Former Scottish champion skip Sophie Jackson has joined the newly formed Team Morrison at lead position.
Jackson’s addition completes Team Morrison, with her teammates including Aberdeen’s Rebecca Morrison as skip, Gina Aitken and Sophie Sinclair.
The 25-year-old previously skipped her own team to success at the 2019 Scottish Women’s Curling Championships, and has represented Scotland at the World Championships.
In joining Team Morrison, Jackson continues her comeback in the sport after taking more than a year away from the British Curling programme.
She returned last season with Team Farmer and did so with a renewed appetite for playing at the highest level.
Jackson said of her new team and new position: “Having some time away from curling really helped me put things into perspective.
“It helped me consider my goals within elite curling and also within my career outside of that.
“I’m now back with a renewed and refreshed motivation and really keen to see where things can go for me and British Curling in the next couple of years.
“I’m really motivated to master the lead position. Over the years skipping I’ve seen how important that lead position is, getting the set up right just makes the rest of the team’s job a lot easier throughout the end, so you’re not chasing all of the time.
“It’s a position where you’ve got a set number of key shots and I just think it’s really exciting to be able to practice them and be able to become an absolute perfectionist.”
Team Morrison aiming high
In welcoming Jackson to the team, skip Morrison said it had been a huge boost to bring a player who has skipped a team at a World Championship into their ranks.
“It’s excellent to have a player like Sophie come into our team and we’re so glad that we’ve managed to get her,” Morrison said.
“She’s got so much experience under her belt and that’s already shone through and had a really positive impact in our team, so we’re really excited to have her join us at lead.”
While the current, Covid restrictions are reducing competitive opportunities for the new team, Team Morrison have their sights set high for the New Year.
The skip said: “This season we’d like to qualify for the World Championships.
“We only have one competitive event running up to that in Berne at the end of January and after that we’ll play the Scottish Championships, which we also hope to win.
“So, the main goal is the World Championship and from there we’ll set new goals.”