David Murdoch’s Scotland curling team grasped two vital early wins at the European Curling Championships in Sweden yesterday, which leaves the Scots lying in third position after six matches.
 
First they beat hosts Sweden 8-4 followed by a 6-5 victory over rivals Switzerland.

Scotland's women's weren’t so strong to start however, losing 7-4 to the Swiss, but they went on to defeat Denmark 9-5.

They were then shocked by Italy losing 9-6 even though they led by four shots at half time.

Skip Kelly Wood was understandably distraught.

 “That was a complete nightmare,” she said.  “Shot execution was disastrous, with misses all over the place.  I’m playing all the big shots and then you just go and throw it away on something simple.  It’s just stupid.  We’re just getting penalised so heavily”.