Having gone into the 2025-26 season with a new line-up, former World Junior Championship winning skip James Craik makes his first overseas trip in the company of Jake MacDonald, Fraser Swanston and Rory Macnair this week as they contest the Oslo Cup (28-31 August).
They will be joined on the trip to Norway by current Scottish Junior Champions Team Carson making 24-year-old Craik the senior figure and he is enjoying the prospect of a fresh start.
“I’m loving the new team and all of us are working like crazy,” he said.
“We are super motivated, excited to be getting out and about to compete and about heading to Oslo, which is a really great first overseas event with this new group of guys this season and I think we have lots of prospects and have set lots of goals for the season ahead. 
“Last week’s Euro Super Series (ESS) in the National Curling Academy in Stirling gave us a good taste, but now after that introduction we are ready to get back on Tour and start chasing some wins.
“The Nordic Curling Tour events are always good fun and super good ice with lots of prizes up for grabs so it will be nice to get back on the international circuit again since ESS.
“The competition at ESS was very fierce so it was a good test against some of the best teams in the world and there are a few bits and bobs we need to tighten up on but it was great being out on this ice with these guys.”
Having competed at the highest level with his previous team in Grand Slam tournaments in Canada, Craik knows that both his men and their colleagues on British Curling’s performance foundation programme Orrin and Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb can expect to be further tested over the coming days.
“The field this weekend will also be tough with lots of teams that will be competing at the Europeans, the Worlds and the Olympics, so we are really looking forward to throwing ourselves in at the deep end,” he said.
“I am sure we will learn a lot from testing ourselves against some of the best.
“We have some really big goals for this season.
“The first U25 Slam we have a red circle around that we are really wanting to focus on and peak at and we have also got the men’s nationals and lots of tour events, so we just want to dial in our training and focus on turning up when it matters and making sure we can perform the best we can when we are out on tour representing British Curling.”
Results on Curling Zone
Team Carson
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Team Craik
James Craik
Jake MacDonald
Fraser Swanston
Rory Macnair
