Extra end victories over two of the leading line-ups in the global game saw Scotland’s Team Whyte complete a fine weekend’s work to claim the Aberdeen International title at Curl Aberdeen.
Consistently ranked among the top 10 teams in the world this season, Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle, had gone through the pool stages unbeaten before eliminating Germany’s Benny Kapp in the quarter-final to earn their place in the last four.
The semi-final then pitted them against Team Mouat, with whom Whyte has won a string of major medals as their fifth player at the Olympics and at European and World Championships.
With their vice skip Grant Hardie unavailable over the weekend, Bruce Mouat, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had also come through their group with a 100 per cent record and remained highly competitive in a hard fought battle which saw half of the ends blanked and no more than a single scored in any of the rest as the teams finished level at 2-2 after the scheduled eight ends. 
Never behind to that stage, however, Team Whyte held their nerve at the extra end to set up a meeting with Italy’s Team Retornaz, following their 7-3 semi-final defeat of another of Scotland’s rinks Team Waddell.
The opening exchanges of the final suggested it might be a very different encounter with multiple scores at the first two ends, Whyte scoring two at the opener, then Retornaz responding with a three at the next.
Forced to a single at the third end, Whyte then regained the initiative with a steal at the fourth to move 4-3 ahead and it turned into another arm wrestle from that point.
A blanked fifth end was followed by exchanges of singles at the next three, to take it into extra time once more and with final stone advantage the Scottish quartet was up to the task once again.
“The final was a very close and intense battle with Team Retornaz as they have had a great season this year and we always knew it was going to be a very tough match, however it’s really nice to get out and get that win over them,” said Whyte.
“It was a very close affair all the way to the extra end with a nice steal in end four which helped us on our way to the victory.”
It was all the more satisfying because their opportunities to prepare for this event together had been restricted by the absence over the last fortnight of vice skip Robin Brydone, who has been calling shots for the team for much of this season.
“We were interested to see how we would go as Robin has been coaching in Canada for the last two weeks with the Scotland Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Team at their World Championships, but he slipped straight back into the team and played really well,” said Whyte.
“We have played some really tough teams this week including some of the top ten teams in the world which was nice to get wins over them and the final result today which we were looking for this weekend.”
Team Whyte’s position in the world rankings means they are becoming regulars at Grand Slam of Curling events, the most lucrative tournaments on the calendar and beating two teams that have enjoyed success at that level sets them up well for those that remain this season, The Players Championship in Toronto (April 11-16), followed by the season-ending Champions Cup in Saskatchewan (May 2-7).
“Beating Grand Slam winners is never easy and Mouat has now a number of those to his name, while Retornaz won one earlier this year, so it feels really good to be on top of the competition where they are in the field,” Whyte observed. 
“This is a good step towards the end of the season and we are looking to progress on this and try to get a couple of good runs in the last two Slams of the year, hopefully allowing us to go on and go deep in both of those competitions for some extra ranking points.”
The presence of three of the host nation’s teams in the semi-finals at the Aberdeen International meanwhile spoke, once again, to the strength in depth being generated within the Scottish and British game in this first year of a new Olympic cycle, adding to the significance of this latest success for the winning skip.
“We understand that within Scotland right now there are a lot of great teams, so it was nice to beat a couple of our rivals this weekend and hopefully we can continue this momentum and push on next year,” said Whyte.
Results on CurlingZone.
