ALREADY established as one of the most important events on the domestic calendar, the Glynhill International was given royal approval yesterday when the queen of Scottish curling finally put her name on the trophy with a commanding performance at Braehead.
Eve Muirhead and her team had missed this event for a number of seasons, contributing to the absence of a Scottish winner since its inaugural year of 2008 when Gail Munro took the title.
Since then there had been Canadian, Swedish, Chinese and Russian winners in an event that attracts a high class field, but the dominant nation has been Switzerland, just as at the World Championships in five of the last six years, that sequence interrupted only by
Team Muirhead in 2013.
Reigning world champions Team Feltscher, who also took that crown in 2014, were part of an eight-team Swiss challenge at Braehead that was double that of the home representation which also comprised Team Fleming – who have been making substantial progress this season – Team Aitken and Team Smith.
Muirhead, meanwhile, found herself in the same qualifying pool as arguably the best of the Swiss in terms of both quality and current form – 2015 world champions Team Paetz having recruited 2012 world champion skip Mirjam Ott this season and having won the Bernese Ladies Cup the previous weekend.
In a match they had to win, having previously slipped up against yet another Swiss rink, Team Barbezat, they came through convincingly, 9-3, but both progressed to the knockout stages where a convoy of Swiss opponents was lined up for the lone Scottish qualifiers, starting with Feltscher.
They controlled that match and, while their semi-final against Team Hegner was tighter than it might have been after they claimed a three-shot lead with two ends remaining, Muirhead was left with what by her standards was a comfortable draw for the win which, with Paetz earning the re-match by seeing off China’s 2009 world champions Team Wang in the quarter-finals and Sweden’s 2013 European champions Team Sigfridsson in their quarter and semi-finals respectively.
Muirhead forced her opponent to take a single at the first end of the final and twos were then exchanged at each of the next three with that sequence looking set to continue until a brilliant triple take out by the Scottish skip transformed the end.
“I guess that was needed at the time,” was Muirhead’s post-match assessment. “Alina was always going to be a really, really tough opponent. We played her in the group stages and managed to get a bit of a jump, probably similar to that game, but this one was a bit more swinging back and forward, but we managed to score on our even ends. However that big shot in the fifth to put the pressure on to her. She was maybe a little bit quick in just getting down and playing in it, so we managed to get the mistake and the big steal.”
Paetz’s attempt to salvage the situation foundered on a guard and a steal of three meant a near uncatchable four shot lead for Muirhead and team-mates Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray, the match concluding two ends early when they stole another shot at the next to move 8-3 ahead.
“It’s always nice to win at home,” said Muirhead, who also won the inaugural Perth Ladies tournament last year and been unbeatable at the Scottish Championships in recent years.
“Alina won last week in Switzerland when we didn’t have such a good week, so for us to bounce back from that after a lot of good chats with our coaches and all our support staff we had a few key things to work on and to focus on and I think we did that really well.”
She was proud, too, to mark the 10th anniversary by ending the Scottish drought. “To get a Scottish winner’s always nice isn’t it and there was a lot of support in here. I was really impressed with the number that came along,” she noted.
There should be even more in attendance at next month’s Scottish Championships where Team Muirhead are looking to defend their title and earn another crack at the World Championships.
However, she welcomed the prospect of that being a tough challenge, pointing out that Hannah Fleming’s rink is having a good season, while noting that another of yesterday’s winners Sophie Jackson’s junior rink who successfully defended their Scottish Junior title in Aberdeen, are improving fast.
“I think Sophie’s a fantastic wee player,” she said.
“I said that three years ago when she first came on the scene. She is definitely one of the young girls up and coming. She’s got the right head on here, she’s very determined, she calls a really good game and she’s a shot-maker so we’ve got people on our heels and I think that’s good because it keeps me and the rest of my team on our toes too, to keep on improving to stay ahead of these guys.”
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