Huge relief to book home Euros chance

… if we could win there’s no doubt it would be a real career highlight

The play-downs for the European Championships always come with huge pressure.

We’re there to be shot at because everybody expects us to win and if we don’t then it would be a huge story in curling.

On the other hand our opponents – last weekend it was a straight best-offive shoot-out with Hannah Fleming’s team – have nothing to lose.

This year felt like extra pressure because the Euros will be at Braehead. The chance to play a major championship on home ice doesn’t come round very often.

So the relief is huge, as you can imagine.

It’s an event that isn’t easy and isn’t nice but you have to be able to pull through the pressure and perform to get the chance to represent your country and that’s how it should be.

Hannah and her team have come on leaps and bounds in my eyes and there wasn’t a lot between us in each game but we did our job and we all played great. So to finish it a day early by winning 3-0 is all we could have asked for.

From what I’ve heard, lots of tickets have been sold for Braehead already. It starts on Saturday November 19 so if you haven’t got one there’s still some left!

It’s going to be a brilliant week and if we could win there’s no doubt it would be a real career highlight.

The men’s event in Perth was certainly interesting.

Tom Brewster’s team beat David Murdoch’s in the final and that means big brother Glen will be playing alongside me in Glasgow.

If they can put a marker down and do well in the Euros then it will give them a great start in the battle to be going to the Olympics, which will be in the minds of the three top teams from now until selection.