Scotland fall short in World Championship opener
BySportsbeat
Updated 02/04/2017 at 11:06 GMT
David Murdoch admitted the testing conditions of the ice had caught him out as Scotland began their World Men's Curling Championship campaign with defeat to newcomers Norway.
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Image credit: Imago
The Scots had to wait until the evening session of the first day to get their tournament up and running but it came in far from ideal circumstances, losing 9-6 in Edmonton, Canada.
After blanking the first end, Norway's Steffen Walstad opened the contest with a draw to take two after a missed front guard, though Murdoch was to make amends with his own draw for two.
That levelled the scoring after three ends, but a couple of Scottish mistakes allowed Norway to open up a sizeable lead when taking three in the fourth end, moving them 5-2 ahead.
Another draw for two saw Scotland back within one, and they were quickly level at five-apiece when their opponents passed up a steal, Norway missing the chance to remove Scotland's scoring stone.
But after Norway restored their two-shot lead, Murdoch once again reduced arrears to 7-6, though he missed out on the opportunity to draw level with his effort too heavy in challenging ince.
Chasing the game, Scotland were held by a blanked end by Norway before an easy hit in the tenth allowed them to get two, extending their lead to 9-6 and taking the match away from Murdoch and his rink.
"I'd say that's the frostiest ice I've ever seen at a World Championship, and it just made it tough when you went a couple down and you had to throw draws," he said.
"It was a total guess for the path and how much frost there is, it's challenging. We're going to have to deal with it though, I can't see it changing in a hurry because this building's going to be like this.
"Challenging is definitely the word – I'd probably like to use other words but…apart from that, we generated a lot of twos and technically we were good.
"The three (in the fourth end) was the turning point – we got caught out on a couple of lines for the draw. The ice is still new and frosty and we're still guessing the weight, but we've got to move on."
The Scottish men now face USA on Sunday afternoon and then Japan in the evening.
The other action in Canada saw Switzerland get their first victory with a 7-4 success against USA, while Germany defeated Italy 7-5.
Sweden made it one win from one with a 10-7 win over China. joining Norway, Japan and hosts Canada to sit atop the round-robin table
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