Worlds will 'serve Scotland well long-term'

Scotland's World Women's Curling Championship campaign "will serve us well long term", says skip Fay Henderson.

Henderson's rink bowed out of the tournament in Canada by losing 8-6 to Norway. Defeat by Italy in their previous match had ended their hopes of finishing in the top six and progressing to the play-offs.

Victory over Australia, the Scots' fourth of the tournament, had boosted their chances but they finished with eight losses.

"It is definitely a different kind of environment to what we are used to, a lot more intense and a busier schedule than being on tour, but I think it is great to be able to experience it and hopefully it will serve us well long-term," said skip Henderson.

"We have all very much enjoyed our week here and we definitely know that this is somewhere where we want to be for a long time and we definitely want to be as competitive as possible.

"It's about being able to go back and work over the summer on what we need to and start again and hopefully keep this stage ours for Scotland for years to come.

"Obviously, we have still got big goals that we want to achieve within the world field and, while working towards the next Olympics is still a long time away, it is never out of sight for us."

Norway led 5-1 after five ends but Scotland drew level with a four at the seventh. The Norwegians then picked up two, the Scots responded with a single and Torild Bjornstad's rink completed victory with a single at the 10th end.

"We didn't get off to the best of starts but we knew if we got stuck in together as a team and worked to the performance level that we knew we were capable of we knew that we would be able to score a couple back with hammer and it was definitely nice to get a four," said Henderson.

"It wasn't the best end that we have seen Norway play and we managed to capitalise on that opportunity, which was great."

Henderson's rink - Lisa Davie, Hailey Duff, Katie McMillan and Laura Watt - were competing in their first World Championships after their recent national championship win in Dumfries. Sophie Jackson's rink, who represented Great Britain at the Winter Olympics, were absent from that competition.

"This week maybe wasn't about making play-offs for us," Watt said after the defeat by Italy. "It was more about gaining the experience and enjoying the week as a whole."

Switzerland, who led the standings with 12 wins and one defeat, and hosts Canada, who were second, go straight through to the semi-finals with Japan, Sweden, South Korea and Turkey vying for the two remaining semi-final places. Sweden will take on South Korea and Japan will face Turkey.