After getting out of the blocks impressively in Switzerland last weekend, Team Whyte have their sights set on a first title of the season when they return to home ice for the European Super Series (ESS) event at Stirling’s National Curling Academy (Aug 25-28).
The quartet of Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle went unbeaten through the round-robin stages in the season opening Baden Masters before losing out at an extra end in their quarter-final and their skip believes that has set a solid platform for the season to come.
“We had a good run in Baden and it was a good event for us as we really turned up and played well throughout the round robin before just coming up a bit short in the quarter final, but we feel like that was a good start for us to push on for the rest of the season and see how well we can do this year,” said Whyte.
Having also begun last season well at the inaugural European Super Series event at the NCA, they believe they can go the full distance this weekend. 
“Last year we had a great start to the season making it to the final of the ESS and this year we want to replicate that and obviously go one better which would be fantastic,” Whyte continued.
That event was well received by competing teams and word has spread, leading to the involvement of teams from across the Atlantic for the first time at a competition in the National Curling Academy, led by the USA’s 2018 Olympic champions Team Shuster and Whyte is excited by the prospect of once again facing some of the best in the world.
“There is a good feel to the ESS this weekend and we are looking forward to it,” he said.
“We enjoyed the competition last year and being on home ice always helps to push us on to try and get that head start to begin with, as we know the ice and conditions pretty well.
“So hopefully with a strong field including teams from US and Europe it is going to be a really tightly contested weekend and lots of good curling will be played.”
The inclusion of Olympic champions in the line-up underlines the nature of the opportunity that is opening up for all the British Curling teams taking part as a new four-year cycle begins, as acknowledged by Whyte, who won a silver medal in Beijing earlier this year, having been the alternate for Team Mouat when they beat Shuster’s men in the semi-final to reach the final.
“It is a new cycle and we are currently just trying to focus on ourselves and making ourselves a better team and hopefully that will lead us in a good way so we can progress on to our main goals in four years time,” said Whyte. 
“But it feels like a long way away and there are a lot of good teams in British Curling right now, so it is going to be a tough race for one team to break through, but we will try our best to be the best team we possibly can be and hopefully that will get us to our biggest goal.”
British Curling is also represented by Team Waddell and teams skipped by the Craik brothers James and Ross.
The European Super Series is being played using a triple knockout format and one game from each draw will be live streamed on The Curling Channel via the Recast platform.
Please click here for the ESS Men's Draw.
Please click here for the streamed games on The Curling Channel.
Schedule for streamed games:
Thursday 25 August
16.30 – Draw 1 – Team Shuster v Team Schnider 
20.30 – Draw 2 – Team Walstad v Team Gosgens
Friday 26 August
0830 – Draw 3 – Team Dropkin v Team Jeong
1230 – Draw 4 – Team Shuster v Team Craik
1630 – Draw 5 – Team Bryce v Team Schnider
2030 – Draw 6 – Team Whyte v Team Brunner
Saturday 27 August
0830 – Draw 7 – Team Jeong v Team Craik
1230 – Draw 8 – Team Waddell v Team Walstad
1630 – Draw 9 – Team Hostmaelingen v Gosgens
2030 – Draw 10 – Quarter Finals:
Retornaz v Craik
Shuster v Bryce
Whyte v Gosgens - streamed game*
Walstad v Dropkin
Sunday 28 August
0830 – Draw 11 – Semi Finals
Retornaz v Bryce - streamed game*
Gosgens v Dropkin
1230 – Draw 12 – Final
Retornaz v Dropkin - streamed game*
RESULTS:
Draw 1
Retornaz – Strawhorn 6-1
Dropkin – Hostmaelingen 5-7
Stocker – Craik 5-8
Shuster – Schnider 6-1
Draw 2 
Bryce – Waddell 2-7
Brunner – Jeong 5-4
Walstad – Gosgens 6-4
Whyte – R.Craik 7-5
Draw 3
Strawhorn – Bryce 4-7
Stocker – Schnider 6-7
Jeong – Dropkin 2-7
Gosgens – R.Craik 9-2
Draw 4
Retornaz – Waddell 9-2
Craik – Shuster 4-8
Brunner – Hostmaelingen 6-5 
Walstad – Whyte 3-5
Draw 5
Bryce – Schnider 8-7
Dropkin – Gosgens 4-7
Waddell – Craik 7-5
Hostmaelingen – Walstad 8-10
Draw 7
Stocker v Hostmaelingen 5-6
Jeong v Craik 3-10
Schnider v Dropkin 3-4
Bryce v Brunner 6-1
Gosgens v Shuster 1-6
Waddell v Walstad 4-6
Draw 10 – Quarter Finals
Retornaz v Craik 6-4
Shuster v Bryce 1-7
Whyte v Gosgens 4-6
Walstad v Dropkin 5-6 (EE)
Draw 11 – Semi Finals
Retornaz v Bryce 6-2
Gosgens v Dropkin 4-6
Draw 12 - FINAL
Retornaz v Dropkin
Additional Notes: 
The following rules will be implemented for the ESS men’s event, as part of WCF’s Maximising the Value Project
- No tick on centre line (mirroring last season’s Worlds)
- TTPE – Thinking Time Per End. Similar to World Cup. Exact time to be determined but either 4:15 or 4:30 per end.
British Curling Teams in ESS:
Team Whyte
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Duncan McFadzean
Euan Kyle
Team Waddell
Kyle Waddell
Craig Waddell 
Mark Taylor
Gavin Barr
Team Craik
James Craik
Mark Watt
Angus Bryce
Blair Haswell
Team Ross Craik
Ross Craik
Scott Hyslop
Struan Carson
Jack Carrick
Images: PPA/Graeme Hart/ WCF/Cheyenne Boone.
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