Young Guns Overcome World Champs At Scottish Mixed Championship

10 teams from across the country gathered last weekend at the National Curling Academy in Stirling to compete for the final title of the season. The field for the Scottish Curling Mixed Championship included Olympians, Scottish and World Champions and was the first Scottish Championship to be played under the 5 stone free guard zone rule which meant there was lots of attacking curling to admire with many games going down to the last stone. Played in two groups of 5, 4 teams sat clear on Saturday night and qualified for the semi-finals.

After winning all of their games Team Lammie led Group A with the team skipped by Team GB member Kyle Waddell hot on their heels. Group A also contained probably the youngest team to ever compete in the Scottish Mixed Championship with Team Carson comprised of Luke Carson, Inca Maguire, Johnathan Blair and Joanna Sutherland who had an average age of 15.

Team Hardie showed no signs of ring rust in the other group. Despite not playing as a team since lifting the world title in Champery, they went undefeated to top section B. Team Brydone, composed of two halves of the two Scottish Junior Champions, rounded off the quartet.

In the first semi-final, Team Hardie stole a 3 against Team K. Waddell to start and after forcing their opponents to one, they took a three with hammer and a strong 6-1 lead at half time. With another force in the sixth end, two points from Team Hardie was enough for their opponents to concede and send them to a second consecutive final.

Team Brydone got off to a similarly fast start against Team Lammie leading 4-1 after two ends. A strong third end saw their opponents level things up before Brydone’s team edged the first half 6-4. A steal of 2 in the fifth end was crucial and with no attacking momentum materialising from Team Lammie, Team Brydone could hit for home and saw out an 8-5 victory.

The final pitted the defending champions against the young guns; Team Hardie vs Team Brydone. With several Scottish, European and World medals between the competitors it was sure to be a high quality affair. After the first half the teams couldn’t be separated. They began the game trading singles and then two’s and the score was 3-3 after 4.

The tension rose as the game continued and some excellent hitting from both teams in the fifth and sixth ends resulted in two blanks. The final two ends saw the new five stone rule come into its own. Team Brydone used two centre guards to increase the pressure on Team Hardie and a missed double peel meant that Grant Hardie faced two counters on his last stone. His takeout attempt was wide and his team relinquished a crucial steal of two. The final end saw Team Hardie put up two corner guards and as Team Brydone could not peel for their first three stones, they elected to put them all in the house.

As the end progressed, both teams realised that one mistake would create the possibility of a two or three for Team Hardie. An excellent freeze by Rhiann MacLeod was matched by a great raise by Rebecca Morrison. For his first shot, skip Grant Hardie attempted a tricky double takeout to put his team in a position to win. This didn’t quite curl enough and left Robin Brydone with a nose hit for then win. He was successful, and in running his opponents out of stones, his team, were crowned 2018 Scottish Mixed Champions!