EVE MUIRHEAD: Neither Scottish curling champion got selected for Worlds but next year could be very different

The link between winning the Scottish Curling Championships and automatically going to the Worlds was broken a few years ago.

It’s highly unlikely it will ever be restored, meaning selection will continue to divide opinion.

Scotland are far from alone in having other criteria apart from becoming national champion these days.

Some years it isn’t controversial but this one always had that potential.

First of all, for the women’s selection, the team I help coach, Team Henderson, completely understand that winning the Scottish hasn’t been enough.

They would be the first to admit that the season wasn’t great before Dumfries.

They’ve only just broken into the world top 50 and Team Morrison are in the top 20.

The most important thing for Fay and the girls is to view their Scottish title, which was the big one on their calendar, as the start of something – the women’s picture could open up far more next season.

In both cases, there will be statistics we don’t get to see that underpinned the selectors’ decisions.

For the men, we are fortunate to have one team who are the reigning World and European champions and won the last Grand Slam and another team that is pushing them all the way and has beaten them to become Scottish champions.

With James Craik’s team impressing as well, the standard the other week was very, very high.

There are three teams capable of doing extremely well at the Worlds.

You can absolutely make a strong case for Team Mouat getting the thumbs up, which is what happened.

For British Curling, the important thing is to make sure that Teams Whyte and Craik feel like they are incentivised.

The thought of two incredibly strong teams walking away is scary.

It’s not that long ago that my two brothers and Kyle and Cammy Smith were lost to the elite side of curling at a really young age.

I’ve no doubt that it will have been reiterated to Team Whyte that next year will be a completely new ball game.

This fight at the top is very healthy and we need that to continue.

It’s the Scottish Mixed Doubles in Perth this weekend.

And I do think that whoever wins this one will get the nod for the Worlds!

That’s because it’s a really open field and, although the selectors will have their stats and there have been in-house competitions, there aren’t world rankings or big tournaments to go on.

Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat are the favourites and holders but there are a lot of other really interesting combinations who have a good chance.

Two former team-mates of mine, Bobby Lammie and Hailey Duff, fall into that category.

Fay and Euan Kyle are another strong partnership as are Rebecca Morrison and Kyle Waddell.

I’m pleased to see there are competitors who aren’t in the funded programme – Mili Smith is coming back from teaching in Italy to play.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll enter with Glen or Thomas.

I’ve been far too busy over the last few months for that to happen this year but because it’s a Thursday to Sunday and it’s in Perth I wouldn’t rule it out at some point.