Scotland beat Czech Republic by 6-0 in Wednesday afternoon’s thirteenth round-robin session of the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship. This result means that the Scots re-join defending champions Sweden – who sat out this session – in second place on the rankings, behind leaders Canada.
In the other games of this session, Italy beat Germany by 11-8; United States beat Switzerland by 7-4; and Norway were 5-4 winners over Finland.
Remarkably, in their game against the Czechs, Scotland never held last stone advantage, scoring with steals throughout the game.
In the fourth end, with Scotland 1-0 ahead, Czech skip Lukas Klima was heavy with a draw to give up another point to double the Scottish lead to 2-0. By contrast, Klima’s hit attempt in the eighth end came up light, giving Scotland another single-point steal, on the way to their 6-0 victory.
Afterwards, Scotland skip Kyle Waddell said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a game where I’ve won and never had hammer, but I’ll take it. That was just our most clinical game to be honest.”
He added, “All we’re focussing on is turning up and beating whoever’s playing us. We’re looking forward to the rest of the games now. If the boys play like that there’s no reason why we can’t beat anybody.”
Switzerland versus United States
Switzerland would have joined Scotland and Sweden in joint second place if they had been able to beat the Americans, and they made good progress in the second end, when their skip Yannick Schwaller played a raise take-out to score two points and take a 2-1 lead.
Switzerland still held a lead after the fifth-end break, at 3-1, but in the sixth end United States levelled the game when their skip Korey Dropkin played a gentle tap-back to take the lead. Eventually, in the tenth end, Dropkin cleared out some Swiss stones with his last and when Schwaller failed with his double take-out attempt, the Americans stole one point and won by 7-4.
Afterwards, Dropkin spoke about his crucial last shot, “The most unfortunate thing that could have happened – a jam – did happen with my previous shot, so I just took a drink of water, tried to control my breathing, and get ready to make another shot. That was all I could do there. I was in a tough spot and the boys got hold of that one on the sweep.”
He was full of praise for his team, saying, “Our front end have been incredible all week. They’ve been making so many shots, dragging rocks and it makes such a difference having incredible sweepers. I’ve been struggling a little bit this week, but they’ve been super supportive.”
Germany versus Italy
Germany faced Italy in this session and, in the third end, with the score tied at 2-2, Germany’s skip Sixten Totzek played a tap-out to score two and take a 4-2 lead. However, in the eighth end, with the game tied at 7-7, Italy’s skip Joel Retornaz played a hit to score three points and take a 10-7 lead. The Italians went on to win by 11-8, a fourth win overall, to keep themselves in play-off contention.
In the fourth game of the session Norway played Finland.
In the fourth end, with Finland leading by 2-1, Norway’s skip Magnus Ramsfjell played a raise of one of his own stones to score two and take a 3-2 lead.
By the eighth end, Norway held a 4-2 lead when Finnish skip Kalle Kiiskinen drew inside two Norway stones counting in the house to score one point and reduce the Norwegian lead to 4-3. Norway then scored one point in the tenth end to win by 5-4 to join Italy in seventh place on the table.
Session 13 results: Germany 8-11 Italy; Switzerland 4-7 United States; Scotland 6-0 Czech Republic; Norway 5-4 Finland
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