World champions Team Mouat returned to the top of the global rankings when they beat British Curling stablemates Team Whyte in the final of the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard on both teams’ first outing of the season in Canada.
Defending the title they had won when the event was last played two years ago, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan secured their place in the final with four wins from their four pool matches, before seeing off the USA’s Team Dropkin and their compatriots Team Shuster, the 2018 Olympic champions in the quarter and semi-finals. 
Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle had meanwhile also come through the event unbeaten in setting up a re-match of last month’s Euro Super Series final, played on home ice in Stirling and they started the match with the hammer.
However, a steal at the opening end gave Mouat’s men the upper hand and they took complete control at the second when they stole two more shots to move into a 3-0 lead.
Whyte battled hard and after being forced at the fifth end, stole at the seventh to apply some pressure, but the holders played a near flawless final end to score the three which secured a 6-2 victory at a favourite venue, which was the scene of their first tournament win as a quartet in this event in 2017.
“We’ve really enjoyed playing here again,” said Mouat.
“We are absolutely buzzing to have won again and we really do love this ice–rink.
“We just had a really strong start and forced them into some tough shots which got us some misses and gave us a lead.
“We had to hold it from there and played a very good game to win that one so I am very happy with how we are playing.” 
Having last held the world number one ranking early in 2022, they had narrowly missed out on securing it at the end of last season following their first victory in the World Championships and the skip said they had been keen to regain that status as quickly as possible in this campaign.
“It’s nice to be at the top of the world rankings,” he said.
“We would have loved to have finished last season in that position but a strong start has obviously given us that accolade now so over the moon to have that number one ranking.
“It has been a goal of ours for a while and we have been there before but we have never really held it for a while, so now is the opportunity to try and hold that position for as long as we can.”
He noted, too, that the performances of all three Scottish teams that have crossed the Atlantic for this event, should reinforce confidence in the British Curling programme that is operating at the National Curling Academy in Stirling, with Team Morrison also reaching the final of the women’s competition.
“Ross’s team has had a great start to the season and it is just showing that British Curling is obviously doing some stuff right to get a lot of talented teams into the finals of big competitions, so we are really happy with our performance and obviously it is nice to see that we have started the season really strong.
“It’s great to see that all three Scottish teams have enjoyed it and have made it to the finals.”
Team Morrison earned their play-off place with three wins in their four pool matches, before defeating Japan’s Team Yoshimura 5-3 in the quarter-final and the USA’s Team Peterson 8-3 in the semis.
That set up a meeting with Korea’s Team Seungyoun Ha in the final, which was close fought throughout, going to an extra end before their opponents took advantage of having the final stone, to earn a 5-4 win.
“Overall we’ve made huge improvements since the last competition,” said skip Rebecca Morrison.
“It shows that we’re definitely heading in the right direction.
“We’ve got two more events over in Canada at the KW Classic and the Shorty Jenkins to build on what we’ve learned and we’ll be looking to build our ranking points up heading into October.”
The event also demonstrated that having recruited Olympic champion Jen Dodds permanently to their line-up after she travelled with them to last season’s World Championships as their alternate, they are working well as a quintet.
“We’ve been rotating Sophie Sinclair and Jen Dodds at second in this event and by keeping it to those changes there’s been a lot of consistency in the line-up,” said Morrison.
”Both of them played great and it didn’t make either of them rusty sitting out games.
“Jen has brought a lot of experience to the team which can help bring us on to the next level.”
There was further encouragement for the British Curling programme at the EJCT event at St Gallen where Team Ross Craik reached the quarter finals and Scottish Junior Champions Team Carson made it to the semi finals.
Stu Sells Oakville Tankard results.
Stu Sells Oakville Tankard website.
STU SELLS OAKVILLE TANKARD TEAMS: 
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Team Whyte
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Duncan McFadyen
Euan Kyle
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Gina Aitken
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Jen Dodds
EJCT – ST GALLEN TEAMS:
Team Ross Craik
Ross Craik
Scott Hyslop
Struan Carson
Jack Carrick
Team Carson
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Images: Perry Marshall/Stu Sells Events Series.
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