GBR MEN OPEN ACCOUNT WITH LAST STONE DRAW VICTORY OVER CZECH RFEPUBLIC
It was a down to the wire cool draw to hit the four foot fully by skip Glen Muirhead which gave the GBR men their first win in two rounds at the Winter Universiade at Erzurum, Turkey.
But it need not have been that way as the British men gave a very powerful performance of domination and the only reason the game ended in such dramatic fashion was due to the Czech Republic skip Lukas Klima who played some really big shots when they were required and kept his team in touch.
GBR won the hammer and blanked the first end before slack play, and thankfully only at this end, cost them a 2 shot drop in the second but immediately countered with a 2 when Glen played an exact take-out. The fourth and the British team were beginning to show their dominance forcing Klima to draw against 2 and the Czech Republic skip was slightly heavy on this very slick ice and ran through to the back of the house and it was a welcome steal of 2 shots. In the fifth and lying shot Klima failed to make a pair and GBR led 4-3 at the break.
End six and a final stone call of a raised take-out for 1 against a normal draw for the same came under question in the after match interview and you can read Glen's comments on this below especially as the shot failed and allowed the Czech Republic to tie up the gamne 4-4.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment came in the seventh end when after third's stones GBR lay 5 shots but Klima was to prove his worth firstly with a triple take-out then with a further hit and roll with his second stone which finished behind a guard. To count even 2 Glen was forced out- to- in on the inturn to the away end but it was not to be, as the angles on the geometry did not work and GBR had to settle for a 1.
Eighth and Klima had to accept a single shot and GBR blanked the ninth. Tenth end and after Drummond opened the door with a total miss with his second stone the Czech Republic failed to take advantage. With skips second stones to come Klima, throwing first, hits and sideboards the shooter, requiring Muirhead to draw the four foot at the minimum for victory. Cool as he liked the stone gluided up the ice and with the co-operation of all four players it lands exactly where it was intended and an opening win for GBR Men.
In the post match interview Glen admitted that on hindsight the draw in the sixth end would have been the better choice and perhaps in the seventh it may have worked better if he had split Alasdair Guthrie's first stone. Looking forward to this evening his team are up against Slovenia which he hoped would be shorter and less stressful than the Czech Republic.
TEAMS:
CZE - Lukas Klima, Jiri Candra, Tomas Paulk, David Jirounek
GBR - Glen Muirhead, Alasdair Guthrie, Greg Drummond, Michael Goodfellow
SCORELINE:
CZE 02001 10100 = 5
GBR * 00220 01001 = 6
OTHER SCORES: Sweden 10 Turkey 2, Korea 11 USA 2, Norway 14 Slovenia 2, Switzerland 7 Canada 6.
