Mouat Seeking Extended Stay as #1

Scotland's Bruce Mouat (Photo: Graeme Hart, PPA) faces countrymate Kyle Waddell on Stu Sells Oakville Tankard B-Side on Sunday morning. The world number one ranked quartet of Edinburgh's Mouat, his vice skip from Dumfries Grant Hardie and Stranraer's powerhouse front-end pairing of Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie came into Oakville looking to defend the title they won last year. Mouat, having made a perfect start to the new season, with 14 wins in 14 matches winning at both the Baden Masters and the Euro Super Series (ESS). As defending champions, they are bidding to win the event for the fourth time, having also claimed the title in 2017 and 2021. Mouat opened with a 7-4 win over John Epping, now representing Sudbury after joining forces with brothers Tanner and Jake Horgan. Mouat made an incredible angle runback to score four in the last end to season the win. "This is normally a great event and we would normally enjoy the ice so we are looking forward to playing on it," said Mouat, ahead of the weekend in Oakville after turning 30 this past week. "It will be nice to be back in Oakville and be playing in a little town that we really like and it's got a lot of history for us. "We won our first Slam here and won our first two ever events here as the place where we started off in 2017, so the first events where we ever played as a four is here so it is why Oakville means a lot to us." Mouat dropped an 8-6 decision to Switzerland's Marco Hoesli, also coming off an event win after taking last weekend's title in Oslo. Mouat bounced back with a 7-1 win over Jayden King of London, Ontario, advancing to the C-side semifinals. Scotland's Ross Whyte and Jordan Chandler of Little Current, Ontario battle in the same bracket, with the winner meeting the winner of Mouat and Waddell. Mouat's early season form has taken them back to top spot in the rankings for the third time, having first occupied that position for more than two months before, during and after the 2022 Winter Olympics, before returning there for a month at the beginning of last season. Mouat is keen to make it a more prolonged stay this time around.   "We know that we have started earlier than some of the other teams and winning those two events was pretty special to us in getting that number one ranking again," he said. "The last time I don't think it lasted for very long so hopefully this time it will last a wee bit longer but we are going to have to have a good start here, we have got some tough games ahead I am sure."