Scotland’s Fay Henderson, Robyn Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne and Laura Watt will meet Japan in the gold medal game at the World Junior Curling Championships after reversing the result of their round-robin meeting with Norway to claim a 6-5 win in the semi-final.
Skip Fay Henderson had narrowly missed the chance to win the match in that previous encounter, but this time around she produced a perfectly judged take out with the final stone of the match to take her team into the final.
“Obviously being down going into the 10th end isn’t ideal, but we put everything into it we had and managed to come away with the win,” said an elated Fay Henderson, who had to steer her team through the World B Championship earlier this season after they were relegated from the top tier a year ago.
“We just need to get a good rest now. All week we’ve taken most teams down to the wire, or they’ve taken us to the wire and we know that if we’re in it for 10 ends we’ll fight all the way.
“So we just want to be cool, calm and collected for tomorrow and come out and give it our best and it would be amazing to win it in my last year in juniors.”
The Scots looked to have the upper hand for most of the first half of the match, but two narrow misses by their skip when presented with difficult opportunities to score twos at the fourth and fifth ends meant that the Norwegians claimed a brace of steals that took them to the midway break 3-1 up.
Henderson made no mistake, however, when an error by her opposite number Torild Bjoernstad gave her the chance to make a take-out for a three at the sixth end to give her team the lead that their performance deserved to that point.
After a blanked seventh end, they piled the pressure onto Bjoernstad again at the eighth end, but this time she produced a perfect hit and roll to claim the two that nudged her team back in front.
Another blanked end at the ninth took it to the final end with the Scots needing a two to win the match and when their chance came after a mistake by the Norwegians, vice skip Robyn Munro seized on it with a hit and roll that left them lying two.
Bjoernstad responded with a fine hit and roll that left Henderson with a difficult takeout, but the Scottish skip was up to the task and when her opposite number’s draw left her with a quarter of a stone to aim at, she found the target.
“We just didn’t let it get to us when we found ourselves behind at the fifth end,” said Henderson.
“We weren’t far away and we knew that.
“We’d played Norway the other day and had some chances and we knew that as long as we were around about it at the fifth end it would be very close.
“We really stuck with and went through out processes, trying to keep stones in play when we had the hammer, which we were hoping would lead to a couple of chances for twos.
“We maybe didn’t take them every end, but they were always lying around and we knew that we’d be able to get two when we needed to.”
They now face defending champions Japan in the final after they ended the run of previously unbeaten Switzerland, claiming a 7-5 win.
In the men’s semi final Scotland’s teenage quartet of Orrin and Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb were edged out 8-1 by China in nine ends in what was a much tighter game than the final scoreline reflected. Single steals in ends seven and eight gave China a 4-1 lead and Scotland’s missed double take out with their final skip stone at the next left their opponents with an unassailable lead and they shook hands.
Scotland now meet Norway in the bronze medal game after they lost out 9-7 in their semi final to hosts Germany.
Please click here for the schedule and more information
LIVE streamed games are available on Recast’s The Curling Channel
Link to the GOLD medal game - Scotland v Japan.
Link to the BRONZE medal game - Scotland v Norway.
Scotland women
Fay Henderson
Robyn Munro
Holly Wilkie-Milne
Laura Watt
Amy Mitchell (Alternate)
Colin Morrison (Team Coach)
David Aitken (Head Coach)
Scotland men
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Scott Hyslop (Alternate)
Ryan Carson (Team Coach)
David Aitken (Head Coach)