TEAM GB MEN SECURE SEMI-FINAL SPOT WITH DEFEAT OF WORLD CHAMPS

In the latest re-match of last year’s World and European Championship finals, Team GB put in a powerful performance to hand Sweden’s Team Edin their first defeat at the Winter Olympics in Beijing and clinch their own place in the semi-finals.

The Swedes looked to have gained an important advantage when they claimed the hammer ahead of the match, but the British quartet of Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan turned that around immediately and dominated the match from the start.

“It feels like we’ve been steadily building as the week goes on and that’s probably the most complete performance throughout the line-up,” said vice skip Grant Hardie.

“All four of us really turned up today which was great to see in such a big game.”

A steal at the opening end turned the hammer around, but even better was to come when Niklas Edin came up badly short with an attempted draw at the next end, allowing Mouat to apply further pressure and when the Swedish skip again failed to put enough weight onto his draw a steal of two made it a 3-0 lead.

From that point the key was to minimise opportunities and they did that as singles were exchanged over the next five ends, a sequence ended when Mouat produced a perfectly weight promotion shot to push his own stone that had been lying on the edge of the four foot, onto the Swedish one that had been sitting on the button to remove it and lie two. 

A 7-3 lead meant they could afford to allow their opponents to score two at the next and while the final end produced the first Swedish steal, it was under control throughout as Mouat was left with an easy takeout to claim the victory.

“That was a really important win,” said Mouat.

“We knew we were close to getting the qualification spot so we wanted to come out and secure it, knowing we have two tough games coming up.

“That game was really good. We didn’t get the hammer at the start, which was a bit of a disappointment, but we came out and forced them into some tough shots and got the head start of a 3-0 lead and just controlled it from there.”

With their first goal achieved, their sights now switch to their position in the table ahead of the semi-finals which see the first placed team facing those finishing fourth and second playing third, with the higher positioned team having the hammer in all play-off matches.

“It’s really important to get into the semi-final, but to have the hammer there would be the best opportunity for us to win the game,” said Mouat.

“It increases your percentage chance of winning by about 30 per cent, so we really want to get into that situation.”

He noted, too, that inflicting a first defeat on the World Champions, having beaten them twice, including in the final, on the way to winning the European Championships in November, was doubly psychologically advantageous. 

“We saw with Italy when they won the Mixed Doubles last week the confidence you can take into the play-offs from going unbeaten through the round-robin stage unbeaten and beating Sweden in the round-robin gives us a mental edge I suppose, but we’re really looking forward to getting onto the ice tomorrow against Russia and continuing the winning streak that we’re on,” he said.

Team GB’s last two matches may also have a substantial say in who else reaches the play-offs as they face Russia and Canada who were meeting one another on an adjacent rink with the Russians winning that match to improve their chances of getting through.