All five men’s teams on the British Curling programme will form part of a powerful field which includes teams from six European nations at this week’s Aberdeen International.
The home challenge will be led by Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan who are finalising their preparations for the forthcoming Men’s World Curling Championships after claiming their fourth title in their last four appearances at the Scottish Championships last month.
Should Mouat’s men reach the play-off stages there is the prospect of continuing their growing rivalry with another of the leading European teams, Team Retornaz.
The Scots lost to the Italians in a Grand Slam final in Canada towards the end of last year, before gaining revenge by beating them in the final of the Perth Masters, just as the Scots had done on their way to winning the European Championships earlier in the season. 
“It’s our last event before the Worlds, so it gives us great preparation going into that Championships, with the likes of Retornaz and a few other teams that will be in Ottawa,” said skip Bruce Mouat.
“It’s always great to have those games and I don’t think any of them are in our group, but if we manage to play them at some point it would be really good.”
In Pool Two those facing Retornaz’s men, the current highest ranked team in the competition at no.3 in the world, include the quartet led by last year’s World Junior Championship winning skip James Craik, while Scotland’s world number 10 ranked Team Whyte are in Pool Three along with compatriots Team Waddell and Team Ross Craik.
“It’s always nice to see the international teams come to Scotland for big events like this, but It’s great to have a lot of Scottish teams playing as well, demonstrating the talent Scotland has and we’ll look to push all the European teams as far as we can,” said Mouat.
On a personal level he is meanwhile looking to return to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs, when he and Jen Dodds became the first Scots to win the World Mixed Doubles Championships two years ago, a title they are looking to reclaim when they head to Korea at the end of this season.
“It’ll be nice to get back to Aberdeen,” he said.
“The last time I was there was for the World Mixed Doubles and I have very fond memories of that time.”
The Aberdeen International takes place from March 16 to 19, with the quarter-finals taking place on Saturday evening, ahead of Sunday’s semi-finals and final.
Please click here for results
Please click here for the draw.
Images: Anil Mungal / Photovagrant & Wataru Yamagishi
