Home comforts key for Muirhead ahead of test

Perthshire curler Glen Muirhead and his team believe home advantage and a new coach can help them pull off a surprise victory at this week’s Scottish Championships in Perth.

Edinburgh’s European gold medallist Bruce Mouat and Glasgow’s Ross Paterson are full-time, fully-funded curlers and are the pre-tournament favourites, but Muirhead’s part-timers took time out from their farming duties to beat Paterson in the Penticton Classic final in British Columbia in November.

They also shone at last month’s Perth Masters before losing to Mouat in the final.

“We’ve not competed since then, but it’s our home ice at the Dewar’s Centre and we’ve all grown up training and competing here, so we’d like to think that gives us an edge,” said Muirhead.

“We would have liked a bit of a lead-in to this event with another tournament to get us game ready, but we’ve been working hard with our new coach Al (Hackner) and that has helped to get us ready to play. We need to buckle up from the word go in order to reach the play-offs this week. We won’t be fazed by anyone, but we know we need to play at our best.”

Third Kyle Smith said: “Mouat and Paterson are the two teams that are expected to win, but we’ll go out there and enjoy it and try to make as many shots as we can.

“If we play the way we’ve been doing this winter, then there’s every chance we’ll be in the final at the end of the week.”

The winners of Sunday’s final will represent Scotland at next month’s World Championships in Lethbridge, Canada.

Team Muirhead open their roundrobin campaign today against Greenacres skip Cameron McNay, while Perth duo Robin Brydone and Scottish junior finalist Callum Kinnear take on defending champion Mouat and Forfar’s Murray Young respectively.

The women’s event, featuring Eve Muirhead, gets under way tomorrow.