Experience prevailed as Team Whyte claimed victory in an all-Scottish battle for the last title of the Grand Slam of Curling season, but their domestic game was the biggest winner on an occasion summed up by the presence of Waddell brothers Craig and Kyle on opposite teams.
Both skips had gone into the match as previous Grand Slam winners, Whyte having led his team to victory at last season’s Masters, while Kyle Waddell had been vice skip when Team Paterson won the only previous all-Scottish Grand Slam final at the National eight years ago. 
However, having dominated an international field, with Waddell heading into the final as top seeds after winning all five pool matches ahead of his victory over China’s Xiaoming Xu in the semis, while Whyte’s only losses had been in overtime shoot-outs on their way to the final, the closeness of these two teams added an extra dynamic.
Kyle Waddell’s performance in leading his team up the world rankings has been all the more remarkable, because he has been leading an entirely new line-up alongside Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell, partly because younger brother Craig, his vice skip in recent seasons, had been recruited by Team Whyte after their regular second Duncan McFadzean suffered an injury at the start of the season.
Ross Whyte, along with regular teammates Robin Brydone and Euan Kyle, had not missed a beat meanwhile as Craig Waddell helped them reach two previous Grand Slam finals this season, building on last season’s breakthrough success when winning that Masters title.
With Canadian commentators raving about the quality of play on display, Whyte gained a crucial edge with a steal at the opening end as Kyle Waddell’s attempt to draw the button with his final stone was marginally overthrown. 
He was on target with a similar effort at the next, but that was only enough to level the scores at 1-1 and Whyte’s men took control with a two at the next, before stealing at the fourth to move 4-1 ahead at the break and they maintained control to the finish in running out 6-3 winners.
“We have had a great Slam season, qualifying for three finals and managing to get over the line with the last one, so this is a great feeling,” said Whyte.
“We felt pretty hard done by not having got one up to this point but it feels great to come out here and put on a really good show.
“It feels like we went undefeated this week considering we lost two (extra time) shoot-outs but never lost in regulation play, so it feels like an amazing week and the boys are very happy. “
He noted that the clash between the Waddell brothers had added to the specialness of the encounter.
“It was a special one with Kyle and the boys undefeated going into the final and clearly playing very well and they are a great team and we know that every time we are going to play them it is going to be really difficult,” said Whyte.
“It made it a little bit extra special with Craig playing against Kyle and that might happen again but maybe not too many times, so to have that extra motivation potentially for Craig and Kyle it feels great.”
The presence of two Scottish teams in the final capped an astonishing run that has seen Scottish teams feature in all 10 Grand Slam finals in the past two seasons, winning eight of them.
What made that all the more remarkable was that it happened after World Champions and long-time World number one ranked Team Mouat suffered their first failure to reach the play-offs in a Grand Slam event since 2023 when they were beaten in a tie-break by the USA’s former Olympic Champions Team Shuster.
The significance of that was not lost on Whyte, who noted that it was testimony to the work being done at the National Curling Academy (NCA) in Stirling.
“Having two Scottish teams in the final shows the real strength in our game just now,” he said.
“Obviously the other Scottish team that didn’t make it to this final have won a couple themselves, so it really shows just how good Scottish curling is just now and how the British Curling programme is really working and how many talented athletes we do have at this moment.”
Having previously medalled at the World Championships as fifth player for Team Mouat, Whyte is hoping this success will help his own team achieve a long dreamed of opportunity, to represent Scotland at that event this year, with Mouat’s men ruled out as they focus on the Winter Olympics. 
“We are obviously trying to get selected for the World Championships and we feel like we have put in a really good case this year to try and get that selection,” said Whyte.
“It has never gone our way before so we are hoping that with this win and our other performances throughout this year that this will be enough.
“We also hope to have two more good competitions before selection at the Perth Masters and the Scottish Championships and while we feel like we have done enough it will be up to the selectors to decide who gets to go.”
While Kyle Waddell naturally admitted to disappointment on the day, he expressed pride in the way that his team had performed, with a succession of dominant performances ahead of the final.
“It has been a good week overall and we put a lot of hard work into the performances that we put on this week,” he said.
“We had a lot of good conversations and we managed to produce in six out of seven games and we didn’t have a bad final where we just were the wrong side of the inch a couple of times.”
He admitted that it had been a strange day for his family to negotiate, but while he reckoned he and Craig had been able to block out their personal relationship while competing, he is pleased that another Waddell can now call himself a Grand Slam champion.
“It was a weird thought that we would be playing against each other in a game of that magnitude but to be honest, during the game it was just a normal game and I didn’t think about it at all if I am being honest,” he said. 
“I am sure Craig didn’t either and it was no doubt though tougher for the family to watch it, so friends and family were obviously a bit torn, but at the end of the day it wasn’t up to them, it was up to us on the ice and they were slightly the better team.
“So it is obviously bitterly disappointing to miss out on the Players’ Championship title from a personal perspective, but I am very proud of what he has achieved and he can call himself a Player’s Champion now and a Slam winner so I am just pleased for him.
“Unfortunately that means it has to sting for me for a wee bit, but I am not surprised he played very well in that final and so did the full team to be honest so congratulations to them.”
As the most experienced player in the men’s British Curling programme he meanwhile echoed his rival skip’s view of what this competition said about the quality of the domestic game.
“There is no denying on the men’s side for the last 10 years we have had very competitive and good teams in the British Curling programme and it would be hard to say this current three aren’t the best of that,” said Waddell. 
“That is no surprise to me as I think we have done really well to take the opportunity given to us and we get a lot of funding and opportunities to come over here and also play in Europe and play against the best teams and the NCA is working.
“It has centralised things and at the top end of the game it has made it easier for us to practice more regularly and together and with the support staff and the services from UK Sport and Sportscotland we have managed to up it a level.
“That is great to see and hopefully it will inspire the next group of athletes coming through and they can see what we are doing and hopefully they will have the belief that they can go and do it too.
“I think it is extremely positive for our sport in our country and players just need to capitalise on that and hopefully cap it off with success at the Olympics.”
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Images: Anil Mungal/The Curling Group
