Victories over Czechia and Japan took Scotland’s defending champions into a share of third place with hosts Switzerland at the end of the fifth day’s play at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championships in Schauffhassen.
The wins were all the more satisfying for Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan because they were made to work for them after losing out in the draw shot competition ahead of both matches, which meant they started both without the hammer and last stone advantage.
The matches also followed quite different paths. 
They had quickly gained the upper hand against the Czechs, forcing them at the first, then making a two of their own at the second end, but had to grind their way through two blanked ends before being able to make that advantage count on their way to a 6-3 win
By contrast, they got into trouble early on against the Japanese before turning up the heat in the second half of the match to edge their way to a 7-5 win after mistakes by their opponents allowed them to make a crucial steal at the sixth end and register an ultimately decisive three at the eighth.
“It was important to get two wins today and bounce back from that disappointing defeat against Germany yesterday and six and two’s a really good spot to be in,” said skip Bruce Mouat.
“We played really efficiently with our hammers in the Czech game, but that wasn’t as sharp against Japan.
“I’m sure we’ll learn from that and come out tomorrow, hopefully with hammer and not have to worry about it so much.
“It was a good fifth end break conversation that we had before coming back against the Japanese there.
“We knew we were playing well enough, but just had to put them under a little bit more pressure which is exactly what we did in the sixth end and we got the break.
“It feels like that was a pretty emotional roller-coaster of a game, but we’re glad that we came out on the winning side.”
Having performed well in the draw shot contests in the early part of the competition, the Scots have made things more difficult for themselves by failing to win that challenge over the past couple of days, as Mouat acknowledged.
“Draw shot is turning out to be pretty important,” he said.
“All the games that we’ve not won it have been pretty tense.
“The ice is making it pretty difficult to make comebacks in some of the games, but we’re getting there.
“We just need to stay focused now for what’s bound to be a tough day tomorrow.”
He felt, however, that having two matches in a day for the first time since the weekend had helped his team regain their rhythm and they now head into the sixth and penultimate day of round-robin play knowing that two more wins would secure their place in the play-offs as they prepare to meet the Netherlands and Switzerland.
“It’s nice to have the two game days again and get back into the swing of the competition,” said Mouat.
“As much as we’re used to it, things were pretty slow moving on the two one-game days, so it’s nice to get back into a flow and momentum.
“I feel like we’re playing well again, so we’re excited about playing the Netherlands in the morning and we can hopefully come away with another win.”
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05/04/2024
Scotland v Sweden
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Scotland Team
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Team Coach Michael Goodfellow
Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond
Schedule (GMT/BST) & Results
Saturday 30 March
Session 1
Scotland – Korea 10-3
Session 2
Scotland – USA 10-3
Sunday 31 March
Session 4
Scotland – Canada 4-8
Session 5
Scotland – Italy 8-3
Monday 1 April
Session 7 – 13.00
Scotland – New Zealand 8-2
Tuesday 2 April
Session 10 – 13.00
Scotland –Germany 7-8
Wednesday 3 April
Session 12
Scotland – Czechia 6-3
Session 14
Scotland –Japan 7-5
Thursday 4 April
Session 15 – 08.00
Scotland –Netherlands
Session 17 – 18.00
Scotland - Switzerland
Friday 5 April
Session 18 – 08.00
Scotland –Norway
Session 20-18.00
Scotland –Sweden
Saturday 6 April
09.00
Qualification
15.00
Semi Finals
Sunday 7 April
09.00
Bronze Medal Game
14.00
Gold Medal Game
Image: World Curling
