Team Mouat have tuned up for the forthcoming defence of their World Championship title with an unbeaten run through the Aberdeen International before beating the USA’s 2018 Olympic champions to claim their sixth tour title of the season.
Having had a series of tough battles with John Shuster’s men down the years, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan knew they would be made to work at the end of a challenging day that had already seen them defeat fellow Scots Team Muirhead 3-1 and Team Bryce 6-5 in the quarter and semi-finals respectively. 
However, just as they had done in those matches, they gradually wrenched control, conceding shots at just one of the eight ends played in running out 5-2 winners over the American quartet.
“We’re really happy with that performance today,” said skip Mouat.
“It was quite a grind to get through the three games in pretty quick succession and played pretty well through most of them.
“We started the final pretty slowly, but then got back into our groove in the fifth end and put the pressure back on them.”
The depth of quality in the field that is now customary in Tour events in Scotland with five domestic teams currently ranked in the world’s top 20, meant they knew they would be tested and with more than half the 13 teams that will be at the World Championships taking part, it was a timely boost.
“It was nice to play a lot of teams that are going to the Worlds and getting wins over them, so we’re in a good spot heading into our defence of the title in a couple of weeks,” said Mouat.
“It was particularly good to play Shuster in the final, because we know we’re going to be playing them again and it was a good performance from us to get the win.
“We’re playing pretty well right now.
“There are still things we can be doing better, so we’re pretty happy with how we did here, but we’ll try and step up a few gears at the World Championship if we’re going to win that title again.
“We’re definitely putting in some good ground work to make sure we’re in with a chance, though.”
While their run of Scottish Championship victories ended this season, reflecting growing strength in depth in the domestic game which was demonstrated again in Aberdeen as all five Scottish teams currently in the world’s top 20 reached the quarter-final stages, it has otherwise been another highly successful campaign.
That includes successfully defending their European Championship title and becoming the first non-Canadian team to complete a set of titles in the original Grand Slam tournaments, so there is consequently a sense of satisfaction with their consistency of performance which can only help them at the Worlds in Switzerland, which take place from March 30 to April 7 and the last Grand Slam event of the season, next month’s Players Championship in Toronto.
“Six tour titles in a season is close to our best, so we’re very happy with how the season’s gone,” said Mouat.
“It’s a shame we didn’t play better at the Nationals, but we’re getting back on track to what we want to be doing this season and we’re pretty chuffed with the titles we’ve won.
“We’re working pretty hard to achieve these things, so it’s nice to see that it’s paying off.”
For results from the Aberdeen International.
Images: Team Mouat
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