 Scotland's Team Whyte wasted no time in registering their fourth successive win at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship as they defeated a dangerous Italy team 9-3 in the minimum six ends in Utah. The Italians, skipped for the first time at this level by former World Junior Champion Stefano Spiller, had come into the match on the back of some excellent results, beating 2024 European Champions Germany and ending Switzerland's unbeaten record and they looked set to pose the Scots a challenge, preventing Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Craig Waddell and Euan Kyle from scoring with the hammer at the opening end as they had done in setting up their three previous wins. The Scots' response to that was emphatic however, Whyte playing a difficult angled raised takeout with his first stone at the second end to set up a multiple score before turning a score of two into a three with a perfectly judged draw, with only half of the four foot rings to aim at, through a tight route. The response was impressive as Spiller executed a delicate tap back with his final stone to register a two at the third and while Whyte stamped his authority on proceedings by drilling his final stone through the narrowest of ports at the next for a takeout which secured what was effectively a match-winning five, the 20-year-old Italian skip had earned the respect of opponents who are ranked in the top five in the world. "He was playing great," Whyte said of his opposite number. "He started off really well and at the third end made two great shots for two which was tough to see as we had actually played a pretty good end. "We kind of went from there and put in a really good next end which kind of killed off the game, so it was great to see how well he was playing but thankfully we put our mark on the game." Having consolidated their place towards the top of the standings, the Scots now have considerable momentum to take into the second half of the round-robin competition and there have been real bonuses in requiring just 13 of the scheduled 20 ends to win matches against Poland and Italy on successive one-game days, the nature of those wins also allowing them to fully utilise their man-power, with fifth player Duncan McFadzean getting a second run-out, this time allowing Craig Waddell an additional rest. "Finishing early always helps, keeping us fresh for the following days as we know we have three big days with two game days ahead, so it is never easy coming to a championship like this because it is a lot of hard games, but finishing off early is a great feeling," said Whyte. "We are feeling really good, we know we can do a lot with the brushes and the boys are sweeping well and it feels like it is easier to make hits on this ice than draws at this point. "It feels like if we can keep that going we are going to be in a great place because we are all throwing great weight which is making it a lot easier to line call as well. "That’s most of the difficult part so if we can keep doing that its going to put us in a good place later on and it was great to get Dunc on again. "He came on and did a great job as always and Craig getting a break was nice for him too to get an end off sweeping. "Any bit of relaxation is a good thing for the boys and hopefully that continues and we can keep getting breaks, but if not and we have to go to extra ends we are happy to do that. "All in all, though, we are very pleased with today’s performance and hopefully it is the same again tomorrow." The Scots start day six at 4pm GMT against Korea, who have won two of their seven matches so far, then later in the day - 2am GMT - face Germany who, like Scotland, have four wins so far, but have played one match more. The championship takes place from March 27 to April 4 with all 13 competing nations meeting one another in round-robin competition before the top six go on to battle for the medals. Scotland’s 12 rival nations are - Canada, China, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA |
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Scotland's Team Whyte wasted no time in registering their fourth successive win at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship as they defeated a dangerous Italy team 9-3 in the minimum six ends in Utah.
