Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat came through a potentially pivotal day at the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Korea, opening with an 11-6 defeat of the host nation before easing past Olympic champions Italy 8-6.
The day had begun with no fewer than seven teams tied with records of two wins and one loss, but that group was reduced to three as only Canada and Estonia matched the defending champions in recording two more wins. 
A near perfect opening end of their meeting with the Koreans ended with a well judged raise from Dodds securing a four and while their opponents responded immediately with a three, they matched that at the next to stay in charge and were never threatened thereafter.
“We’ve found that if we get strong starts it really benefits us,” said Dodds.
“Korea tried hard to get back into the game, but we executed our shots pretty well and were always in control, putting them under a lot of pressure.”
Their second game of the day saw them up against Olympic champions Italy, albeit a different partnership from the pairing that triumphed in Beijing last year, with Stefania Constantini joined this time by Sebastiano Arman, rather than Amos Mosaner.
Once again the Scots started with the hammer and took advantage of it to score a three this time and they kept things tight to force the Italians to singles at the second and fourth end, while scoring a two of their own at the third to claim a 5-2 lead at the midway interval.’
Twos were exchanged at the next two ends and while keeping the Scottish pair to a one at the sixth gave the Italians a sliver of hope, Dodds safely wrapped things up when left with an open hit to make a double takeout with her final delivery to secure the win.
“Even though it’s a different Italian line-up, both of them are very good curlers in their own right and have good success on the men’s and women’s tour this year, so we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Dodds observed.
“Again we got our stones in really good positions to put them under a lot of pressure after we got that big three at the first end that gave us control. 
“It would have helped at the last end if I’d made my draw with my first shot, but you always know if you’re four up that you’re probably going to have some sort of double with the last stone.
“Bruce just kept peeling the guards and they didn’t get theirs in the perfect spot, so we had the double for the win and we’d seen a couple of hits down that line, so I was pretty confident of how to throw it.”
They now face Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harry Lill in their only match of day four, a pair they beat on their only previous meeting, but who have vast experience, playing in this event together for the sixth time.
“The Estonians have a lot of experience and have had a lot of success this year as well, winning on the mixed doubles tour,” Dodds noted.
“We don’t really need to change much, though and hopefully we can get off to another strong start.
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, with the stones being rubbed, but if we just keep doing what we’re doing that should get us into a good situation.”
WATCH LIVE games from Recast’s The Curling Channel.
World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships.
Schedule and Results:
Saturday 22 April
Session 1
Scotland – Canada 4-8
Session 3
Scotland – Denmark 7-1
Sunday 23 April
Session 5 – 6.00am
Scotland – Netherlands 7-4
Monday 24 April
Session 7
Scotland – Korea 11-6
Session 9
Scotland – Italy 8-6
Tuesday 25 April
Session 11 – 6.00am
Scotland – Estonia
Wednesday 26 April
Session 13 – 2.00am
Scotland – Hungary
Session 15 – 10.00am
Scotland – Australia
Thursday 27 April
Session 17 – 6.00am
Scotland – Czech Republic
Friday 28 April
Qualification Games – 2.00am
Semi Final – 10.00am
Saturday 29 April
BRONZE Medal Game 2.00am
GOLD Medal Game 6.00am
Scotland MD Team
Jen Dodds
Bruce Mouat
Greg Drummond (MD Team Coach)
Sheila Swan (Coach)
Image: WCF / Stephen Fisher & Logan Hannigan-Downs
#curling #WMDCC2023
