SCOTLAND’S top male and female curling duos will be in action at Braehead this weekend as the Scottish
Curling Mixed Doubles Championship gets underway tomorrow.
The national championship will see eight teams competing for the mixed doubles championship title and the chance to represent Scotland at the 2016 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Karlstad, Sweden.
Mixed doubles is an exciting alternative to traditional team curling and was confirmed earlier this year as an additional event at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Current champions Judith and Lee McCleary return to defend their title which saw them represent the nation at the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Sochi, Russia, earlier this year.
Despite a strong finish with four wins in succession at the end of that campaign, an earlier run of losses was enough to take them out of contention for the play-offs as they eventually finished sixth in their group.
Seasoned mixed doubles specialists Team Mouat (Bruce Mouat and Gina Aitken) are also back to make their bid for the top spot in a championship which they won in 2012 and 2013.
Between them, the experienced skips led their own teams to Scottish Junior Championship glory and World Junior Championship podium positions in 2015 so will be looking to bring this form and experience to the mixed doubles forum.
September’s Greenacres Asham Under-21 Slam event-winning skip Karina Aitken (who is Gina’s sister) is also back this year for the second year running playing alongside her father and junior team coach David.
They narrowly missed out on a semi-final place at January’s Scottish Curling Mixed Doubles Championship to Team Gray, who eventually went on to contest the final.
Also among the field is Team Whyte, comprising the 2015 Asham Under-17 Slam winning skip Ross Whyte, along with this year’s Scottish Mixed Championship winner Sophie Jackson, who also represented Scotland at the World Mixed Championship in Switzerland in September.
Play gets underway at 2.30pm on Thursday with the only other session of the day starting at 5.30pm.
The round robin concludes on Saturday with the semi-finals on Sunday morning from 10am and the final at 2.30pm.
The Royal Caledonian Curling Club will be providing live line scoring on its website at www.royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org
Entry is free throughout the weekend, and there is full venue information at www.intu.co.uk/braehead
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