Scotland’s slim chances of reaching the play-offs at the BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship may no longer be in their own hands, but a hard earned 6-5 victory over Turkiye helped them in their second goal of picking up vital Winter Olympic qualifying points in Nova Scotia.
It was a text book start to their only match of day six at the championships as Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson won the last stone draw to claim the hammer at the opening end, blanked it and then scored their two at the second to gain the upper hand.
After forcing their opponents to take one at the next, they then registered another two at the fifth end to take a 4-1 lead into the midway break.
The Turks then turned up the pressure in the second half of the match with forces exchanged at the next two ends before they scored two at the eighth end to close to 5-4 and after Scotland were unable to score more than one at the next it set up a tense final end with the game in the balance right to the last shot which saw Turkish skip Dilsat Yildiz fail narrowly with a tap back attempt to score the two that would have brought extra time. 
“We got control early with that two in the second end, so that was really settling for us,” said Scottish skip Morrison.
“It was a great game with both teams playing away brilliantly and when Turkiye had hammer they really worked away and we were looking in some danger at points, so it was a tough game and we’re really glad we came away with the win.”
With Sweden heading into the day’s final round of matches needing a win over Japan to clinch the last of the six play-off spots following their defeat of Estonia, the Scots knew as they finished that their chances of reaching the play-offs had realistically gone.
However, with this event and next year’s World Championships doubling as Olympic qualifiers, they are acutely aware of the need to stay fully focused to the end.
Tomorrow’s penultimate match against Japan, who are close to them in the table, is consequently set to be a vital encounter, while they finish with a chance to take on the home team and current world number one ranked Team Homan in Sydney’s Centre 200 arena.
“Even though our fate is kind of out of our hands in terms of our win/loss record and looking to get to play-offs we’re very aware that every win is valuable this year and that we’ve got to stay up that table as far as possible,” said Morrison.
“Finishing in that seventh or eighth position would be great now, even if we don’t make play-offs this year and miss our goal in that regard, so we’re working away to get two more wins tomorrow.
“The Japan game will be very important for us in terms of the table and we’ve never played Team Homan yet, so that’ll be something new and fresh and we’re looking forward to that game as well.”
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Scotland Team
Rebecca Morrison
Jennifer Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Gina Aitken (alternate)
Team Coach Ross Paterson
Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond
Schedule & Results
Saturday 16 March
Scotland –Norway 6-4
Sunday 17 March
Scotland – New Zealand 6-8
Scotland – Italy 2-8
Monday 18 March
Scotland – Denmark 2-9
Scotland – Sweden 1-8
Tuesday 19 March
Scotland – Korea 3-9
Scotland – Estonia 12-8
Wednesday 20 March
Scotland – Switzerland 6-5
Scotland – USA 6-8
Thursday 21 March
17.00hrs
Scotland – Turkiye 6-5
Friday 22 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Japan
17.00hrs
Scotland – Canada
Saturday 23 March
14.00hrs
Qualification
20.00hrs
Semi Finals
Sunday 24 March
14.00hrs
Bronze Medal Game
20.00hrs
Gold Medal Game
Image: WCF
