World champions Team Mouat will begin their bid to reclaim the first major title they ever won by meeting domestic rivals as the young quartet led by former World Junior Championship winning skip James Craik make their Grand Slam of Curling Tier One debut at The Kioti National this week (7-12 November).
The event, which takes place in Pictou, Nova Scotia has generated strong Scottish performances in the past, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan claiming their first tour win at The National six years ago, before they contested the first-ever all-Scottish Grand Slam final a year later against a Team Paterson line-up which included the man who is now their coach, Michael Goodfellow.
“It’s nice to be back at The National, where the team and I got our first break on the World Curling Tour and the Slams, so we’re really looking forward to seeing what we can do this week and we’re hoping to kick start a good run towards the back end of our season,” said skip Mouat.
Having got their season off to a fine start with tournament victories on either side of the Atlantic at their first two events – The Euro Super Series in Stirling and at The Stu Sells Oakville Tankard in Ontario – they are now looking to find their best form as they head towards their bid to win a fourth European Championship title in four appearances at that event.
“Leading into the Europeans this is a great opportunity to put us up against some of the best teams in the world,” said Mouat.
“In saying that, it’s really nice to have three Scottish teams back in the Slams.
“We’re starting our campaign off this week against James and the boys in their first Tier One Slam and it’ll be a great experience for them.
“We’re really excited to be playing them and I’m sure it’ll be a close one like we normally have with them.”
Craik, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell have climbed the world rankings this season to their current 14th place to earn their invitation to compete with the elite.
And his team having set the tone for the British Curling programme with their performances in recent seasons, Mouat welcomes the intensifying domestic challenge. 
“It’s always competitive against the top Scottish teams and it’s nice to see so many of us doing well on tour with a couple of other victories for Team Bryce and Team Ross Craik over the weekend,” said Mouat.
“A lot of good things are happening for Scottish teams right now.”
So much so that he has previously acknowledged that their selection as Scotland’s representatives for the forthcoming Euros was by no means automatic, in spite of having gone into this season as reigning Scottish, European and World champions.
Pushing them closest has been Team Whyte who have now moved up to eighth place in the world rankings, having been the top Scottish performers at this season’s only Grand Slam when they reached the semi-finals of The Hearing Life Tour Challenge last month.
“Selection for the Europeans was a tough one for us because we thought we’d put ourselves in a very good situation to be selected,” said their skip Ross Whyte.
“However, it didn’t go our way this time, so we’continue to fight and try to put that Scotland jersey on again.
“We’re obviously competing with very good teams in Scotland and we’ve got the World and European champions in Team Mouat who have been a very solid squad for the last five or six years, so it’s always tricky to be getting above them. 
“We feel like we’ve done a good job in closing the gap, but we understand how good they are and we’re just working on ourselves to keep doing as well as we can and hopefully that reflects in further selections down the line.”
They, too, are enjoying the way that strength in depth is being generated, helping raise standards all round, James Craik having led his men to their first senior tournament win in Bern last month, followed a week later by victories at The Danish Open by a team skipped by his younger brother Ross, while compatriots Cameron Bryce’s men were winning The Swiss Cup.
“We’ve seen a big improvement through all British Curling teams this year,” said Whyte.
“Team (James) Craik getting their first win in a tour event was great to see, along with some of the other Scottish teams getting out there and competing really well.
“It’s great for Scotland and it’s helping push us on and inspiring us at the same time to try to keep getting more tour wins on the board.
“We like to see all Scottish teams doing well and we feel that if we’re in a good place as a country it will lead to future success.
“We pay a lot of attention to the other teams in the hope that they do well and we also like to see what they’re doing successfully and take a few things for ourselves, which has helped us to kick on this year.”
Whyte consequently believes that he and teammates Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle are well placed to build on their performance at The Tour Challenge.
“Our run in the last Grand Slam was a very successful one, finally breaking the quarter-final stage and making it to the semis,” he said.
“We were very pleased with that and are hoping that can kick us on and continue to make semi-finals and potentially go further.
“We feel as a team that we’re improving and can start to compete with these great top teams and hopefully start to claim even more success.
“We’re in a good space this week technically and hopefully that can be reflected on the ice in our games.”
Schedule and results: https://thegrandslamofcurling.com/events/national/draw-schedule/
Images: Anil Mungal & Urs Raben
