Bruce Mouat and his teammates looked the calmest people in the Dewar’s Centre as the 28-year-old skip delivered the shot which secured their third successive title at the Mercure Perth Masters to delight an enthusiastic home crowd who had witnessed a high class re-match of the last Grand Slam of Curling (GSoC) final in Canada. 
2022 Olympic finalists Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had won the competition the previous two times it had been played. However, as a result of COVID enforced cancellations, they had been forced to wait three years to complete this latest hat-trick of major successes, following on from having won three successive Scottish Championships in the same arena and three European Championship titles on their only appearances at that event to date.
Such has been their record in Perth that they went into the event as strong favourites, in spite of having lost their previous encounter with Italy’s Team Retornaz when they became the first Italians to win a GSOC title at The Masters in Ontario last month and Mouat welcomed that pressure
“It is really nice that people have that level of expectation,” he said.
“It obviously means people have followed curling a wee bit and we love to have people put that expectation on our backs because that drives us forward.
“The boys and I obviously work extremely hard to have that reputation and it is really nice that people have that idea. 
“Unfortunately it is not always reality every time so when a win does come we celebrate it well and we are very excited to have won the Perth Masters which means so much to all of us.”
As the teams maintained a level that would have been worthy of a Grand Slam final, it was a tight affair throughout, which looked to have turned the Italians’ way in the closing stages.
While the Scots had started with the hammer, they could not capitalise on it as they had to take one at the third following two blanked ends then, after further forces were exchanged at the fourth and fifth ends, Retornaz produced an exceptional shot through the tightest of ports that his opposing skip had attempted to guard, to nudge Mouat’s shot stone aside and claim the first multiple score of the match.
When Mouat then failed by the narrowest of margins to execute attempted double takeouts with both his stones at the seventh end, the Italians claimed the first steal to take what looked a commanding 4-2 lead into the final end.
However, that capacity to keep their heads allowed them to gradually apply further pressure until Retornaz finally miscued to give Mouat the chance to play a delicate tap back to secure the three that would complete his team’s title defence and he executed nervelessly to secure the 5-4 win, before paying tribute to the opposition. 
“We knew that they are a very good team having beaten us in the last Slam final which is not easy to get to in the first place, so they have obviously come on leaps and bounds just in half a season so far,” he said.
“So they are playing amazing so we knew that we were going to have to play well and fortunately we set up a really good end in the last one to win the game and get the three.
“It was frustrating to be in that situation after feeling like we had controlled the game, but we knew that we had a decent chance to get a two to go to the extra and the way it panned out we had a chance for a three and it worked out really well.”
Both teams head immediately across the Atlantic for another Grand Slam to the Canadian Open (Jan 10-15), ahead of the next major curling gathering in Scotland where Team Mouat will try to reclaim the Scottish title, having been unable to contest that event last year because they were on Olympic duty in China and their skip believes they are just beginning to find their best form.
“We can definitely step up a few gears yet,” he said.
“We are clearly playing well enough to win championships but I would be love to be more in control of games.
“It is good that we can win games when we are not playing our best but we are not far away which is also good. 
“I would expect things to be a little bit slower after an Olympic season for us last year.
“I wasn’t expecting us to come out firing straight away, but luckily we have built momentum after the Europeans and reached a Slam final and now won the Perth Masters so we are very happy with how the season has gone.”
Their standing in the sport was underlined when German skip Daniella Jensch, winner of the women’s event in Perth, only half-jokingly observed that while that was a very special triumph for her team, it had been little more than business as usual for the men’s champions.
They, too, had gone unbeaten throughout the competition, claiming a 5-1 victory in the final over Norway’s Team Roervik, who had eliminated the last of the home contingent, this season’s European Championship bronze medallists Team Morrison, in the semi-final.
While disappointed with that 6-4 loss, their skip Rebecca Morrison drew encouragement from their overall efforts and with the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd before hitting the road again in their on-going bid to climb the world rankings.
“It is great to be so close to home at Perth with so many spectators along to support teams which is great to see,” she said.
“It is good to have family and friends along to watch us in Perth at such a well known competition so we love it here. 
“We had a good weekend, topping our section, so we were delighted with that but we just didn’t quite pull things together enough in the semi final, so it was a shame to not make the final this time around, but Roervik played really well in that game.
“We just didn’t match that, but overall we are happy with the performances and we’re really excited to be off to Switzerland next where we play in St Gallen which is a new competition that we have never played in before, then head to Berne which is a little different in that it is an event we have played in many times.”
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