Scotland have suffered their second defeat here at the World Men's Championship, going down 7-5 to Pete Fenson's USA in draw 13.
The score was tied at 2-2 after five ends. But this could have been so different if skip Warwick Smith had not kept Scotland in the game with a triple take-out with his first and then a freeze draw with his second stone forcing Fenson to play the draw with his final stone for a single.
Smith drew for two in the sixth end and the USA blanked the seventh before drawing for two in the eighth to tie the scores again at 4-4.
In the ninth Smith tried a difficult tap back which would have counted three shots but the Scots came out with only a single and a one-shot lead into the final end.
The Scots lay shot behind guards when Fenson played his first shot; nominating a freeze on the Scottish stone just behind the tee and protected by guards. The shot was perfectly played. There were a number of options open to Smith and after discussions with coach Derek Brown during one of their two permitted time-outs Smith played a guard.
There was just enough space on the swinging ice for USA to play a controlled shot through the port and rock off another of their shots in the house and remove the Scottish stone to lie the two required for the win.
The stone was laid perfectly and with good control of the sweeping by third Shawn Rojeski the stone crept through the port and the USA lay three shots to be tied with Scotland on six wins.
Canada lead the standings on eight wins followed by Norway on seven and then Scotland and the USA on six but with Scotland having a game in hand.
Meanwhile, at the World Curling Federation annual general assembly held on Wednesday, Scotland's Kate Caithness became the first women to be elected to the post of president.
She will serve for the next two years after defeating Canada's Les Harrison who was seeking re-election. Switzerland's Patrick Huerlimann was appointed vice-president.
Caithness has been involved in curling since the 1980s and is a past president of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club's Ladies' Branch and has been the acting vice-president of the WCF since 2006.
She has been the driving force since 2000 of world wheelchair curling culminating in its appearance as a Paralympic sport following the Winter Olympic Games at Torino, Italy in 2006.
The European Curling Federation has also announced that the European Mixed Championships along with the playing of the 'C' Division of the European Championships will be hosted by the Greenacres Ice Rink in Renfrewshire, on dates to be confirmed and that the 2011 European Championship will be hosted by Moscow.
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