Reigning champion skip James Craik is aiming for a third successive title win at the Scottish Junior Championships that are taking place at Curl Aberdeen this week (23-28 November).
He and teammates Angus Bryce, Scot t Hyslop and Niall Ryder have been in fine form as they have worked towards this target throughout the season with Craik’s ultimate goal being a return to the World Junior Championships where he has previously won two bronze medals.
“We are really excited about getting started at the Scottish,” he said. 
“Our whole season has been geared to towards this one event and it’s a real target of ours to make sure we come out on top this week.
“We are in prime condition and we have been working really hard so we are looking forward to putting that into practice and a really sold performance throughout this week.”
Craik’s first Scottish title win came as part of Ross Whyte’s team in 2019 before he then skipped his rink to victory in 2020 and the cancellations of both the National and World Championships last season have only sharpened his appetite for success in both in his final year at junior level.
“We really want to be the team that can get the chance to have Scotland on our backs and represent our country out in Sweden for the Worlds,” he said.
“Three of us (Craik, Ryder and Bryce) have been there before and we know what it is like. We really want to build on that experience we got last time and really strive for a nicer colour medal.
“However this is a step that needs to be done beforehand and winning the Nationals and earning the right to represent Scotland is a great task and we are in a good spot to go towards achieving that.
“We are really motivated this year and the way our team is playing we have a really good chance of winning the Scottish this year.
“We really want to genuinely show what we can do and with a bit of luck hopefully come out on top.
“There is not a greater honour than to represent Scotland at the Worlds at this level and it is something that everyone will be working incredibly hard for.
“I’m thankful to have done this twice and I would love to go out in my last year at Juniors with a bang and make it three in a row.” 
The quartet have performed well at junior level throughout this season, winning two Scottish Slam titles, but have also mixed a string of senior tournaments into their schedule in seeking to challenge themselves.
“We have had a packed season playing eight competitions in nine weeks and having a two week break and then on the run up to this we have gone on Tour and learned loads by playing lots of international teams and that is thanks to our sponsors and British Curling being able to send us out there,” said Craik.
“We are really looking forward to playing eight games against really strong opposition this week and really excited to test ourselves against the rest and see how we fare.
“It is a big field this year. We have played every team before at Scottish Slams so that brings us great confidence having won those two events going into this.
“We have got some tough opposition to beat but we are really looking forward to digging deep and going towards it and picking up as many wins as we can this week in Aberdeen.”
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Team Craik
James Craik
Angus Bryce
Scot t Hyslop
Niall Ryder
