Victory over Germany in their first match of day four ensured that Scotland’s Team Morrison remained in play-off contention heading into their final two round-robin matches at the Le Gruyere AOP European Curling Championships at Curl Aberdeen.
A loss to unbeaten Switzerland later in the day was a disappointment, but they know that if they can defeat Estonia on day five and Norway on day six that they will be through to the semi-finals for the second successive year and still in with a chance of achieving their target of upgrading last season’s bronze medal.
Starting with the hammer against the Germans, Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson made life more difficult for themselves than they would have liked when they conceded a steal at the opening end.
However, they took control of the match with a steal of two at the fifth end and managed that lead well in the second half of the game to run out 5-3 winners. 
“Against Germany overall the team was always in control and it was just a case of me missing a couple of key shots at the very start, but we really came onto a game at the end and controlled it really well from there on,” said skip Morrison.
“With the way the table’s looking, that was a really crucial win for us and put us in a really nice position going into the last three games.”
The first of those was against Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss team who have won the last four World Championships and have been highly impressive in their bid to claim a first European title.
The Scots had engaged them in a series of close battles this season already, though, beating them on their previous meeting and it was hard fought in the early stages again with just a single Swiss shot registered in the first three ends, before the key moment arrived in the fourth when Morrison’s attempt at a raise take-out just missed it’s target.
“We knew Switzerland was always going to be a difficult game, but it could have gone quite differently,” said Morrison.
“The steal they got in the fourth end was about a millimetre away from being a two for us instead.
“That really changed the game up and who knows what could have happened if I’d made that shot.
“Instead we ended up coming away with a loss, but I still think we can make our two wins at the end of this round-robin and get to the semi-finals.”
Having faced a demanding run of three two-game days in the first four days of the championship, they now have a chance to re-group ahead of their only match of day five against an Estonian line-up that is a relatively unknown quantity.
“This Estonian team have been on the circuit for a while now, but we’ve not played them in recent years, so I’m sure we’ll see some new stuff from them,” said Morrison.
“I think they’ve been having a really great week, with some close games against great teams as well, so I expect they will come out firing and it will be another tough game for us, but hopefully we’ll come out, play some good shots and come away with a win.”
The top eight men’s and women’s teams at these Championships, which take place from November 18-25 will qualify for the World Championships later this season.
The BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship 2024 will be hosted in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada in March 2024 and the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2024 will take place in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in April 2024.
Games will be broadcast on Recast available on The Curling Channel
The following games will be available on the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer
Wednesday 22 November
Scotland men v Netherlands (0900)
Thursday 23 November
Scotland women v Norway (0900)
Play-offs and medal matches - TBC.
Scotland Schedule:
Saturday 18 November
Women’s Round Robin Session 1
Scotland v Turkiye 8-4
Men’s Round Robin Session 1
Scotland v Norway 5-3
Women’s Round Robin Session 2
Scotland v Denmark 9-11
Sunday 19 November
Men’s Round Robin Session 2
Scotland v Sweden 5-8
Women’s Round Robin Session 3
Scotland v Italy 6-7
Men’s Round Robin Session 3
Scotland v Czechia 6-5
Monday 20 November
Women’s Round Robin Session 4
Scotland v Czechia 8-1
Men’s Round Robin Session 4
Scotland v Switzerland 9-6
Women’s Round Robin Session 5
Scotland v Sweden 9-7
Men’s Round Robin Session 5
Scotland v Germany 8-2
Tuesday 21 November
Women’s Round Robin Session 6
Scotland v Germany 5-3
Men’s Round Robin Session 6
Scotland v Italy 6-7
Women’s Round Robin Session 7
Scotland v Switzerland 2-5
Wednesday 22 November
Men’s Round Robin Session 7 – 09.00
Scotland v Netherlands
Women’s Round Robin Session 8 – 14.00
Scotland v Estonia
Men’s Round Robin Session 8 – 19.00
Scotland v Turkiye
Thursday 23 November
Women’s Round Robin Session 9 – 09.00
Scotland v Norway
Men’s Round Robin Session 9 – 14.00
Scotland v Finland
Women’s Semi Finals – 19.00
Friday 24 November
Men’s Semi Finals – 09.00
Women’s Bronze Medal Game – 14.00
Men’s Bronze Medal Game – 19.00
Saturday 25 November
Women’s Gold Medal Game – 09.00
Men’s Gold Medal Game – 14.00
Scotland Women
Rebecca Morrison
Jennifer Dodds
Gina Aitken
Sophie Jackson
Sophie Sinclair
Coach: Ross Paterson
Scotland Men
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell
Coach: Michael Goodfellow
#curling #ECC2023
Image: WCF
