The festive period may be a time for friends and family, but British Curling’s top performers will spend the weekend before Christmas trying to get the better of one another at the Scottish Mixed Doubles Championship in Aberdeen (December 19-22).
With Scottish pairings having excelled on their only international outings this season in back-to-back events in Switzerland in October, the scene is set for fierce competition as Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean look to defend the title they claimed for the first time a year ago. 
They will, once again, be up against three former mixed doubles world champions in the shape of Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds, who won that title together in 2021 and Mouat’s regular teammate Bobby Lammie, who claimed it the following year with now retired Olympic gold medal winning skip Eve Muirhead.
They are consequently under no illusions about the scale of the task confronting them, but as Jackson pointed out, they feel better prepared than a year ago when they went into this event and then on to the World Championship with no international experience.
“Duncan and I had a great Scottish champs last season, we managed to build through the week and gain momentum towards the last few games,” she said.
“That’s something that we’ll be hoping to do again this week, however it feels a little different with mixed doubles being more present on the calendar for us this year.
“Hopefully that will mean we can get into things quickly and see where we go from there.”
Jackson’s regular responsibilities also transfer well to mixed doubles, since she plays lead stones but then calls the shots in the four-player game and she believes that can serve them well again this weekend.
“With skipping in the team game it feels very natural to be swapping between the two disciplines with line calling and holding the brush,”.she said. 
“Tactically the two disciplines are still quite different so that requires a little more focus, but I enjoy the challenge and the problem solving as a pair that comes with mixed doubles.”
They open the competition against Dodds and Mouat who made a return to their best mixed doubles form in Switzerland, winning the first event in Gstaad, then reaching the final of the second in Bern where they were beaten by compatriots Rebecca Morrison and Bobby Lammie as Scottish teams dominated at both.
“Our time in Switzerland was really successful and winning in Gstaad and then getting to the final in Bern was really good for us,” said Dodds.
“After the disappointment of last year and not reaching our goals in mixed doubles this was a really good bounce back and confidence boost for us.”
She acknowledged, however, that the standard of mixed doubles play has risen significantly since they won the world title three years ago and that they have had to respond to that.
“I see it as only a positive thing,” said Dodds.
“Domestically if you have to beat a higher standard opponent I see that as putting us in a better place and having a better chance internationally.
“I think we have shown that our domestic mixed doubles competition is really strong and in both competitions recently in Switzerland we had three out of four semi finalists in both events.
“Domestically we have a higher standard of field every time we play each other, so whoever gets selected for the Worlds next year you know that they have gone through a rigorous process domestically so you feel like they will have a good chance of performing well on the world stage.”
For Dodds and Mouat this weekend’s event also represents a return to the scene of their greatest triumph together, having won their world title there. 
“I hadn’t really thought about it but it will be good to be returning to Aberdeen,” she mused.
“Obviously Bruce and I had success back in 2021 and obviously this time it will be very different and we will have no COVID protocols to deal with which will be nice, but you tend to forget about all of that now.
“We obviously played in the Europeans in the team event there last year and Bruce had another success there as well (winning his fourth Euro title), so it is an ice rink we know well.
“However, you kind of focus on the competition in front of you and it is important to go game by game in these competitions especially since we will have a tough game to start as we are playing Duncan (McFadzean) and Sophie (Jackson) the defending champions so I think that will be a really good test of our first game of the competition.”
They will also be joined in Section A by Mouat’s vice skip Grant Hardie, who is playing with former World Junior Championship winning skip Fay Henderson, Dodd’s Olympic gold medal winning teammate Hailey Duff and another World Junior Championship winning skip James Craik, Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce, as well as Robyn Munro and Orrin Carson, who will represent GB Students at this season’s World University Games, having won the Matt Murdoch Memorial Mixed Doubles Championship together last weekend.
The other pool features Lammie and Morrison, who beat Dodds and Mouat to the title in Bern and both bring impressive form into the event.
“The season has been going really well recently and the last couple of months have just been high after high with mixed doubles and team tournament wins and bronze medal at the Euros so we’re feeling on top of the world right now and really looking forward to what is to come this week,” said Morrison.
“It is a huge opportunity for us and I would love to get my first title in the Scottish Mixed Doubles.”
With little more than a year to go to the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, the incentive to perform well is ever greater, as Morrison noted.
“It is really exciting the prospect of having the opportunity to play both women’s and mixed doubles at the Olympics, so I definitely have my eyes on both at the moment, but I know there are some people that feel the same way, so I think it is going to be a tough battle out there this week with lots of really important games and it is a huge week for many of us.
“It is great that Bobby (Lammie) is a World Mixed Doubles Champion and it just shows how he understands how the game works which is nice for me as I don’t have as much experience in mixed doubles, but I would love to get the chance to go to the World at some point, so it is really great to have that experience in our team.”
For Morrison it is also a chance to play in front of her home support, having grown up in the Granite City.
“I love playing in Aberdeen,” she said.
“The last time I played there was at the Europeans last year so it has been over a year and it feels like home to me and it is just such a brilliant ice rink and facility, so I know I will just really enjoy being back there.”
Morrison and Lammie are joined in Section B by Sophie Sinclair and Robin Brydone, Lisa Davie and Mark Watt, Amy Mitchell and Kaleb Johnston and a pairing that is not on the British Curling programme of Alex McMillan and Lewis McCabe.
Mixed Doubles line-ups
Section A
Sophie Jackson /Duncan McFadzean
Robyn Munro /Orrin Carson
Jen Dodds / Bruce Mouat
Hailey Duff/James Craik
Katie McMillan/Angus Bryce
Sophie Sinclair/Robin Brydone
Section B
Rebecca Morrison /Bobby Lammie
Fay Henderson /Grant Hardie
Lisa Davie/Mark Watt
Amy Mitchell/Kaleb Johnston
Alex McMillan/Lewis McCabe
Please click here for results from Scottish Curling.
Images: World Curling, OC-Mixed Double Bern, Team GB/David Pearce.
