2019 Scottish Curling Scottish Championships Finals Review
Scotland’s best men’s and women’s curling teams fought it out in Perth for their places in the record book to become Scottish Curling Champions. Eight men’s and four women’s teams gave it their all at the Dewars Centre, Perth on the biggest stage in Scotland in front of a sell-out crowd.
Women’s Final
Jackson 11 – 7 Muirhead
Team Muirhead:
Vicky Wright, Lauren Gray, Vicki Chalmers, Jennifer Doods, Eve Muirhead and Coach Glenn Howard.
Team Jackson:
Sophie Sinclair, Milli Smith, Naomi Brown, Sophie Jackson and Coach Tom Brewster.
The final today saw a classic battle between youth and experience. Team Jackson played to an excellent standard to power their way through to the top of the round robin with only one loss coming in their opening game. In the final they faced off against one of the most decorated skips in Scottish Curling history. Team Muirhead, were led by seven time champion Eve Muirhead aiming to add her eighth championship to the trophy cabinet.
The draw got off to a slow start with Team Jackson blanking the first end to retain the hammer. The action picked up in the second, however, with Jackson facing a draw to the 4ft for chance to take 1 in second end. While she didn’t manage the draw she intended Sophie’s shot was able to use the outlying Muirhead stone to roll off and secure her 1.
With Team Muirhead lying 2 in third end, Jackson looked for a hit and roll with their final stone. A rub off the top guard opened up the house to allowing Eve a simple draw for a big score of 3. Eve Muirhead and her team were unable to extend the lead as they ended the 3rd end lying 2 but leaving Sophie Jackson with a chance of a big double hit. Sophie’s recent experience at the Curling World Cup came in to play as she managed to pull off a superb hit to score 2 and tie the game at 3 all.
In the fifth end with Muirhead having the hammer and Team Jackson lying 3 Jennifer Dodds attempted a double takeout but just missed the inside yellow settling up difficult shots for her skip. Team Jackson continued to apply the pressure with a draw into the 4ft to lie 3, forcing Eve to attempt a hit and roll which rolled wide allowing a steal of 2 for Jackson. After 5 ends of play the teams headed into the break with Team Jackson leading 5-3.
With her first stone of the sixth end Eve’s stone slipped right through Team Jackson’s two yellow stones and out of the house. With her last shot of the end Sophie Jackson responded with a relatively simple draw to once again lie 3. Eve answered with a great shot to score 1 and close the gap. The seventh end saw both Muirhead and Jackson with a stone camped in the house, swapping peels for most of the end. With her final store Muirhead set up a guard, leaving Jackson requiring pin point accuracy with her shot. Sophie’s shot came up short allowing Muirhead to steal 1 and tie the game.
Entering the eighth end both teams seemed to struggle with weight, Eve Muirhead seemed to recover first and managed a hit and stick to lie 2 but left the double for open for Sophie to capitalise upon. Jackson made the shot but the Muirhead’s red stone stayed just within the 8ft preventing Jackson from lying 4. Muirhead’s final shot cleared the 4ft leaving Sophie with a draw around the guard for a massive score of 5 giving Team Jackson a sizable 10-5 lead with 2 ends to remaining. Team Muirhead, determined not to give up, continued on with the game when others may have shaken hands and called it a day. Team Jackson seemed to find more confidence, making their shots with ease and focusing more on a tactically defensive game.
After a time-out with coach Tom Brewster, Team Jackson began swapping shots with Team Muirhead, Eve’s team setting up the guards and Sophie’s team peeling each one. With her first shot of the 9th end Eve drew into the 4ft to lie for 3, which would see them get back into the game. Sophie replied with a fantastic double takeout giving Muirhead an uphill battle. A straightforward draw to score 2 kept Muirhead’s hopes alive as they headed into the final end trailing 7-10.
A miss by Sophie allowed Eve a hit and stick to lie for 4 and setting up a tense finale. With the biggest shot of her curling career Sophie was able to remove Eve’s red stone and lie for 1. This secured Team Jackson a 11-7 victory, their 3rd win over Team Muirhead this week and their first Scottish title.
We caught us with Eve Muirhead after the game:
‘’The start of the game was good, I felt we controlled it in the first half, and then we took our foot off the gas in the second half and just didn’t make the same shots. Sophie and the rest of her team played well, they are deserving winners.’’
When asked about her injury and surgery last year, Eve says:
‘’I wouldn’t be out here if I didn’t think I was capable of winning, of course it was a tough summer last year, and we have a different team, a different group of girls and we have to put things in perspective and remember these things. We’re not robots, we can’t win it all, and sometimes you have to take a step back before we move forward.’’
Team Jackson Skip, Sophie Jackson was elated when we caught up with her and her team:
‘’we are all super happy to finish a great week on a high. I think all the pressure was on Team Muirhead today, we were able to settle in and play how we wanted to. Getting a 2 in the 4th end really settled our nerves…’’
We are delighted to have won the Scottish championships, after a brilliant final. When we took the 5, it felt a bit surreal, but we knew then we had a great chance”
Men’s Final
Team Mouat 7 – 5 Team Muirhead
Team Mouat:
Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie, Grant Hardie, Bruce Mouat and Coach Alan Hannah
Team Muirhead:
Cameron Smith, Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Smith, Glen Muirhead and Coach Al Hackner
Team Muirhead are the modern day band of brothers and most recently represented Team GB at the 2018 Winter Olympics. They came through a tough semi-final against Team Paterson and came into today’s final battle hardened. They faced current European Champions Team Mouat, who are not only Scotland’s first men’s team to win a grand slam title but are defending their Scottish Championship title.
Both teams started strong with each keen to dominate the game. After a series of swapped hits Team Mouat blanked the end to retain the hammer. The second end continued in a similar manner and with no chance of a multiple score Moaut once again aimed to blank the end. Glen Muirhead’s last ended just shy of freezing on Mouat’s yellow. This allowed Bruce to make an easy hit and roll to blank the end.
At the end of the third Muirhead narrowly missed a runback to lie 3. Bruce Mouat capitalised and finally opened the scoring with a textbook draw to the 4ft to score 2, taking the lead. The 4th end gave a sense of déjà vu, with similar series of shots to the 3rd. With his last stone Bruce cleared the house of Team Muirhead’s stone with a nice hit, Glen responded by throwing his final stone straight through the house to blank the end and carry over the hammer into the fifth end.
Bobby Lammie had a rare misstep and clipped his own guard, clearing the house for Muirhead who capitalised with a double take out to lie 3. A series of small errors built up for Team Mouat when several attempted doubles jammed. Glen took further advantage with a hit and roll with his first stone to lie at the back of the 4ft behind the guards. Team Mouat looked to prevent a big loss with a well-placed double takeout to cleared two stones from play, however, it wasn’t enough and an easy draw for Muirhead sent the teams into the 5th end break level on 2 all.
Team Mouat came out looking to switch up the play and assert their dominance in the sixth end. Kyle Smith answered with a superb angled double around a guard to bail out his team. With the final series of stones Glen was resigned to a hit and roll to lie 1 and hope Bruce makes an error. However, Bruce Mouat made no such error and his well-placed hit removed Muirhead’s stone to lie and score 2.
With no option to blank the end Glen Muirhead and his team looked to push play and reduce the deficit. This was helped when Mouat’s first stone clipped the guard, helping it into the house leaving team Muirhead lying 2. Bruce’s attempt at a runback didn’t quite go to plan, only removing a single red stone. A heavy draw by Glen resulted in a tap on his own stone which pushed it just beyond Mouat’s yellow, leading to a disappointing score of 1.
With the score 4-3 in favour of the defending Champions Team Mouat heading into in the eighth end, Bruce was left with a nose hit to score 2 and extend his team’s lead to 6-3. Muirhead fought back in the ninth end and was rewarded with a draw to claim 2, leaving it all to play for in the final end.
The final end got off to a great start as Mouat Lead Hammy McMillan pulled off two tic shots in a row ensuring that with one stone remaining for each skip Team Mouat looked to score 1. Glen Muirhead pulled off a great double takeout to lie 2 before a perfect weight draw by Bruce Mouat gave his team a 7-5 victory and their second Scottish Championship title in as many years.
