CurlingZone: Mouat Wins HearingLife Tour Challenge

Scotland's Bruce Mouat (photo: Anil Mungal, GSOC) completed a flawless run in Charlottetown with a 10-3 win over Canada's Brad Gushue.

Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan had come through the A route of the Triple Knockout competition before beating domestic rivals Team Craik in the quarterfinals, and in-form Canadians Team McEwen in the semis of the event staged in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.

That set up a meeting with Gushue, Mark Nichols, EJ Harnden and Geoff Walker in the decider and the Scottish quartet seized a control that they were never to relinquish when they made last stone advantage count with a two at the opening end.

Gradually building on that, they rounded things off in style when Mouat's run-back double take-out turned a 5-3 lead into an unassailable 10-3, and the Canadians immediately offered their hands.

"It was a really, really good run for us here," said Mouat.

"We played well in every single game that we had, which was great to see.

"It feels like we've been really consistent this season, which is what we wanted to achieve after our summer off and I think we're in a really good spot."

Mouat finished 3-0 in the 16-team triple knockout qualifying round. In their opening game, Mouat defeated Cameron Bryce (Border, Scotland) 6-2, then won 7-1 against Kevin Koe (Calgary, AB) and 5-4 against Niklas Edin (Karlstad, SWE) in the A-event qualifier game.

The victory was all the more satisfying because of the way they dealt with the pressure of going into the event as favourites on the basis of that early season form that had seen them become the first-ever Scottish winners of the Baden Masters in Switzerland, before defending their Euro Super Series title on home ice in Stirling.

"Coming into the event ranked world number one gave us a lot of confidence coming in, having put down a marker at the start of the season with two wins in our first two events before performing pretty well on our previous trip to Canada as well," Mouat observed.

"So, this may be the first time we've come into a Slam ranked world number one and we just proved why we are, so that's very exciting."

Having won the Canadian Open last season to become the first non-Canadians to complete a set of title wins in the original four Grand Slams - The Open, The National, The Masters and The Players Championship - this first Tour Challenge victory again saw them make history as they joined the elite handful of men who have won all five of the current Slams and Mouat acknowledged the nature of that achievement.

"I was just thinking about going back to when I first started curling and watching the Slams and I just wanted one day to be able to play in one, never mind win it, so now having seven titles is a bit surreal," he said.

"It's incredibly special to all four of us who having worked so hard to get to this point and to now be among some incredible names in curling, having won all five of the Grand Slams it's hard to really describe how it makes me feel.

"I'm just extremely proud of all of us and all the hard work we've put in."

The event also provided the latest evidence of the growing strength in depth in the domestic game with all three British Curling-supported teams reaching the knockout stages of the tier one event with Team Whyte joining Team Craik in exiting at the quarterfinal stage, while another, Team Waddell, reached the quarterfinals of the tier two event.

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