Scotland’s women suffered an 8-1 defeat to four time world champions Switzerland in their only match of the second day at the Le Gruyere AOP European Curling Championships, but remain confident that they will be in the mix for medals come the business end of the week.
The encounter with reigning champions Team Tirinzoni rounded off a testing opening weekend that had seen Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson pitted against the only teams other than Scotland to have lifted this title in the past eight years.
Morrison, who shares skipping responsibilities with Jackson by playing the final stones while her teammate calls the shots, was consequently sanguine about the experience, noting that they had been chasing the game after her opposite number Alina Paetz had produced a delicate raise to score three at the second end.
“Obviously losing a three at the second end wasn’t ideal,” she acknowledged. 
“She made a brilliant shot for it and we were always going to be fighting after that and against such a high calibre team that’s going to be challenging.
“So, it wasn’t ideal and the ice was slightly different to what we’d been playing on in the previous couple of games which was tricky, but it was still great ice and we can’t put it down to that.”
They knew heading into the event, however, that all three of the teams they faced in the first weekend would be among the play-off contenders and that the key will be building towards the end of the week when they hope to be meeting some of them again.
“We’ve played three great teams, so we’re quite happy to have a win on the board and we’re right on track for our goals this way,” Morrison continued.
“We knew that Switzerland and Sweden were not ‘must win’ games, so hopefully the wins will come later on in the week and those two losses aren’t going to break us for the rest of the week.”
With Morrison, Sinclair and Jackson having been part of the team that claimed a bronze medal at the Euros two years ago, while the fourth member of their line-up Jen Dodds was a Winter Olympic gold medallist in 2022, they have the experience to know what is required to come back strongly as they prepare to meet Hungary and Turkey, both of whom have the same record of one win and two losses from their first three matches.
“We’re just going to do what we do at every competition, debrief our game, then look to refuel and come back a little stronger tomorrow,” said Morrison.
Please click here for more information and results: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/ecc/aspnet/current?EventID=1
The following 7 round robin games will be live streamed on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport Scotland website (plus play-off games subject to Scotland qualifying).
Watch on BBC Sport Scotland website
Sat, 16 Nov
17:30 (UK )
Sco v Den (Women)
Sun, 17 Nov
12:00 (UK)
Sco v Sui (Women)
Mon 18 Nov
10:00 (UK)
Sco v Sui (Men)
Tues, 19 Nov
12:00 (UK)
Sco v Ita (men)
Tues, 19 Nov
17:00 (UK)
Ltu v Sco (Women)
Wed 20 Nov
12:00
Sco v Ita (women)
Thurs, 21 Nov
12:00
Swe v Sco (men)
Scotland Schedule:
Saturday 16 November
Session 1 – women
Scotland – Sweden 5-8
Session 1 – men
Scotland – Netherlands 8-6
Session 2 – women
Scotland – Denmark 11-9 (EE)
Sunday 17 November
Session 2 – men
Scotland – Norway 6-5
Session 3 – women
Scotland – Switzerland 1-8
Session 3 – men
Scotland – England 8-1
Monday 18 November
Session 4 – women – 06.00
Scotland - Turkiye
Session 4 – men 10.00
Scotland – Switzerland
Session 5 – women – 14.00
Scotland - Hungary
Session 5 – men 1800
Scotland – Austria
Tuesday 19 November
Session 6 – women – 07.00
Scotland – Estonia
Session 6 – men – 12.00
Scotland – Italy
Session 7 – women – 17.00
Scotland - Lithuania
Wednesday 20 November
Session 7 – men – 07.00
Scotland – Germany
Session 8 – women – 12.00
Scotland – Italy
Session 8 – men – 17.00
Scotland – Czechia
Thursday 21 November
Session 9 – women – 07.00
Scotland - Norway
Session 9 – men – 12.00
Scotland – Sweden
Semi Finals – women – 17.00
Friday 22 November
Semi Finals – men – 07.00
Bronze medal game – women – 12.00
Bronze medal game – men – 17.00
Saturday 23 November
Gold medal game – women – 08.00
Gold medal game – men – 13.00
Images: World Curling
