Scots benefit from world class competition in Perth

By Clare Carswell
Logan Gray's team sweeps in game against Norway's UlsrudSTV

Two Scottish teams reached the quarter-finals of the Mercure Perth Masters where some of the world’s best players of past present and future battled for the title.

In the 19th year since this event was resurrected the calibre of the competitors has been a formidable one for the Scots to face but the performances delivered by the domestic players on the penultimate day of the competition were testament to Scotland’s reputation as one of the best curling nations in the world.

Since the European Tour event began on Thurdsday seventeen Scottish sides had to contend with a field of teams that included the current European Champions and Olympic silver medalists from Norway, skipped by Thomas Ulsrud, the 2006 Olympic gold medalists team Gushue from Canada and World bronze medalists and silver at the Europeans, Nikolas Edin from Sweden.

The current Scottish Champions skipped by Tom Brewster demonstrated a strong command on the ice and over their opposition. Brewster narrowly lost to the former Swiss skip Claudio Pescia in the top tier of the contest and then fell fowl of two Canadian sides to be knocked out of the competition.

There were also encouraging performances from Logan Gray’s team who played well and managed to hold their own against Ulsrud.  The Norwegians levelled the scores in the fifth end by stealing two when Gray had the advantage of last stone and went on to seal victory with a score of four in the seventh end to finish 8-4 to the visitors.

The youngest team on the ice was captained by 19-year-old Kyle Smith, son of David and nephew to Olympian Pete Smith who are both former World and European Champions.

Kyle’s team included another famous curling name in the form of 16-year-old Thomas Muirhead, younger brother of TeamGB women’s skip Eve.

Kyle Smith delivered exciting and clever curling in Perth to out play and out wit many of his opponents. Of note was the composure with which this young skip had when he delivered his last stone particularly against the Fins when the gallery of supporters were thrilled by an astonishing take-out he played in the third end that seemed impossible.

The chair of the Mercure Perth Masters, Pete Loudon, declared Kyle and his team “the future of Scottish curling” to which Tom Muirhead said: “It’s good that people see potential in us, I think we are proving ourselves this weekend so far that we are capable of beating the good teams and we can play under the pressure and pull off the shots when we need to.”

Muirhead will make his mark on the international scene next week when he travels to Innsbruck, Austria to represent the UK at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games as one of four TeamGB curlers.

The young Scots were ultimately sent out of the competition by local team Shaw which included Kyle’s uncle Pete.

Another thrilling match was the battle between former Olympic team mates Ewan MacDonald and David Murdoch to stay in the Perth competition. The TeamGB skip managed to gain control of the match from early on stretching his lead over MacDonald to 3-0 by the end of three ends. 

In the fourth Ewan played a perfect shot with his final stone that was well swept allowing him to claim one point and reinvigorate his chances but it wasn’t to be. Murdoch retained control in the fifth to stretch the lead and final close the game at 6-1 in the sixth end.

In the following round Murdoch lost by one, 6-7 to Sweden’s Edin in an extra end shortly after 11.30pm and pulling a very long day to an end.

In the quarter-finals the 2010 Scottish Champions skipped by Warwick Smith was decidedly beaten by the 2006 Olympic champion Brad Gushue in four ends while it looked like local favourite Graeme Shaw was going to cause an upset end title hopes for  the European Champions but in the extra end Ulsrud clinched the win to stay in contention.

Joining the Norwegians in the semi-finals are three Canadian teams. Ulsrud will play Laycock while defending Perth Masters Champions Mike McEwan competes against Brad Gushue.

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