A powerful performance against Lithuania took Scotland into the second half of their round-robin campaign at the LGT World Women’s Championship in winning style as they registered a 9-2 victory in just seven ends.
It was a much needed result to improve their record to three wins and four losses after a testing series of matches which had continued earlier in the day with a narrow loss to Sweden’s former Olympic champions.
“We had another tight game with this morning, against Sweden, where we largely controlled the scoreboard but unfortunately let it slip away with a loss of two in the ninth end,” said skip Sophie Jackson.
“However, we have so many positives to take from that game.
“We’ve just played two teams of world champions and former Olympic champs in three of our last five games and taken them close every single time, so we are delighted with our level of performance and have just got to keep believing that the wins will come.”
That analysis is reflected in statistics which show that their position in the standings belies their performance with the Scots, as a collective, currently third best among the 13 competing teams in terms of shot efficiency, with Jackson ranking second among the leads, Sophie Sinclair and Jen Dodds both fourth among the seconds and thirds respectively and Rebecca Morrison fifth among the last stone throwers.
The quality of their play was duly underlined in the way they seized control of their second match of the day, building a 5-0 lead before the Lithuanians got off the mark at the fifth end, then coming out after the midway break to wrap things up with two more twos.
“We controlled the game against Lithuania, which we were able to do by keeping focussed and sticking to our processes to ensure we stay sharp for the rest of the week,” said Jackson.
They now head into day five of the round-robin facing matches against the USA and Japan that are set to be crucial in terms of their chances of reaching the play-offs and securing the qualifying points necessary to ensure that Team GB will get the chance to defend the Olympic title that was won in Beijing in 2022.
Their capacity to deliver the shots they need to in order to achieve those goals is justified by their form, however and they head into the business end full of belief.
“Every game is a key match for us now as we look forward to play-offs, but we know we have the ability to come out on the right side of those games,” said Jackson.
The LGT World Championship is taking place in the Uijeongbu Ice Rink from March 15-23.
Please click here for draw and results.
Watch LIVE games on The Curling Channel.
The following game will be available on the BBC iPlayer:
19 March – Scotland v Japan
Scotland Team
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (skip)
Fay Henderson
Team Coach: Ross Paterson
Olympic Head Coach: Greg Drummond
SCHEDULE:
Saturday 15 March
Scotland – Canada 8-7
Sunday 16 March
Scotland – Norway 7-8
Scotland – Korea 4-5 (EE)
Monday 17 March
Scotland – Italy 7-5
Scotland – Switzerland 5-6
Tuesday 18 March
Scotland – Sweden 3-5
Scotland – Lithuania 9-2
Wednesday 19 March
5.00am Scotland – USA
10.00am Scotland – Japan
Thursday 20 March
5.00am Scotland – Turkiye
Friday 21 March
12.00 midnight Scotland – Denmark
5.00am Scotland – China
Saturday 22 March
1.00am Qualifiers
7.00am Semi Finals
Sunday 23 March
1.00am Bronze Medal Game
7.00am Gold Medal Game
Images: World Curling