22 November 2023
Home favourites Scotland men qualify for the play-offs
The second-last day of round-robin play at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2023 saw two men’s sessions and one women’s session. In the men’s evening draw, current world champions Scotland earned a semi-final spot.
Men’s competition
While Italy carried on with their undefeated run, beating Türkiye by 10-4 and then Finland by 10-2, to sit at the top of the table and already qualified for the play-offs, it will take till Thursday’s final round-robin session to determine the semi-final line-up.
Results elsewhere and Scotland’s two wins of the day mean that the Scots have also qualified for the semi-finals, with the other two places still up for grabs.
Sitting behind Italy in joint second place, Scotland followed up a 9-4 win over Netherlands with a six-end 10-3 victory over Türkiye, and the Scots have now done enough to qualify.
After his morning win, Scottish skip Bruce Mouat said, “We approach every game pretty much the same: we try to get hammer. In that one we didn’t, so we needed to fight back, so we got two in the second end and from there it was pretty positive.”
And asked about enjoying longer breaks between games because of finishing early, he said, “It’s nice to have a bigger break between two games today, but we train pretty hard to make sure we can play eleven ends every game, so we’re not in a bad place.”
Switzerland, who had earlier beaten Czechia by 10-7, were 6-3 winners over Sweden in a tight game, to share second spot with the Scots.
Single steals in the second, seventh and eighth ends were crucial in this victory.
After the game, Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller said, “They are a really good team and pulling away from them is difficult, so we just played our own game and luckily it paid off.”
Both Switzerland and Sweden remain in semi-final contention.
Norway are the other team still with play-off hopes. They had a 6-3 win over Finland in their morning game and then faced Czechia.
In the sixth end of this game, with the score tied at 3-3, Norway’s skip Magnus Ramsfjell missed a double take-out attempt to give Czechia a steal of one and a 4-3 lead.
In the eighth end, with the Czechs ahead by 5-3, Norway’s Ramsfjell played a hit-and-roll to score two points and level the score at 5-5.
Then, in the ninth, Czech skip Lukas Klima had an attempted draw which wrecked on front stones. This resulted in a steal of four for Norway and a 9-5 lead. The Czechs then conceded defeat. This victory keeps Norway’s semi-final hopes alive.
Women’s competition
Prior to the eighth round-robin session, only unbeaten Switzerland and Italy qualified for the semi-finals. Therefore, the women’s Wednesday afternoon session featured several crucial games, and not surprisingly most of them went all the way to the tenth end.
Norway had to come from behind in their game against Türkiye. In the fourth end, Türkiye held a 4-0 lead but a draw by Norway’s fourth player Kristin Skaslien to score one point finally got her team onto the scoreboard.
By the time the teams reached the tenth end, the game was tied at 6-6. Türkiye had last-stone advantage in this end, but their skip Dilsat Yildiz came up short with her final draw attempt to give Norway a steal of one for a 7-6 victory. This win keeps Norway in the semi-final chase, while Türkiye remain in the relegation zone.
The game between Germany and Switzerland was tied at 3-3 as they played the fifth end. In that end, Switzerland’s fourth player Alina Paetz played a draw to score two and take a 5-3 lead.
In the seventh end, the Swiss led by 5-4 when Paetz played a hit-and-stay at the back of the house to score two and take a 7-4 lead.
Switzerland went on to win by 8-6 to maintain their unbeaten record. Meanwhile, Germany remain in the relegation zone.
Italy faced Sweden in a game that saw the lead change hands five times. In the seventh end, with Italy leading by 6-4, Sweden’s skip Isabella Wranaa played a nose-hit to score three and take a 7-6 lead.
In the next end, Italy’s skip Stefania Constantini played a draw to score two points and re-take the lead at 8-7. Eventually, Italy emerged as 9-8 winners while, despite this loss, Sweden still have the possibility of reaching the semi-finals.
This championship has seen a line-up change in the Italian team, with Elena Mathis brought in at third position. About this change, Constantini said, “Elena is great. She brings energy to our team, and we have the right dynamic among all five of us, and she’s a very good player.”
Scotland faced Estonia and the Scots won by 6-4 to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
They face Norway in the last round-robin session in a winner-take-all scenario. Speaking about this, Scottish skip Rebecca Morrison said, “Lose and we’re out, win and we’re in. It’s basically our quarter-final, it’s a must-win situation from here on in.”
She added, “There will be a lot of pressure on both teams. It means the world to both teams to get to the semi-finals, so it’ll be whoever handles the pressure better.”
The fifth game of this session saw defending champions Denmark facing Czechia.
In the fourth end, with Denmark leading by 2-1, Czech skip Anna Kubeskova was heavy with her final draw to give Denmark a steal of one and a 3-1 lead.
Denmark went on to win by 9-2. This result leaves Czechia rooted at the bottom of the table, while Denmark remain in a world championship qualifying position.
Watch all A-Division games live or as replays by clicking here. Geo-blocking may be in place. For further details on broadcast and streaming, click here.
All to play for tomorrow with 2️⃣ spots left in both the Men’s and Women’s Semi-finals! Here are the standings at the end of day 🖐️#ECC #curling pic.twitter.com/nbi8S7hS7k
— World Curling (@worldcurling) November 22, 2023
B-Division
Competition in the B-Division takes place in Perth, where ten women’s and 16 men’s teams play for medals and promotion to next season’s A-Division.
In the men’s Group A, still no team has qualified for the play-offs. France are leading the table on five wins and one loss. They are followed closely by Poland, on four wins and one loss.
In the men’s Group B, Austria and England have secured a play-off place already, both with a won five, lost one record. Spain is right behind them on the table, on four wins and two losses, and have a great chance for play-off qualification.
In the women’s competition, Poland have already secured their play-off spot with six wins out of seven games. Hungary are right behind them on the rankings, on six wins out of eight games.
Thursday is the last day of round robin for both genders, and by the end of the evening session, all play-off spots will be taken.
Click here for all the results from the B-Division.
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2023 on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook and by searching the hashtags #curling and #ECC
