Dumfries and Galloway curlers make solid start to world title bid

The region’s curlers have made a solid start to the World Men’s Curling Championship.

Kikrgunzeon’s Grant Hardie and the Stranraer duo of Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie are part of Bruce Mouat’s Scotland rink at the tournament, taking place in Ottawa, Canada.

The rink, which won silver at last year’s Winter Olympics, began their bid for glory with a 7-4 win over Italy on Saturday afternoon thanks to two points in the final end.

And they followed that up on Sunday with a comfortable 8-1 win over Turkey.

However, they then suffered their first defeat, going down 7-4 to defending champs Sweden on Sunday afternoon after the holders scored three in the final end. They got back to winning ways on Monday with a narrow 8-6 win over Germany and beat the US 10-8 in their first game on Tuesday.

However, they then lost their next game to Switzerland by a 7-4 margin.

They returned to winning ways on Wednesday, seeing off Japan 9-2 and Korea 9-3

That left them in a tie for fourth position in the round-robin stage at the end of the fifth day.