THE Scottish team finally managed a win, beating Russia 8-6 in their sixth round-robin game of the Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Halifax, Canada.
It was a far from promising start for the Scots when Russia opened with a score of three in the first end, but the Scots scored two in the second end, stole two in the third and had a single-point steal in the fourth end for a 5-3 lead.
In the fifth end, Russia's skip Evgeny Arkhipov drew for one point to reduce the Scottish lead to 5-4. In the ninth end, Scotland's skip Ewan MacDonald also played a draw-shot for one point to move his lead to 7-6.
The Scots then did get their first win, by 8-6, when a Russian promote effort went wrong in the tenth end, giving Scotland a steal of one point to settle the game.
Afterwards, a relieved MacDonald said: "It's nice to get a win on the board. We were a bit sharper there and managed to make a nice run of ends around the middle and that got us some momentum."
Before this, the Scots had gone down to their fifth successive win, by 6-8 to the Czech Republic, a game which they led by 5-3 at the half-way point. The damage came in the eighth end when an attempted tap-up by skip MacDonald went wrong and the Czech Republic stole two shots for a 7-5 lead.
The Scots could only score one in the ninth and then, in the tenth, Czech skip Jiri Snitil drew inside two Scottish counters to score one and take an 8-6 victory. The Scots now face USA in their next round-robin session, hoping to build on the win against Russia.
RESULTS. Ford World Men's Curling Championship; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Session 7: Japan 4, Finland 5; Switzerland 7, Italy 1; Czech Republic 8, Scotland 6; Russia 3, Sweden 9. Session 8: USA 8, Italy 2; Russia 3, Canada 9; Sweden 5, Norway 6; China 4, Switzerland 7. Session 9: Scotland 8, Russia 6; Czech Republic 3, Sweden 7; Switzerland 8, Finland 7; Japan 8, Italy 1. Standings after 9 sessions: Canada won 5, lost 0; Switzerland 5-1; Norway 4-1; Japan 4-2; Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden 3-3; USA 2-3; Italy 2-4; China 1-4; Russia, Scotland 1-5.
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