While British Curling’s Olympians finalise their planning for Beijing, some of their colleagues on the elite programme will return to action this weekend as they home in on their main season’s goals.
For Team Craik this weekend’s St Gallen Challenger represents an opportunity to test out the dynamics of life on the road for the quintet that will represent Scotland at this year’s World Junior Championships and their skip is confident that they will gel effectively.
“Since our last overseas trip we have won the Junior Nationals and now get to take our alternate Jack Carrick who has been a great addition to the team this year,” said James Craik.
The limited schedule, caused by COVID restrictions, has added to the sense of excitement as they prepare for the trip. 
“We always look forward to going to Switzerland to compete and especially St Gallen as they offer great ice and strong competition to test ourselves against,” said Craik.
He and his teammates have been determined to make the very best of the circumstances they have confronted, even to the point of finding a positive in the disappointment of missing that chance for international honours.
“This trip feels a bit overdue after missing out on representing Great Britain at the World University Games (WUGS) at the start of December but it just makes us even more hungry to go out and play our best and make the most of it,” Craik went on.
“With the cancellation of WUGS we have had longer to prep for this event and we all put in a really good shift over the Christmas period, so are hoping to put in a good set of performances.
“This will be most likely our last event before the World Junior Champs in Sweden so it’s important to leave this week happy with our performance but also catch the last few things to work on before we go.”
They are joined in the St Gallen line-up by two more Scottish rinks, Team Watt and Team Waddell, led by 2018 Olympian Kyle Waddell who said they had seized the chance for competitive practice ahead of the forthcoming national championships.
“We are excited to be playing this weekend. It’s been a while since we have played a competitive game,” Waddell observed. 
“December was quiet because of the Olympic Qualifiers and the Canadian trials meant there wasn’t really anything to compete in, so adding this event in at late notice is a good thing for us.
“The event itself is a part of our Scottish Championship preparation, so I hope we can go out there, put what we have been working on into practice and find some form.
“I’m sure it will be a good event, I have been to St. Gallen a few times before and there are some good teams playing, but overall it’s a chance to get some competitive games in before the Scottish.”
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