Eve Muirhead, the bronze medal-winning skip at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi earlier this year, led Scotland's women to the medal play-offs at the Le Gruyere European Curling Championship yesterday with a 7-6 win over Finland in the final session of round-robin play.
The Scots opened strongly, scoring 3 in the first end with a hit by Muirhead, but the Finns responded with a single in the second end and, after Scotland had blanked the third end, drew level with a steal of 2. Muirhead's hit and stay to score 1 in the fifth end gave them a 4-3 lead at the break but, while they built a strong presence in the house in the sixth end, the last draw from Sanna Puutinen, the Finland skip, edged just inside two Scottish stones around the button to score 1 and level matters again.
Muirhead had another hit and stay for 1 in the seventh to regain the lead at 5-4 but Puutinen blanked the eighth end then knocked out a Scottish stone lying shot to score 2 and take the lead for the first time.
Good play by the Scots kept them in control in the 10th end and eventually Muirhead had a straightforward, though doubtless tense, draw to within the eight-foot ring to score 2 and secure the victory. An elated Muirhead said: "Give them all respect: they played fantastic and we had to play really well to beat them. We played the 10th well, and it's good to know that, for the ends we really need to play well, we step it up."
Scotland's men, led by Aberdeen's David Edwards, beat Germany 8-6 in their play-off game to finish seventh overall and guarantee Scotland's place in the line-up for the 2015 World Championship in Canada.
Edwards said: "We're absolutely delighted. There was pressure on us to secure Scotland's world championship slot and that was as well as we've played all week. I think we've played better than our position reflects. It's a learning experience for my guys. They're all mid-20s and this in my first experience of skipping at this level and their first experience of competing at a championship. I think, all in all, we've learned a huge amount throughout the week and we've been very competitive."
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