For the first time on a major championship stage the skip of the world’s number one ranked team will face the old rival who was his childhood inspiration when Bruce Mouat finds himself up against older brother Colin at the Le Gruyere AOP European Championships in Finland (16-23 November).
Accompanied by their alternate Kyle Waddell, Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan are once again representing Scotland, having taken the title on all four occasions they have contested it, while this time aiming for their fifth win in a row and they made a winning start by beating the Netherlands 8-6 in their only match of the opening day.
Colin Mouat is, however, part of the England squad that is competing at the main Euros for the first time in five years after being invited to join Rob Retchless, Jothan Sugden, Scott Gibson and Jonathan Havercroft as their fifth player at the event. 
Qualified as a result of their mother having been born south of the border, he first pursued that route three years ago and after his team finished third behind Retchless’s men this year, Colin was invited to join them.
“It’s the first time I have played my brother at an international event so it should be quite exciting to see how we get on,” said Mouat, who has led his quartet into a commanding position at the top of the world rankings with a string of successes, including back-to-back Grand Slam wins this season.
“Colin and I have a gap of two years and its just the two of us as siblings, but we were always competitive with each other.”
He admits that, like many younger brothers, he took time to emerge in his own right, only doing so when Colin became too old to play in junior competitions, but he believes he benefited enormously from that natural rivalry.
“Probably I was the more competitive one out of the two of us, but Colin was always very talented at sport and inspired me to pursue and challenge him being the younger one, so I always took it upon myself to focus on things just to be better than Colin at things but it was never really the case,” Mouat acknowledged.
“So curling came along and we both started playing together and started our under 21’s careers together and when Colin aged out I joined forces with the likes of Duncan (Menzies), Derrick (Sloan) and Angus (Dowell) and had a really good time playing with them.
“However, it’s always nice to have that sort of sibling rivalry and I am very excited for him to be here and to experience what it is like to be at a Europeans, it’s a great opportunity and I am very proud that he is here.”
The depth of competition in Scotland is currently such that it was no guarantee Team Mouat would be at the event themselves when the 2024/25 season got underway, buy their skip admits that the prospect of this particular match was an added incentive, albeit one that has given his family something of a conundrum.
“It has been a lot of fun trying to qualify our team for the Europeans so we would have the chance to play each other,” said Mouat.
“It meant a lot to both of us that we will have a fun game tomorrow.
“I don’t know exactly who our family is probably going to support but I think mum and dad are both just proud that we are both here and dad is pretty excited about it.”
For both teams it will be the second match of the day with England, who lost their opener to former world number one ranked Italy 8-3, taking their turn to face the Netherlands, while Scotland take on Norway in the second round of matches.
The Scots go into these matches full of confidence on the back of what was their second unbeaten run of the season at a Grand Slam and having come through their opener at this event.
“We’re feeling like we are in a really good spot after the last ten days,” said Mouat.
“All of the games we have had have been pretty well played.
“We had to figure out the ice there but we feel like we did well not to dwell on the misses and we are in a good spot heading into the Norway game tomorrow.”
In many ways it was an ideal opening encounter, since after recovering from a tricky start which saw the Netherlands pull off a steal at the opening end, then put them under pressure at the second, they were comfortably in control most of the way through, but spent a full 10 ends competing on the Lohja ice
“It was a pretty tough shot in the second end but it was the same line that I threw in practice so I kind of knew how it was running so I was quite happy taking it on,” Mouat said of the raise double takeout which put his team ahead at 2-1.
“We were probably a bit fortunate to get two but we were only an inch away from getting three, so not sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate.”
They then built a 6-2 lead by the midway break, before a rare lapse from Mouat offered the Dutch some encouragement as they registered a three to reduce the deficit to 6-5 on the resumption, but a two for the Scots at the next ensured that there would be no alarms as they ran out 8-6 winners.
“The sixth end was a bit of a blip,” said Mouat.
“After a really good end from the guys I just missed a couple of shots a bit out of the blue but we bounced back well which was the most important thing.”
Please click here for more information and results: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/ecc/aspnet/current?EventID=1
The following 7 round robin games will be live streamed on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport Scotland website (plus play-off games subject to Scotland qualifying).
Watch on BBC iPlayer.
Watch on BBC Sport Scotland website.
Sat, 16 Nov
17:30 (UK )
Sco v Den (Women)
Sun, 17 Nov
12:00 (UK)
Sco v Sui (Women)
Mon 18 Nov
10:00 (UK)
Sco v Sui (Men)
Tues, 19 Nov
12:00 (UK)
Sco v Ita (men)
Tues, 19 Nov
17:00 (UK)
Ltu v Sco (Women)
Wed 20 Nov
12:00
Sco v Ita (women)
Thurs, 21 Nov
12:00
Swe v Sco (men)
Scotland Schedule:
Saturday 16 November
Session 1 – women
Scotland – Sweden 5-8
Session 1 – men
Scotland – Netherlands 8-6
Session 2 – women – 17.30
Scotland - Denmark
Sunday 17 November
Session 2 – men 07.00
Scotland – Norway
Session 3 – women – 12.00
Scotland - Switzerland
Session 3 – men 17.00
Scotland – England
Monday 18 November
Session 4 – women – 06.00
Scotland - Turkiye
Session 4 – men 10.00
Scotland – Switzerland
Session 5 – women – 14.00
Scotland - Hungary
Session 5 – men 1800
Scotland – Austria
Tuesday 19 November
Session 6 – women – 07.00
Scotland – Estonia
Session 6 – men – 12.00
Scotland – Italy
Session 7 – women – 17.00
Scotland - Lithuania
Wednesday 20 November
Session 7 – men – 07.00
Scotland – Germany
Session 8 – women – 12.00
Scotland – Italy
Session 8 – men – 17.00
Scotland – Czechia
Thursday 21 November
Session 9 – women – 07.00
Scotland - Norway
Session 9 – men – 12.00
Scotland – Sweden
Semi Finals – women – 17.00
Friday 22 November
Semi Finals – men – 07.00
Bronze medal game – women – 12.00
Bronze medal game – men – 17.00
Saturday 23 November
Gold medal game – women – 08.00
Gold medal game – men – 13.00
Image: World Curling