Victory over Switzerland in a re-match of this year’s World Championship final saw Scotland’s Team Mouat retain their 100 per cent record to stay clear at the top of the standings as they passed the halfway mark in the round-robin phase of the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships in Lohja.
World Champions and world number one ranked Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had already beaten Denmark earlier in the day and a fifth successive win left them on the cusp of qualification for the play-offs with four matches still to play. 
They had defeated the Danes 9-4 in spite of a slight loss of concentration midway through the game when they conceded a three, but they knew they could afford no such lapses against opponents who have consistently been among their closest rivals, finishing last season in second place in the world rankings, as well as pushing them all the way in that World Championship final.
“We know historically Monday is a long day with a four day draw so it was good to get an early bath there,” said lead McMillan.
“We got off to a good start and while we coughed up a three at the fifth end, apart from that it was a pretty well controlled game.
“We knew before the game against Switzerland that we had to up the intensity in our level of play and we did that tonight.”
While the individual statistics demonstrated that the Swiss quartet were playing to the highest of standards, the Scots were more than a match for them and claimed the upper hand as a result of a string of extraordinary shots from their skip, that left even his teammates in disbelief.
“Bruce had that cracking shot in the third end for three which was fantastic,” said McMillan.
“Personally I thought it was there for two, not three but he made it and then played a couple of pistols in the fourth end to get us out of trouble.
“After that point, it was a well controlled game and some really good shots from the skipper to keep us in front.”
After two successive two-game days, they now have the luxury of a lie-in ahead of their only match on day four of the Championships, against an always dangerous Norwegian line-up.
“Norway will get our full attention and intensity and we will look forward to our one game day tomorrow,” said McMillan. 
There was also a strong finish to the day from Scotland’s women after they had, earlier on, run into Italian opponents who had begun that encounter in exceptional form.
After falling 5-0 behind after two ends, Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson had little chance of recovery against a team skipped by 2022 Olympic mixed doubles champion Stefania Constantini.
Skip Jackson was, however, pleased with the way they kept working to ensure that they retained self-belief ahead of what had become a vital meeting with Lithuania, the surprise package of the competition who had won three of their four matches to that point.
“We played pretty well against the Italians particularly in the mid part of the game, but unfortunately they had that five shot jump on us in the first two ends so we struggled to get back from there,” said Jackson.
“It was really good for our confidence to see that it was 2-2 from the third to the seventh end, ahead of our game against Lithuania who have been playing really well in this competition.”
Knowing that victory over the Lithuanians would leave them on the same record of two wins and three losses that they had at the same stage last year when they went on to win a medal, Jackson felt she and her teammates duly prepared well.
“The ice suits Lithuania nicely because of the way they throw it, because they like to play a lot around the middle, so that’s what we tried to get away from and the steal of two we got at the fourth end definitely put us in control,” she said.
“We just had to make sure we controlled the scoreboard from then on.”
Last year’s experience should consequently stand them in good stead as they head into meetings with Switzerland and Czechia on day four.
“We feel good about going into the second half of the round robin when we know we have played many of these teams before and if we put in good performances then we have really good chances of winning,” said Jackson.
“We also know if we don’t put in our top performances we could come out on the wrong side of those games, though, so we will be hoping to put in good team performances and come out of tomorrow with two wins.”
Follow the results here
Watch live games on The Curling Channel
Selected games will be available on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online, as follows:
Scotland women v Norway (Wednesday)
Scotland men v Sweden (Wednesday)
Scotland men v Italy (Thursday)
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat (Skip)
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (Skip)
Fay Henderson (alternate)
Images: Scottish Curling
