British Curling’s Team Morrison registered a first tournament win on Canadian ice when they came back from an early deficit to defeat Switzerland’s pre-tournament favourites Team Jaeggi 7-4 in the final of the Alberta Curling Series event in Leduc.
The Scottish champion quartet of Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson had cruised through the round-robin stages with four wins over Canadian opponents as the overseas teams imposed themselves on the event with three of the four that were up against 10 from the host nation, worked their way through to the semi-finals. 
Of that trio Morrison’s women had gone into the event with the lowest world ranking, but they maintained their form in the semi-final as they dominated the first half of the match, scoring six unanswered shots in the first five ends against Korea’s Team Seungyoun Ha on their way to a 7-2 win.
Switzerland’s world no.24 ranked line-up had come through their semi-final in similar style and made a solid start to the final when they forced Morrison at the opening end, then scored their two at the second to claim an early advantage.
They then forced the Scots again at the third end, but the match turned around when, facing three counting stones, the measure showed that Jaeggi had been able to beat just one of them with her final delivery.
That steal of two swung the momentum Morrison’s way and after forcing at the next, a two at the sixth put her team in complete control.
“The final was really tense,” said Morrison.
“We got down quite early, but managed to bring that back really quickly by piling the pressure on and we were just playing really high quality shots with a combination of freezes and draws.”
Since they are still relatively new to the senior international circuit as a quartet, the skip was particularly satisfied with the way they negotiated the play-off stages of the event.
“We played against two teams that have a decent world ranking in both the semi and the final, so it was really great for us to get a win over them,” she said.
“All of our games today were really clinical. We were taking multiple scores when we had hammer and we were forcing when we didn’t have hammer, so that was great to see and it’s really pleasing that our team’s coming along in a positive way.”
This trip across the Atlantic was an important opportunity for Team Morrison to assess the progress they are making and they believe they are now well placed for this week’s challenge when they face some of the best rinks in the global game.
“We’ve got one more competition left in Canada and we’re super-excited and looking forward to getting more wins on the board and hopefully qualify for the play-offs then see where it goes from there, but we’re all feeling extremely positive after this event because we’re playing really well out there,” said Morrison.
This week’s Autumn Gold Classic takes place in Calgary from October 28-31
