Dumfries and Galloway curlers shone on the international stage this weekend in the European Championships.
The men, including Kirkgunzeon’s Grant Hardie and Stranraer’s Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jnr, won gold to retain their title from last year. Dumfries curler Sophie Jackson helped the women’s rink win bronze in Östersund, Sweden.
It was a relatively straightforward route to Saturday afternoon’s final for the Scottish lads who sailed through the group with eight wins and one defeat.
The Winter Olympic silver medallists beat Germany, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Denmark, Norway and Italy and lost to first place Switzerland in the round-robin stage.
They closed out the group with a match against Italy and that was their semi-final tie on Thursday which the Scots won 7-4.
That set them up for a rematch with the Swiss as they looked to exact revenge for their round-robin defeat.
Switzerland took a point in the second before Mouat scored a double in the fourth. Switzerland levelled in the fifth before the team traded singles in the sixth and eighth as the Swiss went 4-3 up in the ninth to take the lead for the first time.
With his first shot of the tenth end, Scotland’s Mouat played a raise double take-out to get rid of two Swiss stones sitting in the house. Then, with his last stone, Mouat played another complicated raise to score two points and take the win 5-4.
He said: “I’m elated and totally buzzing. Having to make two shots in the tenth end like that is pretty special. This one means a lot, having to finish off a game like that, amazing.
“It was a rollercoaster. It probably wasn’t our strongest Europeans performance but to win the event after playing a couple of slack games feels amazing.”
Sophie Jackson and the Scottish women just made it in to the knockout rounds after a mixed round robin saw them win five and lose four.
Wins over Turkey, Latvia, Sweden, Hungary and Norway were enough to see them qualify after defeats at the hands of Italy, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. They took on the Danes on Thursday afternoon’s semi-finals but the eventual champions proved to have too much for the Scots as they won 11-3.
That set up Friday’s bronze medal match with Italy which Scotland won 9-5.
