The image above is a screenshot from this afternoon's webcast of the Scotland v Canada game at the World Junior Championships in Oestersund. It shows the coaches' bench with Nancy Murdoch, Robin Halliday and Hamilton McMillan, the Scottish alternate. In front is the commentary team, World Champion Sara Carlsson and Logan Gray. Great commentary from them. Good banter. I liked what Logan said when this screen came up in front of him. "There we are - five Scots. Well, Sara's not really Scottish, she just sounds Scottish!" Sara is Swedish of course, but spent some time in Glasgow, back in 2007.Watching live on the WCF's YouTube channel this afternoon on my laptop at Skip was a good experience. I had to reload only once in 135 minutes, and have to say I was very impressed. If only all webcast experiences were as good. Full marks today, certainly.
I should mention of course that Kyle Smith's team beat Canada 8-4 after nine ends.
Leslie Ingram-Brown reports:
"The Scots blanked the first end but in the second Kyle had to draw against three. The next two ends were singles to Canada but in the fifth a rare mistake this game by the Scottish skip who hit on the nose when wanting to hit and run, and the scored was tied at 2-2.
The sixth was decisive and turned the game in favour of Scotland when Canadian skip Brendan Bottcher, drawing against three, came up short. In the seventh, a hit and roll by Kyle behind a single Canadian stone in the front twelve forced Bottcher to try a raise double which left a steal of one to Scotland and a four shot lead.
In the eighth, Canada hit for a two but in the ninth, when Kyle replied with a tap back for the same score, it was time to concede.
That brought Canada back into the pack. Sweden, as victors over China, are the only unbeaten team in these Junior Men's Championships here in Ostersund, Sweden. To-morrow the Scots have USA and Norway, two teams on the same ranking of three wins."
RESULTS: Sweden 8 China 4; Norway 9 Italy 3; Switzerland 8 Finland 6; USA 10 Czech Republic 3; Scotland 8 Canada 4.
Ranking: 4/0 Sweden; 3/1 Canada, Norway, Scotland, USA; 2/2 Switzerland; 1/3 China, Italy; 0/4 Czech Republic, Finland.
The official website is here.
Kyle Smith and Brendan Bottcher.
Thomas Muirhead and Kerr Drummond work on Kyle Waddell's stone.Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown
