Scotland’s men came through a tense encounter with Korea on the fifth day of action at the World Junior Curling Championships to secure the victory that leaves them in outright second spot in the rankings on five wins and just two losses, so within touching distance of the play-offs.
One more win in their two remaining matches on the final day of the round-robin should be sufficient to see them into the semi-finals, but they still have to face two of the teams snapping at their heels for a place in the top four in the standings, the USA and Norway.
“We’ve got the USA in the morning and we know how tough that will be,” said skip Orrin Carson.
“They’re on one less win than us, but if they beat us that will be in their favour on the head-to-head, so we know how important a game that will be.” 
The 17-year-old skip was pleased with the way that he and his teammates, younger brother Logan, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb had maintained their composure in the latter stages when they fell behind at the penultimate end of a match they had largely controlled against the Koreans.
“Losing a two in the ninth end wasn’t a disaster as we had the hammer at the 10th and we were confident of getting a two and we played an excellent last end,” he explained.
“They made a mistake too, but we always felt we had it under control and I think we deserved the win.”
As important as that victory was, he acknowledged that their defeat of Switzerland the previous evening had also been significant in terms of keeping them in contention.
“Obviously it wasn’t ideal losing two games in a row ahead of that match, but we knew that if we played like we did in the first few games we should give the Swiss boys a really good game and we did,” said Carson.
“We matched them all the way and managed to nick it at the end.”
Earlier in the day Scotland’s women had boosted their play-off chances after they too came through a close encounter with Korea, skip Fay Henderson securing the victory with a well executed tap back with her final stone.
However, she was not quite able to match that in their second match of the day, an attempt to draw into the four foot with the last stone of their meeting with Norway pulling up just short and leaving their opponents with the 7-6 win which took them into outright second spot in the standings, while the Scots dropped into a share of third place.
Having beaten both of the other teams with matching five and three records - Japan and Sweden - Henderson, Robyn Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne and Laura Watt still go into their final round-robin match against the USA knowing that a win will secure them a place in the semi-finals, however.
Please click here for the schedule and more information.
LIVE streamed games are available on Recast’s The Curling Channel.
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)
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Schedule and Results
Game times: 0800, 1300, 1800 (GMT)
Day One – Saturday 25 February
Scotland women
Scotland – Germany 7-5
Scotland men
Scotland – Canada 7-2
Scotland women
Scotland – Latvia 8-5
Day Two – Sunday 26 February
Scotland men
Scotland – Turkiye 8-3
Scotland women
Scotland – Japan 4-3
Scotland men
Scotland – Italy 10-3
Day Three – Monday 27 February
Scotland women
Scotland – Canada 6-7
Scotland men
Scotland – Germany 5-7
Scotland women
Scotland – Sweden 8-6
Day Four – Tuesday 28 February
Scotland men
Scotland – China 3-9
Scotland women
Scotland – Switzerland 2-10
Scotland men
Scotland – Switzerland 8-3
Day Five – Wednesday 1 March
Scotland women
Scotland – Korea 6-5
Scotland men
Scotland – Korea 7-6
Scotland women
Scotland – Norway 6-7
Day Six – Thursday 2 March
Scotland men
Scotland – USA
Scotland women
Scotland – USA
Scotland men
Scotland – Norway
Day Seven – Friday 3 March
Women’s Semi Final 13.00
Men’s Semi Final 18.00
Day Eight – Saturday 4 March
Women’s Finals 08.00
Men’s Finals13.00
Image: WCF/Stephen Fisher
