European bronze medallists Team Morrison completed an impressive week’s work by cruising to victory over Team Young in the final at the Dumfries Ice Bowl to complete the successful defence of their Scottish Women’s Curling Championship title.
As with all bar one of the eight previous matches in their unbeaten run, it was over with ends to spare, as Lesley Young, Jennifer Marshall, Eilidh Yeats and Rachael Dakers accepted the outcome when they were only able to score a single at the eighth end, leaving them 8-3 behind at that stage, without the hammer.
They had been the only team to take Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson to 10 ends in the course of the competition when they had met in the page play-off the previous day, but this time were in trouble from the start when they conceded a two at the opening end, then a steal of another two at the second. 
From that point it was just a case of Team Morrison carefully managing the scoreboard until they manufactured the opportunity for their skip to play a raised take-out with her final stone at the seventh end, which she executed perfectly to score the three that removed any remaining doubt as to the outcome.
As Morrison half-jokingly admitted, their performances and form were such that their only major concern had been superstition.
“That feels amazing, especially after the week we’ve had,” she said.
“It’s actually a little bit scary going into the final unbeaten, because you just don’t ever want your only loss of the week to be in the final, so we had that extra pressure.
“However, we also knew we were unbeaten for a reason and that did give us confidence going into that game.
“It’s always a dream start scoring a two at the first end, never mind then stealing a two at the second, so we couldn’t have asked for much more.
“We really held the pressure on in those early ends and then it was just a matter of defending it, which can sometimes be hard to when you’ve got eight ends to go, but the three at the seventh really sealed the deal.
“I’m so pleased with how the team played throughout the week. There have been no moments of panic or anything, we’re just delighted with the shot-making and teamwork we’ve had.
“I think this cements us as the top team in Scotland.”
The victory consequently puts Team Morrison in pole position to represent Scotland at the World Championships this season, which would give them the chance to make up for last season when they travelled to the event, but had to withdraw when COVID struck their camp.
“We were just very unfortunate last year,” said Morrison. 
“Restrictions were loosening and there were about one in 10 people in the country had COVID at the time we were leaving for the World Championships.
“Life’s a lot different these days, though and we’re really looking forward to selection and hoping that it will be good news for us.
“If so, we just need to train hard and do our best. I don’t think we need to do anything differently.
“We did great at the Europeans, but the Worlds are a whole new kettle of fish. You’ve got a bunch of other teams… Canada, the USA, Japan, Korea, so many great teams.
“For us, if we get to the Worlds, our goal would be to make the play-offs at our first World Championships.”
The event will take place in the same country as the Europeans and Morrison believes that gives them the best possible chance of performing well.
“We have great memories of Sweden from just the other month and the two Sophies have a World B Championship gold from Sweden as well, so it’s a great place for us.
“It’s great that it’s close to home, too, because it gives the opportunity for family and friends to come over.”
The men’s final takes place at 4pm this afternoon and European Champions Team Mouat are hoping to win their fourth national title from four visits to the event, as they take on recently crowned World University Games Champs, Team Craik.
The game will be available on the BBC sport website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/scotland/64591132
Please click here to Scottish Curling for the draw and live results.
Trophy image: Jayne Stirling - Scottish Curling
