Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie took a large step towards qualifying for the play-offs at the World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva when they beat Canada 8-4 to claim a fourth successive victory.
It was a win that leaves them joint top of the table against the USA and while the margin ultimately looked comfortable the result was not secured until an Eve Muirhead take-out with their final delivery of the last end ran the Canadian combination of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant out of stones.
The quality of play was as expected whenever teams from the two countries that are considered the ancient and modern homes of the sport encounter one another. 
The Canadians started the match with the hammer after winning the last stone draw challenge, but were forced to take a single and the way the angles were being covered was demonstrated in the decisions by both Muirhead and Peterman not to risk disturbing the head when lying single shots at each of the next two ends.
It was all very tight again at the fifth end, but with five stones lying on or around the button, Muirhead took a calculated risk to promote a Canadian stone into that pack and jostle things around to register the first two of the match.
She and Lammie then applied such pressure at the next that Peterman threw her final stone deliberately wide, this time conceding a steal of one to fall 4-2 behind.
The Canadians then took their powerplay at the sixth end and were lying three until Muirhead came around a guard to out-score two of them, leaving Peterman to draw for a second shot to level the scores.
However, when the Scots then took their powerplay they produced a near perfect end of curling which meant that, although Muirhead’s final stone was slightly heavier than intended, that merely worked to their advantage as it nudged the only counting Canadian stone and left them counting a decisive four.
“Obviously beating Canada is big for us,” said Lammie.
“They’re always going to be strong competition and are probably going to be up there at the end of the week, so there’s a strong chance we might play them again, so getting that edge on them and knowing we can beat them could be pretty crucial.
“It was a weird game in that three times the last stone wasn’t able to be played, but that just shows how close the game was and the shots that were being made with pretty precise freezes and draws into the right spots which led to that.”
The 25-year-old Olympic silver medallist believes it is a win that has set them up heading into the second half of the round-robin stage of the competition ahead of day four when they will face Germany and Group B’s only other unbeaten team, the USA.
“I think we’re in a good position now going forward with four wins out of four. We’re feeling pretty confident that we can keep this momentum going and reach the play-offs,” said Lammie.
“Our goal now is probably to get the number one spot and get straight to the semis. That would be big for us, but we’ve obviously still got some tough competition coming up with the likes of the USA and other strong teams.” 
Part of the Team Mouat line-up which last week won its fourth Grand Slam title in the last five of the series that is the most lucrative on the global circuit, this is his first international competition in partnership with vastly experienced newly crowned Olympic champion Muirhead, but they have settled quickly to the task.
“In mixed doubles it’s maybe just a wee bit more relaxed for us, a nice wee change from the team event,” said Lammie
“We’ve never really had to work on our communication. We both know what we can expect from each other, but communication’s obviously very important when it’s just two people out there.”
Scotland play Germany and USA tomorrow.
Scotland Mixed Doubles Team
Eve Muirhead
Bobby Lammie
Broadcast games will be shown on The Curling Channel in partnership with Recast.
Monday 25 April - Scotland v Canada (TSN1/3, RDS)
Tuesday 26 April - Scotland v United States (Peacock and Olympic Channel)
Friday 29 April - Qualifier 1 (TSN1, RDS, Peacock and Olympic Channel). Qualifier 2 (TSN1, RDS, Peacock and Olympic Channel), Semi-final 1 (TSN1/4, RDS, Peacock and Olympic Channel), Semi-final 2 (TSN4, RDS, Peacock and Olympic Channel)
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
Scotland - USA
Wednesday 27 April
Scotland - Hungary
Thursday 28 April
Scotland – Turkey
Scotland - Spain
Friday 29 April
Qualification game A2 – B3
Qualification game B2 – A3
Semi final B1-A2/B3
Semi final A1 – B2/A3
Saturday 30 April
Bronze medal game
Gold medal game
#curling #WMDCC2022
