Four time national junior champions Team Carson have claimed their second title of the year on the senior men’s tour following a weekend which saw the next generation of Scottish curlers excel in both Olympic disciplines against battle-hardened Continental opposition.
For Orrin and Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb The Take Out Trophy in Basel was another opportunity to test themselves for the next stage of their careers and they took it in style, going unbeaten through the event before defeating the host nation’s Team Stocker 4-1 in the final.
“We knew it would be a great event before we went and it lived up to our expectations,” said skip Orrin Carson. 
“We performed really well and managed to go unbeaten throughout the event, so we were very happy with our performance.”
The quartet made a major breakthrough at the beginning of the year when they claimed the prestigious Mercure Perth Masters title and while the older of the Carson brothers is the only one not still in his teens, they are now looking to challenge themselves consistently at that level as they prepare for their latest crack at the World Junior Championship after winning their fourth Scottish title last month.
“We are constantly playing men’s events at the minute and every time we go we are getting ever more comfortable in that sort of environment,” said Orrin.
“We know how to approach the games against all of the top teams, so it is all about putting it into practice and performing as well as we can to try and come out on the right side of the result.
“I guess it goes without saying that you have to be a bit sharper with your decision making and you have to make a few more shots collectively as you don’t get the chances you would get on the Junior circuit.
“I think this will definitely help us at the World Juniors the way we are playing just now and how comfortable we are on the ice.
“It doesn’t seem to matter about the conditions we seem to be dealing with, there have been all sorts of conditions over the past few weeks so that puts us in a good position for February.”
The British Curling programme was meanwhile further boosted by the domination of its teams at the Nordic Curling Tour Uppsala Mixed Doubles, which boasted a powerful field including Estonia’s Marie Kadvee and Harri Lill, who are recently ranked world number one and currently still in the top three; Switzerland’s top men’s skip Yannick Schwaller and his wife Briar; and Sweden’s former world champion brother/sister combination of Rasmus and Isabella Wrana. 
In a qualifying pool which contained Kadvee and Lill, the two youthful pairings of Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce and Lisa Davie and Mark Watt, the only Scottish teams in the competition, both won four of their five matches to finish in the top two spots, ultimately denying the Estonians a place in the play-offs.
McMillan and Bryce then went on to beat the Schwallers in the quarter-finals, before avenging their only defeat of the competition when they came from 7-4 behind with two ends remaining to defeat Davie and Watt 8-7 in a fiercely contested final.
Pathway Manager Olympic Nancy Smith commended the weekend’s achievements, saying, “It’s very encouraging to see these results and the depth of talent we have for the future, especially given the age of many of our athletes competing against and beating some of the best in the world.
“Team Carson have really kicked on from last year and are training very hard.
“They have looked at aspects of their game that they wanted to improve and have demonstrated their strengths in dominating at the Scottish Juniors and have carried that momentum forward into a men’s field.
“This bodes well for what they want to achieve at the World Juniors next year.”
Uppsala Images: NCT MD – Jeff Martin, Basel image Jan – Take-Out Team
