2021 champions Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat suffered defeat in their first appearance at the World Mixed Doubles Championship since winning that title, but responded immediately to get their campaign properly underway in Korea.
Seeking to keep the title that was successfully defended by Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie in Scotland for a third year, they started the event up against Canada’s former Olympic and two-time women’s world champion Jennifer Jones and her husband, three time men’s world champion Brent Laing and made a poor start.
Their concession of a four at the opening end, followed by a steal at the next, left them with too much to do and while there was nothing in it thereafter, the Canadians managed the scoreboard well to run out 8-4 winners. 
That result added extra pressure to their encounter with Denmark later in the day, but the Scots took control of that match, capitalising on having the hammer at the opening end to score a three, before stealing at the next to pull clear and they dominated from that point, running out 7-1 winners in just six ends.
“I think we just got caught out and didn’t trust how straight the ice was in the first match, so going into the next game we took those learnings forward, as we did in the second half of the Canadian game as well, accepting that we’re not going to get as much curl and I think that showed in the Denmark game where we got some good results out of that,” said Dodds.
Despite that loss in their first match, she felt they had benefited from coming up against the only other combination of world champion curlers in the field in their opening match.
“You know you always have to come out sharp against Jen and Brent, which is sometimes probably a good thing,” Dodds observed.
“Their history of being world champions, they know what they need to do to get here.
“We just weren’t as sharp, but we know the standard moving forward, what we needed to do, and I think that showed in that Denmark game.
“We really tightened up the ice and trusted that the sweeping would get it to the spot we needed.
“The ice was also a more consistent speed for that game, too and we got on top of that really quickly and read it well.
“There was quite a fast part of the ice which we noticed straight away and we didn’t make mistakes and capitalised on theirs.”
She reckoned that the nature of that win stands them in good stead for the week ahead which will see them play nine round-robin matches in bidding to reach the play-offs.
“It was a good bounce back game which gave us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the week,” said Dodds. 
“We know we’re going to have some tough games, but if we keep performing the way we did there we’re going to be in a pretty good spot.
“So, it is a long week, but I think it’s a good start.”
They now face a solitary match on day two, against Netherlands pair Vanessa Tonoli and Wouter Goesgens who had a difficult opening day, losing to both Australia and Canada.
“I don’t mind a one game day,” said Dodds.
“We’ve had two good games today and have a good idea of the ice and we’re pretty used to one game days at the Olympics and World Championships, which is nice from a recovery aspect.
“We’ve got a two game day the next day, so it will just be about taking the chance for rest and recovery after we play tomorrow.”
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
Monday 24 April
Session 7 – 2.00am
Scotland – Korea
Session 9 – 10.00am
Scotland – Italy
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)
Images: WCF / Logan Hannigan-Downs
#curling #WMDCC2023
