VITAL WIN OVER SWITZERLAND KEEPS TEAM GB MEN ON TRACK FOR SEMIS

A nerveless takeout with the last stone of the match saw Bruce Mouat lead his men to a vital win over 2018 Olympic bronze medalists Switzerland to edge closer to the semi-finals at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

However, the Team GB skip acknowledged that his mistakes had made it much tougher than it might have been after securing the 6-5 win that keeps his team in outright second spot in the standings ahead of their next match against unbeaten table-toppers and reigning World Champions Sweden.

The British team had looked in control of the match when they reached the halfway stage 3-2 up with last stone advantage heading into the second half of the match, but a miss by Mouat on what looked a straightforward takeout by his standards, gifted the Swiss a steal to level the scores.

After the teams forced one another to take singles, Team GB looked to have regained the upper hand when Benoit Schwartz failed with an attempted double takeout with his last shot, handing them a steal and very nearly two shots. 

However, with a 5-3 lead to defend, Mouat returned the favour at the next when his missed double takeout attempt left Schwartz with a chance to wick off one of his own stones and claim the three shots that would have put his team ahead for the first time.

He narrowly failed to execute it perfectly, but still registered two, levelling things up and when his last shot of the final end was close to freezing onto a British stone on the button, but was just a fraction off, allowing Mouat to squeeze it out and hold on for the win.

“It felt like I was maybe playing for them for a wee bit, but we got there in the end,” joked the British skip.

While it could have been easier, he took additional confidence from the way he and sweepers Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie handled that decisive moment, with vice skip Grant Hardie making the calls in the house.

“I made a silly mistake at the ninth. They were a centimetre away from making it for three and then Benoit made such a good shot at the 10th it gives you a bit of nerves, but I’m just glad that when I’m feeling those nerves that I can make the shots, so it’s a good result,” Mouat went on.

“Obviously I had a bit of nerves, but basically I just tried to throw it as hard as I could and leave it to the sweepers and I always feel confident when Hammy and Bobby are standing next to me in the hack.

“I felt like if I hit it half stone it was probably going to get out of there, so I tried to throw it at half stone and let Bobby take it back a wee bit and that’s exactly what he did.”

His vice-skip said that confidence was fully reciprocated by their team, in believing in their skip’s capacity to make the shots when it matters most.

“It started off the game plan was excellent,” said Hardie.

“We got the hammer, then got the jump with a 2-0 lead and really controlled the scoreboard for the first five ends and the plan was to continue that in the sixth.

“Unfortunately, we gave up a steal there, so we had to regroup, start again and play some really good ends to close it out, but the aim’s always to have hammer at the last end, which we were able to do and Bruce made that great shot for the win.

“We knew before the game the importance of that one for the rankings. They’re a great team, so it was huge to close it out and leave Bruce the shot for the win.”

He reckoned they are close to finding their best form, acknowledging that they will need it for the matches to come as they still have to face Sweden’s reigning World Champions, then Canada’s Team Gushue, who are breathing down Team Mouat’s neck at the top of the world rankings, as well as a Russian rink that performed very impressively in finishing fourth at last year’s World Championship.

“We’re not far away at all,” Hardie reckoned. 

“We’d like to take it up a notch with three tough games to come, but we’re close. Hopefully we can kick on now and secure a spot in the play-offs tomorrow.”

Their first opportunity to do that is also a chance to end the unbeaten run of the Swedes who beat them in last year’s World Championship final before they claimed revenge in beating them, for the second time, in the final of the European Championship in November and the importance of beating them in this round-robin competition is not lost on the British team.

“We would have to win out to finish top of the table, but that would be a great result,” said Mouat.

“We’ve played Sweden hundreds of times and it’ll be a really tough game I’m sure, but I feel like we’re playing well enough to win.

“It’s very important to get top spot in the standings. You’d take the hammer in any game, ever. I’m not sure what the percentages are, but if you have the hammer you probably have 60 per cent if not more chance of winning. That’s an advantage going into any game, so it would be nice to go in with the chance of hammer for both games.”

He knows that if they play to the best of their form they have every chance, going in as the world’s top ranked team.

“We’re very excited to get onto the ice against Sweden,” Mouat continued.

“Obviously they’ve got a lot of experience at the Olympics, but what we play for is the big games and Sweden is going to be one of the biggest.

“I think we’ve got a really good track record against them this season. We’ve played I can’t remember how many times, but quite a few.

“We just need to come out and perform well, which I feel like we’re doing. They’re obviously doing the same because they’re undefeated so far, but we’re going to try and do what we do best, playing very technical tap shots, so we’ll see what we get tomorrow.