Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean recovered from a sticky start to their opening match at the World Mixed Doubles Championship to secure a solid 7-3 victory over Czechia in their opening match in Sweden’s Oestersund Arena.
The Scots, who are both making their debuts at this event after winning the national title earlier this year, missed out in the last stone draw challenge, which gave their opponents the upper hand at the opening end.
While Czech pair Zuzana Paulova and Tomas Paul failed to take full advantage of that, scoring just one at the opening end, they made up for it with steals at the next two to move into a 3-0 lead.
When they then forced the Scots to settle for one as they eventually did get on the scoreboard, just ahead of the midway break, they looked to have control of the match, however a steal of two by the Scots at the fifth end then levelled the scores. 
That prompted the Czechs to use their powerplay at the sixth end and, after Jackson neatly ticked the guard away from the rings with her opening stone, the Scots then out-manoeuvred their opponents to claim another steal of two and with that took command.
A further steal at the next let them take a four shot lead down the final end, where they ran the Czechs out of stones.
While Jackson has represented Scotland at five World Women’s Championships, it was McFadzean’s first senior appearance for his country, making the win all the more satisfying as they settled into the event.
“It’s the first time for me with Scotland on my back for a while, so it felt good to walk off the ice with a win and it’s always good to start any competition by winning,” said the 24-year-old who has previously won medals at both the World Junior and World University Championships.
“It was a wee bit of a shaky start on the scoreboard, but it was a classic game of two halves and we managed to turn it around in the second half to get the win, so we’re obviously delighted with that.
“I wouldn’t say we were too nervous, because we were both pretty confident and the scoreline didn’t really reflect how we were playing and they played really well and got on top of the ice a wee bit quicker than us.
“We did struggle to get used to the weight to begin with, but as the game went through we managed to get there which reflected the run of steals that we got after that.”
He acknowledged that the steal of two on the Czech powerplay had been a key moment.
“We’ve got a process we stick to and a gameplan which we executed really well and you can’t do any more than that,” said McFadzean.
“A steal of two against a powerplay is ideal because normally you give up a two, so that really changed the game there.”
He admitted that after a punishing schedule had seen him fly back over the Atlantic after playing in a Grand Slam event the previous week, before squeezing in some preparation at the National Curling Academy ahead of this event, he was glad to have had a single game opening day.
“We’ve got a bit of time off until the first of those games tomorrow, which will help me recover a wee bit from the cold I’m suffering from at the moment after a long week of travelling in which we’ve not really had any time off to rest and recuperate,” McFadzean noted.
“I’m on the mend, though, so if I can get plenty food and rest I should be good to go tomorrow morning.
“It’s a fairly relaxed schedule and the times are nice, so I think the whole team out here is feeling good after the way that first game went and we’re excited to go again tomorrow.”
They now face Korea and Australia on the second day of the event looking to build on that opening performance by applying the same principles.
“We’ll be treating every game the same, just looking to go out and play our best each time, so I don’t think the opponent really matters in that regard,” said McFadzean.
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The round-robin continues until April 25, with the 20 competing teams divided into two pools of 10, playing nine matches each ahead of the play-offs and medal matches which take place on April 27.
Group A: Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Turkiye.
Group B: Australia, Canada, China, Czechia, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, USA.
Please click here for LIVE streaming of all games on The Curling Channel.
Selected games are also available on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Scotland website and app.
Please click here for more event information and results.
Scotland Team
Sophie Jackson
Duncan McFadzean
Michael Goodfellow Coach
Ross Paterson Coach
Schedule (BST) & Results
Saturday 20 April
Session 2 – 13,00
Scotland – Czechia 7-3
Sunday 21 April
Session 4 – 09.00
Scotland - Korea
Session 6 – 17.00
Scotland - Australia
Monday 22 April
Session 8 – 13.00
Scotland – USA
Tuesday 23 April
Session 10 – 09.00
Scotland – Canada
Session 12 – 17.00
Scotland - Netherlands
Wednesday 24 April
Session 14 – 13.00
Scotland – New Zealand
Thursday 25 April
Session 16 – 09.00
Scotland – China
Session 18 – 17.00
Scotland – Sweden
Friday 26 April
09.00
Qualification Games
17.00
Semi Finals
Saturday 27 April
09.00
Bronze Medal Game
13.00
Gold Medal Game
Image: World Curling
