Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat know they face a battle to reach the play-offs at the World Mixed Doubles Championships in Fredericton, but believe their form is still good enough to keep them in contention as they head into a vital day of matches against Sweden and Germany.
Olympic Women’s Champion Dodds and World Men’s Champion Mouat lost their 100 per cent record as they struggled from the outset of their meeting with previously win-less Korea late on day three and while they performed much better in their only game of day four against Italy, they were unable to inflict a first defeat of the event upon the Olympic Mixed Doubles Champions.
After losing the draw shot challenge to start without the hammer, they were in trouble from the off against Korea, conceding a four at the opening end and were never really in contention as they suffered a 10-7 defeat. 
Against Italy, they again started without the hammer (last stone advantage), which arguably proved even more critical in what was otherwise a closely fought match.
Stefania Constantini and Anton Mosaner made use of that advantage to ease into a 2-0 lead at the first end and while the Scots managed to level the scores at 3-3 by the midway break, they were never able to get their noses in front, ultimately going down 7-4.
“The last two games have been pretty tough.,
“We were disappointed with the Korean game last night where we didn’t put in our best performance which was all the more disappointing, because up until that point we felt like we had been playing really well.
“The opening end against Korea was tough. I just didn’t get my draw quite right and the theme of that game was that we didn’t get our draw weight consistent.
“It was a couple of feet faster than we had seen up to that point which took us by surprise and we took too long commit to that, which probably ended up costing us that four at the opening end.”
They regrouped overnight and, while they were unable to get the result they wanted, they were happy with their response to that setback.
“We had a good chat last night about things and came out how we wanted to at the start of this game and in the third and fourth end we were really in control,” said Dodds.
“Today was more like ourselves.
“The Italians played really well and it was just some fine margins with some line calls we just missed, so it feels like we’ve got a bit of momentum back after the Korean game yesterday and we just want to continue that into a big day tomorrow.” 
Highly experienced as both now are, they will look only towards the games to come and are putting extra emphasis on that draw shot challenge which, as well as being key to gaining the upper hand at the start of matches, could also be crucial for tie-break purposes if they end the week on a similar record to any of their rivals.
“Obviously any game having hammer is a benefit, but especially in mixed doubles if you score first,” said Dodds.
“That’s something we’re concentrating on, looking to get that good draw shot.
“You never know if you need that later in the week, so that’s something we’ll be focusing on tomorrow as well.”
Scotland face Sweden at 2pm (BST) and Germany at 10pm (BST).
Schedule:
Saturday 26 April
Session 1
Scotland – Netherlands 10-3
Session 3 –
Scotland – China 8-5
Sunday 27 April
Session 5 –
Scotland – Denmark 7-3
Monday 28 April
Session 7
Scotland – Finland 9-2
Session 9 – 10pm
Scotland – Korea 7-10
Tuesday 29 April
Session 11
Scotland – Italy 4-7
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 