Following their latest Grand Slam success in Canada, three members of world number one ranked Team Mouat are among those changing gear this week as they turn their attention to trying to beat one another at two international mixed doubles events in Switzerland. 
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie and Bobby Lammie are among 10 members of the British Curling Olympic programme who will take part in tournaments in Gstaad (October 14-16) and Bern (October 18-20) as they target a second chance of selection for the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in 2026.
The group combines established pairings as Mouat renews his partnership with Olympic women’s gold medallist Jen Dodds and reigning Scottish champions Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean look to build on last season’s success
However, there are three new combinations in Hardie and Fay Henderson, Lammie and Rebecca Morrison and Ross Whyte and Robyn Munro.
Their competitive schedules having been wholly directed towards the men’s and women’s team games in the early part of this season, Jackson said there is a real sense of excitement within the squad as they eye this chance, but also awareness of their responsibility to deliver for Team GB in the longer term.
“Duncan and I are really looking forward to getting out on the mixed doubles circuit,” she said.
“These will be our first international tour events together outside of Scotland and we found some good form towards the end of last season at the Scottish Championship and the Worlds, so it will be good to see if we can continue to pull together some high level, consistent performances.
“Being national champions and having played against some of the best teams at the world championships helps us have the confidence that we have the ability to beat anyone out there and I think selection for Milan is wide open amongst the squad right now.
“However, the job is still not yet done to qualify GB a spot at the Olympics, so I also think the selection for this season’s Worlds is open. 
“With the mixed doubles squad being created this season I think it gives us all a big opportunity to showcase our ability at the discipline and give the selectors a tough job in the next few months.”
That squad contains three former world champions, since as well as Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds, Lammie also won the title with now retired Olympic gold medal winning women’s team skip Eve Muirhead.
However, the open nature of the domestic competition is summed up by the enthusiasm of Mouat’s vice skip Hardie, who is working with Henderson for the first time following the departure from the programme of five-time Scottish mixed doubles champion Gina Aitken.
“It’s a big shift in focus for us for the next couple of weeks,” said Hardie.
“It’s quite strange… we are training every day in our men’s team and our mixed doubles training or competing has been secondary, so I think this is something we are all looking forward to.
“We have had a really good training block, though and are really looking forward to getting away.
“For myself, it is my first time actually playing some mixed doubles tour events, which is something I am really excited about. 
“With Gina no longer on the programme it is a new partner for me and I thought about it over the summer and Fay was someone I was really keen to play with.
“She has massive potential in the game and she has great presence on the ice.
“We made a lot of shots in training, so we are hoping that translates into a few wins this week.
“I do most of the sweeping so it will be a really tough week physically and I am hoping we can go out there and enjoy it and learn a lot about each other and see what helps each other to perform, so it should be really good.
“Looking ahead to the chance of getting to the next Olympics in mixed doubles, it is probably no secret that I am probably on the outside looking in at that Olympic spot at the moment, so we know we are going to have to go out there and perform and make every game count.
“It is something that we would both love to do and hopefully we can be competitive.”
At the Gstaad event, he and Henderson have avoided their compatriots in the pool stages, while the Bern competition has a triple knockout format, making it difficult to predict who they might encounter, but Hardie acknowledged that the prospect of coming up against regular teammates provided an added frisson.
“There are five great mixed doubles teams set up on the programme this year and there are also going to be some great match-ups among ourselves, so I am quite looking forward to playing against the guys,” he said. 
“There is always a different edge to a game when you are playing against teammates, so it will be good fun and we should have a really good time out in Switzerland.”
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: PPA / Graeme Hart
