Swiss on a roll to Cameron’s cost

Borders curler Cameron Bryce in action at the World Mixed Curling Championships in Berne

Playing competition hosts Switzerland the match was a really close run affair with the teams trading the lead on a number of occasions throughout.

With the scores level at the half time break Cameron, from Morebattle, and his team agreed on their strategy for the next two ends of curling. They forced Switzerland to score one point in the fifth end and, with the resulting last stone advantage in the next, scored two points to move to a 4-3 lead. Things were looking good in the penultimate end for the Scots, who again forced their opponents to score one point; however one misjudged stone allowed Switzerland to score two points.

Despite trailing going into the last end the Scots could still win the match with a single shot but unfortunately they couldn’t remove the Swiss stone that was lying and the hosts won 6-4.

Earlier on Wednesday Scotland played the also unbeaten Hungarians, who were joint group leaders with the Scots at the time, in one of their three remaining group matches. They completed a stunning win by racing to a 10-2 half time lead, and with each team scoring one more point each in the next two ends, Hungary then conceded the game early guaranteeing Cameron and his team a place in the qualifying round.

On Thursday they suffered their first defeat to the USA who were just behind them in the group standings. It was close in the early stages with Scotland just leading at half time, but the Americans took control in the second half to win the match by six shots. They then bounced back in style in their last group game to beat Austria 6-3, which meant Scotland secured second place in the group behind the Americans, resulting in the match up against Switzerland in the qualifying round.

The game against the Swiss team was broadcast live on the internet, so many of Cameron’s fellow curlers at Border Ice Rink tuned in to watch and with the game going down to the very last stone, it was very exciting for all.

Cameron and his Scottish team played very well all week and represented their country with pride and the good sportsmanship which is such an important element of curling. We will surely hear more about Cameron and his curling exploits in the near future.