Curling: Scotland narrowly defeated by Germany following extra end

But they failed to follow that up yesterday, losing to Germany by 4-5 following an extra end.

The Scots opened the game against Germany by blanking the first two ends, but they lost the early lead when Muirhead failed to remove a German counter with her last take-out. Germany then stole a single shot in the third end.

The Scots got themselves into more bother when Muirhead’s last stone in the fourth wrecked on a guard and Germany doubled their lead with another single steal. However, the Scots started to show some form in the fifth when Muirhead drew round a tight guard to score two and level the game at half-time.

Germany stepped up again in the sixth, scoring two and then, after blanking the seventh, Muirhead put her last stone in the eighth through a tight port to tap-out a German stone, score two and level the game at 4-4. But Germany responded again, scoring two more in the ninth.

Scotland then levelled again with two shots in the tenth to force the extra end but Germany had the last stone and used it to draw around front cover to score one and win the game.

The earlier game against Russia had been just as tight. The Scots looked like they were in control when they stole two shots in the eighth end for a 7-4. But when Muirhead’s attempted double in the ninth jammed, Russian skip Anna Sidorova had an open draw for three to level the game at 7-7.

After this, the Scots played a sensible tenth end which seemed to be won when Muirhead froze onto a Russian stone just on the button and Sidorova could not better it with her last. However the Russians did not concede, hoping for a Scottish error but Muirhead threw her last stone through and the Russians finally shook hands.

After the loss to Germany, Muirhead said: “It was one of those games that could have gone either way. At the end of the day she made her draw perfectly and she deserved to win.”