As they seek to extend their momentous Grand Slam of Curling event run by winning a fourth successive title, Team Mouat will open their Boost National campaign by meeting fellow Scots Team Paterson in a re-match of their meeting in an all-Scottish final at the same tournament three years ago.
That 2018 encounter demonstrated the new-found confidence which was developing within the British Curling programme after Mouat and teammates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had won the competition on their first appearance in a Grand Slam competition the previous season.
Ross Paterson, Kyle Waddell, Duncan Menzies and Michael Goodfellow, who has since retired and been replaced by Waddell’s younger brother Craig, prevailed on that occasion, reminding Mouat’s men that competitive as they were becoming on the global stage, they still faced a major domestic challenge.
The depth of British curling has only grown since, with Team Whyte, comprising Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle, also having climbed high enough in the world rankings to earn a place at Grand Slam events and Mouat clearly believes they can all draw on the achievements of one another. 
“It’s going to be nice to play against Ross (Paterson) and his team,” he said, ahead of the opening match of the Triple Knockout event in Chestermere, Alberta.
“We’ve not played against them for a while. We played against them at the NCA event in August, but apart from that it’s been quite a few months since we played them. I think it was back in March last time, so it should be a good game and it’s just nice to have a lot of other Scottish teams at these events now, proving that we’re doing something right at the National Curling Academy.”
Mouat admits that when he and long-time teammate Bobby Lammie joined forces with cousins Grant Hardie and Hammy McMillan four years ago, they could not have conceived of the extraordinary run that has seen them win the last three Grand Slam events at the Players Tournament and The Champions Cup in the Calgary bubble at the end of last season, ahead of last month’s victory at The Masters in Oakville, Ontario.
As they return to the tournament at which they served notice of their potential, they are on course to make further history to be the only team to win every Grand Slam event in a single calendar year and they are revelling at being back at an event that holds such special memories.
“The Boost National is always a really exciting event for us to play, because it was the first Slam we played together in 2017 and the first one we won and we’ve had quite good results most of the time we’ve played in it. So we’re definitely happy to be back and hopefully we can re-create what we did four years ago,” said Mouat. 
“Winning three Slam titles in a row is beyond my imagination of what we could have achieved when we put this team together, but it’s all down to the hard work that we’ve been putting in. It’s really starting to show rewards and we’ve found our groove when we come to these Slams. It’s been great to play in them and we’re just so proud that we’ve stuck in so well and played so well at all of them in the past few months.”
Team Mouat were told last month that they would represent Team GB at the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year and they are aiming to maintain form ahead of that as they also target this month’s European Championships, an event they won on their only previous appearance in 2018.
“With Beijing less than 100 days away, playing in these major events is going to give us some momentum going forward,” said Mouat.
“You’re playing against the best teams in the world here, on the best ice and it’s always going to be a challenge, which is what we need to be doing before we start the build-up towards Beijing.
“With the Europeans coming up as well that’s another high class competition for us to gain some really good experience, playing against a lot of teams we’re potentially going to be playing against at the Olympics.” 
Team Whyte, who reached the quarter-finals of their first Grand Slam event at The Masters last month, will open their campaign in another all-European encounter with Sweden’s reigning world champions Team Edin.
Images: PPA/Graeme Hart
