Edinburgh International curling final is a game too far for Mouat

EDINBURGH curler Bruce Mouat narrowly failed to give the home crowd the victory they craved after losing yesterday's Edinburgh International final at Murrayfield Ice Rink.

Bruce Mouat

The world junior gold medallist topped Group A with four wins out of five before pipping Czech player David Sik 4-3 in yesterday morning’s quarter-finals. Mouat then beat his old Scottish Curling Tour rival Grant Hardie 7-4 in the semis, but three back-to-back matches in one day, following recent mixed doubles tournaments in Austria and Germany, proved too much for the Napier student when he faced another Czech, Karel Kubeska, in the final.

Despite leading early on, Mouat conceded four stones at the second end and three more at the fourth as he slumped to an 8-2 defeat. Kubeska had earlier taken the prized scalp of Denmark’s world silver medallist and pre-tournament favourite Rasmus Stjerne in the semi-finals. “It was a good competition for us and we’re chuffed to have made the final, but we just didn’t come out and perform like we could in the final,” said Mouat.

Meanwhile, Murrayfield’s Karina Aitken and David Baird both finished third at the Inverness Junior International. Aitken lost in the semis to eventual winner Lisa Davie before recovering to beat Lucy Blair 7-4 for third place. Baird’s run was ended by Luke Carson, but he too bounced back with a 6-4 victory over Grant Barr.