A second successive two win day saw Scotland’s Team Paterson move further up the rankings and into a share of second spot with defending champions Sweden on the fourth day at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championships in Las Vegas.
Hosts USA were beaten 9-7 in the first of their matches, before they then defeated Finland 10-5 to move into the second half of the 12 match round-robin competition with a record of five wins and two losses that is bettered at this stage only by unbeaten Canada.
With Kyle Waddell calling the shots for younger brother Craig, Duncan Menzies and Ross Paterson, who is playing skip stones, the only member of the quartet to have previously taken part in a World Championships said he had been impressed with the way they have responded to a brace of unexpected defeats on the second day in registering four straight wins.
“That was another great day,” said Paterson. 
“After the disappointment of the two losses on the second day we’ve really turned things around.
“We knew we had two tough games today, but we controlled the majority of both.
“Everybody’s playing well. I’m proud of the boys at their first World Championships, especially after a disappointment at the start, because we’re supporting each other in the right way and everybody’s excited to see how the back half of the week looks.”
The Americans had gone into their encounter as one of four other teams who had a 3-2 record, matching the Scots at that point and they applied pressure at the opening end, leaving Paterson facing three counting opposing stones as he prepared for his first shot.
His well executed promotion brought a fine response from Korey Dropkin, but Paterson calmly drew the shot to salvage a dangerous situation and the Scots then claimed a steal at the second end when it was Dropkin’s turn to play his last shot facing three opposing counters and his attempt at a saving draw ran slightly too far.
Paterson took responsibility for the mistakes which led to his team trailing for the only time in either match on the day, when they lost a three at the fifth end, but he was grateful to his teammates for the way they responded to his error and, over the piece, his superiority over US skip Dropkin made a telling difference.
“The USA had us under pressure at the first end and we got out of that, but we gave up a soft three in the fifth end,” Paterson acknowledged.
“That just came down to a bad line call on Kyle’s second, then I missed a short run back that I can’t miss at this level, but credit to the guys, nobody got frustrated.
“They gave me good support and we just addressed it at the half-time team chat that we were on top of the game and just had to keep playing the way we were and we would get chances.
“We did exactly that in the second half and it was a controlled game from there which was pleasing.”
Twos at the sixth and eight ends, sandwiching a force at the seventh, put them back on top and allowed them to see the game out relatively comfortably, but they subsequently had to maintain their composure through a frustrating hold up to proceedings ahead of their second match against the Finns.
“Going into the second game we were delayed because there was a problem with the ice which meant we were 30 or 40 minutes later going on than the other games,” said Paterson.
“That interrupted things a little bit and we had to re-focus. We had to warm up again and they were back-to-back games, so we’d just had some food and were ready to go back on.
“When you’re warmed up and ready to go on it was disappointing to have to wait, but we re-grouped and had a great start to that game.”
Far from allowing that to affect them, they continued their excellent form in the pre-match last stone draws and made the advantage of claiming the hammer at the opening end count by scoring two at the opening end. 
The Finns matched that at the second then forced the Scots to take one at the third, but things went horribly wrong for them at the fourth where, facing three Scottish counters, skip Kalle Kiiskinen’s attempt at a raise failed to remove any of them, allowing a steal of three.
A slight loss of concentration immediately after the midway break gave Finland a glimmer of hope as they reduced the leeway to 6-4, but twos at the seventh and ninth ends saw the Scots close the match out comfortably.
“It’s always tough when you’ve got a lead to stay focused for the full game and we let them back in a bit at the sixth end,” Paterson admitted.
“I had a tough tap back to score four which we decided to take on instead of drawing for one as a calculated risk that we all bought into.
“I made contact, but just didn’t get enough curl. It was over buried, so we gave up the steal, but we didn’t let that faze us and it was one of those games where we just really had to concentrate and see it out.”
While he noted that there can be no room for complacency, Paterson expressed satisfaction with the position the team now finds itself in and the way they are performing.
“The goal was two wins today and we’re just over that halfway stage now with a one game day against the Czech Republic coming up tomorrow, so we need to make the most of that and apply the same principles that we have in the last few games and keep improving,” he said.
“That’s the most important thing, The USA was probably our best game, so we’ve just got to keep building that momentum because we have tough games to finish the round-robin, but we’re pushing for the play-offs now, so just need to keep going the way we are and getting as many wins on board as we can.”
Team Scotland
Ross Paterson (vice-skip)
Kyle Waddell (skip)
Duncan Menzies
Craig Waddell
Euan Kyle (alternate)
Broadcast games on The Curling Channel in partnership with Recast
Tuesday 5 April
22:00 — Scotland v United States
Friday 8 April
17:00 — Scotland v Canada
19:00 — Scotland v Switzerland
Saturday 9 April
03:00 — Qualification Game 1
22:00 — Qualification Game 2
03:00 — Semi-final 1 (TBD)
03:00 — Semi-final 2 (TBD)
Sunday 10 April
19:00 — Bronze medal game
00:00 midnight — Gold medal game
Schedule and results: 5W-2L
Saturday 2 April
Scotland – Italy 5-4
Sunday 3 April
Scotland – Korea 6-9
Scotland – Norway 4-7
Monday 4 April
Scotland – Denmark 7-3
Scotland – Germany 6-4
Tuesday 5 April
Scotland – USA 9-7
Scotland – Finland 10-5
Wednesday 6 April
Scotland – Czech Republic
Thursday 7 April
Scotland – Netherlands
Scotland – Sweden
Friday 8 April
Scotland – Canada
Scotland – Switzerland
Saturday 9 April
Qualifications games
Semi finals
Sunday 10 April
Bronze medal game
Gold medal game
#curling #WMCC2022
