After making it to the gold medal match for the fifth time in five appearances at the event, Scotland’s Team Mouat had to settle for silver for the first time at the Le Gruyere AOP European Championships after they were squeezed out 9-7 by Germany’s underdogs.
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had finished top of the standings after the round-robin section of the competition, so had last stone advantage as the decider got underway and looked to have established early control when they scored their two at the opening end.
However, the momentum shifted at the second end when the young German team, three of whom – Benny Kapp, Felix Messenzehl and Johannes Scheuerl - represented their country at the World Junior Championship earlier this year, were given the opportunity to score a three.
When they then stole at the third end to move 4-2 ahead their confidence was growing visibly and with their back end combination of vice skip Kapp, part of a curling dynasty with both his father and grandfather having been European champions in the past and their more experienced skip Marc Muskatewitz both performing brilliantly, they withstood all the pressure that the world’s number one ranked team piled onto them. 
The Scots did manage to recover sufficiently to score their third two and edge 6-5 ahead after the sixth end.
However the Germans responded with a two at the seventh end, then a steal at the next to move into an two shot lead and when Mouat’s attempt at a high tariff raised takeout to score three at the penultimate end narrowly missed its intended target and registered just one, Scotland were up against it, 8-7 down without last stone advantage.
The team that had lost just four of 52 previous matches this season then showed their champion qualities by taking the match to the final stone where they forced Muskatewitz to produce a delicate raised takeout, but he judged it perfectly to spark German jubilation.
“I thought we were playing well enough to win the championship, but sometimes you don’t have a great game. It’s just disappointing that it happened in the gold medal match,” said Mouat.
“I’m just pretty gutted that we didn’t get that across the line and that I never performed as well as I was hoping to.
“I missed a few line calls and caused some tough misses for the guys, but we’re going to try to bounce back for a Slam next week.
“To be fair to the Germans they played an unbelievable game and credit where credit’s due, they deserve the title by playing so well.”
As they headed for the airport, the Scottish skip said that for all their disappointment the defeat would not change anything in terms of their preparation to claim a third Grand Slam of Curling title of the season at the Kioti National which gets underway in Newfoundland on November 26.
“I don’t think we need any motivation to go and try to win another Slam,” said Mouat.
“The event’s going to be pretty amazing to play in and we’re really looking forward to getting out to St John’s and going for another title.”
Mouat was meanwhile able to find some personal perspective at the end of another superb championship performance that has seen the team extend their considerable lead at the top of the world rankings.
“If someone had told me that by the age of 30 I would have four gold medals and a silver as well at the Europeans I would have been very impressed and it’s nice to reflect like that, but in the moment it’s hard to get over how gutted we’re feeling that we didn’t get the fifth gold,” he said.
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Scotland Schedule & results:
Saturday 16 November
Session 1 – women
Scotland – Sweden 5-8
Session 1 – men
Scotland – Netherlands 8-6
Session 2 – women
Scotland – Denmark 11-9 (EE)
Sunday 17 November
Session 2 – men
Scotland – Norway 6-5
Session 3 – women
Scotland – Switzerland 1-8
Session 3 – men
Scotland – England 8-1
Monday 18 November
Session 4 – women
Scotland – Turkiye 4-5
Session 4 – men
Scotland – Switzerland 7-6 (EE)
Session 5 – women
Scotland – Hungary 9-3
Session 5 – men
Scotland – Austria 10-2
Tuesday 19 November
Session 6 – women
Scotland – Estonia 8-1
Session 6 – men
Scotland – Italy 7-10 (EE)
Session 7 – women
Scotland – Lithuania 9-2
Wednesday 20 November
Session 7 – men
Scotland – Germany 12-5
Session 8 – women
Scotland – Italy 9-5
Session 8 – men
Scotland – Czechia 10-2
Thursday 21 November
Session 9 – women
Scotland – Norway 5-4
Session 9 – men
Scotland – Sweden 11-7
Semi Finals – women
Scotland – Sweden 4-6
Switzerland – Italy 7-3
Friday 22 November
Semi Finals – men
Scotland – Switzerland 10-8 (EE)
Germany – Norway 8-2
Bronze medal game – women
Scotland – Italy 6-4
Bronze medal game – men
Switzerland – Norway 4-7
Saturday 23 November
Gold medal game – women
Switzerland – Sweden 8-4
GOLD medal game – men
Scotland – Germany 7-9
Image: World Curling
