Scotland’s Team Mouat spent close to the minimum amount of time on the ice on day five at the Le Gruyere AOP European Curling Championships at Curl Aberdeen, in claiming two wins that took them into the play-offs and left them well-placed to claim last stone advantage in the semi-finals.
In spite of conceding two at the opening end of their morning meeting with the Netherlands, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan wrapped up that match 9-4 after only eight of the scheduled 10 ends and they made even lighter work of their evening encounter with Turkiye, running out 10-3 winners in just six ends.
They now have just one remaining round-robin match to play against a Finland team that has won just one of its eight matches and those early finishes mean they will be as fresh as they can be for a series of one-game days. 
“It was nice to have two early finishes today,” said skip Mouat.
“We played pretty well in both games, so it’s really good to carry that momentum into the weekend.
“We lost a two in the first end against Netherlands, but bounced back pretty quickly, put them under pressure and got some misses, then saw that through and we played well against Turkiye after getting off to a really good start.
“We felt very positive on the ice and there’s a lot of things we’re doing really well, so we’re looking to keep that going for the rest of the tournament.”
Should they defeat the Finns, the Scots’ prospects of finishing in second spot in the standings and so having that last stone advantage in the semis were boosted when Switzerland, whom they beat earlier in the week, got the better of six-time World and seven-time European champions Sweden during the day five evening session.
However, Mouat knows the calibre of all the likely play-off teams too well to read too much into that.
“It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a game against Switzerland or Sweden,” he said.
“We’re probably going to play one of them in the play-offs and whoever it is we’re going to have to play well, because they are both very good teams, so either way it will be tough.”
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
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
Scotland v Netherlands 9-4
Women’s Round Robin Session 8
Scotland v Estonia 6-4
Men’s Round Robin Session 8
Scotland v Turkiye 10-3
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
