Great Britain's curlers crash out after extra end defeat to Sweden

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Posted: Thursday 25th February 2010 | 2:18

DAVID Murdoch dreams of adding Olympic gold to his world curling title were ended following a tense extra-end defeat to Sweden.

GOING HOME: Missed opportunities proved costly as Great Britain's Davisd Murdoch is downed by Sweden's Niklas Edin (Getty Images)

Swedish skip Niklas Edin outsmarted his opposite number for the second time in a week - winning 7-6 to book the remaining semi-final slot against Kevin Martin's unbeaten Canada.

It started badly for Murdoch's rink on the first end, when Euan Byers missed a regulation take-out to hand Sweden an advantage they patiently protected.

Murdoch battled to keep his team in the match, missing several key shots by fractions, as the cool heads of Sweden prevailed, with Edin and third Sebastian Kraupp both high in the averages.

But the momentum started to swing as the Scottish skip slowly hauled back a 5-2 deficit, winning three ends against the hammer to restore parity.

Sweden pinched back a single in the eighth end while an excellent take out from Murdoch gave him a final stone advantage for decisive tenth.

But Edin came back strongly, with an under-pressure double take out restricting Great Britain to an equalising single, which forced an extra end.

However, this time Sweden had the advantage of the hammer, which was to prove telling as Edin held his nerve to secure victory by the slenderest margin.

Twelve months ago Murdoch was riding high after winning the European and world title, establishing himself as the standard bearer of British medal hopes in Vancouver.

But he has found out the hard way the lesson about peaking too soon.

He certainly had chances to progress and will look back on defeat to Norway in his final group game as the potentially the decisive moment of his campaign.

Failure to get himself into the medal mix gives Britain only a couple of outside chances of adding to their medal tally - Amy Williams's skeleton gold - before these Games conclude on Sunday.