Winter Olympics 2022 - GB women's curling team suffer narrow defeat to Switzerland in Beijing
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BySam Webb
Updated 10/02/2022 at 06:36 GMT
Great Britain narrowly lost out to world champions Switzerland in the women's curling as the round robin stage got underway in Beijing. Following Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat's defeat to Sweden in the mixed doubles bronze medal match, medal hopes have fallen to the women's quartet, who impressed in their round robin opener but could not do enough to stop the Swiss in the game's extra end.
Team GB's Eve Muirhead & Grant Hardie get set for Beijing 2022 curling conquests
Great Britain’s women’s curling team suffered a narrow 6-5 defeat to world champions Switzerland in their round robin opener.
What started out as a cagey contest turned into a tense tactical battle as the sides entered an extra end tied at 5-5.
GB skip Eve Muirhead had the chance to secure victory at the death but saw her final throw glide fractionally too far, meaning the Swiss snatched the victory.
Muirhead, who is searching for an elusive gold medal at her fourth Olympic Games having missed out on a medal in Pyeonchang four years ago, was largely impressive in a game that was tight on draws, take-outs and stolen ends.
Her three Olympic-debutants teammates - Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds and Hailey Duff – looked relaxed throughout and communicated well, showing promise ahead of their remaining fixtures.
Swiss players Alina Paetz, Esther Neuenschwander and Melanie Barbezat, led by skip Silvana Tirinzoni, ultimately showed why they are world champions as they edged GB in extremely close-fought encounter.
Following Bruce Mouat and Dodds’ 9-3 thrashing by Sweden in the mixed doubles bronze medal match, the women’s team took to the ice with added incentive to get off to a strong start in the round robin stage.
The start of the game was tight with both sides fighting for position in the house and knocking each other’s stones out.
The score stood at 0-0 after the first end, as with all the other fixtures taking place on the ice nearby, before Switzerland's Alina Paetz took advantage of space left by GB to give the Swiss a 1-0 lead after two ends.
After trading shots for fourteen throws, GB threw last in the third end and levelled the score to 1-1 before the Swiss then reclaimed the lead in the fourth end, but by just one stone.
Vicky Wright’s perfectly executed throw took out two Swiss yellow stones in the fifth but the end finished blank and the world champions led 2-1 at the game’s halfway mark.
The game, which had started as a cagey and close-fought affair, then started to open up.
Muirhead had sought to retain the hammer in the fifth end and her tactical awareness paid off in the sixth as Britain scored two: Paetz of Switzerland missing the chance to take out a red stone and Muirhad capitalising with a brilliantly executed throw to put GB 3-2 up.
“Great sweep” was the shout from Dodds, who bore a look of focus and determination throughout, undoubtedly seeking redemption after the disappointment f her mixed doubles loss to Sweden.
Another mistake from Paetz followed as she saw her blank attempt drift wide, just clipping the red stone harmlessly, gifting GB a 4-2 lead at the close of the seventh end.
Muirhead, who has had surgery on her hip since Pyeongchang, impressed throughout the game, particularly in the second half, booming commands to her teammates on their Olympic debuts.
The Swiss were forced to call time out as the game approached its ninth end, with the Brits forcing more and more errors from the world champions.
However, GB skip Muirhead then made an uncharacteristic error, overthrowing her stone and giving Paetz the chance to draw the Swiss level with two ends to go.
Any more mistakes from either side would surely prove costly as the game neared its conclusion.
Paetz then came up short trying to draw for the Swiss, but Muirhead failed to capitalise with her next stone.
The Brits took a 5-4 lead into the final end but the Swiss would have the crucial hammer. This would be a test of GB’s nerve.
Following a time out from GB in the tenth, their first of the game, Switzerland drew level and took the game to an extra end for a tense finish.
Switzerland drew short with their final shot, presenting GB with a chance to snatch victory at the death if Muirhead could hit the button, but her throw was fractionally too long and the Swiss stole the win.
GB face the Olympic champions, Sweden, at 12:05 GMT.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s title defence got off to a winning start with an 8-5 victory over Japan while Denmark saw off hosts China 7-6.
The United States thrashed the Russian Olympic Committee 9-3, having reached the halfway stage 6-1 up.
As the women’s round robin matches progress, viewers will see teams player with four players each rather than two, both playing two stones each – differing to the mixed doubles.
There are also two extra ends and therefore more stones and longer, more tactical games.
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