Newly formed Team Blair start their third international campaign of the season this weekend at the Latvian International Challenger, but have made the trip without Lisa Davie who is on Scotland duty at the World Mixed Curling Championships in Aberdeen.
They have consequently benefited from having come together as a five player team this season and skip Lucy Blair believes that she, Alex Mackintosh, Susie Smith and
Holly Hamilton have prepared well for the challenge ahead while missing their colleague, who normally lines up at three. 
“We are very proud of Lisa and wish her the best of luck in the playoffs at the Worlds but we will miss her in Latvia this weekend,” said skip Lucy Blair.
“However we are really looking forward to this weekend as a four and have had lots of team sessions with different line-ups at events like the Euro Super Series as well as more recently in a training session coached by Jen Dodds in the NCA earlier this week, which was really good preparation before we came away.
“There isn’t too much of a difference with Alex playing at third as she played in that position with me last season, so we are both familiar with each other in this set up which helps,” said the 22 year old.
“Holly and Susie both have a lot of experience at the front end from both the ESS event and our event in Sweden, so we are all happy with the line-up and excited to see what we can do this weekend.”
For Blair, who has just graduated from Strathclyde University with a BEng in Product Design Engineering, this is her first time in Latvia and other than the host nation’s Team Barone, whom they will meet in their opening match, most of the field are an unknown quantity, but she know that represents a great opportunity. 
“It’s great for us to play somewhere new, but we have the added benefit of Susie competing here last year and finished as runners up with Team MacDonald last season, so we have some experience in the team,” she said.
“We have played Team Barone quite a bit in the U21’s in Lockerbie and we know the English team, but other than that we think most of the teams are fairly experienced teams so we want to achieve as many positive outcomes as possible from this weekend and obviously get some good wins too and see where we go from there.”
Having just started a new job in project management with engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald, Blair is acutely aware of the advantage of having an employer which is so supportive of her curling career.
“Obviously I want to see where I can take my curling career and I am incredibly fortunate to have an employer who sees the positives from staff exploring opportunities like these and remaining fit and active for good physical and mental health,” she added. 
Based in Paisley, a town with a proud curling heritage, Blair also sees the advantage of how her engineering knowledge benefits her curling, explaining that: “I think my engineering background helps as I tend to think methodically and seeing the angles and keeping on top of time overall it is definitely an asset to my curling career and I hope to pursue this as far as I can.”
The Latvian International Challenge takes place from 21-23 October).
Team Blair (at Latvian International Challenge)
Lucy Blair
Alex Mackintosh
Susie Smith
Holly Hamilton
Photos courtesy of Stefan Tjärnlund, Nordic Curling Tour
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