Ross Whyte’s reigning champions made an impressive start to their title defence at The Hardie Engineering Scottish Curling Championships with a 7-2 victory over 2018 Olympian Kyle Waddell’s rink at the Dumfries Ice Bowl.
It was a tight battle early on, as both teams were forced at the opening end, ahead of a blanked third, but the key moment came at the next, where a four for the team that made a major breakthrough last month with a first Grand Slam of Curling win in Canada at the WFG Masters took them 5-1 clear.
That put them in control of proceedings and skip Whyte and teammates Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean and Euan Kyle managed that advantage efficiently as their opponents looked to set up the chance for multiple scores, stealing at each of the next two ends on their way to a 7-2 win.
The mutual respect between the British Curling programme teams was clear as Whyte expressed his satisfaction at getting the better of Waddell’s men and with the way his own rink performed.
“Kyle and his team are a very good team who have had a great year this year climbing the rankings and getting close to the Grand Slam spots which is great to see,” he noted.
“We’re hoping to see them at the Slams early next year, because it would be great to see another Scottish team in those events and we know how well they can play, so starting off like that was a great win and hopefully we can build on that momentum for the rest of the week.”
“They played well in the first three ends and we knew we had to keep putting stones in the right spots otherwise we wouldn’t be able to create our own chances and we did that in the fourth end, delivering some really good stones and making them play some pretty tricky shots.
“Thankfully that ended with a shot for four and with a good sweep, a good line call and a good throw we managed to make a nice shot for four, which was nice to open things up.”
Returning to his home rink, Whyte is also revelling in the environment.
“We’re enjoying our time down in Dumfries and it’s nice to be around family and friends,” he said.
“We seem to have a lot of support here which is great.
“The ice looks brilliant and it has played really well so far, so we’re looking forward to making lots of shots on it and hopefully we can build on what we’ve done today and only get better.
“We’re very pleased with the way we started and are looking for that to continue.”
World number one ranked Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan enjoyed a similarly convincing victory as they defeated Perth’s Team Thomson 9-3, while 2022 World Junior Championship winning skip James Craik got the better of younger brother and fellow skip Ross as his team came through 6-3.
The closest match of the opening round meanwhile saw the all-teenage quartet of three time Scottish Junior Champions Orrin Carson, Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop and Charlie Gibb snatch a 9-8 victory over the experienced Team Bryce with a steal at the extra end.
The women’s event gets underway on the second day of competition, the Championships concluding with the women’s final on February 7 and the men’s final on February 8.
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Images: PPA/Graeme Hart