Having become the first non-Canadian men’s team to win the event a year ago, Scotland’s Team Whyte have arrived in Cornwall, Ontario eager to defend their title at the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic (11-15 September).
Last year’s victory by Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle ended a near 30 year run of domestic domination and also launched their own push to climb the world rankings which took them into the top three for the first time just last month.
At last week’s Stu Sells Tankard across the province in Oakville, only defending champions Team Mouat, of the Scottish contingent, reached the knockout stages and they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners, skipped by Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller.
However, that was another event which hinted at a shift in the balance of power in the global game with just one Canadian team reaching the quarter-finals of the men’s event in which the Swiss quartet contested the final of the men’s event with German opposition, while the women’s title was claimed by the team led by Schwaller’s cousin Zenia. 
Having broken that Canadian stranglehold at the Shorty Jenkins, Whyte is meanwhile looking forward to pursuing a repeat success and remains confident that they are playing well enough to defend their title.
“We thought we played pretty well in most of the games in Oakville, but just came out the wrong side of a couple of games which could have gone either way,” said the 27-year-old from Dumfries.
“The fact that we were right there in all of the games and felt like we were sliding good and being technically sound means we are still looking good coming into this week.
“We still feel confident that we can go out there and get good results.
“Oakville was a very tough field with some very hard teams and sometimes it just doesn’t work for you, so unfortunately it just wasn’t our week, but it is great to go back to Cornwall.
“This was a great event last year and we really enjoyed it, so we are really looking forward to getting back out on the ice and giving it everything as we look to retain our title, but we know that there will be a lot of great teams there that we need to try and get by first.
“So it is going to be another tough week but we are looking forward to the challenge and it will be nice to be the defending champs going in this time, which gives us even more motivation to try and keep that trophy.”
Whyte’s men play in the opening round of matches against the Netherlands’ Team Gosgens, while fellow Scots Team Waddell also face Continental opposition in Italy’s Team Retornaz.
James Craik will lead his team into action in the second round of ties against China’s Team Xu, while Mouat’s former World Champions and current world number one ranked men have a lengthy wait until late on day two before getting their campaign underway in the seventh round of matches against the USA’s Team Casper.
In the women’s event both Scottish teams face Swiss opposition in their opening ties on day one as Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson take on Team Huerlimann, while current national champion skip Fay Henderson’s rink meet Silvana Tirinzoni’s four-time world champions.
Please click here for men’s results from Curling Zone.
Please click here for women’s results from Curling Zone.
Image: PPA/Graeme Hart.
