Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat eased to an 8-3 victory over the Czech Republic on their first match of day five of the Mixed Doubles competition at the Winter Olympics in Beijing to set up a top-of-the table clash with unbeaten Italy later in the day.
It was a match the British pair controlled throughout after conceding last stone advantage at the opening end and getting slightly lucky there when Zuzana Paulova failed to take advantage of an opening, her attempt to draw into a nest around the button to turn a one shot advantage into two, pulling up short of the house.
A three at the second end, where Team GB out-manoeuvred their opponents throughout, then gave them the upper hand and Mouat got his team out of a tricky situation as the Czechs went early with their powerplay at the third, producing a double take out and roll in behind a guard.
Tomas Paul failed to remove Mouat’s stone with his attempt to promote the guard onto it, allowing Dodds to remove the only Czech stone still in the house, so leaving Paulova with nothing other than a draw for one shot, to reduce the leeway to 5-2.
Dodds was just a fraction wide with an attempt to turn one shot into two at the next. However, a near perfect defensive end at the next kept the Czechs to a single and Dodds then nailed a takeout at the seventh to ensure that they took the two shots on their own powerplay that closed out the match.
“As a team that was our best performance,” she said afterwards.
“We got on top of the draw weight a lot quicker and I think that showed in the first half, getting 5-1 up after four. We were getting the angles and the taps right. Then in the second half, we just tried to hold on better than yesterday, which we did. We didn’t get burned in their powerplay this time. Bruce got us out of that really well.”
Dodds believes the signs are encouraging as they prepare to face Italy and move towards the business end of the week.
“That’s more like us,” she said.
“I’ve still got to figure a few things out, but we’re getting closer. I did say to Bruce I’ll get one of these ticks, but I think it’s good to be going through the championship building.
“I’d maybe be a wee bit worried if we’d been amazing from the start, so I wasn’t worried at that stage, but I’m really liking the way it’s going.
“I was really proud of how we didn’t let them back in today and kept it strong to the end.
“We’re going to have a tight game tonight against Italy, so I think it’s just building on what we have done so far and I think we’re in a good place just now. It’s a big game. They’re currently undefeated and we know they’re a strong team, so we just have to put in a similar performance to this one tonight.”
Mouat was particularly pleased with the more clinical way they capitalised on a strong opening to the match, in contrast to the way they had let an early 6-1 lead slip in their previous match against Australia, ultimately needing an extra end to win that one. 
“We obviously struggled in the last four ends against Australia yesterday, but this game it felt like we were really consistent throughout,” he said.
“We’ve built a lot of momentum going forward and we’re going to have to play well because Italy are undefeated, but we’ve played them before, so we know what to expect.”
Schedule and results (Beijing time + 8 hours ahead of UK)
2 FebruarySession 1 - GB v Sweden 9-53 FebruarySession 2 - 09.05 - GB v Canada 6-4Session 4 - 20.05 - GB v Switzerland 7-8
4 February
Session 6 - 13.35 - GB v Australia 9-8 (EE)
