Scotland’s Team Henderson produced an astonishing fightback in the last two ends of their final against defending champions Japan to claim a 9-7 victory and bring the Women’s World Junior Curling Championship title back to Scotland for the first time since 2012.
In a topsy-turvy encounter, Fay Henderson, Robyn Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne and Laura Watt looked as if they were down and out when they conceded a steal to fall 7-4 behind at the eighth end of a match in which they had relinquished an early lead. 
However, their belief in themselves and determination to give their all to the very last saw their skip produce a wonder shot at the ninth end to level the scores, promoting an opposition guard onto her own stone that was on the edge of the four foot, which then removed two Japanese stones on the edge of the button to leave Scotland lying three.
At the final end, she then made the best of a difficult position to pour the pressure onto her opposite number, who was unable to produce the draw she needed to win the match.
“The ninth end was definitely the changing point in the game,” said Henderson, who admitted that she had not been at her best prior to playing that momentum shifting shot.
“We knew that we needed a three. At one point we had an opportunity to take a cheap two, but we thought it wouldn’t be enough, because we weren’t going to get two steals in a row from Japan, who are an absolutely amazing team.”
What made it all the more impressive was that Henderson had initially intended to play a more orthodox looking double take-out to try to get her three, before changing her mind when she saw the options from the other end of the ice.
“I changed my mind on the hack,” she explained.
“I was just going to play the double and spill their stones out for three, but I couldn’t see enough to do that. We talked through the nose run back, which was still a good opportunity for three.
“I’d watched that line many times and I was pretty confident to play it. I knew that if I just played it well the sweepers would be able to take it there and that’s exactly what happened.
“It was a pretty thin double in the four foot, but at that point in the end you’ve got to make it or that was the game over.”
Difficult as it was, she savoured the moment.
“I knew that in my head but I didn’t let the pressure get to me thankfully. Sometimes I actually prefer a little bit of pressure to be honest,” said Henderson.
“It was a great shot, but I only knew I’d made it when all the Scotland supporters started cheering and I thought, right this is it, game’s back on now, we just have to go for it.
“Then in the 10th end we didn’t have a great deal of options to try to win the game, but with my last I just managed to place it perfectly in the top of the 12 foot, just biting the eight foot, which meant she didn’t have a nose hit for the win. 
“The sweepers judged it absolutely perfectly and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from them.
“So that just asked the question on the out-turn draw and fortunately for us she just came up a little bit light.”
A year after Team GB won Olympic gold, Henderson drew comparison with that victory and said she will now aim to continue to emulate them as she moves into the sport’s senior ranks.
“It’s definitely like an Eve Muirhead moment in Beijing,” she said.
“We’ve worked through the steps like she has, so hopefully we can keep that in mind for future goals and follow in her footsteps.”
Following the retirement from the sport of three members of that gold medal winning team, it was another result that demonstrates that the future of British and Scottish women’s curling is in good hands.
“I’ve skipped since I started curling and I’ve alway believed that you never give up until you’re truly defeated. I think that shows in the games I play now,” said Henderson.
“We’re still always optimistic that we can score a big end and the three games we’ve played it’s been down to the wire and we’ve managed to produce the results by not giving up.
“This shows how much of an amazing team dynamic we’ve got as well and how much we all really want it.
“To be the first Scottish women’s to win this in more than a decade is absolutely amazing.
“We’ve seen all the teams, especially in the men’s side, that have produced some great results at the World Juniors and gone on to do bigger and better things, so I this is just the beginning for us.
“Being World Junior champions feels so special, particularly in my last year in juniors. This is the junior experience I wanted to remember. The gold medal is such a bonus and we all realise that.
“This win does a lot for women’s curling in Scotland and hopefully it will encourage some more girls to really pursue the sport and give it their all as well.
“The fight we’ve shown should show a lot of junior curlers especially that giving up is never the best option, you’ve always just got to find that way to win.
“Curling gives you amazing opportunities and we just want to thank everyone out there who has supported us.”
Please click here for the schedule and more information
LIVE streamed games are available on Recast’s The Curling Channel
Scotland women 
Fay Henderson
Robyn Munro
Holly Wilkie-Milne
Laura Watt
Amy Mitchell (Alternate)
Colin Morrison (Team Coach)
David Aitken (Head Coach)
Scotland men
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Scott Hyslop (Alternate)
Ryan Carson (Team Coach)
David Aitken (Head Coach)
#curling #wjcc2023
Schedule and Results
Game times: 0800, 1300, 1800 (GMT)
Day One – Saturday 25 February
Scotland women
Scotland – Germany 7-5
Scotland men
Scotland – Canada 7-2
Scotland women
Scotland – Latvia 8-5
Day Two – Sunday 26 February
Scotland men
Scotland – Turkiye 8-3
Scotland women
Scotland – Japan 4-3
Scotland men
Scotland – Italy 10-3
Day Three – Monday 27 February
Scotland women
Scotland – Canada 6-7
Scotland men
Scotland – Germany 5-7
Scotland women
Scotland – Sweden 8-6
Day Four – Tuesday 28 February
Scotland men
Scotland – China 3-9
Scotland women
Scotland – Switzerland 2-10
Scotland men
Scotland – Switzerland 8-3
Day Five – Wednesday 1 March
Scotland women
Scotland – Korea 6-5
Scotland men
Scotland – Korea 7-6
Scotland women
Scotland – Norway 6-7
Day Six – Thursday 2 March
Scotland men
Scotland – USA 6-2
Scotland women
Scotland – USA 8-7
Scotland men
Scotland – Norway 8-5
Day Seven – Friday 3 March
Women’s Semi Final 13.00 Scotland v Norway 6-5
Men’s Semi Final 18.00 Scotland v China 1-8
Day Eight – Saturday 4 March
Women’s Finals 08.00 – Scotland v Japan 9-7
Bronze medal game Norway v Switzerland 8-5
Men’s Finals13.00 Germany v China
Bronze medal game Scotland v Norway
Image: WCF/Alina Pavlyuchik & STEPHEN FISHER
