At the grand old age of 17, Orrin Carson will be very much the senior figure as his team takes to the ice to defend the title for Scotland at the World Junior Curling Championships in Germany (Feb 25 – March 4).
The skip lines up alongside three 15-year-olds, his younger brother Logan as well as Charlie Gibb and Archie Hyslop all of whom are aiming to match the achievement of compatriot James Dryburgh, who was their age when he claimed the first of his two World Junior gold medals 32 years ago. 
However, Carson is sensibly focusing on one step at a time in setting targets for the week ahead.
“We know that James Dryburgh won the World Juniors as a 15-year-old on his debut and we’re looking to replicate that, but our first aim is to stay up, our second aim is to get to the play-offs and our third aim is to get a medal, whether bronze, silver or gold, we’ll wait and see,” he said.
“We’ve trained very hard for this moment and we can’t wait to get started.
“I think we’re really well prepared with all the help we’ve had from David Aitken at British Curling, Rachel Hannan at sportscotland and our coach Ryan Carson, so I think it will be really exciting.”
The teenage quartet added to their growing reputation when they put in a powerful performance on their first appearance at the senior Scottish Curling Championships earlier this month, remaining in contention for a play-off place until their last round-robin match.
That effectively turned into a knockout encounter with the team skipped by James Craik, who won the World Junior Championships last year and their closely contested match went into overtime.
The quality of that encounter was reinforced when Craik’s men then went on to push current European champions Team Mouat all the way in the final and performing as well as they did has given Team Carson a major boost. 
“We had a great week at the senior Scottish Championships, went really close and went to an extra end which could have taken us into the semi-finals, so we gained a lot from that and had some really good games with some top teams which has given us huge confidence going into this week,” said their skip.
In the women’s event, Fay Henderson will lead the Scottish challenge for the second successive year, but with a new line-up, Robyn Munro and Laura Watt having been drafted into her team this season.
Their involvement in last year’s event was something of a surprise since Scotland had not qualified to play in the event, but received a late call-up after Russia’s ejection from the competition.
Having earned Scotland’s place this time around, coming through the World Junior B event earlier this season, she believes that what she and her team’s second Holly Wilkie-Milne from that event is serving them well this time around.
“Holly and I attended the World Juniors in Jonkoping in Sweden last year and that experience has been a great help ahead of the championships this time,” said Henderson. 
“Last year was obviously a bit more of a chaotic run up after we were called up at the last minute, but this year we’ve had the chance to work our way through the season in the way that it was planned on paper and we’ve managed to hit each goal that has led us to get here.
“Winning the Scottish Juniors was the first target and then we went out to Finland for the World Junior B where we had a good run and managed to come home with a silver medal and guarantee us a place to come to Fussen.”
They have finalised their preparation since the turn of the year with two events at home and abroad that have sharpened their competitive edge.
“Our last event before coming here was the senior Scottish Women’s Curling Championships where we had a few good games and a few good results which has also given us some good momentum coming in here,” said Henderson.
“However I think the World University Games was probably our best preparation for this competition as we really had to maintain a great standard every game.
“We had a great week out there, beating some really good teams and finishing fourth.”
Action gets underway tomorrow as Scotland’s women take on Germany and Scotland’s men meet Canada.
Please click here for the schedule and more information.
LIVE streamed games will be available on Recast's The Curling Channel.
Scotland women
Fay Henderson
Robyn Munro
Holly Wilkie-Milne
Laura Watt
Amy Mitchell (Alternate)
Colin Morrison (Team Coach)
David Aitken (Head Coach)
Scotland men
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Scott Hyslop (Alternate)
Ryan Carson (Team Coach)
David Aitken (Head Coach)
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