Former World Mixed Doubles champions Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat started their 2024/25 campaign by returning to winning ways as they came through a top class field to claim the title at the Mixed Doubles Gstaad Cup.
Having returned to the World Championships just once since claiming the title in 2021, a victory which went a long way to securing their place at the following year’s Winter Olympics, this latest performance served notice of their determination to earn the right to try to improve on what happened in Beijing, where they agonisingly missed out on the medals, finishing fourth.
Aptly, then, their 8-7 defeat of Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten was a repeat of the result in the World Championship final four years ago. 
“This is obviously a big season in mixed doubles, so we’re delighted that we’ve won the first event together,” said Dodds.
“We take a lot of confidence from having had to do it the hard way, coming through the tie-breakers.
“We built on each game and when we got to the final we both put in a really good performance.”
Their triumph capped a superb tournament for the five teams from the British Curling programme, all of whom reached the knockout stages in the 24-team event.
Along with Robyn Munro and Ross Whyte, who were edged out 8-7 at that stage by another former world champion pairing, the host nation’s Jenny Perret and Martin Rios, Dodds and Mouat had to contest the first round of the play-offs.
They needed an extra end to beat Sweden’s Therese Westman and Robin Ahlberg 9-7 at that stage, which earned them a quarter-final meeting with Scottish women’s champion Fay Henderson and Grant Hardie, Mouat’s men’s team’s vice skip.
After surviving that one 7-6, they then met two more of their regular teammates Rebecca Morrison and Bobby Lammie, who had beaten them 9-4 in the pool stages and beat them 8-6, while reigning Scottish Mixed Doubles Champions Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean were losing 6-3 to the Norwegians.
“Playing Rebecca in the semi-final was tough, but it’s not my first time playing my women’s teammates in mixed doubles and you just have to park the team game to the side because you all want to beat each other and we all have that same goal,” said Dodds.
“You accept that’s the case and when you go back to the team game you know you have to get back together again, so you just get used to that.” 
While the demands of their teams schedules mean that the British Curling mixed doubles teams rarely compete on the tour, she expressed additional satisfaction with the way they had demonstrated their strength in depth in a field that had included the two top teams in the current world rankings and Dodds said they would look to do at least as well in this week’s second event, across Switzerland in Bern.
“I felt going into Gstaad that everyone was in a really good place for mixed doubles,” said Dodds.
“We had a few games at the NCA against each other and that put us in a really good spot to get out of the blocks fast at Gstaad.
“It was a first competition of the season for all five teams and a couple had never played a competition together before, so I think it’s going to be really exciting in Bern and I’m really looking forward to seeing what all the teams can do out there.”
“Having three out of the four teams in the semi-finals coming from the British Curling programme shows we’re a real force to be reckoned with and it would be great to see a similar performance at Bern this week as well.
“Every team played well this week and going into Bern I think you’ll see another high performance from all five teams.
“So going into the Scottish Championship and then the Worlds it is going to be a real tough challenge and whoever gets selected will have gone through an absolute grind to have the right to represent Scotland at the Worlds.”
The Bern Mixed Doubles Cup gets underway on Friday October 18 with a different format, using the triple knockout system, but will also be played over three days, with the championship matches taking place on October 20.
British Curling Mixed Doubles line-ups
Sophie Jackson / Duncan McFadzean
Rebecca Morrison / Bobby Lammie
Fay Henderson / Grant Hardie
Robyn Munro / Ross Whyte
Jen Dodds / Bruce Mouat
MIXED DOUBLES GSTAAD AND BERN RESULTS:
Mixed Doubles Gstaad 2024 (14 – 16 October)
Mixed Doubles Bern (18-20 October)
Images: Team GB /David Pearce
