Scotland’s Team Carson put in a powerful performance in their only match of the sixth day of action at the World Junior Championship to defeat Japan 9-4 in just eight ends and remain well placed to reach the play-offs.
Skip Orrin Carson, younger brother Logan, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb had suffered their first setback of the event the previous day when they were beaten by hosts Italy, so were determined to respond well and they did so from the outset.
An excellent performance in the pre-game last stone draw (LSD) competition meant they started the match with the hammer and last stone advantage and they made that count with a two at the opening end.
After forcing the Japanese to one at the second, they then scored a three at the third and while their opponents replied with a three of their own, those were the last points they put on the board. 
“It was a disappointing day yesterday, but we’ve come out firing this morning and hopefully we can keep that form into the rest of the week and make it a good one,” said skip Orrin Carson.
“It was a very strong performance and we’re really happy with it.”
He was particularly pleased with the way they came out of the blocks for the early morning start and also with the way he and his men reacted when the Japanese team threatened to stage a fightback.
“We’ve not really been in control of the game for the first five ends, apart from the Norway game, but we’ve made a real point of trying to have a quick start and we did that, which was all down to the LSD and really getting fired up for the game this morning, so we’ll try to keep that going,” said Carson.
“It was a poor fourth end from our point of view, but we never let that affect us too much and we played a good second half of the game and had control of it from the sixth end onwards, so we’re happy to get that one ticked off and over the line.”
The win means that if they beat Canada in their only match of day seven, they will not only guarantee themselves a place in the play-offs, but will be assured of a place in the top two which would give them last stone advantage in the semi-finals and Carson did not shy away from the extra edge that comes with facing Scotland’s traditional rivals.
“Scotland v Canada has always been a big rivalry in the past and we always mark that one down on the schedule as one of the biggest games, so we’ll go into it fired up and try to go straight at them, but we know it will be a tough game like they all are and we’re really looking forward to that,” he said.
The World Junior Curling Championships runs from 12-21 April.
Watch streamed games on The Curling Channel
Schedule:
Sunday 13 April
Session 2
Scotland – USA 11-10
Session 3
Scotland – Korea 9-7(EE)
Monday 14 April
Session 4
Scotland – Norway 8-1
Tuesday 15 April
Session 6
Scotland – Denmark 8-7 (EE)
Wednesday 16 April
Session 7
Scotland – Italy 4-9
Thursday 17 April
Session 8
Scotland – Japan 9-4
Friday 18 April
Session 10
Scotland – Canada
Saturday 19 April
Session 12
Scotland – Germany
Sunday 20 April
Semi finals
Monday 21 April
Final and bronze medal game
Team Scotland
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Jake MacDonald
