At Curl Edinburgh this morning the members of the various clubs who play there are gathering to cheer on Team GB in their second match of the day in Beijing at the Winter Olympics 2022.
Having beaten the USA today already, it is hoped that they have confidence to beat the Norwegian team. The match begins at 12.05. Yesterday the Norwegians had the upper hand and Team GB conceded the match in the last end.
Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds were coached by David Aitken the former World Junior Curling Champion and they were members of Gogar Park Young Curlers who were on the ice practising earlier.
We asked Michael Goodfellow, a silver medallist at the Sochi games in 2014 with the men’s curling team about the pair’s chances today. Michael is now an apprentice coach with British Curling, and he believes that Bruce and Jen have a very good chance today, despite their defeat to Norway yesterday.
He said: “They have played their best when it matters most. They have played lots of big games and won big games. So I think they will handle the pressure well.”
Amy Seftor was one of the young curlers at Curl Edinburgh today playing with others under the watchful eye of a couple of coaches. She thinks this is a sport for everyone and said: “I think young people should come along and give it a try. It’s fun and you get to meet a lot of new people and friends as well.”
In pairs the players can place the first two stones in predetermined positions, they only have five stones per team per end rather than eight, and the run of play will determine who plays the last stone or “hammer”. The team which loses an “end” then has the advantage of playing the last stone in the next end.
Best of luck to Bruce and Jen – here’s hoping another Olympic medal will be brought home to Edinburgh.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
