The opening duel with a traditional opponent.
Morning, 9:00. The Scots, led by Anna Sloan (2011 Universiade gold), with Eve Muirhead (4x junior world champion) on the bench, won the advantage with a better LSD, but we indicated in the first end that we didn't want to pay the rookie tax in the first game. Gradually we gained a slight advantage, until finally in the eighth end, with the score 4-1 in our favour, Sloan's draw against our deuce was not throwing off the optimism and the 6-1 score was already tempting. The prospect of winning caused us to buy a couple of errors in the ninth end and get a three from Skotek. So we were two up with the advantage until the last end, or rather the tenth end. A decent game though with no successful chips, then one clearing error and we are facing our opponent's two behind our stone with the last stone in front of the rings. We call a draw to 4 feet. We know the ice is going for about 14.7. When I press the stopwatch on the finish hog line, I see 15.74 on the display. The girls are throwing like hell, including Terka, who's coming in from the viceroy position. The stone stops just short of four feet. The Scots say it's a two, Terka defends a one. Alex Tordrup comes in and measures. Ours is better and the Scots only have one. Rohna Martin congratulates me, but Claire Hamilton is still standing on the ice shaking her head in disbelief. The head umpire calls and asks for the stones to be measured. After a moment, she confirms Alex's verdict. But it was a strange moment. It's a nice win, both teams have shown good moments and weaker moments. Tonight we will have a welcome banquet and tomorrow from two the Swiss.
rnphoto: meteme full, Alex Tordrup
