Two-time European champions and Olympic silver medallists Team Mouat may have enjoyed success all over the world, but they are looking to break their duck in Switzerland as they compete in Basel this weekend.
The Triple Knockout format Swiss Cup (November 4-6) will be their last outing ahead of the defence of the European title they won for the second time last season, but their first at full strength since Bobby Lammie broke his hand in September and vice skip Grant Hardie said they are viewing it as a different challenge after competing on the lucrative and prestigious Canadian Grand Slam circuit. 
“It’s our first event in Europe since Baden at the start of our season and Basel is always an event we like going to even if we haven’t had a huge amount of success there,” he said.
“It’s always a strong field and particularly just two weeks before the Europeans it will be great to test ourselves against the teams we will play at the Europeans.
“Having been out in Canada – the Slams have become a bit of a comfort zone for us in that we know what to expect and what we will be doing at them, but hopefully we can put a good weekend together and show where we are at before the Europeans.”
Hardie admitted that he is looking forward to a reduced work-load now that Lammie has regained fitness.
“It was obviously a challenge with the injury for Bobby and we had to adjust our roles and it took a lot of work to try and get some results, so while we were not at our best we still felt that we made some good progress.
“We’re definitely looking forward to having the normal line up back this weekend and to have Bobby back sweeping again. I am particularly excited to be sweeping four stones instead of six again!” he laughed.
It is eight years since a Scottish team won the Swiss Cup when Team Mouat’s lead, Hammy McMillan, was part of Tom Brewster’s winning line-up and they are part of a three-pronged challenge of British Curling programme teams this time around. 
“One of the things we have discussed is that we have never actually won in Switzerland as a team so that’s a mini goal of ours and this would be a great chance to see what can do there,” said Hardie.
“The ice is normally very good there so we are confident we can go and challenge for the title this weekend and that will be a nice confidence boost as we continue our preparations for the Europeans.”
Brewster will be back in Basel, but this time in a coaching role, working with Team Waddell who, along with Team Whyte, make up that British Curling contingent.
They are led by 2018 Olympian Kyle Waddell, who is set to join Mouat’s men as their fifth player at the Europeans, but remains focused until then on continuing to develop his youthful line-up
“We’re happy that we are getting the chances to learn more and more though it was disappointing at the Grand Prix in Bern last weekend not to qualify and that was a minimum goal we set ourselves so we fell short of that,” said Waddell.
“It wasn’t ideal but we know that is elite sport and it about bouncing back and that is what we are looking to do. 
“We have been looking forward to the Swiss Cup because it’s always a great event and while it’s later in the calendar that usual I am sure it will still be good as the organisers put on a great event and it’s one of my favourite European Tour events, so from that point of view I am really looking forward to it.
“Competing in back to back events in Europe our plan had been to build a bit of momentum and it is an event that has a good strong field, so we would like to put in a performance that gets us results and we will see where that takes us before a bit of a break for us as a team during the Europeans.”
Across the Continent, British Curling Performance Foundation Team Blair will be in action at the Tallinn Ladies Challenge looking to build on their last competitive outing when they reached the final of the Latvian Challenger.
They achieved that in the absence of regular third Lisa Davie who was part of the Scotland team that made it to the final of the World Mixed Curling Championships and are again seeing the benefits of working as a five player unit this weekend due to Holly Hamilton’s unavailability.
“We will be a four player team again in Tallin because we don’t have Holly with us this time due to work commitments,” explained skip Lucy Blair. 
“Our aim is getting out of the group stages and into the play-offs and anything above that is a bonus.
“We have played Italy’s Team Constantini and the Latvian team before, both of whom are in our section and both have been very close games, so we would quite like to get wins over them.
“We are feeling confident after our performance in Latvia and Lisa’s performance at the World Mixed Curling Champs and it will be good to have Lisa back with us because of her experience and everything else she brings to the team.
“We will miss Holly’s energy and positivity on and off the ice, however we are looking forward to building on all of the progress we have made in the last competition and also in training since Latvia.”
Tallinn Ladies Challenge Results
Team Mouat 
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Team Waddell
Kyle Waddell
Craig Waddell
Mark Taylor
Gavin Barr
Team Whyte
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Duncan McFadzean
Euan Kyle
Team Blair
Lucy Blair
Lisa Davie
Alex Mackintosh
Susie Smith
Holly Hamilton
Images: Team GB / David Pearce &
Juris Bērziņš-Soms, Latvian International Challenger
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