Five British Curling programme teams have travelled to Norway’s capital this weekend to compete in the Oslo Cup (2-4 September), looking to pick up world ranking points as they head into the new season.
Following a summer of inevitable change, as a new four-year Olympic cycle gets underway, the opportunity to compete on home ice in the women’s and men’s Euro Super Series (ESS), provided an opportunity for new combinations to settle in over the past fortnight and that applied to no team more than the newly formed Team Farmer, whose five player line-up was confirmed just days before their event. 
It contains Hailey Duff, the sole member of this year’s Olympic gold medal winning team to remain committed to the women’s game and her new skip Beth Farmer believes the quintet, which also includes Kirstin Bousie, Amy MacDonald and Katie McMillan, is showing promise.
“The five player team dynamic is getting there. It’s a wee bit harder with the rotation, but I’ve curled with Katy and Kirstin before which makes that part of it a wee bit easier and myself and Hailey are working pretty well together, not having played together before and Amy’s fitting in well,” said Farmer.
“We’re all really looking forward to this weekend and feeling a wee bit more prepared than we were for ESS, having been on ice a lot more with each other.
“Going into ESS we were thrown into the deep end, just with that lack of time together after last minute decisions on team things. However, that forced us to really dial in and stick in to make the best of the situation, which I think went reasonably well. 
“We’re feeling optimistic about this weekend. We’ve just got to keep the heads down and keep working on what we’ve been doing and what we learned from ESS and try to put that into practise.”
The other British Curling women’s team in action will be Team Morrison, while the men’s event will feature Teams Whyte and Craik, both of whom reached the play-off stages at the men’s ESS last weekend, as well as Team Waddell, which comprises half of the line-up that won this year’s Scottish Championship in Waddell brothers Kyle and Craig.
Oslo results
British Curling Teams
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Gina Aitken
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Team Farmer 
Beth Farmer
Hailey Duff
Kirstin Bousie
Amy MacDonald
Katie McMillan
Team Whyte
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Duncan McFadzean
Euan Kyle
Team Waddell
Kyle Waddell
Craig Waddell
Mark Taylor
Gavin Barr
Team Craik
James Craik
Mark Watt
Angus Bryce
Blair Haswell
#curling
