Aberdeen’s Rebecca Morrison is looking forward to finally getting the chance to show what her team can do at the World Women’s Curling Championship after they retained their Scottish title.
Skip Morrison and her rink – Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson – were flawless in defending the Scottish crown they claimed for the first time last year, going unbeaten throughout the tournament at Dumfries Ice Bowl.
Gold medal game opponents Team Young had been the only team in the event to take Team Morrison to 10 ends, when the sides met in their page play-off match on Friday.
However, the opposition, skipped by Lesley Young, were less successful in keeping Morrison and Co. at bay in Saturday’s final – the reigning champions triumphing 8-3 with ends to spare.
Having engineered their way to a 4-0 lead in the first two ends, a perfectly executed score of three from Morrison in the seventh end proved to be the match’s defining shot.
Team Morrison are now a shoo-in to be selected to represent Scotland at this season’s World Championships, which will be held in Sandviken, Sweden, next month.
Just being able to compete – after their debut trip to the worlds, in Canada last year, was wrecked by Covid – will be an exciting next step on an upward journey for the rink who have picked up the mantle left by now-retired Scottish curling legend Eve Muirhead and her all-conquering, Olympic gold-winning team.
But Morrison isn’t going to Sweden just to soak up the experience, saying: “We were just very unfortunate last year.
“Restrictions were loosening and there were about one in 10 people in the country had Covid at the time we were leaving for the world championships.
“Life’s a lot different these days, though, and we’re really looking forward to selection and hoping that it will be good news for us.
“If so, we just need to train hard and do our best. I don’t think we need to do anything differently.
“We did great at the Europeans, but the Worlds are a whole new kettle of fish. You’ve got a bunch of other teams… Canada, the USA, Japan, Korea, so many great teams.
“For us, if we get to the worlds, our goal would be to make the play-offs at our first World Championships.”
Team Morrison claimed their bronze medals at the European championships in the latter part of 2022 in Sweden.
She thinks those “great memories”, and the event being held somewhere which will be relatively near at hand for travelling supporters, will help the rink at worlds.
Morrison admits she felt pressure in Saturday’s Scottish championships final to cap what had been an impressive week, and feels her side’s win to defend their title “cements” them as the nation’s top team.
She said: “It’s actually a little bit scary going into the final unbeaten, because you just don’t ever want your only loss of the week to be in the final, so we had that extra pressure.
“However, we also knew we were unbeaten for a reason and that did give us confidence going into that game.
“I’m so pleased with how the team played throughout the week. There have been no moments of panic or anything, we’re just delighted with the shot-making and teamwork we’ve had.
“I think this cements us as the top team in Scotland.”
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