 Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie complete a 'Golden Season' for Scottish Curling. Muirhead completed a full set of championship titles while Lammie won his first senior title since his junior days as the Olympic medal winning pair beat hosts Switzerland 9-7 to complete a perfect 11 match winning streak to defend the World Mixed Doubles Championship title for Scotland. It was an exceptional overseas debut in mixed doubles competition for the partnership that had earned the right to try to emulate the achievements of their regular teammates Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat by beating them in the final of the Scottish Championship just a fortnight after all four had played in Olympic finals in Beijing. Dominant throughout the week in Geneva, they carried that momentum into the final, saving their very best start for the final when, after claiming the hammer at the opening end by winning the last stone draw – the first time all week that Swtizerland's Alina Paetz and Sven Michel had been beaten in that often crucial pre-match challenge – they registered a four. Lammie had done the set up work, but after five time world champion Alina Paetz produced a fine draw to ask a difficult question of Muirhead, she came up with the perfect answer, a precisely judged hit and roll that gave her team the ideal start. When they stole another shot at the next end they moved into a 5-0 lead, but knew their highly experienced opponents would find a way of coming back at them, which they duly did. The Scots retained the five shot lead at the interval after exchanges of twos left them 7-2 ahead at the midway break, forcing the Swiss pair to take their powerplay on the resumption and when Muirhead narrowly failed with an attempted double take-out with her final stone, removing only one of the counting shots, Paetz was able to replace it and reduce the deficit. They were still in control 7-4 up, so opted not to take their own powerplay immediately, but they were forced to at the seventh end after the Swiss not only claimed the first steal any team had taken from the Scots all week, but cut the lead by a further two. With the pressure on they duly raised their game once more in scoring the two that put them three shots up playing the final end where another succession of well placed stones left Paetz with no real chance as she played her final stone which failed to disturb the head. "Mixed Doubles is never over until it's over is it, so as much as you've got that early five point lead, you're always clinging onto that lead and one or two half shots let them back into it," Muirhead acknowledged, in identifying the seventh end as the decisive moment. "However, as much as we gave up that big steal of two at the sixth end, we kept our composure and we knew that if we scored at the next end we would be in good shape, so a two was a bonus, because just scoring would have been good." Having started the season under greater pressure than at any time in her career when she was made to fight for her place in the Olympic women's team in a nine player squad set-up, Muirhead has gone on to have the greatest season of any Scottish skip, winning the her third European and first Olympic title, before finishing the campaign by winning the only major championship title that remained. "For myself it's really special to have competed the full set," she said. "It's been a phenomenal year for myself and my girls at home as well so to round it off playing here with Bobby was really special. "It was the first time at this event for both of us, and we produced a lot of good curling. "We didn't drop a game all week, and that just shows how consistent we were as players and how we've been all season. "I'm absolutely delighted to get another gold medal, and I'm sure we'll enjoy the celebrations tonight." For Lammie it has also been an extraordinary year, winning a second European title as part of Team Mouat and going on to reach an Olympic final with them, before continuing an unprecedented run in Canada's Grand Slam of Curling events – the most lucrative on the circuit – by reaching a fifth successive final at The Players Championship earlier this month, winning four of them. Victory at The Players Championship having also seen them become the first Scots to win the prestigious Pinty's Cup, he will now rejoin them having matched skip Mouat in having attained world champion status at senior level, as they head into the last Grand Slam event at the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup next week. "This caps off the week we've had here, going unbeaten and being in control of what we're doing, so we're just delighted to get the win today," said the 25-year-old. "It's been a whirlwind of a season, a pretty memorable one for Scottish and British curling. "I'm delighted to get my first World Championship win since 2016 in the juniors. It's been a wee bit of a wait, but getting over that line, hopefully we can just kick on from here and maybe pick up a few more. "Heading into a Slam next week will be an excellent way to finish off the season. It'll be a wee bit more relaxed competition for us and a bit more fun, so I'm looking forward to that with the boys." |
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