Scotland beat Denmark to reach the championship game at the Le Gruyere European Curling Championships in Moscow. Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton stole three at the fourth and led 6-1 at the break.Scotland will face Sweden in tomorrow's final.
Leslie reports from the Megasport Arena:
"It was semifinal afternoon in Moscow at the 2011 Le Gruyere European Championships which saw the men's teams of Czech Republic play Norway and in the women's championship Scotland was up against Denmark.
In the round robin, Denmark's Lene Nielsen had given Eve 'the worst thrashing of my life' at 12-2 but as this game unfolded the 'stone' was on the other foot.
Denmark held the hammer and blanked the first end, probably one of the few ends that they could say they were competitive.
In the second end Denmark went to blank but played thin and were forced into taking a single before Eve, Anna, Vicki and Claire made their intentions clear on revenge in taking three shots. Nielsen was light with her first stone draw, wide and heavy with her second, and on both occasions Eve drew for two and then three.
In the fourth end, the game was over when the Scots stole three. Denmark blanked the fifth end before dropping a further two shots in the sixth when Nielsen threw tight against three, taking one and rolling away.
At 8-1 Denmark were demoralised and would have conceded but for the eight end rule which requires that eight ends are played.
In the seventh Nielsen drew for one and in the eighth Eve hit for a pair and at 10-2 it was all over.
After the game Eve said, "We have been getting better all week but we had a few slack shots here in the first few ends. You do not want to speak too early and we are getting better. Sweden deserve to be in the final which will be a repeat of last year and I really want to reverse the score this year as getting the silver medal hurt when you have the last stone for the gold."
Looking at the percentages, Eve threw 97% bagainst Len's 68% whilst Anna threw 86% and Vicky 92%. Difficult to live with as Denmark discovered.
It is Sweden in the final to-morrow morning at 10.00 hrs local time (06.00 in Scotland). This is a repeat of the game that Eve lost on a time default, when she was behind at the time, but no doubt she will be looking to reverse this scoreline as well.
In the men's semifinal Norway's Thomas Ulsrud defeated Czech Republic's Jiri Snitil 5-2 running Snitil's team out of stones in the tenth end. Norway will play Sweden in the final knowing that Niklas Edin won when the teams met in the round robin 9-8 at an extra end and 5-4 in the Page Play-off 1 v 2 game yesterday."
RESULTS:
Semifinal Women
den* 01000 010XX = 2
sco 00330 202XX = 10
Semi-final Men
CZE 00010 0010X = 2
NOR* 10200 1001X = 5
Mike Haggerty's reports for the Royal Club are here.
All the results, standings, and statistics are here.
John Brown has what's happening in the B divisions, here.
Top photo: Eve Muirhead.
Lene Nielsen delivers. Helle Simonsen and Maria Poulsen are the sweepers.
L-R: Anna, Vicki and Claire.
National Women's Coach Rhona Martin and Team Coach Gordon Muirhead watch anxiously.Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown.
