After finishing 2024 on a high with an impressive victory in partnership with Bruce Mouat at the Gothenburg Mixed Doubles Cup, Jen Dodds believes her women’s team can take the confidence they have built in the shorter form of the game into their first women’s event of the New Year at the Perth Masters (3-6 January 2025).
Dodds, Rebecca Morrison and Sophie Jackson all made that trip to Sweden last weekend, having performed consistently well in mixed doubles events, while the fourth member of their team, Sophie Sinclair, won the Scottish Mixed Doubles title earlier in the month with Robin Brydone.
However, they also excelled in their last women’s event of the year when they claimed a European Championship medal in November and Olympic gold medallist Dodds believes that all the signs are that they are heading in the right direction as they move into the last full year before the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina in 2026. 
“Obviously winning bronze at the European Championships was a huge goal for us going into the season,” she said.
“We wanted to medal at that event and I think that has given us a lot of confidence.
“We have built a lot throughout that week and by the end we were really into our groove so we want to continue that confidence and momentum.
“It has been over a month since we last competed together, but I am sure that won’t be a problem and we have all played mixed doubles since then in the last couple of weeks.
“With Sophie (Sinclair) winning the Scottish Mixed Doubles title I think we have all had a confidence boost and just now in a crucial part of our season we have Perth, Bern and then the Scottish Championships, so we are really focused on building towards that Scottish Championships and I think we are in a really good place after 2024.”
On a personal level that sense of belief was heightened by her win with Mouat in Gothenburg, following up on their only previous international trip as a pairing this season, when they reached both finals in a week long visit to Switzerland.
“We’ve had a couple of good wins in Gstaad and Gothenburg with the mixed doubles while also getting to the final in Bern and with the European bronze medal as well, so far this season has been great.
“The Scottish Mixed Doubles was obviously a disappointment for me, but I was quite unwell at that, so I am glad that didn’t discourage us and we bounced back well at Gothenburg.
“We just need to keep that confidence going and into the New Year which is the most important thing really and as I have said before it is all about working towards and peaking at the Scottish, then hopefully we do well enough to be selected for the Worlds, but again that is down to the selectors decision but we will keep our focus on that in the meantime.” 
Her team is one of seven home representatives in the line-up in the women’s event, along with Teams Archibald, Henderson, Laurie, Soutar, Thomson and Watt, while an array of international challengers are taking part, from China, Lithuania, Norway, Switzerland and the USA.
Dodds meanwhile boasts a unique status among all of those as a former Perth Masters Champion, but is excited to be looking to complete a hat-trick by emulating past glories.
“I didn’t actually realise I was the only one in the women’s field to have won the Perth Masters,” she said.
“Both previous victories feel a long time ago now, one was with Hannah Fleming’s team and the other with Eve Muirhead’s team I think the first year I joined that rink back in 2019, which feels like a long time ago now.
“It is always great to play up in Perth, one of our home events of the season so it is nice not having to travel far and I think we have a really good standard of field, as we have people coming across from the US and Canada which is always a great sign that it is a strong field.
“There is also great strength and depth in Europe just now so I can’t wait to get started after the New Year.”
The men’s event boasts an even wider array of international challengers with seven teams from the host nation, joined by opponents from Austria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine.
There are certain to be new names on the trophy for the first time in six years with the winners of every Perth Masters since 2018, Team Mouat, missing the event for the first time as they and last year’s beaten finalists, Team Whyte, both head across the Atlantic to prepare for the latest of this season’s Grand Slam tournaments in Canada. 
Kyle Waddell’s world number 14 ranked line-up head the Scottish challenge, which also includes teams skipped by former World Junior champion James Craik, three-time Scottish Junior Champion Orrin Carson, Cammy Bryce, Waddell’s fellow 2018 Olympian Glen Muirhead, along with Arran Thomson and Drew Thomson.
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Images: PPA/Graeme Hart
