Fresh from reaching the semi-finals of a senior tour event last weekend, Robyn Munro feels her team of World Junior Championship winners are well prepared for their bid to return to that event by claiming the Scottish Junior title at this week’s national championships.
Playing under Fay Henderson, who has since aged out, Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne, Laura Watt and then alternate Amy Mitchell won their world title in Germany earlier this year and they know exactly what is required at Curl Aberdeen this week. 
“Three out of four of us are looking to defend our Scottish Junior title from last year and of course after winning the World Juniors it would be great to get back to that event in Finland this time,” said Munro.
“We would really love to get back there and show everyone what we can do.
“I have won the Scottish Junior title twice as third and Laura and I won the title when we were 16 and 15 respectively, so I think we both know how much it means to win this title.
“It doesn’t just give you a chance at the Worlds, it would be another Scottish title that we would be really proud to have.
“Especially as skip I think it would mean a lot to step up and also with another year to go at juniors.”
She believes that alternating between junior and senior events this season has been a worthwhile challenge to set themselves and reaching the semi-finals at the Danish Open last weekend was a timely boost.
“Skipping on the ladies tour has given me a lot of confidence,” said Munro.
“There have been situations of must make shots, so it’s been great to have that exposure not just at junior level.
“I can take a lot from that and I hope my team are feeling confident as well and now we are really looking forward to just getting started.”
Their belief has been further reinforced by the support of Alan Hannah, who is coaching them at junior level, having previously guided Team Mouat to European titles and Olympic and World Championship finals in the men’s game.
“We are taking confidence from the experience we have had over the past season plus all the work we have been doing with Alan,” said Munro.
“We had a great result in Prague at the European Junior Curling Tour in our first event as a team and Alan brings a wealth of knowledge for world events, so we can hopefully use that to our advantage this week.
“He can help keep us grounded as it is a long week with nine games of round robin and then hopefully reach the page play-off and the final.
“We know we are taking down a lot of teams at junior level and on the women’s circuit and we can take confidence from that and know that if we bring our best performance we can hopefully be the best team there.
“It is going to be a long week, but we will just stick together and take the confidence from everything we put together and learned from our events and the work we have done with Alan and we are really looking forward to it.” 
Team Carson will meanwhile defend their men’s title at the Scottish Juniors knowing they are facing in-form opposition in the shape of British Curling programme colleagues Team Ross Craik.
Orrin and Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb began this season in fine form, beating Craik and his teammates Scott Hyslop, Jack Carrick and Struan Carson at the Asham Under-21 Slam in Perth last month, however a week later that result was reversed in the semi-finals at the European Junior Curling Tour event in Oslo.
Having tweaked their line-up heading into that event, with Craik skipping the team, but delivering third stones, while Hyslop played last stones, they went on to win that event, then followed that up with another victory, their first on the senior tour, at the Danish Open.
“It was a touch of a gamble fitting in an event the weekend before the Scottish Juniors because it meant either us coming out on a high coming out with a good result or on a low coming out with a bad result going into our national championships,” Craik admitted.
“However we managed to come out on top and it has really boosted morale in the team, so we are more than ready and prepared for our weekend ahead. 
“Our change in the line-up has really brought a new dynamic to the team and it has been brilliant so far.
“Everyone has responded and worked well with it and a lot is just falling in to place naturally and the results have gone our way so far so we are just hoping it stays on track.”
Craik is bidding to emulate older brother James, who went on to win the World Junior title in 2022, but having missed out at the semi-final stage last year as Carson and Team Strawhorn, who are also in this year’s field, won through, he knows his team will have to be at their best.
“Of course Team Carson are going to be a huge challenge, they always are, but we have played them enough this season and last to know how to come out on top, it’s just a matter of what happens on the day,” he said.
“Getting the Craik name back on the trophy would be a huge, huge honour, it’s something I have been trying to do for a while now and I feel like this year is the best chance to do it.”
The event gets underway on November 10 with 10 women’s and eight men’s teams facing each other in round-robin competition, ahead of the play-offs which get underway on November 14 ahead of the semi-finals and final on November 15.
Schedule and results available on the Scottish Curling website.
