With a powerful performance against the host nation’s current top team, Bruce Mouat’s World Champions re-asserted themselves as their sport’s leading team by successfully defending the Co-op Tour Challenge, beating Canada’s Team Dunstone 5-2 in the final to claim their 11th Grand Slam of Curling (GSOC) title.
Having already seen off two of their biggest rivals of recent years in Canada’s Team Gushue and Italy’s Team Retornaz in the knockout stages, the Scottish quartet of Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan took early charge of the final in the Silent Ice Centre in Nisku, Alberta thanks to an exceptional shot from their skip, which he credited to the whole team. 
Dunstone looked to have got his men out of trouble when he left Mouat with what looked like an impossible gap to squeeze through down a line that had not been played to that point to have any chance of registering a two.
However, with Hardie reading the ice perfectly and two of the greatest sweepers in the sport’s history in Lammie and McMillan responding with maximum efficiency to his calls, the stone was guided past a guard at the front right of the house, then past two more that were blocking the route to the button to claim that vital second shot.
“That first end was probably one of the best team shots we have played in the last eight years being a team,” said their skip.
“It was very tough to make and it was perfectly swept and perfectly line called by the boys.
“It was a crazy shot to start the game and it really set the tone.”
From that point they dominated the opening half of the match, leaving Dunstone with a very difficult tap back of Mouat’s stone that was sitting on the button, just to score one at the second end and after blanking the third end, they scored two at the fourth to move into a commanding 4-1 lead at the break.
Dunstone was eventually given a chance to get back into the match at the fifth end after a rare Mouat mistake left him with an open take-out to score a three that would have levelled the scores, but when he hit the wrong side of the Scottish stone he was looking to remove and it jammed to concede a steal the writing was on the wall with the lead extended to 5-1. 
“There were a few chances that Matt missed but we put them under some pressure and he knows he is having to make those shots to get back into the game, so it wasn’t an easy one and fortunately for us it didn’t come off for him this time, but on another occasion he maybe does and it makes the game extremely close,” Mouat observed.
Having made history by becoming the first men to win four of the five Grand Slams in a single season in 2024-25, the Scots had lost out in the semi-finals of the first of this season’s to compatriots Team Whyte, who in turn were beaten by Dunstone’s men in the final of The Masters, so had been all the more keen to make a statement in a season that will culminate at the Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
“We’re very happy to be back playing at the Slams and performing well and winning another one is really special,” said Mouat.
“We wanted to be able to do that again after what was an incredible year for us last year so I’m just really proud of how we played leading into the play-offs this week and it’s been a really good win for us.”
In terms of the scale of their achievement, the victory means that in the 32 year history of GSOC events, Team Mouat have now won as many titles as all other European teams combined, such was the host nation’s previous dominance and, while they have always revelled in the environment, they continue to surprise even themselves.
“Honestly I cannot comprehend what eleven Slams really feels like because it’s crazy to me to think that it has been eleven up to this point,” said Mouat.
“We just love the Slams and we love playing in Canada, we love the crowd, we love the arena ice, it’s just so much fun to play.” 
What was another exceptional week for the British Curling programme also saw Kyle Waddell, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell continue their climb up the world rankings by reaching the quarter-finals of their first Tier One Slam.
Watt, Bryce and Haswell’s former skip James Craik meanwhile reached the semi-finals of the men’s under-25 competition that was held as part of the Grand Slam event in Nisku, as did Craik’s fellow former World Junior World Championship winning skip Fay Henderson in the women’s under-25 event.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Team GB 1 claimed a bronze medal in a strong field at the International Wheelchair Curling Tournament in Wetzikon, Switzerland, while on home ice, last year’s Youth Olympic gold medallist Tia Laurie’s junior women followed up on last month’s European Junior Curling Tour victory in Baden, by winning the Asham U21 Junior Slam event in Lockerbie.
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GSOC Images: Anil Mungal - The Curling Group
Wetzikon images: Rubi Photography.CH
