Scotland open title defense campaign with two wins

Scotland followed up a 10-3 win over Korea with a second victory – also by 10-3 – over United States, to start the defence of their title on Saturday’s opening day at the LGT World Men’s Championship.

Canada also had two opening-day wins, following up an extra-end 9-8 defeat of Czechia with a last-stone 8-5 win over Germany.

Scotland and Canada now share the lead on top of the standings.

Against Korea, the Scots had built a lead of 5-1 by the fourth end. Then, in the seventh, with his team now leading by 8-3, Scotland skip Bruce Mouat played a hit to score two more points and move onto a 10-3 lead. Korea then conceded.

Team Korea © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

The Scots then went on to beat United States, thanks to a strong opening of three points in the first end and a steal of two in the second.

After his win against Korea, Bruce Mouat said, “We played a really good first end and made eight shots, and that’s a nice way to start the competition. We were pretty solid throughout the game.”

More generally, when asked about defending his title, he said, “It would mean everything. That’s why we curl. We don’t just do it for the love of the game, but to win championships too.”

Canada opened their campaign against Czechia and found themselves in an extra end with the teams tied at 8-8.

In that extra end, Canada skip Brad Gushue played a hit-and-stay to score the one point that gave him a 9-8 win.

In their second game of the day, Canada faced Germany. In the ninth end, Canada led by 7-3 when German skip Marc Muskatewitz also played a hit, and also scored two, to reduce Canada’s lead to 7-5. Despite this, Canada went on to win by 8-5, to share top spot with Scotland.

Speaking after the game against Germany, Brad Gushue said, “We’re pretty happy with that start. It was a tough start for us, with two games straight after the opening ceremony. We made it an even tighter turn-around with the extra end in the first game. To come out with two wins, I’m quite happy with that because there are great teams here.”

Canada versus Germany © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Before losing to Scotland, United States had opened with a 5-3 win over hosts Switzerland, in front of a packed house.

Other opening day winners were Italy, who beat Japan by 6-4 in their only game; Norway, who were 9-5 winners over New Zealand; and Sweden who beat Netherlands by 8-1 in just seven ends in their only game of the day.

For his win over New Zealand, Norway skip Magnus Ramsjfell produced an angled raise double take-out to score four points in the eighth end and give his team an 8-5 lead. Afterwards, he said, “It’s nice to have a win in the first game – it’s very important. To get that big score in eight turned the game around for sure.”