TEAM GB BEAT HOSTS CHINA AS THEY NEAR BUSINESS END OF EVENT AT BEIJING GAMES

The Team GB representatives managed a steal at the opening end, then conceded a two at the next and Chinese steals at the third and fourth took the hosts into a 4-1 lead at the halfway stage.

That forced the deployment of the Team GB powerplay as they resumed after the break and having performed well to that point Fan SuYuan made an error by wasting her opening stone as she took the placed British stone which then had to be put back in its original position.

That gave Mouat and Dodds the initiative and they capitalised to set up the position to leave Dodds with an open draw to register their three and level the match. 

The Chinese then took their powerplay and a succession of half shots by Ling Zhi allowed Dodds the chance to apply pressure with her final stone and when she drew the shot behind cover onto the edge, Fan overthrew her attempted draw to the button and conceded the steal.

The British pair then forced their opponents to just a single at the next which meant the scores were tied and they had the advantage of last stone at the final end and a double takeout by Mouat with his final stone put the pressure on Fan, who was heavy handed once again with her attempt to promote a Chinese stone onto the button, gifting Team GB the win without Dodds having to make that final delivery.

“We just re-set after the fourth end break,” Mouat explained.

“We said we wanted to come out and get a three and that’s exactly what we did, so the momentum changed exactly as we wanted it to.

“Then getting the steal on their powerplay was huge and when we managed to get that force at the seventh and were feeling confident that Jen was going to be able to play the draw to the pin, but fortunately she didn’t have to.”

A defeat for the USA in the same round of matches means that Team GB’s next match against Norway could secure a spot in the semi-finals for either side, but they are simply focused on that next result and are not distracting themselves by working out permutations with two matches still to play.

“If we beat Norway it will put us in a really good position, but we just need to get the win and figure things out of that,” said Mouat.

They need no reminding that the Norway match will require their full attention, having come through a tight encounter with them in the World Championship final at the end of last season, while they lost to them more recently in a recent event in Gothenburg between Christmas and New Year.

“Gothenburg was a great event for us. We did really well there and we played the Norwegians in the semi-final and were just the wrong side of the inch there again, so if we come out and play like we did there we’ll be playing really well and hopefully getting that win,” said Mouat.

“We’re doing a lot of good things before the game, warming up well and having good chats and conversations. It’s just been a really good dynamic we’ve created here again, so we’ll look to keep to that and continue the good play.” 

What particularly pleased Dodds was the way they stayed strong in the face of adversity when they looked to be in trouble at the midway point.

““It was probably a wee bit more about the mental side of it, just really sticking in there. We know in mixed doubles you never give up because you can get threes or even fours easily, so I think we just knew we were not out of it and stuck in there and I’m proud of the way we ground that win out,” said Dodds.

“Getting a big three at the fifth end changed the momentum for us, then stealing on their powerplay helped too.

“The fifth end chat was really good. We discussed whether we should use the powerplay and we decided to do that to get us back in the game, but it was just making sure we didn’t get our heads down, kept fighting out there and made sure we still had the energy.

“That was our third game in 24 hours, so you could let the energy wane a wee bit, but it was just a reminder to have that presence out there and that really helped us in the second half.

“Three games in 24 hours is pretty tough going, so we’ll definitely be having a nap when we get back to the village.”