GB MEN BATTLE PAST ITALY TO MAKE WINNING START

After painfully missing out on a medal in the Mixed Doubles, Bruce Mouat looked to have suffered no ill effects as he put in a commanding performance to lead his men’s team to a 7-5 victory over high flying Italy in their opening match in Beijing’s Ice Cube.

Mouat and teammates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had lost just once to the Italians in 11 previous meetings and never in six encounters at major championships, so would normally have been considered odds-on favourites this time around.

However, Italian confidence had been massively boosted by the way their Mixed Doubles pair of Amos Mosaner – who plays third in the men’s team - and Stefania Constantini had powered through that event, winning all 11 matches on their way to gold.

They demonstrated that as they claimed the hammer at the opening end by winning the pre-match draw shot challenge and took advantage of that when their skip Joel Retornaz produced a well-weighted double takeout with his final stone to score two. 

They retained their two-shot advantage to the halfway mark as both teams were forced to take singles at successive ends before, at the fourth, Mouat masterfully ran an Italian guard into a dangerous looking cluster of stones to open things up around the button, then claimed the two by squeezing past another guard to ease Retornaz’s shot stone out to level at 3-3.

A blanked fifth end meant that even though they were again forced to a one at the next, the Italians retained the advantage of having the last stone advantage on the even ends unless there were steals.

The standard was exceptional and when Retornaz made a delightful double takeout at the seventh end, with his shooter finishing as shot, sitting awkwardly in front on the lone remaining British stone in the house, he looked to have taken the initiative. However, needing to be millimetre and ounce perfect to get round a guard with sufficient pace to push the Italian shot onto one of his own and claim a two, Mouat demonstrated why he and his team are now ranked world number one as he delivered at the crucial moment to nudge them in front for the first time.

The match was still in the balance, but the British quartet then produced a near perfect end to apply maximum pressure at the eighth and, with three opposing stones counting as he delivered the last stone of the end, Retornaz managed to remove the shot stone, only for his shooter to roll further than intended, allowing the first steal of the match.

At the ninth end, Retornaz then delivered his last with four British stones in the house and none of his own and while his sweepers managed to keep the match alive by dragging it into a port and just closest to the button, another sequence of accurate shots set up the position for Mouat to draw to the edge of the button and end the match.

On a day that also saw Hardie make his 100th international appearance, the result on the entire team’s Olympic debut made it a memorable 25th birthday present for Lammie.

"I think that's probably up there in terms of birthday presents, that's the top one. You can't ask for much more than a win in your first Olympic game,” he said

"It felt great. We've been here for a week now, just talking all the Olympic Village atmosphere in. We've been itching to get out there and show that competitiveness.

"It's been great, to have Bruce back with us for the last day or two, too. We feel like a full unit again which is nice and getting into the groove with all of us has been great."

The skip was hugely satisfied with the nature of the victory against a team he knew would be tough to beat, particularly after what had happened in the Mixed Doubles.

"They're obviously a really good team. They've medalled at European level a few times now, he observed.

"We know them pretty well, because we play them on tour a lot, so we're happy to get that first win and I am pleased with the way we ground it out.

“It was a wee bit of a slow start and they got a good two in the first end. That kind of put us on the back foot early, but we stuck together and played a lot of really good shots to get back in the game and find the lead in the last half." 

He, too, was pleased to be able to return to such a tightknit unit and the traditional form of the game.

"Tuesday was a bit of a tough day but this is the team that I've played with for 95 percent of my time in the last three years,” he said.

"This is the one I've always looked to and always felt that this is the one I want to win.

"It would have been great to win the other one, but I just wanted to turn it around and play well for the boys as well as myself.

"Getting back onto the ice and feeling at home with the boys again was great.

“I've not really seen them for quite a while. It was really good to be making a lot of shots and having my sweepers back which was very nice!"