[ritchiebaby]

Scotland's recent troubles were exacerbated yesterday with 2 defeats. They were lying game until the Swedish skip played an excellent double take-out to gain 2 shots, Scotland losing 7-8 after an exciting cut-and-thrust game. Next came another tough game against Russia and again the Scots were in the game all the way to the 8th end at 4-4, but lost a poor 3 in the 9th end, allowing Russia to run the Scots out of stones in the last end.

An almost impossible task became 100% impossible after this morning's game against USA. Scotland actually scored in 6 ends to USA'a 3 ends, but a terrible loss of 6 shots in the 7th end. Amazingly, Scotland still had the conviction and skill to lie peels (tied at 9-9) with 1 stone still to come. The USA skip then took the 2 Scottish stones out to blank the end and win the game 9-7. Ironically this was Sophie Jackson's best game in what has been a real up-and-down week for her.

There's now no chance of Scotland qualifying with only 4 wins with 1 game to come. Sweden with 10 wins and Korea and Russia with 8 wins are guaranteed qualifiers. Switzerland and China are on 7 wins and should qualify. USA have 6 wins and under threat if they lose their last game and Japan on 5 wins and with 2 games to go are that threat. Unfortunately those games are against China and Sweden. Canada, also on 5 wins but with only 1 game to go are the outsiders.