Scotland’s five leading men’s teams are kicking off their crucial 2024/25 season by competing in this week’s Baden Masters (15-18 August).
Former World Champions Team Mouat and reigning Scottish Champions Team Whyte, along with Teams Craik, Bryce and Waddell all finished last season in top 20 spots in the world rankings highlighting the quality of domestic competition that can be expected in the last full season before the selection of the 2026 Winter Olympic line-ups. 
For Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, the off-season provided a chance to re-group after the rare disappointment of missing out on medal at a major championship when they defended their world title at the end of the season.
“It’s been a really nice summer for all four of us,” said Mouat.
“We have all had nice holidays and spent as much time as possible with friends as family, but the last month back on ice has been really good and we have been working really hard to get off to a good start when we get out to Baden.
“It has also been a good summer in terms of the strength and conditioning goals we set ourselves and we are looking to see if that gives us a good boost at our first event of the season.”
In seeking to earn a return to the Olympic arena, where they won a silver medal in Beijing in 2022, the quartet who finished a second successive season at second spot in the world rankings are aware of the benefit of putting down an early marker.
“It would be great to get us off to a good start given that this is an important season with Olympic selections taking place during the middle of next year, so it will be important to start off this season well,” Mouat continued.
“It looks like a really good field out in Baden and it is nice to always to put yourselves up against the top teams in Europe.
“There are also some Americans coming over I believe and maybe some Canadians as well, so we are really looking forward to getting going and seeing where the boys and I are at and we are all feeling good and quite excited to get going, really looking forward to it.” 
After their first Scottish Championship contributed to their rise to end-of-season world number five, Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle, who was sidelined by injury at the end of the campaign, have also been working hard over the summer in looking to build on that success.
“We have been training really hard in the gym since we have been back on ice since the beginning of July,” said skip Whyte.
“We have been doing a lot of sessions and putting in a big shift into getting better technically and being fitter for the season ahead.
“Euan has put a lot of focus on ensuring he is fit and ready after his injury at the end of last year.
“He seems to have recovered really well and has really taken on board what everyone has said in order to make his recovery good, so is looking as good as ever which is great to see.
“We are very pumped up for this year and want to go out there and give everything we have got, so we are really up for it and Baden is a great start to the year and we know that this year we need to be better than ever and all we need to do is go out there and compete with whoever is in front of us on the ice.
“Hopefully we can turn those moments into results to then try and make ourselves the number one team in Scotland and give us a chance of selection at the Olympics.
“We understand it is a very difficult situation we are in but we feel we are in a great position going into the start of the year and in Baden we hope to start off with a great tournament.” 
The 2023/24 campaign also saw James Craik, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell establish themselves at global level and having reached the finals of the last two Scottish Championships, the world no.12 ranked team have drawn inspiration from the performances of athletes they aspire to follow to Olympian status this summer.
“It was nice to get some time off, relax and catch up with family and friends and the boys and I have been working hard through the summer on our other jobs, but we are really looking forward to now dialling in and fully focusing in on the season and making a real push for the last stages of the Olympic cycle,” said their skip.
“We’ve loved watching the Olympics and Team GB and all the athletes representing us out at Paris 2024.
“It’s been really inspiring seeing them perform and hearing their interviews demonstrating how much of an amazing experience that is, which has been a huge motivator for us in striving towards getting Team GB on our backs at some point in our careers.”
That has fuelled their belief that they can challenge the teams that have beaten them in those two Scottish Championship finals.
“We’ve tried to sit down, look at last year and focus on what we can try to do differently, what we can improve on and what we can continue with in order to keep progressing and pushing our way up in the world rankings,” Craik continued. 
“This is a crucial season for us after last year, which was a bit of a breakthrough.
“Qualifying for all the Grand Slams in Canada has been a real motivator and we’ve established ourselves at that level, but we want to make sure we continue that and show we’re here to stay and can be one of the world’s best in a few years time.”
They feel the short trip to Switzerland is the ideal way to start the new campaign.
“Baden’s a great event for us,” said Craik.
“We absolutely love it because it’s such a beautiful ice rink and we enjoy going across and making an early start to the season, which lets us chase some ranking points nice and early.
“Our first few weeks of training on ice has been really good and productive and we’re all super-excited to get going against a world class field in Switzerland, not too far from home and we know we really need to try to make a statement.
“We’re kind of lucky and unlucky to have such a strong field at home and it’s hard to push ourselves to be the best, but that’s what we want and that’s contributed to the speed of our development as a young team on tour.”
At 15 and 20 respectively in the world rankings, Teams Bryce and Waddell will also be looking to impress and with vice skip Craig Waddell unable to make the trip another of British Curling’s brightest young talents Orrin Carson gets the chance to join Kyle Waddell, Mark Taylor and Gavin Barr.
“I'm very much looking forward to joining up with Kyle and the team this week and it's great to be given this opportunity to compete at such a high level and mix with the best teams in Europe,” said the teenager.
Click here for Baden Masters results on Curling Zone
Images: Bruce Mouat - Scottish Curling, Euan Kyle - Anil Mungal/Grand Slam of Curling, James Craik - Scottish Curling, Orrin Carson - World Curling.
