Flaxey, Robertson and Hasselborg.
Three games played with a break of about sixty minutes each - that was our team's schedule on Sunday at the Oakville Curling Club. It takes about twenty minutes to get to the arena from where we live. Today we were a little worried about the last day of vacation for Canadian school kids, but everything was ok, maybe just a few more cars on the highway. Team Flaxey states on their website that they are ranked number five in the world. So our 9 to 3 win is valuable, and one of those we achieved after a very good performance. We started off just as sharp against Team Robertson. We dealt them a four in the first end, but this probably kick-started the performance of our opponents. From that point on, step by step, the Canadians tightened us up until they had us pretty much wrapped up. In the last end, Anna had to hit four feet to win. With the help of Terka and Klara, the stone got where it needed to go, and we qualified for the quarterfinals of this well-fought tournament. On lane 8, after an hour break, the rested Swedes, silver medallists from the 2016 European Championships, were waiting for us. The start was balanced and at times more convincing than the Swedish performance, but then the quality was higher on the side of the northerners. We were not able to exert pressure anymore and fatigue also played a role. We lost in six ends and thus finished in the top eight of the tournament, which we consider a success. We rate the ice and the stones highly. We have rarely been able to play on anything comparable. Now we have relatively slower days ahead of us where we can fit in a few practices and an exhibition game, but we have another big tournament starting Friday at the Oakville Indoor Arena that we are participating in.