moscow, Russia – moves into weekend knock-out action.

Murdoch followed up his defeat at the hands of Brewster with another loss, going down 5-4 to Forfar’s Sandy Reid, and these two teams now are tied in second place on the rankings, two wins behind Brewster.

In the women’s event, Olympic skip Eve Muirhead from Perth continued her good progress, comprehensively beating Aberdeen’s former world champion Jackie Lockhart by 9-2 in just seven ends yesterday morning.

She followed up that win with an 8-5 triumph over Kilmarnock’s Sarah Reid in their afternoon game.

The wins maintained Muirhead’s unbeaten record and reinforced her position as pre-event favourite.

Later, Lockhart gained her first win from four starts, beating Lockerbie’s Hannah Fleming by 8-5.