Scots Skip Scuttled

When it comes to the root causes of a team dumping their skip, it usually starts with the little things. Perhaps you and the second are completely ignored after having swept your fearless leader's "free" draw for it's entire 24 second trip to the rings. Perhaps, as vice, it's always your fault when that last rock cross -house double takeout misses its mark by a rock and a half. If only you had the sweepers on it just a little quicker. Yeah right.
It's that time of year when curlers sit back and access just how far their season's goals and aspirations have gone awry. At a club I formerly curled at in the less than politically correct '80's, the men's closing dinner was more affectionately known as "Dump Night". Every year there would be six or eight poor oblivious lads who started the evening thinking everything was just perfect for the next season's lineup, only to find out after 5 or 6 beers that they had become free agents. These things happen in late March; just not normally at a world championship.
When Gail Munro led her Scottish women's champions across the pond to Vernon for this year's Ford shootout, little did she know that her status as skip of the team would be in jeopardy as the week unfolded. The Scots started off with a fine performance in the tourney's opening draw when they downed Russia 8-7. Unfortunately for the girls from Caledonia, it would not be until Thursday in Draw 16, that they recorded their second win of the event. By then, all semblance of team unity among the Scots was long gone.
Reports out of Vernon suggest that Scottish national coach Derek Brown asked Munro to step down after the team's Wednesday night loss to Japan. With a record at the time of 1-8, and her confidence slipping, the skip agreed to the request but team mate Lyndsay Wilson informed the coach that she wouldn't play unless Munro was at the helm. The Scottish brain trust then apparently re-approached Munro about filling Wilson's spot in the lineup. She refused so the Scots played their last two round-robin games with a three member squad.
It took an extra end, but they triumphed over Italy 5-4 in Draw 16, then doubled up on the underwhelming Czech Republic 8-4. The Scots finish the tourney with a record of 3-8.
You can bet your last dollar that it'll be a frosty flight back to Edinburgh!