Mouat and Dodds hopeful of curling semi-final place despite loss to Italy

Two steps forward, one step back. That has been the pattern for Great Britain’s mixed doubles curlers so far at these Olympic Games. But despite a 7-5 loss to Italy on Saturday, Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds believe they can make a medal push – with the help of the “super powers” in Mouat’s Team GB cap.

Maout decided to start wearing the cap in matches after mixed performances in the opening three games, and he believes his form is now coming to the boil as a result. “It’s a wee bit of a superstition,” he said. “I didn’t play very well in the first three games and I was quite disappointed, so I put the hat on and it has got super powers, apparently.

“Potentially I play better with it on. Maybe it’s a vanity thing, my hair is all over the place. It just covers up a bad-hair day and people don’t worry about my hair, so I don’t worry about it.”

Mouat said the idea of wearing a hat had first occurred to him in the Champions Cup final in the grand slam bubble last year. “The commentators were slagging me off for having quiffs and stuff in my hair,” he said. “The next day we were playing and I put a hat on, and someone made a Twitter account with it. I just kept it going and I think there are more Twitter followers on that than my own account now.”

But while Mouat and Dodds are playing better, they know that one false step could end their dream of a mixed curling medal. After the Italy defeat they stand fourth in the standings, with four wins and two losses in their round-robin games. Two wins from their remaining three against China, Norway and the United States will surely be enough to make it to the semi-finals.

“We’re pretty happy with how we’re doing,” he said. “It looks like a lot of teams are beating each other. The