In a re-match of last season’s final, Scotland’s World Champions and world number one ranked Team Mouat have made the ideal start to Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships by beating German’s defending champions, in Lohja, Finland.
Defeat in the final of the Euros to Team Muskatewitz had been a rare blip in an otherwise stunning 2024-25 season for Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, which saw them win four of the five Grand Slam tournaments and reclaim the world title.
The opening day clash as this season’s round-robin got underway saw the teams contest another tight affair and the Germans looked to have the upper hand in the closing stages as they held last stone advantage heading down the eighth of the 10 ends with the scores tied. 
However, the Scots managed to produce a steal at that end which shifted the momentum and while their opponents reclaimed the lead with a two at the ninth end, they piled on such pressure at the last that Mouat did not have to play his final stone as Mark Muskatewitz’s last delivery crashed into a guard.
“It was a repeat of last year’s final so we were hoping for some redemption, so we were glad to get over the line there,” said the Scottish skip.
“It was really close game and I think we knew it would be, so I was feeling pretty settled during the game there and it was obviously going to be a tight affair but we managed to put them under pressure in the last end and get the miss.
“I think the big turning point was the steal in the eighth end, but I am also glad that we came out of the box pretty fast with a two to start the game and we have a lot of positives to take away from that game.”
The Scots have already re-asserted their status at the top of the world rankings this season with victory in the last two Grand Slam events, but Mouat acknowledged that the longer format of the game in Championships asks different questions.
“We are so used to playing eight ends during the season and we do enjoy the ten end format in the championships, but it does feel different it is a wee bit of a longer game, so we just have to try and keep the concentration and do all the things that we work on throughout the season when it comes to these championships,” he said.
“We are looking forward to the week ahead, though.
“The boys and I have had a really good start to our season, so we are just looking to capitalise on that.”
In the women’s event Scotland’s Team Morrison went in as the second highest placed team in the world rankings, but suffered a 9-0 defeat to Turkiye in their opener.
Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson then had to put that immediately behind them as they prepared for their second match of the day against Sweden’s 2018 Olympic Champions Team Hasselborg, the only team ranked above them.
They duly put in a strong performance against opponents who had also suffered a surprise upset in their opening match and it was a hard fought encounter, but the Swedes ultimately edged it 7-6.
“We had a really good tight game there against Team Hasselbborg,“ said skip Sophie Jackson.
“They are the top ranked team in the event and we took them down to the last end.
“If we could have taken a few more of our opportunities we could have turned that game into a win, so that is really positive going into tomorrow. 
“We made a lot of shots out there in the second game tonight, a lot more than we did this morning so we are feeling good heading into tomorrow. So we will regroup and take learnings from today into our one game day tomorrow,
“They are rubbing the stones tonight which should bring a lot more curl and we can make more of those down-weight and tappy shots which is the way we like to play, so feeling pretty positive going into tomorrow.
Scotand’s women face Denmark on day two, while the men take on both Czechia and Austria.
The Championships run from 22nd November until the 29th November when the gold medal matches will be staged.
Follow the results here.
Watch live games on The Curling Channel
Selected games will be available on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online, as follows:
Scotland men v Switzerland (Monday)
Scotland women v Norway (Wednesday)
Scotland men v Sweden (Wednesday)
Scotland men v Italy (Thursday)
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat (Skip)
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (Skip)
Fay Henderson (alternate)
