Scotland’s Team Henderson put in a strong debut performance at the BKT Women’s World Championships before missing out by millimetres when the final stone from China’s Han Yu drew up just in time at the extra end of their encounter in Calgary.
It was a disappointing end to a match in which the relatively inexperienced Scottish line-up of Fay Henderson, Lisa Davie, Hailey Duff and Katie McMillan had gone toe to toe with a team that competed in last month’s Winter Olympics.
And after the 7-6 extra end loss their skip was well placed to assess their performance having made her own first World Championship appearance off the bench in last year’s World Championships when Scotland suffered a 7-2 loss in their final round-robin match.
“We had a bit of a tough result in the end there, but we played very well as a team and considering it’s our first World Championship we all settled in very well and we were there to play from the start,” said Henderson. 
“We had a great practice and managed to get the hammer, which just showed that we’ve had a great mindset from the very start.
“My debut last year in Korea was also against China, so it was a game I was very keen to win or improve on the performance in that, so I think today we’ve shown that we can be very competitive with those teams that have been at the Olympics.”
The former World Junior Champion skip had cut an upbeat figure throughout the match and felt that the whole team had revelled in the atmosphere in the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park.
“I absolutely love playing in an arena atmosphere with a crowd and you could probably tell that by the smile on my face for most of the game,” she said.
“It was definitely something we were all up for as a team as well and we just stuck to our usual processes and it just felt like normal to be honest, with a bit of extra cheering from our Scotland fans and everyone else around the stadium.”
Henderson also felt that, as frustrating as it was that China’s extra end draw to the button pulled up that fraction closer to the pin than her own closest stone, the length of the match will stand her team in good stead.
“To play 11 ends was great,” she said.
“It meant that the game was obviously very close and we did have a really good performance, but to be able to experience the ice conditions and get a few extra shots in has definitely benefited us for a long week ahead.
“We now know what’s going to happen to the ice in the back half of the game, we know how it’s going to change or where it’s going to stay exactly the same, so we’re looking forward to just going out there and in any further matches if there’s a shot to win the game, we know exactly what to expect.”
They now have another first to prepare for on the second day of competition with back-to-back World Championship matches when they face the USA and Turkiye, but Henderson believes they are well prepared.
“We have back-to-back games tomorrow, which will be our first experience of that, especially with it being 10 end matches, but w have talked about this prior to coming out here, so we know exactly what we need to do and we know it will be tough, but we’re more than ready for that challenge,” she said.
Scotland will meet all 12 of the other competing teams in the round-robin competition, with the top six qualifying for the play-offs.
The 13 nations taking part are Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye and the USA.
Please click here for more information about the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, Calgary, AB (14-22 March).
Please click here for live streamed games from The Curling Channel
Day One
Scotland – China 6-7 (EE)
Day Two
Scotland – USA (2.30pm GMT)
Scotland – Turkiye (7.30pm GMT)
