The Irish Mens’ team got off to a wining start in the 2014 European C Group with a win against Belarus. The match started well with an excellent two at the first but the stoic Belarus team came back well with an even better three at the third having blanked the second.

At this stage the game could have gone in either direction but fortunately for the Irish, a great last stone meant that Ireland fought back to regain the lead. In the fifth end, Ireland set up the end well to force the Belarus skip to draw against a 4 which was played heavy, giving Ireland a 9-3 lead going into the halftime break.

Thinking they had the game in the bag, the team strived to keep the game clean but came undone in the 6th end when a good series of play by Belarus allowed 4 stones to build up in the head and Ireland were only able to remove one with their last stone.

In the eighth end, Belarus continued their fight back, building up a strong end, forcing Ireland’s third to play the shot of the match – a fifteen foot run back double to remove two Belarus stones and sit three. Ireland went on to take three in the end and forcing a one in the next end secured the first win.