Newly crowned national champions Team Morrison have been selected to represent Scotland at the BKT Tires and OK Tire World Women’s Championships which take place at the CN Centre in Prince George, British Columbia later this month (March 19-27).
The line-up includes three players - skip Rebecca Morrison, vice skip Gina Aitken and second Sophie Sinclair - who were part of British Curling’s innovative nine player squad which also produced the new Olympic champions, as well as former Scottish Championship winning skip Sophie Jackson.
The quartet claimed victory at the Scottish Curling Championships in Dumfries last month, beating promising juniors Team Henderson in the final. 
“It’s really exciting we’ve just come off a win at the Scottish Championships and we’re all really excited to see what we are capable of out there against some of the world’s best opposition,” said Morrison.
The skip is the only member of the team not to have been involved in a senior World Championship previously and is taking confidence from the experiences of Jackson, who skipping her then Scottish champion team at the Worlds in 2019, while Sinclair was at last year’s World Championships as alternate for Team Muirhead and Aitken has been a regular at World Mixed Doubles Championships as a multiple Scottish champion in that discipline.
“I have played at British Columbia at the World Mixed at Kelowna, too, but not at Prince George, so while it’s a totally new experience for us, we have loads of experience in the team and I am not concerned at all about this being new to me as I have the rest of the team to carry me through that,” said Morrison.
“I am fairly new to skipping in the women’s game, but this year I have won an event at the Euro Super Series as a skip and I have really made more of a mark in that skip position, so I am really feeling pretty confident and unfazed about the whole situation and quietly confident right now.”
She noted that the trip will have special poignancy for Sinclair who also travelled with Team Muirhead when the Worlds were due to be held at the same venue two years ago, only for the competition to be cancelled due to the COVID lockdown on the eve of the event.
“Sophie Sinclair went out to Prince George a couple of years ago but it got cancelled unfortunately so I am sure she is super determined to get out there,” said Morrison.
“It is going to be an exciting moment for her to actually get on the ice in Prince George after such a disappointing time two years ago.” 
A recurring message from the five player team that came home from the Winter Olympics with a gold medal last month was that they had benefited greatly from being part of that nine player squad and Morrison said that also applied to those who missed out on the trip to Beijing.
“We all got mixed and matched throughout the season as part of the nine player squad and at the time (the Olympic team was selected) we were very disappointed, so we really trust each other, having gone through that together and I think that makes us a really strong unit,” she said.
The success their former squad mates enjoyed is helping them believe in their chances of making an impact at this first World Championships together.
“Our first goal is to make the play-offs and then we will re-assess after that and I think we can really use that Olympic success as a benchmark for us,” said Morrison.
“I really hope to show the world that it is not just one good team in Scotland and we have got some depth here. We are working really hard to build that up and we hope to show that Scotland is one of the greatest curling countries.”
That message is underlined by the choice of Fay Henderson, skip of the runners-up at the Scottish Championships, as their alternate for the trip to Canada. 
“Fay’s team are still juniors and they are all at least five years younger than us and they gave us such good games and beat us twice at the Scottish,” Morrison pointed out.
“Even the games we got them were close, so there is a really good up and coming team there and we are delighted to have Fay on board with us. You can really see that the junior game has come along in the last few years on the women’s side and she is a super strong player who brings a lot to our team.”
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Gina Aitken
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Fay Henderson (alternate)
#curling #WWCC2022
Images: Jayne Stirling & PPA Graeme Hart
