After enjoying early success on the junior circuit this season, Team Henderson will test themselves to the full at senior level in Sweden this weekend when they open their campaign at the Sundyberg Open (Oct 28-30) by facing former Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg on her home ice. 
Daunting as that prospect could be for the British Curling Performance Foundation team, their 20-year-old skip believes that she and teammates Holly Wilkie-Milne, Robyn Munro and Laura Watt, who have won on the continent already this season at a European Junior Curling Tour (EJCT) event in Prague, are ready to take on the very best in the game.
“We know we need to step up our performance, but I think as a team we are capable of doing that,” said Fay Henderson.
“This is the next level up, but the junior events have taught us to make the simple shots well, which we are definitely going to have to do that this weekend, plus a bit more.
“We take on Team Hasselborg in the first game which will be a good experience and I think we will learn a lot from that. We are not feeling or thinking negatively about the game as obviously anyone can win on the day, so we are going in with confidence and want to put in our best performance and have a really good game. 
“This field is upping the calibre for us and I feel we can learn a lot from being around the other teams and also tactically as well just so we can play maybe a more aggressive game.”
Their preparations for this event have, however, been disrupted not only by Munro being away on Scotland duty at the World Mixed winning a silver medal in Aberdeen last weekend, but also as a result of an injury suffered by Wilkie-Milne.
“Our preparation has not gone as smoothly as it could have as Holly has injured her foot so obviously that hasn’t helped, but we have still managed to do lots of training and we can just trust the process that we have worked through and we also train to work around things like this,” said Henderson.
“So thankfully Holly is still ok to play this weekend, it just knocked her training back a bit and also with Robyn being at the Mixed it has largely been me and Laura training but that has been good, as it has given us the opportunity to work together as I feel skip and lead don’t often get that much time together to do that kind of training on ice.” 
With little to lose in such vaunted company, they consequently reckon they have everything to gain from this opportunity as they build towards their main season’s goal of winning another national junior title and earning a return to the World Junior Championships.
“We have been getting on really well as a team so we want to put in a good performance this weekend and keep that going into the Scottish Juniors which is our big event for this half of the season,” said Henderson.
Images: PPA/Graeme Hart.
