Both British Curling’s women’s teams reached the play-off stages of the Women’s Masters in Basel after another series of impressive performances.
While it was ultimately the first time in four events this season that neither of the teams fielded reached the final of a tournament in which they have played, their performances provided the coaches with further food for thought ahead of selection for next month’s European Curling Championships.
Teams have been consistently re-shuffled in the early part of this season in a bid to assess technique and dynamics ahead of the Winter Olympic Qualifying tournament in December and the response has been excellent throughout the nine-player squad. 
This time around Rebecca Morrison steered her team unbeaten through the four-match pool stages, while Eve Muirhead’s team also came through with just a single defeat, before the two met in the quarter-finals.
That match that went to the wire with the three-time Olympian only prevailing after an extra end and she reckoned that the whole squad should be pleased with the quality of play.
“The quarter-final was a great game of curling. We played the scoreboard well and made the crucial shots at crucial times,” she said.
Muirhead was unable to repeat the previous weekend’s performance in Switzerland, when she led her team to victory in The Challenger event, losing out against an old foe in the following round.
“It was pleasing to have such a good run again here in Basel, but the semi-final was always going to be tough against the current Olympic champs, Team Hasselborg,” she said. 
“We were chasing from the start but managed to convert our two in sixth end to be peels but unfortunately the seventh didn’t go to plan and a score of three to them lost us the game.”
All nine players will now head to Canada this week to take part in the Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic in Calgary.
Women’s Masters Basel
Team Red (Aitken)
Rebecca Morrison
Vicky Wright
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Team Blue (Muirhead)
Eve Muirhead
Gina Aitken
Lauren Gray
Mili Smith
Hailey Duff
Team Farmer
Beth Farmer
Sophie Jackson
Kirstin Bousie
Emma Barr
