Bronze medal for Mouat

SCOTLAND’S World Champions overcame their own disappointment, as well as high calibre opposition, to maintain their record of always medalling at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships, with a dominant performance in the bronze medal game against Italy.

The 9-3 victory saw skip Bruce Mouat, and his Dumfries and Galloway teammates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, complete a full set of medals at the Euros, just as they have previously done at the World Championships and there was satisfaction with the way they responded to a rare setback when they were beaten 8-5 by Sweden in the semi-final after beating all nine opposing teams in the round-robin.

Mouat said: “There is a disappointment that we didn’t cap off a really good week with a gold medal, but we played very well throughout and winning ten out of the 11 games in a field like this is something to be proud of, so I am glad we are coming away from this event with something.”

Taking into account their tournament triumphs at two Grand Slam of Curling events ahead of the Euros, that semi-final loss had ended a stunning run of 19 consecutive wins against the world’s best teams by the Scottish quartet and across the three events they have won a total of 23 of their 25 matches in a season in which they are looking to build towards the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.

Mouat added: “We are playing really well moving towards the Olympics, so we are hoping to continue this form over the next couple of months.

“By the time February comes along hopefully we will be playing similar and it is nice to complete the medal collection.

“Obviously bronze wasn’t the colour we were maybe hoping for, but we are still proud to be coming away from this event with something and we also get some cheese which is nice.”