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Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Scotland beat Switzerland to retain European curling title

Scotland skip Bruce Mouat
Scotland skip Bruce Mouat earned his third European title after wins in 2018 and 2021

Bruce Mouat engineered two fantastic closing shots as Scotland’s men defended their European title in a tense final with Switzerland.

Trailing 4-3 after a lapse of judgement in the ninth end, Scotland came through to win 5-4 in Ostersund, Sweden.

It is a third European crown for Mouat, who becomes the first Scottish skip to retain the title since 2008.

“To play two shots like that in the 10th end is pretty special,” Mouat told Eurosport. “This one means a lot.”

Mouat and team-mates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, who picked silver medals at the Olympic Games in February, lost just once in the round-robin, going down 7-2 to Yannick Schwaller’s Swiss rink.

But they kept cool heads at the death to earn revenge when it really counted.

“It was a calm panic, if there’s such a thing,” the skip added. “You play a lot games with situations like this and you get used to it.

“It’s been a rollercoaster, probably not our best European performance, but to win after playing a couple of slack games, it feels amazing.”

The final was a cagey affair, tied at 2-2 after five ends and 3-3 after eight, before exploding into life in the final two.

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