Last year’s finalists Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean have come through a top class field including three former World Mixed Doubles Champs and nine Olympians in order to claim their first Scottish Mixed Doubles title at Perth’s Dewars Centre.
For McFadzean, it was a second national title in a fortnight after he won his first Scottish Men’s Championships as part of Team Whyte in Dumfries earlier this month.
Having reached the final a year ago, where they lost to former World Champions Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat, he said that he and partner Jackson had fancied their chances coming into this weekend.
“I am absolutely delighted,” said McFadzean, following their 9-3 defeat of Lisa Davie and Mark Watt in the final. 
“It was the goal at the start of the season, but last year we were runners up so coming into this I did feel there was a bit more pressure on us this time around.
“But to actually come out and perform and win the gold medal feels really good. Last year I felt that we played well here, so I know we can turn up and put in good performances, so I always back ourselves in that manner.
“As a team we were playing well at the Scottish men’s so I knew there was good form coming into these champs, so that gives you a lot of confidence knowing that you are playing well.”
The 24 year old hopes that back to back final appearances in this event will put them in good stead for potential world championship selection.
“It would mean a lot to go to the worlds,” he said.
“Everyone wants to play with Scotland on their backs and I have not done that since the juniors, so that has always been the goal.
“So to get that chance would be immense and I would be over the moon to go.
“If we did get to go, with Sophie’s experience having competed at world level before would only help us and I have played with her for two years now and we are really comfortable with each other.
“We know how to work each other on the ice, if that makes sense, and we have a good dynamic.
“I think if we did go to the worlds together we would be feeling pretty confident.”
Jackson has meanwhile set up the chance of a World Championship double this season, having already been selected to go to the women’s championships in Canada next month as part of Team Morrison.
“It’s a nice bonus to win this,” she said.
“The main focus in our season is the men’s and women’s nationals and it is obviously great to win here and it gives me confidence going into the World Women’s Champs in a couple of weeks.
“It has without doubt been good to play with Dunc this past week and put good shots in good places, so the confidence is higher.
“It will be interesting to see now who gets selected for the World Mixed Doubles.
“This year more than any other it has been more open and obviously it would be nice to go and see what we can do against other teams at world level, but we will wait and see how that works out.
“As this is our second final it was nice to know that we had been there before so that probably made us a bit more comfortable and I felt really confident that if we played the way we did over the last few games we would take the title.
“I guess all of the girls on my team have discussed how much we learn from playing with the guys in mixed doubles, so with Duncan and the difference with his sweeping you can make a lot of , so it is nice to get that change and get to work with fresh ideas and a fresh mind, so I would say it does help our team game too. 
“As former Scottish Curling Academy Manager we did put a lot of focus on increasing female participation in the game and it is nice to see a lot of young players now coming through the pathway and competing at these events, this helps the junior teams and I take delight in that.
“But it has made a big difference to my energy levels to have stepped away from that job to focus primarily on my curling.”
Having performed in that role in recent seasons provides Jackson with a dual perspective in terms of understanding how the sport is developing and that has only boosted her sense of belief in how things are going both on a personal level and for the domestic game as a whole.
“There’s loads and loads of good teams in Scotland,” said the 27 year old.
“Any one of them could do great at a World Championships, so for us to have beaten all of them gives us great confidence and it would be great if we got to go.”
Please visit the Scottish Curling website for the results.
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