ON the last day of the round robin stage of the European curling championships in Sweden, the Irish men’s team were hoping to improve on their won one lost six record.
Peter J Wilson, Neil Fyfe, Bill Gray and John Furey had two games left to improve their standings and avoid dropping back down to the ‘B’ Division for the championships in Aberdeen next December.
It was an early start in the Swedbank Arena for the team as the faced Denmark at 9am.
The Danes have a very good record in recent Europeans, but they were knocked back on their heels after losing three singles in a row to the boys in green. The Irish team were looking good for their second win of these championships, but their habit of losing a big end surfaced again when they lost a three in the fourth end to put the Danes right back in contention.
The curlers did their best to keep the Danish at bay, but superior tactics and accuracy off shot saw the Danes get another three in the six and a four in the ninth to win by a comfortable six shot margin.
Ireland 5 – Denmark 11
Ireland’s final group match will be against Scotland, one of the tournament favourites , who lost this morning 6-5 to France , a team Ireland beat in their first round match.
