AFTER beating Canada 4-2 in the morning, Scotland’s Ally Fraser led his team to an eighth successive victory last night at the world junior curling championships in Flims, Switzerland.
The Scots overwhelmed Denmark 8-3 in just seven ends to qualify for the weekend medal games in top place.
Inverness curler Fraser started well, with three successive single steals to establish a 3-0 lead.
Denmark scored two in the fourth but Fraser ended the game as a contest in the fifth end, scoring four for a 7-2 lead.
The teams swapped singles in the next two ends after which Denmark gave up the uneven struggle.
Earlier, the game against Canada was much tighter, with five blank ends. Eventually, this game came down to the last end, when, without last stone and thanks to some great sweeping by his front end, Kerr Drummond and Scott Andrews, Fraser just got round a centre guard with his last stone to lie shot in the 4ft ring.
It was then Canadian skip Jake Walker’s turn to find a way round the guard, but he wrecked, leaving the Scottish counter intact for a Scottish steal of one and the game with a 4-2 final score.
Fraser said: “It’s always good to beat Canada.
“We couldn’t ask for much more. Our target was to win a medal and now we want to win gold.
“We’re feeling good and it’s still all to play for.”
The Scottish men now go into curling’s page play-off games tomorrow.
As round-robin leaders, they go in against second-placed China with the winner moving straight to Sunday’s final, and the loser having a second chance to get there via tomorrow’s semi-final.
By contrast, the Scottish women went down to their seventh loss yesterday, when Sweden beat them by 6-2. With only two wins during the week, Lauren Gray’s team now ranks 10th and last among the women’s teams.