Just days after older brother James made a breakthrough at senior level with a first title win on the men’s curling tour, Ross Craik has emulated him by leading his team to victory at The Danish Open in Copenhagen.
Craik and teammates Scott Hyslop, Struan Carson and Jack Carrick, found it tough in the group stages where they won just one of their three matches, but still performed well enough to scramble into the knockout stages, where they raised their game spectacularly.
In the quarter-final they squeezed out Italy’s Team Ribotta 4-3 and in the semis they overcame Sweden’s Team Landelius 6-3 to set up a final against the host nation’s Team Krause whom they beat 9-6.
“It was a huge boost winning our first senior event ever,” said Craik.
“It’s that next step up from the junior events that we’ve been playing in, so to perform well at international men’s level was really important to us.”
The victory reinforced their growing confidence in a line-up change that has seen Ross continue to skip the team while throwing at third, while Hyslop delivers last stones.
“Our re-shuffle has proven itself once again in international competition, so we’re excited to put it into play against Scottish opposition and seeing how we fare next week,” said Craik.
And having so quickly emulated James on the senior circuit, the older sibling having led his men to a debut men’s tour victory at The Grand Prix in Bern only last weekend, Ross now has his sights set on further matching his older brother’s achievements in claiming both the Scottish and World Junior titles after making an impact at senior level.
“Having two wins under our belt heading into the Scottish Juniors was good and it helps get us some world ranking points as well,” he said.
“We’re really looking forward to it. It’s a brilliant event every season… 10 end games, two games a day, non-stop curling for a week against the best junior teams in the country and we’re really looking to go and show what we’re worth there.”
In the women’s event in Denmark Team Munro, who will be aiming for the women’s title at the Scottish Juniors next week, did well to reach the semi-finals where they were edged out at an extra end by Switzerland’s Team Schwaller.
The Swiss quartet went on to win the event in which they suffered their only defeat to the other Scottish rink led by Fay Henderson, who just missed out on the knockout stages after winning two of their four group matches.
Across the Continent their British Curling programme colleagues Team Waddell meanwhile got through to the play-offs at The Swiss Cup in Basel, dropping out at the quarter-final stage, while fellow Scots Team Bryce went on to take the title.
