Young Scots hold their own

Two of the younger Scottish teams at this year’s masters delivered fine performances on the ice this morning with Kyle Smith leading his side to victory over the Fins Rantamaki and Logan Gray keeping pace with European Champions Ulsrud until the seventh end when the Norwegians claimed four points to end the match.

Kyle Smith got the home crowd cheering with a spectacular shot in the third end to score two where it looked like only one was feasible.  The Scots maintained their composure to follow-up with a steal of one in the fourth.

Despite the efforts of the Fins to stay in the game, control was firmly with the Scots and Kyle kept his cool to glide his final stone close to the button to avoid an extra end.

On the opposite side of the ice Logan Gray and his team played a sound game against the Norwegians and after four ends led four points to two. Ulsrud’s experience came to the fore as he stole two in the fifth to level the scores.

Gray failed to score in the sixth and Ulsrud proved his rink’s credentials by doubling his score and deciding the match 8-4.

Defending champions, Mike McEwan eased to victory in six ends with a tally of 7-2 againstSwitzerland’s Pascal Hess. After the match the Canadian skip said: “We had a nice sheet of nice and handled it pretty well.

“We don’t change too much how we play and try to make the opponent play.”

Elsewhere on the ice Kyle Smith’s dad David and his team mates Warwick Smith, Craig Wilson and Ross Hepburn eased through to the next round of the B-road with a 7-2 win over Switzerland’s de Cruz. After the match when asked if he was confident, Warwick Smith said: “How can you not be with a front end like ours?”

The first session this morning marked the end of the tournament for Blair Fraser’s side who were ushered out of the competition in a 3-6 defeat to Canada’s James Gratton. Another Scottish team skipped by Craig Reid leaves the masters after losing to Lee McCleary 6-8.