He may have found it difficult to consider his older brother an Auld Enemy, but Bruce Mouat’s competitive edge was to the fore as Scotland beat England 8-1 to maintain their 100 per cent record in defence of their Le Gruyere AOP European Championships title in Finland.
Always an encounter with extra resonance, the encounter between the teams from either side of the border had been given extra spice when England’s Team Retchless opted to promote Mouat’s dual-qualified big brother Colin from their bench as they took on the world’s number one ranked team.
The older Mouat had joked beforehand that he would try to get into his sibling’s head and England made it difficult for the Scots at the first few ends, but a steal of three at the fourth proved decisive and the match ended early after two more were stolen two ends later.
“I would have been annoyed if we’d lost that game and I think that’s the brotherly rivalry as well as just me being a complete competitor,” the Scotland skip said afterwards. 
“Colin and I are still speaking, though and it was quite a special moment to have the chance to play against him at a major championship like this, so I’m really proud of him for getting here and being able to play.
“It’s funny to think back to when we were eight years old starting out in curling and now we’re both in our thirties and playing against one another at a European Championships.
“It’s pretty baffling to comprehend, but it’s a memory to hold and we’ll be able to look back at photos of this day and be able to reflect on this I’m sure later on in life.”
Earlier in the day Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had overcome a powerful challenge from Norway who led 2-0 and 3-1 in the early stages of the match and took it to the final end before succumbing 6-5.
“It was a pretty tough game against Norway this morning,” said Mouat.
“We started off pretty slow, so we had to grind out that game, but it was nice to see that we all stuck together to get the win.
“We expect these kind of games when we’re at the Europeans, though, so it was almost better to have that sort of challenge early on in the week to help build momentum going forward.
“It helped us focus our shot making and take a few seconds more in the hack to really dial in and then we came out and played better against England.”
The nature of that England match meant the Scots were also able to get their fifth player, 2018 Olympian Kyle Waddell, into the action for the first time as he replaced lead Hammy McMillan after the midway break.
“It was also good to give Kyle a chance to get on the ice and find his feet, in case we need to bring him on later in the week, so it’s been a good day to put us in good stead for another two games tomorrow,” said Mouat.
The Scottish men now face Switzerland, the only other team with a 100 per cent record so far and Austria on day three of the competition.
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
Scotland – Denmark 11-9 (EE)
Sunday 17 November
Session 2 – men
Scotland – Norway 6-5
Session 3 – women
Scotland – Switzerland 1-8
Session 3 – men
Scotland – England 8-1
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
Images: World Curling
