![]() "We are very excited to be world number three," said Scotland's Ross Whyte. (Photo: Graeme Hart, PPA) Whyte, Perth pair Robin Brydone, the vice-skip and Duncan McFadzean, as well as Stranraer's Euan Kyle, have made a superb start to the 2024/25 campaign, moving into the top three in the World Curling Team Rankings for the first time. "It's the highest we have ever got to in the overall rankings, and we are hoping to try and continue that and push on and try and get to that number one spot, and hopefully, we can start that by having a very good week here in Oakville. "We are very excited to be back as we always enjoy playing this event. "It is well run and usually the ice is very good and so we believe that if we bring everything we have been working on at the National Curling Academy to Oakville this week we are going to have a great week. "We have had a good start to the year and have played two great competitions. Unfortunately we missed out in both of them by fine margins but we feel like our game is coming together and we are technically very sound right now, so hopefully we can continue the progress we were making at the start of the year and make a run for it over here in these two events. "We are looking forward to taking on some familiar faces we haven't played yet this year as well as people we play a lot against and it will make for a good competition as there are a number here that are very strong. "First stop is a triple knock-out, which is a format that we enjoy and we haven't played a lot recently, but we are looking forward to the challenge and we know that every game that we play will be tough." They are joined in the draw by world #1-ranked Bruce Mouat, along with two more Scottish teams with Edzell's James Craik, Auchterarder's Mark Watt, Kelso's Angus Bryce and Stranraer's Blair Haswell setting out in the opening round against locals Team Ray, while Hamilton's Kyle and Craig Waddell, along with Irvine's Mark Taylor and Edinburgh's Gavin Barr also face opponents from the home province in Team Hocevar. |