HIGH HOPES Curling skip Glen relishes next challenge after losing out in final
A Kinnoull air raid is foiled in the match with Brechin Vics February – and Glen is well aware of that.
“It shows us that come the Scottish Championships, there are going to be a number of good teams to contend with,” he explained to the Perthshire Advertiser.
“We need to work hard because all of the other guys are working hard and are getting the results.
“The schedule is a wee bit dry now so we’ll need to train hard and try to organise some bounce games against other competitive teams to get us in good shape.
“Usually we would have a competition in Hamburg but it doesn’t run anymore. We maybe would have had a slam midJanuary but missed out by a spot. Ben English celebrates Kinnoull’s first of the afternoon Team Glen Muirhead will be training hard after their final appearance in Perth
“We’re in good shape going into the Scottish Championships. We’ll train and be prepared for the Scottish because we know what we’re up against.
“We’ll also try and get a few more practice sessions in at Perth instead of Stirling to get more familiarity with the ice.
“You need to bring your A game against all these teams or you get punished.”
Team Muirhead’s run to the final of the Perth Masters included a tense semi-final victory against Olympic bronze medallists Team de Cruz of Switzerland.
Glen’s stunner of a last stone in the extra end booked their ticket to the final.
“We were left in quite a tricky situation so I felt I really needed to play the draw with my first,” Glen said.
“He made an excellent one again with his last stone but I had a shot and that was all I wanted. Thankfully I made it.
“It was a bit of revenge for the Winter Olympics and for the Champery final, so it was nice to get one on them. It’s always a tight game.
“We were in the groove, to be honest. We struggled a wee bit at the start of the week but then started playing well.
“The surface was nice and in the final it maybe comes down to one poor end from us where we lost a three.
“Then you’re trying to fight back a little and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Team Mouat skip Bruce Mouat, who hails from Edinburgh, was thrilled to lift the Mercure City of Perth Masters title for the first time.
“It was probably one of our best games,” he said. “I didn’t start off great but the guys kept me in it and gave me some good shots to play.
“It was nice to see that we were going up and up throughout the competition. The semi-final and the final were really good performances all round.
“It feels really nice. The competition is the one you watch growing up in Scotland and has been the best in Europe for a while.
“It was great for Scottish curling that a lot of the teams were performing really well.
“We’re glad to have the European title and to back it up with this title in Scotland is the cherry on top.
“It’s going to be a good Scottish Championships and we look forward to playing it because we love competing at the highest level.
“Our main goal is to win the Scottish and then win the worlds, that would be ideal.”