Olympic gold medal winning skip Eve Muirhead was full of praise for her teammate after Bobby Lammie’s power helped take them into the final of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship on their debut at the event.
An 8-3 victory over Germany, completed with an end to spare, put Muirhead just one win away from claiming the only major international title that has so far eluded her following her team’s Olympic triumph in Beijing two months ago.
Statistically by far and away the leading female player at this week’s event in Geneva, she was swift to point out that it was Lammie who had played the leading role in overcoming a difficult start against the German pairing of Pia-Lisa Schoell and Klaudius Harsch that they had beaten comfortably in the round-robin stages. 
“It was a little trickier at the start, but once we got onto the conditions being a bit different we played some great curling,” she said.
“We controlled the game. I personally didn’t have my best game, but Bob was outstanding. He made a lot of very good shots and made my life easy at the end.”
In light-hearted vein, Muirhead added that her teammate would need to refuel given his energetic work-rate.
“He’s the best sweeper in the world I believe and I think a lot of people know that, so he’s a massive strength to the team and we work very well together out there, but he deserves a big feed tonight,” she laughed.
It spoke to the consistency of their performances throughout the competition that when the Germans scored a two at the second end, it was only the third time in the 10 matches they have played so far, that they had fallen behind at any stage of a match.
As was the case on the previous occasions, the deficit was just a single shot and was immediately eradicated as they registered a three at the third end and, yet to concede a steal in the course of the championships, they were largely untroubled from that point on.
“We struggled a wee bit with the ice at the start,” Lammie admitted.
“It was a wee bit different from the way it played the last couple of games, a wee bit quicker which caught us out a bit, but we got the hang of it after the third end and getting the three there and the two point jump there allowed us to have a wee bit more control so we could manipulate the ends a bit more after that.”
Their capacity to adapt to conditions having been a feature of their play, he said they would be looking for more of the same in the final as they waited to find out whether Switzerland or Norway would earn the right to meet them after meeting one another in the second semi-final later in the day.
“We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said the Olympic silver medallist.
“We’ve been getting the hang of the ice pretty quick at the start of games and just controlling our draw weight from there and getting on top of the four foot. If we do the same tomorrow we’ll have a good chance.” 
While pleased at the way they have defended the title won by their regular teammates Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat last year, Muirhead is now looking to finish the job and complete her gold medal haul in the final which takes place at 1pm (BST) tomorrow.
“We’ve got to have another clinical job tomorrow, because we know that’s going to be tough,” she said.
“Both of us being at our first Mixed Doubles and making the final is good and it feels very special, so regardless of who we face tomorrow we just prepare the same way and come out with exactly the same attitude and play very similar curling.
“It’s been a very good week so far and we just have to keep it going for tomorrow.”
Watch the final Live tomorrow on the Recast platform.
Scotland Mixed Doubles Team
Eve Muirhead
Bobby Lammie
Broadcast games will be shown on The Curling Channel in partnership with Recast.
Saturday 30 April - Bronze medal game (TSN1, RDS, Peacock and Olympic Channel), Gold medal game (Swiss TV, TSN1, RDS, Peacock and Olympic Channel)
Schedule for World Mixed Doubles Championships 23-30 April – Geneva, Switzerland
Saturday 23 April
Scotland – England 8-3
Sunday 24 April
Scotland – Australia 9-4
Scotland – Czech Republic 9-3
Monday 25 April
Scotland – Canada 8-4
Tuesday 26 April
Scotland – Germany 8-4
Scotland – USA 7-2
Wednesday 27 April
Scotland – Hungary 10-4
Thursday 28 April
Scotland – Turkey 10-2
Scotland – Spain 10-3
Friday 29 April
Qualification game A2 – B3
Qualification game B2 – A3
Semi final B1-A2/B3
Scotland v Germany 8-3
Switzerland v Norway
Saturday 30 April
Bronze medal game
Germany v TBC
Gold medal game
Scotland v TBC
#curling #WMDCC2022
