Olympic Women’s Champion Jen Dodds and World Men’s Champion Bruce Mouat put in a powerful performance as they opened their bid to reclaim the title as they defeated the Netherlands 10-3 at the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Fredericton.
It was close to the ideal encounter for the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Champions to get things underway as they were put under pressure early on, but responded well to take charge by the midway interval and they stretched away after the break to finish the match with one of the scheduled eight ends to spare.
Beaten in the pre-match last stone draw, the Scottish pair started the match without the hammer which provides last stone advantage at the opening end and while they forced their opponents to score just one, they then conceded a steal at the second end to fall 2-0 behind to Lisenka Bomas and her highly experienced partner Wouter Goesgens, but as Mouat pointed out, they are too experienced to let that overly concern them.
“We were disappointed not to get hammer in that game and obviously losing the steal wasn’t great, but we knew we were still playing pretty well and just centimetres away from making every shot and that is exactly what we did after the second end so there was no panic from either of us at that point,” he observed.
A well played third end then saw Dodds left with a draw with her final stone to score three and put them in front for the first time. 
When they then stole three more at the next they were in total control, 6-2 up at the break and they stretched away thereafter.
“It was good to get that first win and a bit of momentum going at the first game of the Championship,” said Dodds.
“We came out really strong and felt like we got control of the ice really quickly and could make a lot of shots because of that and were able to put the Dutch team under pressure to make some mistakes and we just kind of capitalised on that which was a really good start.
“We are really enjoying the ice conditions here, there is a lot of curl and it is a really good speed so we can make basically any shot out there which we really enjoy.
“I think we always perform at our best in conditions like these, so hopefully it stays like that, but even if it does change we know that we have the capability of adapting to it so I think we will have a lot of fun games this week.”
A second opportunity on the opening day of competition sees them face Chinese partnership Yu Han and Zhin Yu Wang, a partnership they have not faced previously, but players they know and respect from team encounters in the men’s and women’s game.
“We know them and we know that they are good players and both had very good ends of season so far so it is going to be a really good game,” said Mouat.
“I am expecting a lot of shots to be made and as Jen said the ice is really good so should be a really good game.”
That match takes place at 10pm BST and, like every other match in the event, will be shown live on The Curling Channel.
Schedule:
Saturday 26 April
Session 1
Scotland – Netherlands 10-3
Session 3 – 10pm (BST)
Scotland – China
Sunday 27 April
Session 5 – 6pm (BST)
Scotland – DenmarK
Monday 28 April
Session 7 -2pm (BST)
Scotland – Finland
Session 9 – 10pm (BST)
Scotland – Korea
Tuesday 29 April
Session 11 – 6pm (BST)
Scotland – Italy
Wednesday 30 April
Session 13 – 2pm (BST)
Scotland – Sweden
Session 15 10pm (BST)
Scotland – Germany
Thursday 1 May
Session 17- 6pm (BST)
Scotland – Canada
Friday 2 May
2pm - Qualification Games
10pm - Relegation Games
10pm - Semi Finals
Saturday 3 May
1.30pm - Bronze Medal Game
6.00pm - Gold Medal Game
Watch streamed games on The Curling Channel
Team Scotland
Jen Dodds
Bruce Mouat
Ross Paterson – Team Coach
Greg Drummond – Olympic Head Coach
Images: Rob Blanchard Photography
