Mouat and Co look for swift rebound in Toronto

JUST two days after the World Championships ended in Switzerland, Team Mouat are on the road again as part of a powerful Scottish representation that will line up in the men’s event at the Princess Auto Players’ Championship which takes place on the other side of the Atlantic this week.

Skip Bruce Mouat had admitted that the loss of their title had been all the more painful when Italy’s World No. 1- ranked Team Retornaz made a late comeback to win the bronze medal decider.

However, as Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan prepared to set off for Toronto he said they were relishing the chance to get right back into action, having won the most recent of the Grand Slam of Curling events at the Canadian Open in January.

“We’re just diving right back into the Slams and excited to get back into the Players Championship,” he said

“It’s always been quite a fun event to play in and a nice way to round off the season.”

They have been drawn in an extraordinarily tough six team group which includes the only skips to have won the World Championships in the past decade – Mouat, Niklas Edin, Brad Gushue and Kevin Koe – as well as the current top ranked Canadians Team Bottcher and 2014 Olympic winning skip Brad Jacobs.

“It looks like we’ve got a pretty tough section, with a lot of good teams,” Mouat acknowledged.

“That’s always going to be the case when you’ve got the top 12 teams in the world, but we’re just looking forward to getting going and hopefully ending the season with a high.”

Both Scottish rivals in this event, Teams Whyte and Craik, have been drawn in the other group and they open their campaigns facing one another in a re- match of this season’s Scottish Championship final.

For Ross Whyte, as well as regular team- mates Robin Brydone and Duncan McFadzean, the event is their first opportunity to perform in Canada since they claimed their first Scottish title by edging out Craik’s men.

“It is a nice confidence booster knowing we can go toe- to- toe,” said Whyte.

“We made a Slam final earlier this season and hopefully we can go deep in this competition.”