Scotland’s Team Henderson came through two tough matches at the World Junior B Championship in Finland to complete their round-robin campaign with a 100 per cent record before claiming a quarter-final match that ensured they will be involved in the medal matches.
Fay Henderson, Robyn Munro, Holly Wlkie-Milne and Laura Watt had gone into the fourth day of play in Lohja knowing they had secured top spot in their section of the draw, but their final Group D match against Austria set them up for the play-offs as they were forced to battle all the way before registering a three at the final end to emerge 7-4 winners. 
They then met the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, knowing that defeat would end their chances of earning Scotland promotion to the World Junior A Championship next year and they were put under pressure early on before a steal of three at the fifth end put them on their way to a 7-5 win.
“Today was a pretty good day with those two wins,” said skip Henderson.
“We had our last round-robin win against Austria and it was actually a really tight game which we did control more tactically and dictated how the end’s went, but they still managed to have a couple of good ends and kept it pretty tight, so it felt great to finish the round-robin with a 100 per cent record.
“In the play-offs a quarter-final match especially is never easy to play, but we just went in looking to put in a good performance.
“The steal of three in the fifth was definitely a turning point.
“We had a really good end, getting things set up behind a guard and they’d struggled a little bit trying to get their hits right and we were lying four when it came to her last shot and she came up just a little short with her draw. 
“That put us in scoreboard control of the game and we still had a couple of moments that weren’t perfect, but giving up a two at the last end when we were four up was fine.”
It was crucial match because they knew that defeat would have ended their hopes of earning Scotland promotion to the World Junior As, whereas they now have two more chances to secure that.
However, their focus remains on winning every match as they head into the relative unknown against their semi-final opponents.
“One more win does guarantee us a place at the World As, but obviously we just want to keep winning and maintain our unbeaten record,” said Henderson.
“Obviously the semi-final is a big game and every win matters from here on in terms of getting a medal or not, the colour of the medal you get, so we want to keep our form going and have another really good game against Turkey and we know that every team making it to the semi-finals will be really strong.
“We’ve never played them before and don’t know too much about them as a team or a curling nation, so we’re just interested to see how the game will go and we’ll look to put on our best performance.”
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Team Henderson
Fay Henderson
Robyn Munro
Holly Wlkie-Milne
Laura Watt
Amy Mitchell
Schedule & Results:
Thursday 15 December – Session 2
Scotland v Ukraine 11-3
Friday 16 December – Session 4
Scotland v New Zealand 6-3
Session 6
Scotland v Mongolia 11-1
Saturday 17 December – Session 8
Scotland v Hungary 5-3
Sunday 18 December – Session 10
Scotland v Austria 7-4
Session 11
Women’s Quarter Finals
Scotland v Czech Republic 7-5
Monday 19 December – Session 12
Women’s Semi Finals
Scotland v Turkey
Session 13
Women’s Finals
Photos: WCF / Hellen Koskinen
