Orrin Carson is looking to become just the third man to skip his team to a third Scottish Junior Championships win as this year’s event takes place at Curl Aberdeen (Nov 11-17).
The 19-year-old from Dumfries goes in with the same line-up that has claimed the previous two titles with younger brother Logan at vice skip and a front end comprising Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb as they aim to match a feat last achieved a decade ago by Kyle Smith, who went on to skip Team GB at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
“It would be great to go three in a row at the Scottish Juniors and we feel as a team we are ready for what will definitely be a tough week with a lot of challenges that we will need to overcome if we are to be in the final on Sunday,” said Carson, who also led his men to a bronze medal on their debut at the World Junior Championships in 2023. 
“Our form has been very good in junior events so far this season, so we are full of confidence going into the week and especially now that we are back as a four for the first time in over six weeks.”
As well as performing on the junior circuit, Team Carson have been playing in some senior men’s events over the past year as they get a sense of the standard they must aspire to on the British Curling programme and while wins have been hard to come by, the experience has been valuable.
“Playing men’s is always a tough ask and I feel that those games are only useful for when you return to the juniors, so we will definitely learn from that this week and we are really looking forward to getting started on Wednesday.”
In the women’s event Laura Watt and Holly Wilkie-Milne are looking to go one better than their British Curling colleagues by claiming a fourth title, while a third member of the team, Amy Mitchell, was also part of last year’s winning team.
With Mitchell’s sister Robyn completing the line-up, this will still be a new experience for the quartet, since Watt is skipping for the first time, having won her previous titles working with three different skips, Amy Bryce, Fay Henderson and Robyn Munro. 
“We are all quite experienced now at playing in the Scottish Junior Championships, but every year is different and it’s going to be a long week with 11 teams in the field so we’re going to take each game as it comes and see how we go,” said Watt, who along with Wilkie-Milne and Amy Mitchell was also part of Henderson’s World Junior Championship winning team in 2023.
“I’m new to being the skipper this season, but I’ve got the right support from my teammates and coaches and we’ve all been working together to settle in to the new role.”
Confidence in their new line-up has been boosted by a recent victory on the European Junior Curling Tour in Norway.
“The team are feeling great going in to the championships this week,” said Watt.
“Winning in Oslo has given us momentum and we’re hoping to keep it going.
“We know we can perform well throughout week long competitions.”
Programme colleagues Team Laurie are also in the field this week and they made a winning start to their campaign.
Please click here for results from the Scottish Curling website.
Games are being live streamed on Curling Stadium Europe.
Images: PPA/Graeme Hart
