British curlers into final four

David Murdoch's British curlers moved a step closer to the semi-finals with a 8-2 victory over Germany.

The British team dominated the contest, forcing the Germans to concede after just eight of the scheduled 10 ends and with one game left in the round-robin phase, a record of five wins and three defeats has Murdoch's team in joint third with Switzerland.

Britain jumped out into a 2-0 lead after two ends. Murdoch scored a point with the hammer, the final stone of an end, in the first and stole another against the German hammer when German skip Andy Kapp missed his draw shot with the last rock of the second end.

A further two points for Britain came in the fourth end before Germany got on the board for the first time in the fifth to leave the score at 4-1 at the halfway stage.

Britain tacked on two more points in the sixth to widen their advantage and a point in reply in the seventh was not nearly enough for the Germans.

British coach David Hay introduced alternate Graeme Connal as a replacement for lead Euan Byers at the start of the eighth end and the new line-up did not skip a beat, Murdoch securing two more points for the world champions to prompt a concession from Germany.

Britain now play the already-qualified Norway on Tuesday in their final group game, when a victory should see them safely into the last four.

Skip Murdoch believes his team are now guaranteed at least a tie-break game, although third place could be secured if Britain beat Norway and the Swiss lose their final match to France.

If that did happen, Britain would face second-placed Norway again in the semi-final, thereby avoiding the unbeaten Canadians.

"We're at least in a play-off, I think, but we're going to focus on getting a win (over Norway on Tuesday) because that's a semi-final berth (guaranteed)," Murdoch said.

"That was a really solid performance, the type of form that we expect from ourselves. We're glad to see it's happening, that's been three solid games and the team usually does that by the time it gets to the end of the week in major championships."

After two wins in a row following a narrow defeat to Canada, Murdoch there was still more to come from his team.

"I think there's still a little to go, I don't think we're maxed out yet but we're certainly coming into the type of form we're looking for.

"The Canada game really got us into that type of mode, that type of intensity, and we've carried that forward.

"You don't want to peak at the start of the week. This is the business end of the week we're getting into and it's good to see that every one of us is playing great shots."

The British skip said he was looking forward to the final round-robin game against the Norwegians on Tuesday.

"It will be a very tough game. They're a really good team.

"We've played them in the Europeans quite a few times and the World Championships and they like to be pretty aggressive so I think you'll see quite a few rocks in play tomorrow."