Muirhead bounces back to win

UNLIKE David Murdoch’s team, which crashed out of contention after an extra end semi-final loss on Saturday evening, Eve Muirhead’s women bounced back from their disappointing Vancouver Olympic performance to win the Scottish women’s curling championship in Perth yesterday, thereby moving on to represent Scotland at the world championships in Canada later this month.

Muirhead’s team was facing Stranraer’s Gail Munro for the fourth time in the weekend and had to recover from a surprise injury to regular third player Jackie Lockhart, who dislocated her knee in a warm-up mishap. This meant Kelly Wood moved up to third, Lorna Vevers was promoted to second and alternate Annie Laird came on as lead.

Although Muirhead scored a single in the opening end, Munro took three from the second for an early lead. After this Muirhead levelled with two shots in the third and then moved into a 5-4 lead with another two in the fifth.

The lead changed hands five times in what was a tight game, until finally, in an extra end, Muirhead had a straightforward takeout to score the one needed for a 8-7 victory and the title.

Muirhead said: “We’re delighted to come back with the win here after Vancouver.”