Ultimately and unusually there were no title wins for British Curling, but the way teams from across the programme performed at Grand Slam of Curling events in Canada over the weekend offered the latest evidence of the strength and depth of the work being done.
While a Grand Slam event ended without a Scottish men’s team lifting the trophy for the first time in 12 months, neither defending champions Team Whyte, nor reigning World Champions Team Mouat were beaten over the scheduled eight end of matches by opponents from a rival nation.
Ultimately Mouat’s run ended with defeat in the semi-finals to Whyte, who were then beaten at an extra end by Canada’s Team Dunstone in the final. 
Meanwhile British Curling colleagues Team Morrison reached the final of the women’s tier two event, where they too lost out at an extra end to Japan’s Team Kitazawa and in the ground-breaking wheelchair invitational event, Great Britain got a first taste of the Grand Slam event in which they also reached final, losing out to their hosts.
In the men’s tier two event, Team Waddell also performed well, winning all four pool matches to enter the knockout stages as top seeds, where they saw off the Czech Republic’s Winter Olympic contenders Team Klima in the quarter-finals, before succumbing to an experienced line-up led by former World Champion skip Kevin Koe in the semis.
With the women’s tier two event also providing valuable experience for former junior World Champion skip Fay Henderson and her young team, the trip made by the biggest ever British Curling contingent to a Canadian event was deemed a massive success by Performance Director Dave Leith.
“Overall it’s been a fantastic week for the programme, culminating in teams in the final in the men’s event, women’s tier two and the wheelchair all in one day, which was fantastic,” he said.
“It just shows the level of performances that the programme expects, to be honest.
“We’re perhaps a little bit disappointed not to convert any of those final appearances into wins this time, but it still shows that we’ve had a first class off season and our teams are absolutely ready to go from a performance perspective.” 
On a weekend that also saw European golf demonstrate the benefits of teamwork and the strength that can be generated by it, Leith was particularly pleased with the collaborative approach that contributed to the consistency of performance over all disciplines.
“Across the board I’ve been really impressed with how all the teams, coaches and staff has pulled together as one big programme, spread across three different venues,” he observed.
“It’s been quite challenging, but I couldn’t speak more highly of everyone for how they’ve coped with that, in terms of coaches working together, athletes supporting each other and just setting an expectation of winning and qualifying for play-offs, finals and wins and hopefully there will be more wins to come in the season.”
On the back of a 2024-25 season that had seen the men complete a Scottish Slam, with Mouat’s men winning four of the available five Grand Slam titles and Whyte’s claiming the other one at The Masters, Leith felt that spending time in this environment had offered an opportunity to assess how they see themselves and are seen across the sport.
“In terms of the performances in the men’s programme, Teams Mouat and Whyte are seen as absolutely the best in the world and the ones to beat,” he said.
“You can get a sense for sure that there’s almost an expectation that one of those teams is going to be getting to the final stages and sometimes it’s a little unfortunate that they meet each other in the way they did this time in the semi-finals. 
“However, I think we’re going to see more of that this season and it’s fantastic to see.
“It was wonderful to watch their semi-final, a very, very close game which could have gone either way, but this time I felt Whyte really deserved the win, because they were the stand-out team all week.
“Even more impressive to some degree is how disappointed Mouat’s team are when they don’t make the final and go on to win the event.
“Similarly with Team Whyte, they’re delighted to make the final of course, but they’re absolutely gutted they didn’t win it and to me that just shows the level of their expectation, that they’re not there to make up the numbers, they’re there to win.
“It’s pretty obvious from the rest of the programmes out here that they see our teams as the ones to beat.”
Team Mouat have already been selected for the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in the New Year where they will be accompanied by Team Morrison and Leith was also encouraged by the progress they are making.
“The tier two event was slightly different, on different ice conditions against a lot of either up and coming teams, or very experienced people that have been there and done it, so it’s certainly not an easy competition by any stretch,” he noted.
“So, I was really impressed with how they battled their way through to the final and they were unfortunate not to come away with a win, but like Team Mouat, they’ve very much got February in their sights and to be performing at this level in September is exactly where they want to be.”
Perhaps most significant of all however, was the way that the Wheelchair Invitational event saw curling take a lead in terms of sporting diversity, offering its athletes, including several potential members of Paralympics GB’s squad for next year’s games in Milan-Cortina, a chance to sample the Grand Slam atmosphere.
“That was potentially a bit of a game changer for the wheelchair game on the whole and for the Paralympic movement potentially, particularly in terms of winter sport,” Leith suggested.
“The organisation was fantastic and the way that the crowds, the staff, the organisers and the athletes embraced that event was really quite special.
“It meant the world to a lot of the wheelchair players and there’s definitely talk of us liaising with The Curling Group and trying to make this something that is repeatable, sustainable and even better the next time we do it.
“Myself, Sheila Swan (British Curling’s Paralympic Head Coach), the guys at Curling Canada are going to get together and start working through that.”
There was also Slam success for some of British Curling’s up-and-coming teams, with three-time Scottish Junior champions Team Carson winning the men’s event at the Greenacres Under-21 Asham Slam, while programme colleagues Team Laurie followed up their success in a European Junior Curling Tour tournament in Baden earlier this month with victory in the women’s event.
The next Grand Slam event is the Co-op Tour Challenge in Nisku, Alberta from October 14-19 where Team Mouat go in as defending champions.
Team Great Britain Wheelchair Team (in alphabetical order)
Karen Aspey
Jo Butterfield
Austin McKenzie
Hugh Nibloe
Stewart Pimblett
Gary Smith
Sheila Swan (Head Coach)
Niall Ryder (Team Coach)
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Team Whyte
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Craig Waddell
Euan Kyle
Team Waddell
Kyle Waddell
Mark Watt
Angus Bryce
Blair Haswell
Team Morrison
Sophie Jackson
Rebecca Morrison
Jennifer Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Team Henderson
Fay Henderson
Hailey Duff
Lisa Davie
Katie McMillan
Laura Watt
Images: Anil Mungal/TCG
