Stirling duo get a shot at the world
Hammy and Bobby part of Team Mouat rink
There will be a Stirling connection at the World Curling Championships later this month - but it won’t be the rinks of Eve Muirhead or Kyle Smith.
The duo - who train at the National Curling Academy at the PEAK - faced the Scottish champion teams of Hannah Fleming and Bruce Mouat at the weekend in Perth in best-ofthree play-offs to decide who would represent the nation in the worlds.
Team Fleming and Team Mouat had won their titles while the other two rinks were competing in the Winter Olympics and it was decided to give them the chance to qualify in the special play-offs.
Active Stirling curling development officer Hammy McMillan and Stirling University student Bobby Lammie were part of Team Mouat who gained the early advantage over Kyle Smith, Cammy Smith, Tom Muirhead and Kyle Waddell by taking victory in game one 9-4.
The Stirling-based Olympians bounced back to send the playoff into a decider by narrowly winning Sunday morning’s session 7-6.
But Edinburgh’s Bruce Mouat kept his cool to book his ticket to the World Championships later this month with a 9-3 win in match three.
“It’s nice that we had this opportunity to get to the World Championships,” said Smith. “We’ve come up short but we had the opportunity and that’s the main thing for me.
“It was going to be tricky coming back after so much going on but I thought we played pretty well.
“Those boys were just too good for us this weekend.”
In the women’s playoff, Eve Muirhead, Lauren Gray, Anna Sloan and Vicki Adams lost 9-6 and 9-7 to Team Fleming.
Muirhead admits her rink lost to the better team across the weekend and said: “Team Fleming were the deserving winners this weekend.
“They played some great curling, but all we can do is come back stronger after the last month.”
The ladies world championships take place in North Bay, Canada from March 17-25 and men will be in Las Vegas from March 31-April 8.