European champions Team Mouat reclaimed the Scottish Curling Championship title at the Dumfries Ice Bowl, but they were made to work all the way by Team Craik’s youngsters.
It was a fourth title in their last four appearances at the event for Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan and after missing it last year because they were on Olympic duty, they were widely expected to win the final after going through the entire competition unbeaten to that point.
They looked to be on course for a comfortable afternoon when opposing skip James Craik had to produce a double to prevent them having a chance to score three at the opening end, merely reducing the deficit to two, before the second end was blanked. 
However, the boot was on the other foot at the third end, where Craik might have scored three if his first shot had not slid through the house and that set the tone for what was to come as the 21-year-old, who has led teams to victory at the World Junior Championships and the Winter World University Games in the past year and his teammates Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell rose to the occasion.
Skips deuces were exchanged at the next two ends as Mouat delicately drew into the four foot behind cover with his first stone, then tapped it up to score a second after Craik’s attempt at a saving draw came up short, only for the roles to be reversed when Craik drew round two stones inside the four foot with his first, then produced a hit and roll for two after Mouat came up short.
That left the scores tied at 4-4 after five ends and while Team Mouat looked to have the upper hand again when they stole at the seventh after being forced at the sixth, Craik capitalised on a rare error by Hardie in missing an attempted take-out, to level things once again after eight ends.
Mouat’s men had to work hard to blank the ninth end, giving them the advantage of final stone at the last and while they were once again pushed hard, they did not need to deliver it after Craik had looked set to force the issue when he removed two of three counting shots with his first stone, before Mouat’s guard in front of his remaining one left his opposite number with the narrowest of targets and Craik’s attempt slid slightly too long.
Mouat said that it had largely gone to plan in the end as they rounded off a fine week’s play.
“We always want to come down with hammer and peels in the last end to win a nationals. Drawing the four foot is what we always talk about, so I obviously didn’t need to play my last there, but that’s what I thought I would have to play,” he said.
“This is really special. We’ve worked really hard over the past five years as a team and to win four nationals in four attempts it’s hard to put into words how much it means, because it’s everything you work for.
“It’s been a great week for us going undefeated, so hopefully that can lead us into the rest of our season.
“We’ve had so much fun and the ice has been unbelievable and I really hope we can come back here next year.” 
However, he paid fulsome tribute to Craik and his teammates for the way they had competed and reckoned their performance demonstrated the work being done on the British Curling programme.
“What a talented team they are,” said Mouat.
“They’ve all had an amazing season and they had goals this season which they’ve already met with only half the season done.
“They played unbelievably this week and to make the final is very impressive in this field after they played a great semi-final last night to make it through.
“They should be very proud of themselves. I know they’ll be sore because I lost my first final as well, but I won the next four. Hopefully we can prevent James from doing that, but he’s going to be a strong force going forward.
“That’s why we train so much, to make sure that we’re still a wee bit better every day and hopefully James and the boys continue to play well because it means that Scottish Curling’s in a really good place and British Curling has lots of teams that go to Canada.
“They will be playing in the Slams soon, I’m pretty sure of that and they’ll be playing some unbelievable curling next year.”
Having made one successful return to an event after a two year absence, he is hoping the same will apply when the selection of the Scotland teams for this year’s World Championships is finalised.
“It would mean a lot to us to get to another World Championships,” said Mouat.
“2021 was very close when we got to the final and were close to another gold, so we’re keen to have another go, because winning that World Championship is exactly what we wanted from this season and it feels like it’s in sight now. 
“There’s so many good teams now it’s hard wherever you go. We saw that at the Europeans, where it was hard just getting to the semi-final, never mind making the final and winning.”
For the runners-up there was, meanwhile, a great deal to be taken from their performance across the week.
“It was slightly annoying that we couldn’t quite make Bruce play his final shot,” said Craik.
“I had to go a bit wider on the ice and the ice was a little fudgey at the end, so it was a bit of a guess and it ran about half a foot too far.
“Credit to Bruce and his team, though. They played amazingly all week and I’m sure they’ll represent us fantastically.
“I don’t think there are many teams that have taken two off them as many times in one game as we’ve done there.
“We’ve won the University Games and we’ve had a great week at this championship. It shows we can turn up, it shows we can dig deep and we’ve ground through a lot of games this week.
“I’m so proud of my guys,. There are no harder working players on the programme right now and we’re starting to reap the rewards, which is brilliant.
“We really made a good showing out there. It’s been our first men’s national championships as a team and we’re so proud of our performance out there. We competed like a top five team in the world out there and pushed Bruce to the absolute limit.”
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Images: @photovagrant, Jack Hodgetts, Jayne Stirling - Scottish Curling.
