Olympians start with win in Perth

IT WAS first blood to the Olympic teams as they returned to competitive action in Perth yesterday in the Scottish Curling Championships.

Defending her Columba Cream Scottish women's title, Atholl's Eve Muirhead beat Stranraer's Gail Munro, the 2008 champion, by 10-2 in the opening game of a best-of-three page play-off series.

This victory moves Muirhead within one more win of grabbing the direct route to tomorrow's final

However, even if she loses the next two games, Muirhead has a safety net because she and Munro finished in the top two places at the conclusion of the championship's round-robin stage, so the winner between them goes to the final while the loser has a second chance via today's semi-final.

In the game involving the other two surviving women's team's, Kilmarnock's Sarah Reid came from behind to beat Gillian Howard from Murrayfield by 7-6.

In the Bruadar men's championship, defending Scottish champion David Murdoch beat Stranraer's Hammy McMillan by 4-3 after an extra end, to go one up in their best-of-three encounter.

The other men's game was won by Perth's Warwick Smith, who beat Glen Muirhead by 3-2 in an extra end.