Perth’s Kyle Smith guaranteed his team a medal at the European Curling Championships in St Galen when his final stone of the 10th end glanced into the button off one of his Swiss opponent’s to earn him the two shots required to secure a 9-8 victory in their semi-final.

It was a thrilling encounter against the host nation, testing Smith, his brother Cammy and their team-mates Kyle Waddell and Thomas Muirhead to the limit as they gained revenge for their defeat to the hosts in their round-robin match and claimed a place in the final against Sweden’s defending champions Team Edin, who thrashed their fellow world champions Team Ulsrud from Norway 8-3.

The Scots, who had beaten the Netherlands 5-2 earlier in the day to reach the play-offs, had looked set to wrap things up when, holding the hammer with the scores level, they lay five at the eighth end, only for Swtizerland’s vice skip Benoit Schwartz to play two stunning shots to turn it around and steal a shot.

“We were a bit gutted because we were looking really good when Thomas nailed a couple of shots before he made a sensational tap and then a good draw. We wondered if we could squeeze it out, but we didn’t manage that and maybe should have gone for one in the end, but it’s all ok now,” he said with a grin afterwards.

In many ways it was typical of the overall match that having got his team out of desperate trouble two ends earlier, Schwartz then made the error with his final stone which wrecked on a guard and left Smith lying shot with a relatively straightforward, albeit nerve testing opportunity.

“It was a strange game and played a fantastic end in the second for a steal of three, but with a team of that quality capable of making two’s they started chipping away at us,”said Smith .

“It was a thoroughly enjoyable game, moments of brilliance and a couple of loose ones in there too.

“It came down to the last end, we dug deep and did everything we have been practising for, it really was a great team performance.”

Contesting only their second European Championships the former world junior champions now face another team that has beaten them this week, but which they defeated at the same venue earlier this year when winning the European Masters and Smith believes his team is capable of upsetting the team that has won this title in each of the past three years to turn a guaranteed silver medal into gold.

“We now have the revenge game against Edin from the round robin. We have played Edin a lot, it is a team we know a lot about and we know what to expect.

“As defending champions they have a lot of pressure, whereas we have nothing to lose and we want to take that crown.”

Their encounters have an added dimension with Team Smith gaining extra insight from having Viktor Kjell, a former team-mate of Edin’s, as their coach.

However there will clearly be no split loyalties for the Swede who has been hugely impressed by the way his young players have handled themselves.

”I was quite happy that Kyle decided to make that final shot, he was forced into a tough shot and it was the right one,” he said.

“There were so many chances in the game to make two’s and we needed one last chance and we took it.

“I liked seeing them handle themselves with composure in a European semi and the most important thing is that they realise that the way they are playing they are good enough to beat anyone at this Europeans.

“The last five or six games have been really really good from all four players but we are not done yet.

“We now have 36 hours to regroup and refocus for a revenge match from the round robin.”