30-03-2015, 22:48
If I had stupidly thought that Scotland couldn't get any worse, they went ahead and proved that they could. Fair enough, it was against Norway, the current champions, but even so losing a 6, yes six, at the second end must be a new low for an established curling nation. Norwegian skip, Thomas Ulsrud, was left with a simple take-out with his last stone, to virtually finish the game with 8 ends still to play. The game eventually ended with an 11-6 win for Norway.
Thankfully, I don't know the details, but Scotland must have been doing something strange tactically or playing extremely poor shots, perhaps even both, for such a result. Remember that Japan took a 5 off us in the second session, so it's not a one-off to have one disastrous end during a game. To put it in perspective, Norway's biggest end against them is a 2. Switzerland and Japan have both lost a 3 at their worst. Amazingly, Canada lost a 3 and a 4 in the same game and still managed to win 11-10 against USA!
On to tonight's game against Czech Republic - another game, another loss! Although to be fair, we did seem to compete all the way through. The disappointing thing is that we were in control for the early part of the game, but lost both the 7th and 8th ends with 2 twos. Not only did go from 5-3 up to 5-7 down, but we also handed last stone on the last end to the Czech Republic. From then on, we were forced to chase the game, hoping for a slip-up from them and eventually lost 6-8.
This result leaves Scotland adrift at the bottom of the table, still with no wins after 5 games. Canada lead with 4 wins from 4 games, followed by Norway and Switzerland with 3 wins from 4 games and Czech Republic, Finland and Japan on 3 wins from 5 games.
Scotland's next two games are against Russia and USA, both teams being on 1 win, so we might, just might, manage to get our first win tomorrow.
Thankfully, I don't know the details, but Scotland must have been doing something strange tactically or playing extremely poor shots, perhaps even both, for such a result. Remember that Japan took a 5 off us in the second session, so it's not a one-off to have one disastrous end during a game. To put it in perspective, Norway's biggest end against them is a 2. Switzerland and Japan have both lost a 3 at their worst. Amazingly, Canada lost a 3 and a 4 in the same game and still managed to win 11-10 against USA!
On to tonight's game against Czech Republic - another game, another loss! Although to be fair, we did seem to compete all the way through. The disappointing thing is that we were in control for the early part of the game, but lost both the 7th and 8th ends with 2 twos. Not only did go from 5-3 up to 5-7 down, but we also handed last stone on the last end to the Czech Republic. From then on, we were forced to chase the game, hoping for a slip-up from them and eventually lost 6-8.
This result leaves Scotland adrift at the bottom of the table, still with no wins after 5 games. Canada lead with 4 wins from 4 games, followed by Norway and Switzerland with 3 wins from 4 games and Czech Republic, Finland and Japan on 3 wins from 5 games.
Scotland's next two games are against Russia and USA, both teams being on 1 win, so we might, just might, manage to get our first win tomorrow.
Cabbage is still good for you