A brilliant freeze with her final delivery of the last end saw Marie Kaldvee earn her team a crucial win which came close to guaranteeing Estonia a place in the World Mixed Doubles Championship play-offs and Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat battling to join them.
The meeting of two of the three teams that began the day sharing top spot in the Group A standings always promised to be a close run affair and so it proved from the off, with the Scottish pair winning the pre-match last-stone draw to claim the hammer, but Kaldvee and partner Harry Lill out-manoeuvring them at the opening end to claim a steal of two.
Dodds and Mouat responded well, levelling at the next, then stealing at the third to edge ahead, but the lead was to change hands again when the Estonians stole again at the fifth end.
After gaining a hard-won two on their own Powerplay, the Scots then got out of a difficult situation when Mouat’s brilliant takeout at the seventh denied their opponents a multiple score on theirs and they looked to have the upper hand throughout the final end until a Mouat raise with his final delivery scattered the stones around the button. 
That only stone left inside the four foot was a Scottish one, but tellingly it slipped to the back of the button, while one of their opponents’ held onto the edge of the eight foot.
That left Kaldvee with a glimmer of hope and her freeze was sufficiently well executed that Dodds was unable to stick her shooter as she removed both of those stones.
”It was a tough loss,” Mouat admitted.
“We played well and felt like we had a really strong last few ends and played the Powerplays really well to set us up for a chance to win.
“It was a great shot by Marie to put us in some trouble with our last, but Jen had to just curl another inch and we would have made it.”
As is customary at the halfway stage of the event, the curling stones had been rubbed overnight, which can affect the way they perform, but Mouat made no excuse of that.
“We really enjoyed the ice today and felt like we were in a really good spot after our practice,” he said.
“We read the ice well during the game and it was just one of those games where we were just an inch away from the win.”
The newly crowned men’s World Champion believes they are still playing well enough to do what is required to reach the play-offs, but with only three teams from each group going through, knows they now have little wriggle room ahead of tomorrow’s meetings with Hungary and Australia, with whom the Scots are tied in third place on four wins and two losses.
“We were pretty unlucky to not come away with a win there, but it’s still in our own hands,” he said.
“We just need to win out to qualify in the top three.
“If we do, we’re probably going to end up third in the group now, so we’ll have to go the long way.
“However, mixed doubles is one of those events where you have to grind for the week, so we know what to do. 
“Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.
“We’ve got Australia in the afternoon, so we’re going to have to come out and fight hard against a really good team.
“Hungary just got their first win too and they’ll have some confidence on the back of that, so we’re going to have to work pretty hard to see ourselves into the play-offs.”
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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
Scotland – Estonia 5-6
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 / Eakin Howard.
#curling #WMDCC2023
