Scotland’s women claimed their second win at the World Junior Curling Championships when skip Fay Henderson’s final draw pulled up just in time to secure a 7-5 victory over Latvia.
It was a deserved reward for Henderson, Katie McMillan, Lisa Davie and Holly Wilkie-Milne at the end of what had been a challenging day as they set out against the two teams that had gone unbeaten through the first three days of competition in Jonkoping. 
Their opening match of the day against Norway had seen them fall three behind at the opening end, but far from allowing their heads to drop they battled all the way and their skip reckoned that had set them up for their subsequent success.
“This morning we played a really good game against Norway,” Henderson said of their 9-7 defeat.
“It resulted in a loss, but we managed to create a lot of chances to score two, which was really important and boosted our confidence considerably.
“There were quite a few ends that we did score two and we did give them back up as well, but just scoring them and gaining that wee bit of momentum was really good.
“We managed to string quite a few shots together and ultimately it came down to the last end, so that was a really good performance and we just took that into tonight’s game.”
They started much better against Latvia, performing well in the pre-match challenge to claim the hammer at the opening end and after blanking the first two they surged ahead with a three at the third.
After an exchange of forced singles saw them go into the midway break retaining that three shot lead, the Latvians reduced the deficit with a two at the sixth, but after another blanked end at the seventh, Team Henderson re-established their advantage with a two at the eight. 
While a missed attempted takeout by Henderson allowed the Latvians to score another two at the ninth and make it a one shot match down the last, she then held her nerve well with that final delivery.
“We started strong against Latvia with the three in the third end which set us up really well for the match,” said the skip.
“We controlled it, placed shots sensibly and missed on the right side, which was ultimately important.
“We just tried to keep as many stones in play as we could, minimising hit and rolls out etc, but it gives us a boost going into the last three games.
“We’ve got Korea tomorrow, so hopefully we can build on this, keep our confidence up and play another really good game.
“Everything’s experience and we can all take that into tomorrow and even beyond that.”
In between those matches, Scotland’s men had suffered their first defeat of the day, going down 7-6 when Canada stole the decisive shot at the extra end.
“It was a bit disappointing to have lost that game,” said Scottish skip James Craik
“It was close and at the extra end the ice went a wee bit. They had an unfortunate break, we had an unfortunate break and I was left with a pretty difficult shot.
“I was left with a peel weight and hit a millimetre on the highside and I hit a millimetere low, so didn’t quite spin it out of the four foot far enough. 
“He put it in the one place that was going to cause me problems. He couldn’t have put it in a better spot, so that cost us the win.”
He was pleased, however, with the way he and teammates Angus Bryce, Scott Hyslop and Niall Ryder had responded to being put under pressure by the Canadians early on.
“It was tight throughout,” said Craik.
“I felt they controlled the first half quite well and we did well to hang on, then we started to progressively get stronger and stronger.
“He got fortunate in the 10th end when he caught on a guard and still managed to roll in just for shot, so that could have been the game won for us there, but obviously not and we just didn’t quite capitalise at the extra end unfortunately.”
He remains satisfied that their first major target of the week remains in their own hands after Norway, the only other unbeaten side heading into day four, were also beaten.
“We’re still five and one and if we win out we’ll still claim top spot going into the playoffs, which is our real target, to give us hammer in all playoff games, but we’ll take it as it comes,” said Craik.
“We’ve got Norway tomorrow and they’re obviously in form, so we’ll see what goes from there.
“There’s a couple of things to tighten up on, but we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and sticking to our processes.”
Live games will be available to watch through The Curling Channel in partnership with Recast.
Scotland – Team Craik
James Craik
Angus Bryce
Scott Hyslop
Niall Ryder
Jack Carrick
Scotland – Team Henderson
Fay Henderson
Katie McMillan
Lisa Davie
Holly Wilkie-Milne
Robyn Mitchell
Sunday 15 May (all times BST)
Scotland – Korea (men) 8-5
Scotland – Canada (women) 9-7
Scotland – USA (men) 9-1
Monday 16 May
Scotland – USA (women) 8-9
Scotland – New Zealand (men) 10-5
Scotland – Switzerland (women) 3-8
Tuesday 17 May
Scotland – Germany (men) 6-4
Scotland – Japan (women) 4-7
Scotland – Italy (men) 6-4
Wednesday 18 May
Scotland – Norway (women) 7-9
Scotland – Canada (men) 6-7 (EE)
Scotland – Latvia (women) 7-5
Thursday 19 May
Scotland – Norway (men) – 8.00am
Scotland – Korea (women) – 1.00pm
Scotland – Sweden (men) – 6.00pm (Broadcast game)
Friday 20 May
Scotland – Sweden (women) – 8.00am
Scotland – Switzerland (men) – 1.00pm
Scotland – Denmark (women) - 6.00pm
Saturday 21 May
Men’s Semi Final – 1.00pm
Women’s Semi Final – 6.00pm
Sunday 22 May
Men’s Finals - 8.00am
Women’s Finals - 1.00pm
Images: WCF/Cheyenne Boone
#curling #WJCC2022
