Monday, 17th of May 2021

Scotland Win GOLD at the WMDCC 2021

Scotland win Gold at the WMDCC

The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2021, staged in Curl Aberdeen, Scotland, and supported by EventScotland and UK Sport, came to a climax on Sunday (23 May) afternoon when the Host nation, represented by Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, faced Olympic bronze medallists Norway – Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten – in the gold medal final.

Scotland had last stone advantage in the first end, and with Dodds’ last draw-shot, they tapped out a Norway stone to open the scoring with two points.

In the second end, Norway had two counting stones in the house when Kristin Skaslien came to play her last shot. She was successful with a nose-hit to score three points and take a 3-2 lead.

In the early part of the third end, Norway built up their stones only for Scotland’s Mouat to clear them out. After this, Dodds drew her last stone onto the button to score one point and level the score at 3-3.

In the fourth end, Scotland’s Dodds caught a Norway stone on the way in and this gave Skaslien a chance for a double take-out that would have given her team a score of four. Her attempt failed but her stone did roll into position to score two points, giving Norway a 5-3 lead at the halfway break.

The fifth end featured delicate taps by both teams and Scotland lay two points when Skaslien played a guard with her final stone. This left Scotland’s Dodds with a very difficult wide draw attempt for three points which came up just short, and the Scots had to settle for two points to tie the game at 5-5.

Norway used their power-play in the sixth end and spent the early part of the end bringing stone after stone into the house, only for Scotland’s Mouat to clear them all with a triple take-out.

Norway did manage to score two points from the end, when Skaslien played a gentle hit and stay with her last stone. This gave Norway a 7-5 lead.

It was Scotland’s turn to call a power-play in the seventh end and they used it to build up stones in the house.

Norway’s Nedregotten just missed on a double take-out attempt, then Dodds was able to hit and stay for three points, giving Scotland the lead, at 8-7, for the first time since the first end.

In the eighth end, Scotland had fifteen seconds left on the clock when Dodds played a final guard.

Skaslien then played a runback on the front guards and moved all the stones around the four-foot ring. It wasn’t immediately clear if Norway had succeeded in scoring one point to tie the game and force an extra end, or if Scotland had managed a single-point steal.

After what seemed like a long tense wait, the umpire’s measure confirmed that the Scots had stolen the single point to become world champions with a final score of 9-7.

Afterwards, Scotland’s Jennifer Dodds was still shell-shocked: “We can’t quite believe it right now, we’re still a wee bit in shock, but getting a three with our power-play was massive.”

Bruce Mouat added: “That was such a tough game, we were a wee bit scrappy for a while.  We both really felt that we could win it and that’s exactly what happened. I had a look at the end of the eighth end and was pretty sure it was our point by a couple of centimetres, but he was right to call for a measure.”

A disappointed Magnus Nedregotten said, “It’s been a fantastic journey from the very first stone. It’s hard to take [silver] but this shows that we have the potential to reach our goal in Beijing.”

The gold medallists were Scotland: Jennifer Dodds, Bruce Mouat, coach Greg Drummond, and national coach David Murdoch.

The silver medallists were Norway: Kristin Skaslien, Magnus Nedregotten, coach Thomas Leovold, and national coach Pal Trulsen.

The bronze medallists were Sweden: Almida De Val, Oskar Eriksson, coach Sebastian Kraupp, and national coach Alison Kreviazuk.

And just like that…

Scotland are in the final of the WMDCC2021 at Curl Aberdeen! A close 7-4 score line against Canada, means we play Norway at 3pm Sunday for a chance to win GOLD.

The Scots started with last stone advantage in the first end and Jennifer Dodds took out the Canadian counter in the house to open the scoring with one point.

In the second end, Canada’s Kerri Einarson was facing three Scottish stones in the house and played a nose-hit to level the score with a single point.

Scotland then made the first break-through in the third end when they took advantage of Canadian mistakes and Dodds had a draw for three points and a 4-1 lead.

In the fourth end, there were six stones inside the four-foot ring when Dodds played her last stone – a nudge-up that put a Scottish stone into second shot position. Einarson’s attempted take-out with the last stone of the end was heavy and wide, so Canada had to settle for the single point from this end. After which the teams went into the break with Scotland holding a 4-2 lead.

In the fifth end, the Scots had a chance to score two points, but Dodds was light with her final draw to the button, and they had to settle for just one point, for a 5-2 lead.

In the sixth end, with Canada calling their power-play, the Scots missed a double take-out attempt, which left Einarson with an open draw to score two points and reduce Scotland’s lead to 5-4.

Then, in the seventh end, it was Scotland’s turn to use a power-play. There were two Canadian counters in the house when Dodds came to play her last. Dodds drew her final stone for one point to give the Scots a two-point lead, at 6-4.

By the end of the eighth end, the Canadians were desperately looking for a way to score two points to tie the game. This forced Einarson to play a big weight take-out, but one of the Scottish stones spun into position to steal one point and win the game by 7-4.

After their win Scotland’s Bruce Mouat Said: “You love to get a head-start in this type of game when the pressure is on both teams. We managed to get a three early and something like that is going to be huge by the end of the game — it was a big advantage for us at the end of the game.”

He added: “This season’s been bizarre, so just being able to curl and compete is a blessing.  I’m just buzzing to be in a world final. This is my fifth mixed doubles championship, and this is clearly my best performance. I’ve been trying so hard to get to a gold medal match in mixed doubles and this is by far the best that I’ve been playing. And to have Jenn alongside me is just an absolute pleasure.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer Dodds said: “We’ve played with confidence and we’re having so much fun. That’s the most important thing, because we know we play at our best when we’re enjoying it. Now, we’re going to enjoy every minute tomorrow because you don’t get to play in a world final every day.”

The championship concludes with two more games on Sunday (23 May) – the bronze medal match between Sweden and Canada takes place at 10:00, followed by the gold medal game between Norway and Scotland at 15:00.

Of course we’ll host a Watch Party tomorrow, sign up here

Scotland Qualify for a Play off Spot and an Olympic Berth

Strong wins against Korea and Hungary today, the former qualifying us for Beijing 2022 and securing a play off sport at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Aberdeen.

Scotland started strongly against Korea, opening with a score of three points and followed that with steals in the next two ends to take an early 7-0 lead.

After this, Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat were 8-1 ahead in the sixth end when Korea’s Ji Yoon Kim’s stone hit but rolled out to give the Scots a steal of one point. Korea then conceded with the score at 9-1.

Afterwards, Jennifer Dodds said: “Qualification is always one of the main aims and getting straight to the semi-finals is a bonus.”

Speaking about their performance Bruce Mouat added: “We’re playing well and we’re pretty confident. We were fortunate that we had a good game against Canada and then another good game there against Korea. It doesn’t matter who you’re against, you’ve still got to play well if you’re going to win.”

Tomorrow we will play in the Semi-finals, at 7.30pm – we are hosting a Watch Party, join us if you can by signing up here

A loss and a win for Scotland…

The standings in the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2021 tightened up as the competition passed the half-way point of the round-robin stage at Curl Aberdeen in Scotland, yesterday.

Group A saw all of the previously unbeaten teams, including Scotland, lose their first game in the morning session. Then after the evening session a three-way tie was formed at the top of the rankings featuring Canada, Italy and Scotland on four wins and one loss.

Directly behind the leaders in the standings are Czech Republic and Germany with three wins and two losses.

In Group B, Sweden remains at the top of the rankings as the lone undefeated nation in the competition on five wins.

Behind them in the standings in second place are Norway with a record of four wins and one loss. Then four teams share joint third place — Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and United States — on a record of three wins and two losses.

Today we face Germany, then Canada.

Day 3 at the #WMDCC2021

Team Scotland are in a fantastic position, going into Day 3 at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships at Curl Aberdeen. Two wins from 2 games yesterday against Australia and Spain mean they sit at W3 L0 – with games against the RCF this morning, then Czech Republic at 4pm.

A Win to Start For Team Scotland at the #WMDCC2021

The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2021 got underway in the COVID-secure bubble at Curl Aberdeen in Scotland, with two sessions of round-robin play.

Each group took to the ice for their first games of the championship, with hosts, Scotland picking up their opening win 7 – 4 over Italy in Group A. The session also saw wins for Canada, Czech Republic, Germany and Korea.

The Group B teams stepped onto the ice for the late session which featured the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic silver and bronze medal winning teams of Switzerland and Norway, as well as the reigning world champions, Sweden.

#WMDCC2021 at Curl Aberdeen

International curling comes home to its birth nation when the World Curling Federation stages the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2021 in Curl Aberdeen, Scotland, this week.

This championship sees teams representing 20 international Member Associations, and is the fourth event to be staged by the World Curling Federation in a 2020–2021 season truncated by pandemic challenges.

Opened in 2005, Curl Aberdeen is a purpose built, state of the art curling facility and this is the second time it has hosted the World Mixed Championship, the first time being in 2019.

To allow this competition to go ahead, and to keep all players and competition officials and event staff safe, special Covid-secure arrangements have been developed in consultation with the Scottish Government and relevant authorities.

Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds are our representing team at this event (pictured above during practise) – and our Development Manager Maggie Wilson and Comps Co-ordinatior Jayne Stirling are both lucky enough to be volunteering.

Divided into two round-robin groups, the 20 teams are:

Group A: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Korea, RCF, Scotland

Group B: China, England, Estonia, Finland, Japan , Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, United States.

Round-robin play begins on Monday 17 May and continues until Friday 21 May.

The round-robin stage will determine the top three teams from each group, who then move onto the play-offs.

Both group leaders will qualify direct for the semi-finals, while the second and third teams from Group A will play the third and second teams from Group B in qualification games. The winners of those games proceed to the semi-finals. Qualification games and semi-finals will take place on 22 May.

The bronze medal game and the gold medal final will both be staged on Sunday 23 May.

While the stakes are always high at any World Championship, this event also acts as the only direct qualifier for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games mixed doubles event.

The Olympics will involve ten teams (expanded from eight teams when Mixed Doubles made its debut at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games) and the results from this world championship will qualify seven of these, in addition to hosts China.

World Curling TV will be broadcasting a single game from each session of play during the round-robin stage. A single Qualification game will then be broadcast, then followed by each semi-final and both medal games.

Scotland’s games against the RCF at 9am on Wednesday and against Canada at 7.30pm on Thursday will be shown on the WCF YouTube, linked here. We will be hosting our Watch Parties again, which are really good fun and add a bit extra to the experience; details can be found here.

One more point of interest is there will be one England game televised when they meet Japan at 09:00 on Friday 21 May.

We wish all involved a safe and enjoyable week, and Good Curling to all teams.

PIC WCF/Celine Stucki