Double blow for Scots in World Curling Championship

Scotland’s chances of reaching the Women’s World Curling Championship play-offs suffered a double blow on Wednesday as Fay Henderson’s rink lost to South Korea then Canada.

Scotland were swept aside 8-3 by South Korea then lost their evening match 7-5 against in-form hosts Canada in Calgary.

The Scots are in 10th place in the 13-team league with just three victories from their nine round-robin games.

The top six teams will go into the play-offs, with the top two gaining direct entry to Saturday semi-finals – so to have a chance of progressing, Scotland must win all three of their remaining games and hope Turkey lose all of theirs.

With their sixth win, Gim Eun-ji’s South Koreans moved up to joint-third behind Kerri Einarson’s Canadians and Xenia Schwaller’s Switzerland rink.

But the South Koreans, who finished fifth at this year’s Winter Olympics, took four singles before the Scots managed a point on the board.

A three at the sixth end put Henderson’s rink back in contention, but that was to be their only score.

In their second game, Canada gained a crucial single steal in the ninth end when Henderson was just too heavy with a nudge-up attempt.

Scotland then ran out of stones in the 10th to give Canada a victory that meant they joined Switzerland on seven wins.

“We just lost control a little bit in the middle of the game. We started really strong and let them back in the game a little bit, but I thought we finished really strong as well,” said Canada’s Shannon Birchard.

The Scots have beaten Denmark and the United States in addition to the Japan win but have lost to China, Turkey, Switzerland and Sweden.

Henderson’s rink – Lisa Davie, Hailey Duff and Katie McMillan – are competing in their first World Championships after their recent national championship win in Dumfries in the absence of Sophie Jackson’s rink, who represented Great Britain at the Olympics.

The British rink lost 9-3 to the same South Korean rink in Cortina.