A day of extraordinary fluctuating fortunes saw Scotland briefly stand alone as the only unbeaten team at the top of the World Men’s Championship standings in Moose Jaw after an epic win over hosts Canada, before suffering a shock upset to Czechia.
The meeting between two of, along with China, only three still unbeaten teams as day three got underway had only added extra weight to what was always going to be a keenly anticipated encounter between world number one ranked Team Mouat from the traditional home of curling and Team Jacobs, representing the hosts in what has long been the hotbed of the sport.
While scoring was low, it was a match that did not disappoint in terms of quality shot-making, with Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan forcing their opponents at the opening end, scoring a three at the second, conceding two at the third, then battling out four successive blanked ends to keep it at 3-3 heading to the crucial eighth end. 
While the Scots finally regained the lead at that point, their opponents looked to have gained a psychological advantage by restricting them to just one, however such was the pressure applied at the next that Canada skip Brad Jacobs ultimately preferred to concede a steal of one at the next to drop 5-3 behind and maintain last stone advantage, rather than attempt to level the scores with his final delivery.
The 10th end was then packed with drama as Mouat’s final delivery left three Scottish stones around the button, protected by a Canadian guard, only for Jacobs to then drive the guard in to scatter the Scottish stones and very nearly scored the three required to win the match.
Instead they scored two, with one Scottish stone remaining inside the 12 foot rings to out-score a Canadian biter, taking the game down an extra end, where the Scots carefully crafted the opportunity for Mouat to wrap up the 6-5 win with his final stone.
“That was a great attempt to make the three and kudos to Brad, he makes a lot of those shots, so we were lucky to have the extra end, but we were really clinical there, with Bobby and Grant making really good double peels,” Mouat said after what he acknowledged had the potential to be a crucial match.
“We knew it was going to be a big game coming into it and obviously started off pretty strong with the three and just settled into it.
“It’s obviously a pretty big win with the whole duration of this round-robin, but we have a lot to still do to qualify.”
Those proved ominous words as, with less than a couple of hours to recover, they then found themselves back on the ice against Lukas Klima’s Czechia team that had started the week well, winning their first two matches and Mouat had no option but to accept that their subsequent loss to Czechia took much of the sheen off that victory..
“There are mixed emotions after today,” he said.
“We really enjoyed ourselves playing against Jacobs in front of a Canadian crowd, the atmosphere in the arena felt amazing.
“Bouncing back against the Czech boys we didn’t play our best though, so we were pretty disappointed after such a high with that good win against the Canadians, but that just shows you that you have to play well against every team here to get the W and we have learned our lesson.”
It was a match in which the Scottish quartet were never able to get back to the levels they had reached against Canada, falling behind early on with the Czechs stealing at two consecutive ends in moving into a 5-1 lead at the midway break, before completing an 8-2 win when Klima played a fine double take-out to score a three at the seventh end. 
Having lost all 10 previous matches against the Scottish quartet over the past decade, the Czech skip’s respect was clear as he subsequently explained his delight at the way his men had seized a rare opportunity.
“I hate having to fight against Bruce they are so good,” Klima admitted.
“We have had many close games against them, but it’s really hard to beat them.
“(However) we were talking before the game about this probably being the best time to play Scotland because they were really hyped and had a great win against Canada.
“It’s really hard with these back to back games to get back into it and we were really hot today.
“We made a lot of shots which made it tough for them, they made a few misses and then we were in control.”
Scotland now face Italy’s Team Retornaz who defeated them in last year’s bronze medal match, in their only game of the fourth day of round-robin play.
The BKT World Men’s Curling Championship runs from 29 March – 6 April, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada.
Scotland Team
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Michael Goodfellow (Team Coach)
Greg Drummond (Olympic Head Coach)
Please click here for draw and results.
Schedule and results:
Day One
Sunday 30 March
Scotland – Austria 12-2
Day Two
Scotland – Japan 9-6
Monday 31 March
Scotland – Korea 9-3
Day Three
Monday 31 March
Scotland – Canada 6-5(EE)
Tuesday 1 April
Scotland – Czechia 8-2
Day Four
Scotland – Italy – 9pm
Day Five
Wednesday 2 April
Scotland – Switzerland – 4pm*
Scotland – Norway – 9pm
Day Six
Thursday 3 April
Scotland – Sweden – 4pm*
Scotland – USA – 9pm
Day Seven
Friday 4 April
Scotland – Germany -4pm
Saturday 5 April
Scotland – China – 2am
Day Eight
Saturday 5 April
Qualification games*-4pm
Semi Final games*-10pm
Day Nine
Sunday 6 April
Bronze medal game*-4pm
Gold medal game*-10pm
*Games available on the BBC iPlayer
Images: Anil Mungal/British Curling
