The Scots and their fans.
First game and baptism by fire. Noisy Scottish fans behind the expensive, inaccurate timekeeping and two missed threes in seven ends - these are in a nutshell the essential circumstances of the match with traditional rival, last year's world champion, Scotland. The start is a bit awkward, only some stones are successful and after three ends it is 1 : 5. Measuring at 2 : 5 and a well-played end at 3 : 5. The Scots refuse to play a four and take "only" a three in the seventh end and we are five down. We start to run out of time, yet we give an extra two in the eighth end after a time-out for three, and two in the following end after a great runback and a short draw by Scot Gray, and go into the tenth tied but with no advantage. We have 4 minutes 19 seconds to go for the entire last end. The Scots are not accurate defensively, we on the other hand throw the last stone under time pressure (2 seconds to go!! - ugh). The time umpire cheats us by another 20 seconds, but after urging us on he gives it back again. The Scot needs a double to win, but her stone ends up on the chamber of ours, so we have one! A valuable win, especially for our ability to climb out of adversity and a mediocre performance.
rnphoto: Anna