World champions Team Mouat re-asserted themselves in impressive fashion as they overcame a strong international field to win the Euro Super Series for a third successive year, defeating China’s top ranked team in the final.
Beaten in the semi-finals as they sought to defend the Baden Masters title the previous weekend, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan were in no mood for any slip-ups on their home ice as they went through this event unbeaten in seven matches, which included negotiating a tricky sequence of matches in the knockout stages. 
Having defeated Team Dropkin, one of the two leading US contenders for a place at next year’s Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in the quarter-final on Saturday night, they then found themselves up against the other, 2018 Olympic Champions Team Shuster in the semi-final the following morning.
As it had been when they met in the pool stages, it was a typically challenging encounter against some of the most wily operators in the sport and skip Mouat had to produce an outstanding shot, through a narrow port between two stones that were guarding the house, to make the takeout that secured the two his men required for a 5-4 win.
That earned a place in the final against another of those expected to be lining up at the Winter Olympics, China’s Team Xu and this time the Scottish quartet controlled the match throughout after scoring a two at the opening end.
Their opponents ultimately did well to take the match to the last of the scheduled eight ends, but were eventually run out of stones there, going down 7-5 and while Mouat was pleased to get back to winning ways, he felt that there remains substantial room for improvement after the first two competitions of the season.
“There were a lot of good ends in this competition for us, but we never really strung a full game together, so are still looking to step up a few gears even though we are happy to have won the event,” he said.
“We always enjoy playing in the NCA and we get decent teams to come over so it has been a good event.
“We had no gimmes in our group and a combination of British Curling and international teams it is good to get that start to the season, which is obviously quite an important one.”
He will now bid his team farewell as they head across the Atlantic for this season’s first event in Canada without him, allowing Kyle Waddell, who will be Team GB’s fifth player at the Olympics, some valuable ice time with the other three before Mouat heads over to rejoin them at The Masters, the only Grand Slam of Curling event they did not win last season. 
“We always enjoy playing in Canada and the events we have scheduled this year are all tough events so we feel like we are heading towards the Olympics with a lot of momentum,” said Mouat.
“We feel like we are putting ourselves and our planning at the forefront, so if the results don’t come yet we are not going to worry about it, but as we have started so well we feel like we are in a good spot already.
“The boys are playing the Shorty Jenkins Classic with Kyle subbing for me and then we are playing in the Slam two weeks later so we are looking forward to that and it will be the first Slam in September for a while.
“I cannot remember the last Slam in September it was maybe pre-Covid.”
The women’s Euro Super Series title was meanwhile claimed by tournament debutants Team Peterson from the USA, who claimed a 5-2 win over the host nation’s Team Morrison in the final, as they began the build-up to their bid to make it to the Olympics at the forthcoming US trials.
“We were really excited to come here because we had heard really good things from the other women’s and men’s US teams that have been here before,” said their skip Tabitha Peterson.
“This is a great facility and the ice has been really, really good, the draw, the weather was good and we have enjoyed our time and had some good games.
“We haven’t been here before because it is usually a little bit too early for us, but it worked out great this year with our trials being in November and trying to peak at that point in time, so we were starting earlier this year, so it worked out great.”
She also pointed to the calibre of field that had been attracted to the event.
“It was good to play (Italy’s) Constantini, (Denmark’s) Dupont and (Team GB’s) Morrison,” said Peterson.
“We played all of them at the Worlds last year, so it was good to get some games against them as we know we are going to see them again.” 
For beaten finalists Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson, there was a sense that an opportunity had been missed, but there were plenty of positives to take from the weekend as they got their Olympic season underway.
“We’re happy to have reached the final and there were plenty of good teams here this week,” said Morrison.
“The final was disappointing because I know we could have brought a bit more in that game but overall it has been a good weekend.”
With the team event now over, mixed doubles now takes centre stage with another world class field contesting the Stirling Mixed Doubles Invitational on the same ice at the National Curling Academy from August 25-27.
Every game will be live streamed on the Curling Stadium Europe Platform.
Event passes can be obtained here
Results on Curling Zone
British Curling teams:
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 Carson
Orrin Carson
Logan Carson
Archie Hyslop
Charlie Gibb
Team Craik
James Craik
Jake MacDonald
Fraser Swanston
Rory MacNair
Team Morrison
Sophie Jackson
Rebecca Morrison
Jennifer Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Team Henderson
Fay Henderson
Hailey Duff
Lisa Davie
Katie McMillan
Laura Watt
Team Soutar
Callie Soutar
Eva Hare
Holly Clemie
Allison Hamilton
Team Laurie
Tia Laurie
Cara Davidson
Kirsty Gallacher
Holly Burke
Amy Mitchell
