Victory over a Denmark team led by former European champion skip Madeleine Dupont gave Fay Henderson’s women a well-deserved reward and into play-off contention at the BKT Tires Women’s World Championships in Calgary on day three of the competition.
Playing in their first senior World Championships together, Henderson, Lisa Davie, Laura Watt, Hailey Duff and Katie McMillan have been competitive throughout, but had lost two of their first three matches by narrow margins on the first two days of the event and they had put in another good performance earlier on the third day before their Swiss opponents pulled away in the later stages.
That put extra emphasis on the meeting with the Danes and they were under pressure early on when, after forcing their opponents to one at the opening end, they conceded a steal at the second.
However, a well played third end provided a rare opportunity for a big score and after Dupont was unable to roll her final stone behind cover, Henderson was left with a straightforward take-out for the five which gave her team control. 
“We played a really good game there,” said the Scotland skip, following her team's 11-7 win.
“Obviously taking the fiver early on helped us being able to control the rest of the ends and see the game out.
“It’s nice to get another win which definitely boosts the spirits and keeps us fighting for tomorrow.
“Going to bed on a win feels great and I think it sets the tone and the energy well.”
Both of those have been excellent throughout, former World Junior champion skip Henderson’s demeanour setting a strong example with both as she ensures her teammates stay focused on the job in hand.
“We knew we’d got a great force at the first end, so the steal at the second didn’t feel so bad,” she said of their response to the early setback against Denmark.
“We just knew we had to regroup and go out there with a little bit more fight and that’s exactly what we did to get the five.
“We left a few stones lying around which let us generate that chance.
“We know that sometimes they can guddle up the middle a little bit which makes it tough and easy to give up a steal, so for the rest of the game we just played to make sure we didn’t make the same mistake we made at the second end.”
That attitude also came through in the way they responded to the loss to the Swiss women.
“Earlier in the day against the Swiss we obviously didn’t come away with quite the result we were looking for, but we still managed to generate a really great few ends with the hammer,” said Henderson.
“We left ourselves a great shot for three early on and being able to be leading at half time was great, so I think as much it’s a little bit frustrating with the outcome, we have played another great game and shown that we can generate big scores, which definitely makes us a threat.” 
They have also sought to ensure that they keep things fresh by operating as a five-player team with Davie and Watt taking turns at playing third stones and they are committed to continuing to do things their way.
“We play Sweden and Japan tomorrow, but for us it’s more about sticking to our own processes and ticking off our little goals that we have,” said Henderson.
“Lisa will play the first one, so that’ll be a chance to get some flow and build on from there and we’ll see where the rest of the day takes us.
“Hopefully we can generate a win at some point during the day and two would be ideal, but just sticking to those processes and playing great games out there are the main thing we’re worried about.”
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)
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Day One
Scotland – China 6-7 (EE)
Day Two
Scotland – USA 8-3
Scotland – Turkiye 3-5
Day Three
Scotland – Switzerland 5-9
Scotland – Denmark 11-7
Day Four
Scotland – Sweden (15.00 GMT)
Scotland – Japan (01.00 GMT)
Images: World Curling
