Tuesday, 7th of January 2020

Around the Rinks: 4-5 January

Scottish Junior Club Challenge, Intu Braehead, Saturday 4 – Sunday 5 January

Scottish Curling’s first competition of 2020 was the Junior Club challenge, which took place at Braehead on 4-5 January.  This competition involves two teams per club, with at least two females per club.

Division 1 was a very close competition which saw the Stranraer teams emerge as victors after two days of great curling.  There were four teams ranked on 11 points and they were separated by the number of ends won. Second place were Dumfries B and third place were Dumfries A.  The nature of the competition sees two teams being relegated from Div 1 to Div 2, this time the relegated terms were Forfar A and Perth.

Division 2 provided a wider range of ability with Gogar Park remaining unbeaten and even managing to score an 8-ender in their last end against Hamilton on Sunday morning.  They will be promoted as will Kinross, who finished in second place one win ahead of Ayr in third.

Full results available here.

Perth Masters, Dewars Centre, Thursday 2 – Sunday 5 January

Teams Muirhead and Mouat brought in 2020 with a double Scots in the Dewars Centre as both beat off high quality international fields to claim titles in the newly reformatted Perth Masters tournament.

It was the first time that the event which is supported by the Mercure Perth Hotel and has become a staple on the curling calendar, had involved women’s teams as well as men’s and local favourite Eve Muirhead rose to the challenge, along with teammates Lauren Gray, Jen Dodds and Vicky Wright.

“It’s always really nice to win on home soil and the team have been fantastic all weekend,” she said after their 8-2 victory over fellow Scots Team Wilson, who had performed well to reach the final of a competition that had attracted leading teams from across the globe.

The former world champion and two-time European champion skip had demonstrated in recent weeks that she is getting back to her competitive best after undergoing major hip surgery in 2018 by leading her team to the final of the European Championships, then winning the Aberdeen International Mixed Doubles tournament with Bobby Lammie and this victory was a further boost.

“It was good to have Lauren, Jen and Vicky on the same team and not be playing against them,” joked Muirhead, with reference to that mixed doubles contest that had pitted them against one another.

“To go unbeaten through a World Curling Tour event is pretty cool, so I’m really pleased with how we’re playing and I think that every time we step on the ice for tournaments we’re getting stronger and stronger,” she went on.

“To have some of the Asian teams over here is great. Next year people will now look at this event and see how good it is. Everything’s been great, so hopefully we’ll get another good field next year because to attract teams from all over the world is really good.”

It was also good preparation for major challenges to come, as they readied themselves to head across the Atlantic to take part in the glitzy, Ryder Cup-style Continental Cup and then the forthcoming national championships.

Team Mouat are also taking part in the Continental Cup and, with the defence of their Scottish title also looming, the timing of their successful defence of the title they had won for the first time last year could not have been better after what had been a frustrating first half to the season.

“It was nice to get past a semi-final this season, so as soon as we managed to do that we felt quite confident going into the final because we’d been playing really well,” said their skip Bruce Mouat.

“It’s one of those things where all four of us were playing like we’d normally do and when we’re playing like that it’s pretty tough to beat us.

“The belief that we were able to do it this time made the difference. We maybe had a few slack shots in other tournaments that just didn’t give us as much confidence, whereas this time we just felt like we were controlling every situation. We maybe had a few ends where we didn’t, but more often than not we would be in control.”

He admitted that a key moment in the final against top Canadian rink Team McEwen had been the ‘pick’ at the third end, when a piece of debris meant his opposing skip’s first stone was knocked off track.

“At the first end I had to draw to the side of the button for one, which was quite a tough shot and we obviously got away with it, then at the second end we had to make two really good shots just to force,” Mouat acknowledged.

“So we were maybe on the back foot at that point and the four kind of came out of nothing because Mike had a pick with his first and a really tough draw with his second. It’s a shame to have that in a final, but we were in a really good position before the pick, so who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t had the pick.”

That 7-2 win in the final saw them match Team Muirhead in going through the event unbeaten and they knew they had earned their win.

“Team McEwen are obviously playing well and beating the likes of Ross Whyte and Ross Paterson shows they’re on good form, because those two are playing really well right now,” said Mouat.

“We were expecting ourselves to come out and play really well, though and we did that and managed to get that win.

“Especially because it’s in the same ice rink as the Scottish Championship, that’s quite a big thing. It’s quite important for us because last year we managed to win the Perth Masters then go on to win the Scottish, so we’ll try to do that hopefully and come the Scottish we’ll be really focused on trying to get that win.”

Full coverage can be found here.

By Kate Weldon at the Perth Masters