Scotland’s Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean recovered from defeat to Canada in their first match of the fourth day’s play at the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Sweden’s Oestersund Arena to maintain their playoff bid with a 7-5 victory over the Netherlands.
The 12-5 scoreline against Canadian husband and wife partnership Colton and Kadriana Lott painted a misleading impression of a match in which the Scots had battled back from an early deficit to get within a shot of their opponents, before conceding a maximum six at the seventh end as they risked everything in a bid to get the steal that would have squared the match heading down the final end.
They then found themselves in another difficult position against Vanessa Tonoli and Wouter Goesgens when the Dutch pair took their powerplay at the eighth end with the match all square at 5-5.
However, an expertly played end saw them leave Tonoli with an extremely difficult shot to win the match and she failed to remove the well guarded Scottish stone on the button with her attempted tap back.
“Even though we came away from the day with one win and one loss, that was actually a really positive day for us,” was Jackson’s end of day assessment.
“We had a good chat last night and managed to do most of the things we wanted to, to believe it would give us a stronger performance which we did in the game against Canada.
“We went behind early against them, but we made a bit of a comeback in that game and felt good about the way we managed to build things.”
She was particularly pleased with the way they managed to put the disappointment of the way the previous match had ended behind them when it mattered most against the Netherlands.
“Unfortunately I just didn’t manage to make my last shot in the powerplay against Canada which gave them a simple shot for the six and the game,” said Jackson.
“However, overall we feel we’ve been playing powerplays pretty well, especially against the other team’s, so it was pleasing to come off the back of losing the six against Canada and steal against the Dutch on their powerplay on the last end to win the game.”
On a perfectly balanced record of three wins and three losses with three matches to go, the Scots still have an opportunity to make it into the top three and earn a playoff spot, but also know that even if they miss out on the knockout stages, it is vital to finish as high up the rankings as possible to accrue Olympic qualifying points.
“We’re still very much in the mix for playoffs, which is exactly where we want to be,” said Jackson.
“We know we’re going to have to win the round-robin off well to stay in that race, but the USA just lost to Korea which is good for us and we’ll just keep focusing on ourselves and trying to finish with three more wins and put ourselves in a good spot.
“It’s a big game tomorrow against New Zealand and we’ll be hopefully looking to carry on the things we’ve done really well today.
“We’re making a lot more of the taps in the middle of the ends to set ourselves up for twos, rather than being forced to ones.
“Duncan’s had a really good day, so hopefully we can both pull together and play really well tomorrow.
“Another positive for our playoff chances is that we’re currently sitting really well in the Draw Shot Challenge.
“We’ve prided ourselves on having a good practice and trying to find the button, which has also set us up well for the start of both games today and that’s going to be really important for the end of the week.”
The round-robin continues until April 25, with the 20 competing teams divided into two pools of 10, playing nine matches each ahead of the play-offs and medal matches which take place on April 27.
Group A: Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Turkiye.
Group B: Australia, Canada, China, Czechia, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, USA.
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Please click here for more event information and results
Scotland Team
Sophie Jackson
Duncan McFadzean
Michael Goodfellow Coach
Ross Paterson Coach
Schedule (BST) & Results
Saturday 20 April
Session 2
Scotland – Czechia 7-3
Sunday 21 April
Session 4
Scotland – Korea 4-6
Session 6
Scotland – Australia 7-5
Monday 22 April
Session 8
Scotland – USA 8-4
Tuesday 23 April
Session 10
Scotland – Canada 5-12
Session 12
Scotland – Netherlands 7-5
Wednesday 24 April
Session 14 – 13.00
Scotland – New Zealand
Thursday 25 April
Session 16 – 09.00
Scotland – China
Session 18 – 17.00
Scotland – Sweden
Friday 26 April
09.00
Qualification Games
17.00
Semi Finals
Saturday 27 April
09.00
Bronze Medal Game
13.00
Gold Medal Game
Image: World Curling
