Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat remain locked in a three-way tie at the top of Pool A in the World Mixed Doubles Championship but believe they have missed an opportunity to take the outright lead at the top of their group in Aberdeen.
The Scottish team remain joint leaders along with Canada and Italy but every team in the section has now suffered defeat as the event reaches the halfway stage.
Dodds and Mouat recovered from a shock 7-6 loss to Russia in the morning session by beating the Czech Republic 7-5 in the afternoon session to ensure they are on course for the play-offs but Mouat was frustrated at over-sweeping Dodds’ final stone in the final end to hand victory to the Russians.
He said: “We have put ourselves in a good position, but it could have been better if I wasn’t stupid and you can quote that if you want.
“We are playing really well out there and feeling really confident out there and if we keep it up we will be a tough team to beat.”
Mouat and Dodds reacted strongly to their first defeat by racing into a 5-0 lead in their second match against the Czechs, whose unbeaten record had also tumbled in the morning.
Mouat said: “Jen and I know each other from way back when we were like tiny little tots, so we know how to deal with each other and we are a really confident partnership when we are curling together.
“She is just really nice to play with and to compete with her at a world level is an honour.”
The in-form Czechs staged an impressive comeback to get back to 6-5 down heading into the last end, where they piled the pressure on but Dodds held firm to close out victory with her final delivery.
She said: “It was really good to bounce back.
“This morning obviously it was really disappointing but I know the feeling when you over sweep a stone. It is the worst feeling in the world so I can relate heavily, but we knew in the Russia game we were in control of a lot of it so we just had to bring the same game to play the Czech’s and we got off to a really good start.
“I struggled a bit in the middle half of that game, but then got a hang of it in seven and eight again.”
Mouat and Dodds are in action again tomorrow against Germany at lunchtime followed by a crucial match against Canada in the evening.