HIS older sister Eve is Scotland’s best known curler, while their big brother Glen will also be defending a title, but Thomas Muirhead is looking to emerge from their shadows to cause a shock at the Scottish Curling Championships which get under way tomorrow.

The 21-year-old baby of the curling dynasty has worked ever more closely with Glen since they left the family home in Blair Atholl last year to set up their business rearing sheep and cattle on a lovely stretch of land to the east of Crieff. This has the added benefit of being pretty much equidistant from Perth and Stirling, where they do most of their training as part of the British Curling elite squad.

Their schedules remain challenging, a little help from friends and, in particular, family with dad Gordon – a world champion curler in his own right – frequently on-call, is required while they work closely together to make it work. However, as Thomas noted, a very different dynamic is at play on the ice when the brothers turn cold shoulders toward one another, and while they are in the midst of lambing season right now their minds are also on getting a very different type of delivery right.

“There’s always tough times being brothers working together and competing against one another at such a high level, but we’ve just learned to get on with it,” he said.

“When we’re working together on the farm it’s completely different to when we’re on the ice where, during competition, we don’t really interact with each other at all.

“We’ve both got our own goals and ambitions and we respect each other for that, so we just leave each other to get on with it. We might wind one another up before or after a competition, but when it comes to the crunch we don’t say anything. There’s a wee bit of pressure leading up to the Scottish. We’re both wanting to win it, so we respect each other in that way and don’t say too much.”

Least said, soonest mended it seems, then, in terms of ensuring their overall relationship is unaffected.

“When we’re at home we don’t talk too much about the curling,” Thomas continued. “There’s always lots to be done and decisions to be made, so there’s always plenty to chat about away from the ice.”

Sister Eve’s has, of course, helped make the family name one of the most famous in the game and as they draw inspiration from what the former world and European champion, two-time Olympian and six-time Scottish champion skip has achieved, his tone is admiring rather than envious.

“Glen and I have grown up with Eve and we’ve watched her compete at the last two Olympics, so it’s more given us motivation to be there ourselves,” he said.

“We’ve both been at home watching it on the telly or out in the pouring rain feeding sheep while she’s playing, so it’s just given us a bit of a drive. The dream would be to be at the Olympics competing alongside Eve if she manages to qualify as well. It’s been that way since we were wee tots.”

He will be similarly supportive should Glen make the trip to Pyeongchang in Korea next year too.

“If Glen goes I’ll be 100 per cent behind him,” said Thomas. “We’re family at the end of the day so whoever goes we’re going to support 100 per cent and we’ve got a business at home that has to keep going so we’re reliant on each other. Someone will be at home if one of us manages to get the spot at the Olympics.”

There is as yet, however, no guarantee that any Scots will be making that trip with Olympic qualifying points still to be earned at this season’s World Championships.

Eve and team-mates Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray go in as odds-on favourites, The men’s event is, meanwhile, expected to be fiercely contested with the Muirhead boys lining up at third in their respective rinks, Glen with Team Brewster and Thomas with Team Smith.