Team Mouat will make a long-awaited return to the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021, following their selection to represent Scotland in the men’s event in Lillehammer next month (Nov 20-27).
Bruce Mouat’s men won the tournament on their only appearance in 2018 beating Team Edin in the final, which was the only time the Swedes have failed to claim the title in the past six years.
However, the increasing depth of competition within British Curling was demonstrated the following year when Mouat and teammates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan were beaten in the domestic European Championship play-offs by Team Paterson.
They were then denied a further opportunity when last year’s event fell victim to the COVID pandemic, but this time around they make the trip on the back of last week’s announcement that they will represent Team GB at the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year. 
“We’re obviously excited to get to back to a European Championships after a three-year gap because last year’s unfortunately got cancelled when we were planning to go,” said Mouat.
“This year’s is going to be a highly contested event against a lot of very good teams, so we’re very excited to get back onto the European stage and see what we can do.”
Mouat’s men could not be heading into the competition in better form after making history at the weekend by becoming the first non-Canadian team to win three successive titles in the prestigious Grand Slam of Curling event by adding The Masters title to their successes in The Champions Cup and The Players Championship at the end of last season and their skip reckons that they will benefit from the experience of their only previous involvement.
“Obviously our first trip to the Europeans was very successful when we were unsure of what a Europeans was going to be like, but we learned a lot from that event in Tallinn in 2018 and we’ll be able to take that forward to Lillehammer,” said Mouat.
He is consequently hoping that this event will, in turn, provide them with the preparation they need for the challenges ahead this season.
“It’s nice that we’ll be able to play on championship ice against a handful of the teams that are probably going to be at the Olympics,” he observed.
“We know the ice will be somewhat similar to the ice we’ll get at the Olympics, so this will be a really good test to see if we can win games against the teams we’ll be facing there.
“So, all in all we’re very keen to get going at another Europeans and see if we can recreate the magic that we had in 2018.” 
Team Mouat will once again be joined by Ross Whyte as their alternate, the role he will also perform at the Winter Olympics in Beijing 2022.
Scotland Team
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Ross Whyte (alternate)
