Scotland’s Team Craik moved into the second half of the round-robin stages at the World Junior Curling Championship still unbeaten after contrasting wins over Germany and Italy on the third of action in Sweden. 
Their opening match of the day against the Germans had been a top-of-the table clash against one of only two other teams that had won their first three matches and it was as tight as was expected with the teams tied at 4-4 for three ends after the Germans levelled things at the sixth, before the Scots scored a crucial two at the ninth end before running their opponents out of stones at the last.
Their match later in the day looked like it might be another difficult encounter when the Italians opened with a two and, after the Scots matched that at the next, reclaimed the lead at the third end.
However, that was to be their last score as twos at the fourth and sixth, either side of a blanked fifth, put Craik and his men in control, before a four at the seventh wrapped up a 10-3 win.
“That was another really good two win day,” said skip Craik.
“Those were both really tough games against teams we’ve played before, so we’re delighted to maintain our 100 per cent record through the midway point.
“It puts us in a really good spot ahead of the last push towards the playoffs and hopefully we can secure a berth. 
“It was particularly good to get a win over Benny Kapp and the boys from Germany.
“They’ve had the jump on us this season, being 3 and 0 on us previously, so it was nice to get that win against them and hopefully we’ll get another one at the end of the week.
“It was a really convincing win against Italy, though. They came out fighting in the first five ends and really made us work, but we just had to stay patient.
“We dominated play, but there was never a calculated opportunity to score big, so we just had to wait our turn, take our twos, force them to take ones and then we got the steal of two at the sixth end, before we stole the four at seven that ended the game.”
“We’ve got really good momentum heading into the latter stages of the round-robin. All of the guys are feeling good and playing great, so we’re hoping just to keep it going.”
By contrast, Fay Henderson’s women endured another disappointing day, failing to score at any of the first four ends on their way to a 7-4 defeat to Japan.
“We had never played Japan before so obviously their style was a little bit of an unknown,” said Henderson.
“It was a tough game out there against Japan, they played really well and we just didn’t manage to string enough shots together to put them under a great deal of pressure. 
“We now have two games tomorrow so we hopefully get a win there and get some momentum going again.
“We have a chance to chat over a few things we are doing well and talk about some things where we know there is room for improvement and take that into tomorrow.
“Like every game, we are always looking for something to improve and obviously losing is the best opportunity to do that, as hard as it is.”
Live games will be available to watch through The Curling Channel in partnership with Recast.
Scotland – Team Craik
James Craik
Angus Bryce
Scott Hyslop
Niall Ryder
Jack Carrick
Scotland – Team Henderson
Fay Henderson
Katie McMillan
Lisa Davie
Holly Wilkie-Milne
Robyn Mitchell
Sunday 15 May (all times BST)
Scotland – Korea (men) 8-5
Scotland – Canada (women) 9-7
Scotland – USA (men) 9-1
Monday 16 May
Scotland – USA (women) 8-9
Scotland – New Zealand (men) 10-5
Scotland – Switzerland (women) 3-8
Tuesday 17 May
Scotland – Germany (men) 6-4
Scotland – Japan (women) 4-7
Scotland – Italy (men) 6-4
Wednesday 18 May
Scotland – Norway (women) – 8.00am
Scotland – Canada (men) – 1.00pm
Scotland – Latvia (women) – 6.00pm
Thursday 19 May
Scotland – Norway (men) – 8.00am
Scotland – Korea (women) – 1.00pm
Scotland – Sweden (men) – 6.00pm (Broadcast game)
Friday 20 May
Scotland – Sweden (women) – 8.00am
Scotland – Switzerland (men) – 1.00pm
Scotland – Denmark (women) - 6.00pm
Saturday 21 May
Men’s Semi Final – 1.00pm
Women’s Semi Final – 6.00pm
Sunday 22 May
Men’s Finals - 8.00am
Women’s Finals - 1.00pm
Images: WCF / Cheyenne Boone
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