Bruce Mouat has admitted that his team had difficulties with being forced to switch their playing order in the opening Grand Slam tournament of the season earlier in the month, but reckons they will show improvement at the second when The Hearing Life Tour Challenge gets underway in Grande Prairie, Alberta this week (Oct 18-23). 
The broken hand suffered by Bobby Lammie before the team travelled out to Canada, denied them the World Mixed Doubles champion’s trademark powerhouse sweeping at The Boost National, resulting in a redistribution of responsibilities at that event and they consequently suffered a rare failure to reach the play-off stages at a Grand Slam event.
However their skip reckons the time they have to work on things in between times will serve them well as they resume their defence of The Pinty’s Cup, which they became the first Scottish team to win last season as the most consistent team across the entire Grand Slam season.
“Last week we struggled a wee bit with the new roles that we all had and as a result of that we struggled to maintain that form that we had last season, but that’s to be expected, when you’ve changed quite a few things,” Mouat observed.
“Hopefully the training week we’ve had in between times has helped us fine tune a few things and that will lead to better performances this week and moving on as well.
“Bobby’s feeling pretty good now. His hand’s feeling better and it’s slow progress, but things are moving in the right direction.
“We’ve had a really good week of training and did some stuff with our sponsors in Toronto, so we’ve been pretty busy and we want to say thanks to The Granite Club in Toronto for hosting us this week. Their facilities are really good and we really enjoyed ourselves.”
They are once again accompanied by compatriots Team Whyte in the line-up at The Tour Challenge and Mouat acknowledged that it is important to continue to be competitive in the intensity of Grand Slam play as they begin the long build-up to the next Winter Olympics.
“The Slams are always a good indicator of where you are in terms of ability and this being the first year of the (Olympic) cycle, so we’re obviously trying to maintain that form that we had last year,” he said.
“Leading into Milan-Cortina, although it’s a long way away it’s obviously what our sights are set on, so hopefully we can start to string some performances together and get on with the rest of our season.”
The event will also provide a first taste of the Grand Slam environment in the women’s event for fellow Scots Team Farmer who are taking part in the Tier 2 event in Alberta, while their domestic rivals Team Morrison are across the province contesting The Curling Stadium Alberta Curling Series from October 21-23.
Hearing Life Tour Challenge Grand Slam of Curling
Curling Stadium Alberta Curling Series, Leduc, AB (21-23 October)
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Team Whyte
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Duncan McFadzean
Euan Kyle
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Gina Aitken
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Team Farmer
Beth Farmer
Hailey Duff
Kirstin Bousie
Amy MacDonald
Katie McMillan
#curling #gsoc #grandslamofcurling
Images: Team GB / David Pearce & PPA / Graeme Hart.
