After a week spent in one of Europe’s most northerly outposts, Team Mouat have rapidly crossed the North Sea and the Atlantic to find themselves in another curling outpost to compete once more at the highest level of the sport.
Just two days after contesting a major final in Finland where they missed out on gold for the first time in five visits to the European Championships, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan have arrived in St John’s, Newfoundland looking to extend another winning run as they aim to make it three out of three at Grand Slam of Curling events this season. 
With the Kioti National being staged from November 26 - December 1 in the home town of Brad Gushue, the opposing skip that they have beaten in both previous Slam finals this season at the Tour Challenge and the Canadian Open, they have been made to feel very welcome, but know they will confront a fervent atmosphere when the event gets underway.
“We’re at the most easterly point of Canada and it’s very nice with lovely views of the coast,” said skip Mouat.
“The people are very friendly, so we’re always happy to come here.”
“It’s going to be a very busy Slam with very dedicated fans, so it should be a lot of fun to compete and to play in St John’s.”
As his own harshest critic, Mouat shouldered much of the blame for Saturday’s defeat by Germany in the final at the Euros, but he has been able to keep things in perspective in assessing a season that has seen his team contest six finals, winning four of them in moving into a clear lead atop the world rankings.
“I was pretty honest about my performance in the final,” he maintained.
“I don’t think it was my best and I hold myself to a pretty high standard, so I was disappointed, but I do see that the silver medal was still an achievement and I’m never going to not celebrate a podium finish at a major championship.”
While he and his teammates have had little time to lick their wounds, he noted that it was a similar situation when they missed out on a medal at the World Championships when they were defending their title earlier this year, so they have experience of looking to bounce back quickly.
“It’s similar to the Worlds last season where we’re straight into a Slam after a major championship,” Mouat noted. 
“We’ve done that a few times with the Players Championship straight after a Worlds, but going into the third Slam of the season performing pretty well, it’s quite exciting to have the prospect of getting three-in-a-row in one season.”
All the more so when they are returning to the event at which everything began for them as a quartet when, in their debut season together, they rocked the curling world by becoming the first Scottish men’s team to win a Grand Slam event, before competing in the first ever all-Scottish final at a Slam when they were defending their title.
“The National’s always been pretty good to us,” said Mouat.
“It was the first one that we won back in 2017 and we’re really looking forward to playing in it again.”
“We really enjoyed the last two times that we played in St John’s, so we’re looking forward to hopefully bouncing back from the Europeans.”
Mouat’s men are once again part of a strong Scottish contingent taking part in the event and will meet compatriots James Craik, the 2022 Junior World Champion skip, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell in the opening round of matches.
Fellow Scots Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone and Euan Kyle have a stand-in teammate with them this week, Craig Waddell coming in for Duncan McFadzean, who is suffering from a knee injury.
They are also in action in the first round of matches when they will take on Switzerland’s Team Hoesli.
Please click here for more information from KIOTI National, Mary Brown’s Centre, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (November 26 - December 1).
Image: Anil Mungal/GSOC
