A hard fought win over Norway kept Scotland in contention for direct qualification to the semi-finals at the BKT World Men’s Championship in Saskatchewan, but skip Bruce Mouat knows there is still work to be done to make it into the top six and reach the play-offs.
With the top two teams after the round-robin section gaining direct entry to the last four and a guarantee of involvement in the medal matches, the win took Scotland to a record of six wins and two losses, joint second with China, whom they have still to meet and Switzerland. 
However, the intensity of the competition has been ferocious and their next meeting with Niklas Edin’s Swedes, a team they have previously met in European, World and Olympic finals, marks the start of a challenging final two days in these qualifying stages, which will also see them take on the USA and the German quartet that beat Mouat’s men in this season’s European Championship final and the Chinese.
“A lot of the top teams have been beating each other, so it is hard to actually tell where you are standing in the table as we have got four pretty tough games left,” the Scottish skip noted.
“So we really need to keep winning to hopefully get one of the top two spots, but at this point it would just be nice to qualify top six, so we want to keep doing well and see if we can qualify for a spot in the play-offs.
“We’ve got a big game next against Sweden who look like they have come on to some form in the last couple of days, so we are going to have to come out firing.”
A difficult fifth day of competition offered a reminder of just how difficult this competition will be with Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan also still looking to nail down a place for Team GB in the men’s event at next year’s Winter Olympics.
Their loss to Switzerland, after they struggled in the early stages to adjust to the conditions after the stones had their customary mid-tournament ‘rub’ the previous evening, changing the way they behave, had made the meeting with Norway later in the day all the more important and, as Mouat acknowledged, they were still short of their best in the first half of the match.
Arguably slightly fortunate to be level at 3-3 at that stage, they took the chance to re-group during the midway break, however and stepped things up, with a steal at the seventh end proving crucial in turning the match their way, a three at the final end sealing an 8-4 win. 
“It was a very tough game, but we just had to stick it out,” said Mouat.
“We were probably on the back foot for some of it, but made some really key shots in ends six and seven to get bit of breathing room, so I think those were the two key ends for us there.”
While the scoring stats of all four Scottish players dropped on the day, the skip typically took principal responsibility for that, but indicated that he believes he can turn the challenge of dealing with the liveliness of the stones to advantage.
“The stones are still curling a lot which is nice to see, but it has caught me out a few times doing my line calls, so I am going to be a bit sharper and make all the shots as perfect as we can,” said Mouat.
The Scots face back-to-back matches on day six, facing the Swedes at 4pm BST and the USA at 9pm BST, with both matches being broadcast live on The Curling Channel while the Sweden game is also available on the BBC iPlayer.
The BKT World Men’s Curling Championship runs from 29 March – 6 April, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada.
Scotland Team
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Michael Goodfellow (Team Coach)
Greg Drummond (Olympic Head Coach)
Please click here for draw and results.
Schedule and results:
Day One
Sunday 30 March
Scotland – Austria 12-2
Day Two
Scotland – Japan 9-6
Monday 31 March
Scotland – Korea 9-3
Day Three
Monday 31 March
Scotland – Canada 6-5(EE)
Tuesday 1 April
Scotland – Czechia 8-2
Day Four
Scotland – Italy 9-7
Day Five
Wednesday 2 April
Scotland – Switzerland 7-11
Scotland – Norway 8-4
Day Six
Thursday 3 April
Scotland – Sweden – 4pm*
Scotland – USA – 9pm
Day Seven
Friday 4 April
Scotland – Germany -4pm
Saturday 5 April
Scotland – China – 2am
Day Eight
Saturday 5 April
Qualification games*-4pm
Semi Final games*-10pm
Day Nine
Sunday 6 April
Bronze medal game*-4pm
Gold medal game*-10pm
*Games available on the BBC iPlayer
Images: Anil Mungal/British Curling
