Junior World Champions 2007
18th March 2007
by Bill Nicol thanks to Brenda Macintyre
The listing was posted by
RCCC - Area 10
Junior World Curling Championships 2007
EVELETH MINNESOTA
Winners Scotland
Skip - Sarah Reid, Third - Eve Muirhead, Second - Barbara McFarlane, Lead - Sarah Macintyre, Alternate - Alison Black and Coach - Sheila Swan
Brenda Macintyre mother of Sarah the Scottish lead penned the following at my request on her return from Eveleth to give us a taste of the glory Sarah has achieved through hard work and dedication.
It’s ironic that I will have to put our men’s world champions (which include our own Ewan Macdonald) into the file “NEWS ITEMS” which will always be available and replace it with Sarah’s fairy tale rise to Junior World Champion.
Well how can I describe the week at the World Junior Championships? To win the first 3 games was a terrific start especially the game against Russia which was outstanding curling. The talk and feeling amongst the 21 Scottish supporters was very positive and we were all on a high. Of course with highs there are lows and the next 4 losses were definitely the low time in the week. The more positive of us talked about Rhona Martin's record of 3 wins, 4 losses and then 5 wins to get gold at the Olympics and it reminded us that all was not lost - yet! Not one of us could say why the losses were happening, there were a few missed shots, a loss of confidence perhaps but the management decided to take Eve Muirhead off and put Ali Black in as third for the next game which we won. This was followed by another win and the fact that China beat Norway allowed us to be part of a three way play off for 4th spot. I seriously believe you need a bit of luck in curling to succeed and that was our first. The other two teams were Switzerland and Norway who we beat in the round robin so they played each other then the winner (Switzerland) played us in the tie break. We won the match which meant we were to face the no. 1 team which was the USA who in the round robin had won 8 games and lost 1. A formidable team who had played well all week and some of the players were local to Eveleth. Eve was back in the team and we were in charge both on the ice and in the stands supporting our Scotland. At the 6th end we were 5 - 1 up when USA started to claw back in the 7th 2 shots followed by 1 then another 1. We desperately wanted Sarah Reid and her team to close the game out but the USA played superb. In the final end Sarah took her 1 to win 6-5 - we were ecstatic, a medal was definitely coming home with us, to be honest, it didn't really matter what one!! That game was one which sorted the "men" supporters from the "boys", some coped quietly and admirably, some chose not to look and one or two were known to leave the building altogether rather than sit through and agonise over each shot with the players on both sides. The singing went on for a long time that day and night - we probably made the most noise over the whole tournament and we were there for every game in both men’s and women’s. In fact, one of the USA team on being told she was to meet Scotland in the semis replied "Oh No! that means its going to be noisy and we don't want that". The day of the final was awesome (American word!) Scotland v Canada at 7pm we, the support, arrived early to claim our seating area. The Canadians had already been there and their balloons were everywhere, our normal area was taken so we had to go to a new spot for us (hoping it wouldn't bring us bad luck). We duly started our supporting songs and were charged ready for what was to be a fantastic final. I'm sure many of you were with us through the ends and I know some people at home just went to bed after the 8th end when it was 6 - 3 to Canada. It really all went in a blur, the three we lost were a blow but the heads never went down on the ice and we supported even louder. We were right behind the girls - they took a 1 then going into the tenth 2 down without last stone would normally mean curtains but they played terrifically and forced Canada to hit rather than draw and they rolled out themselves for us to steal a 2 to force an extra end. We were in full song now, coaches were back on giving the teams their orders for the final end to decide who would be World Champions, as each shot was played to perfection by the Scottish girls we applauded them one by one - Canada were forced into errors and as we played our last stone onto the pot lid we could do no more. The girls grouped together filled with emotion, looking nervous for the very first time - knowing it was now down to the Canadian Skip's shot to determine the winner, our stone was totally buried and to be honest none of us could see how she could remove it but knowing deep down anything is possible. She went down to play the shot, then they called a time out. They took more time before deciding what to play, you could have heard a pin drop in the ice rink, the stone was released (we were all on our feet by this time) we watched anxiously, Stacie shouted no to the sweepers and half way up Eve Muirhead who was behind the head let out a scream and confirmed to us the line was wide and we were now the World Junior Champions. We partied till 4 in the morning, all the Americans were happy for us and joined in our celebrations.
Alastair and I were very impressed with the professionalism of the team both on and off ice, the quality of their game (the team work was incredible) and the loyalty to the coaches, back room staff etc.
We really enjoyed the experience.
Bill that is a potted version of events that describes a bit of what we felt and experienced as parents and spectators when Scotland Won the World Junior Curling Championships in EVELETH MINNESOTA 2007