Curling crown slips away in Perth
Perthshire skip Glen Muirhead expressed his disappointment after narrowly missing out on the men’s crown at the Scottish Curling Championships.
Team Mouat, fronted up by Edinburgh’s Bruce Mouat, lifted the title following a 7-5 win at Perth’s Dewars Centre on Saturday afternoon.
“We’ve had a good week and have being playing well, we’re just disappointed to fall short at the end there,”said Muirhead.
“They’re a good team. Outwith ourselves they’re the best team out there, so it was always going to be the toughest game we faced.
“We threw the first game away against them, but they’ve all been close games, right down to the last end.
“It’s just disappointing that I missed a couple that I maybe wouldn’t have missed earlier on in the week.”
For Mouat, the victory ensured that he retained his title from last year and that was particularly pleasing.
But he also took time to heap praise on Team Muirhead’s Glen Muirhead, Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Smith and Cammy Smith, who themselves have had a productive season.
“It was very satisfying last year, but this one is probably a bit more special,” Mouat said.
“They’re Olympians, so obviously they’re going to be great and all four of them have really played well this year.
“They’ve been in finals and won in Canada, which is a great achievement, so that shows that British Curling’s got some really great teams right now.”
While Mouat went on to win the title he was given a scare in the opening group stage match, defeated by Perth’s Robin Brydone.
“He definitely gave us a reality check and we really had to focus after that,”said Mouat.
“When there’s only eight teams and three of those teams qualify, you really have to focus on not losing two games. Team Mouat won the Scottish title in Perth. Photo: Tom Brydone
“Then it could be a bit of a struggle if you have a bad game.
“We never really panicked after that
and we always seemed to be in control of most games, except against Glen the first time.”