WORLD CHAMPS SUFFER FIRST SETBACK IN OLYMPIC MIXED DOUBLES

Form was turned on its head in the third round of Mixed Doubles play at the Winter Olympics in Beijing as previously unbeaten Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat allowed Switzerland’s Jenny Perrett and Martin Rios to register their first win of the event. 

The reigning world champions had made an excellent start to the competition, beating two of their expected medal rivals - Sweden and Canada - in their first two matches, but while Switzerland’s 2018 silver medallists had struggled to that point, losing their first two matches to hosts China and Italy, the two-time former world champions were always going to offer a stern challenge. 

That was clear from the off when Dodds had to produce a fine draw to the button under some pressure at the opening end to ensure that Team GB scored after starting with the hammer. 

The British pair were then indebted to Switzerland’s Jenny Perrett at the next two ends, as she missed a straightforward chance to turn three into four at the second, then missed an opportunity to put them in trouble with her final stone at the third, allowing Dodds to draw a second shot and level things up at 3-3. 

However, she was on target when presented with a chance to draw for another three at the fourth end, putting Switzerland in total control at the halfway point and they consolidated that when they forced their opponents to take just one at the fifth. 

Perrett then drew for a single to re-establish the three shot lead at the sixth, but when she missed everything with her final stone at the seventh, it allowed Dodds to draw for a three as she and Mouat made their powerplay count to level the match again going into the last end. 

Perrett then sent her opening shot at the eighth sailing through the house to give away the initiative as the Swiss used their powerplay, but after Martin Rios got rid of two guards, then produced a hit and roll with his next, Dodds came up short with her attempt to freeze with her final stone, handing their opponents an 8-7 win. 

As the top ranked men’s skip in the world rankings, Mouat was swift to shoulder responsibility for the loss, but remained philosophical as he sought to place it in context. 

“That was a tough game for me personally. I struggled a wee bit more than I had in the first two games, but taking two wins from the first three games, especially with the teams we started against, we’d be very happy with, so we’re just trying to remain positive, even though we’ve just had a tough loss there,” he said. 

“They are a really good team and they’ve proved that winning World Championships and an Olympic medal already, so we knew we were going to have to come out and play really well. To be honest we’re just going to have to face the fact that every team we’re playing here is going to throw everything at us and we’ll have to do the same to them.” 

“I’m still struggling a little bit with the ice, but there were a lot of good things that we did in that game to learn a bit more about it and we’ll take that into tomorrow’s game.” 

It sees them face Australia, who claimed one of the last two places in this competition at the Olympic Qualification Event in December and while they have yet to register a win in their first three matches, the nature of the loss to Switzerland means there can be no complacency in the Team GB camp. 

“We’ll need to bring a high level of performance,” said Dodds.  

“Australia are a good team. We played them at the Worlds last year and they qualified through the OQE in December and played really well. 

“We haven’t seen much of their games, but the results they’ve had have still been pretty tight and their record could have looked differently for them, so tomorrow we just need to go out and play how we know we can.” 

She also gamely took her share of the blame for the loss to the Swiss, but drew solace from the way they kept battling back to take the match the distance. 

“That last shot, I didn’t give it as much release as I wanted and Bruce tried his hardest but it just came up a wee bit short,” she said.  

“That match showed, though, that even if we’re down in a game we can really grind out games and they’re never finished until the last stone stops.”