All the hard work and preparation has been done and we’re ready for the European Championships on Saturday.
I’m the type of competitor who always wants to win at whatever I’m doing but in our last couple of tournaments we’ve made sure we’ve focused on the bigger picture, which are the Europeans at Braehead.
On the face of it, our results in Canada and then Switzerland weren’t too impressive but we’ve been trying different things, both individually and as a team.
And I’m really pleased with how it has gone.
Our coach Glenn Howard is over from Canada for the week and this will be the first major championship that we’ve had him with us.
There’s nobody in curling with more experience than Glenn.
I think he has won four out of four World Championships.
First up is a game against Italy on Saturday.
It’s a round-robin and then the best four will play the semi-finals.
I would imagine the usual countries will be our main rivals – Switzerland, Sweden and Russia.
Probably the form team at the moment are the Swedes.
We’ve been really consistent at coming home with a medal. It’s been silver, gold, silver, silver, bronze, silver.
A home European Championships would be a great time to add another gold to that list!
* I definitely think it’s good news that the rugby authorities are planning to change the residency qualification for internationals from three years to five.
Countries will always take advantage of whatever rules allow them to get them to play the best players available, and Scotland is no different.
It’s not a rule I like in the first place though, I have to say.
Playing for your country should be about more than living in it for a few years.
So many other motivations can come into it – money being one of the big ones.
I read recently that there is an English Fijian, if that’s what you call him, who has admitted that money was the main reason he has switched nationality.
That just doesn’t sound right.
Is five years living in a country enough to make you feel like that’s your homeland? Maybe for some it might be, I suppose.
But I think you can definitely say that staying for five years represents a bigger commitment than staying for three.
* It’s been good to see Bradley Neil’s name being mentioned again.
It had all gone a bit quiet for him for a while.
He would have loved to have got his European Tour card out of Q School this week but getting full playing rights a level below on the Challenge Tour is still a big deal.
And it might just be the best thing for him.
Winning the British Amateur a couple of years ago probably catapulted him too far too fast but this will give him a chance to really build his career step by step.
I think he’s still only 20.
I know that the top players in all sports are getting younger and younger but Bradley’s at an age where he can expect to keep improving.
He’s got a great opportunity to do just that now.
