Edinburgh curler Bruce Mouat just misses out on World Cup final

Edinburgh curler Bruce Mouat narrowly failed to reach today's World Cup final in Suzhou, China despite enjoying one of the best wins of his career.
Jennifer Dodds and Bruce MouatJennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat
Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat

The world bronze medallist and his team-mates Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie and Grant Hardie, needed to beat Canadian Kevin Koe to keep their title hopes alive, but Koe was undefeated all week and had already thrashed the Scots 11-1 on Thursday.

Mouat turned the tables in their Group B rematch, edging a low-scoring encounter 3-1 before tumbling out of contention after losing 6-5 to Switzerland’s Olympic bronze medallist Peter De Cruz in another tight contest that went all the way to the last shot.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mouat had the chance to win it with his final delivery, but he was fractionally off target. “I thought I played the shot pretty well, but it just didn’t curl enough for me. It’s very frustrating,” he said.

Koe went on to beat Norwegian Steffen Walstad 6-5 in the final, but Mouat was encouraged by his first trip to China and added: “We had a good week here with only two blips along the way. Unfortunately, the last shot against De Cruz didn’t come off and we were unable to make the final. But this week does give us some confidence going into our next competition in Canada (the first Grand Slam tournament of the season in Chatham, Ontario).”

Another Edinburgh player, Jennifer Dodds, and her team-mates Lauren Gray, Vicky Wright and Vicki Chalmers rounded off a mixed week with a 10-1 victory over home skip Sijia Liu and an 8-1 defeat by Sweden’s Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg, who lost the final to Canadian Rachel Homan.

It was a baptism of fire for Dodds, who was making her debut after joining the team in July but skipped the side in the absence of injured European champion Eve Muirhead. Two Pool A wins earned the Scots $3,000 in prize money plus valuable ranking points for the World Cup Grand Final in Beijing next May.