Reigning World Mixed Doubles Champion Bobby Lammie will go into this week’s Scottish title defence in a new pairing, but he is confident of remaining competitive after swapping one Olympic gold medal winning partner for another.
Lammie and Eve Muirhead claimed the national title last season, beating Team GB’s Olympic Mixed Doubles representatives and then World Champions Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat in the final, but following the Beijing gold medal winning skip’s retirement from the sport, he has quickly formed a successful new partnership with one of her former teammates, Hailey Duff. 
The pair claimed victory in their only tournament together, at the Euro Super Series Mixed Doubles event late last year and having beaten most of their colleagues in the British Curling programme in the course of that campaign, that has fuelled his belief in their capacity to come out on top in Perth this week (March 23-26).
“I think we are set up well for this week and having success already in the one competition we have played together shows how quickly things have been working from the get-go,” said Lammie.
“It was good to have that competition under our belts. Obviously you can practice together but it is different when you are competing and getting to know what each other needs out of the partnership within that changed environment.
“It gives you good insight when the pressure is on and there is more competitiveness involved, it helps to understand each other that bit more.
“So, I think it is a great opportunity to go back and defend that title this time with Hailey and I am really looking forward to the chance to retain the title this week.
“Eve had a lot of experience at major events and obviously Hailey has also been incredibly successful at her first Olympics so we just play to our own strengths and it is not massively different, so it has been great so far.”
Scotland has claimed victory at each of the last two World Mixed Doubles Championships with two different teams and Lammie reckons that speaks to growing strength in depth.
“It is going to be a very tough field this year,” he said of the Scottish Championship line-up.
“Pretty much every British Curling programme team turning up has a good chance of winning this so it is going to be very tough and whoever is on form this week and brings their best game has a good chance of walking away with the title.
“British Curling has invested time in our schedules for this and the fact that the last two titles at the Worlds have been won by British Curling teams speaks volumes and shows how competitive we are here and we are all in a good spot. 
“I would like to be there for the third attempt on that World title. That is the goal and I am not going to shy away from that, so anything less than that would be a bit disappointing, but we will keep it relaxed and enjoy the week and that works for me.”
The pair he helped depose as both Scottish and World Champions was Dodds and Mouat who are aiming to reclaim the national title.
For Dodds that has been this season’s principal goal since she dropped out of the four-player team game to focus on Mixed Doubles and she feels that doing so has sharpened her appetite.
“This is a new year and I have been concentrating on the Mixed Doubles and I have had a slightly lighter competition schedule this year and when every competition comes up now I am really hungry to get going,” she said.
“It has definitely been the right decision for me this year to be coming back this season focusing on Mixed Doubles to recover from the last year.
“It was important for me to listen to my body and just say that I am not fully back yet and I am very thankful to British Curling to listen to what I said and agreed that I could play Mixed Doubles and travel less but train more which has been really beneficial to my game.
“It has also allowed me to strip back my delivery to basics and build up because I have had that time to do that.
“I would definitely say I am not burnt out now, so I do feel stronger this year so we will see, but I feel in a very good place.”
Dodds admits that she could not say the same this time last year when she went into this event as an Olympic, World and European champion across the two disciplines. 
“Missing out last year to Bobby and Eve looking back probably wasn’t a shock to me,” she said.
“They were playing great and Bruce was too, but I just couldn’t execute shots as well as I wanted, so looking back it wasn’t a surprise so I am looking forward to going back this week and know I am in a much better place – and it feels a bit like unfinished business at Perth this year.”
Having also won the Grand Slam of Curling Mixed Doubles title in Canada this season and been away at another Grand Slam event when Duff and Lammie were winning the Euro Super Series Mixed Doubles, Dodds knows that she and Mouat will be considered to be among the favourites and knows what to expect.
“It is nothing new, we are used to playing against each other in mixed doubles in previous years but you always knew when Bobby and Hailey got together they were going to be strong,” she said.
“With Bobby reigning champ and Hailey an Olympic champion you know that is going to be a good combination from the get-go. So they are going to be tough opponents when we go up against them so we will need to bring our A game because we know they are going to bring theirs.
“They are definitely one of the key opponents this week, but there are a good number of really good teams on the British Curling programme and I think anyone on their day can beat anyone so you just need to execute your shots and put them under pressure and capitalise on any mistakes.
“If we win the Scottish it would be quite special if we were selected to be back together again at a World Championships.
“Obviously our last major event together was the Olympics and it didn’t finish how we wanted so it would be nice to go back out there on the big stage with confidence.”
Selection for the Scotland team for the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship will take place during the week commencing 6 March.
Please click here for the link to the Scottish Curling Mixed Doubles draw and results.
Images: Team GB / David Pearce.
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