Dumfries and Galloway to be well represented in World Mixed Curling Championships

Dumfries and Galloway curling will be well represented on the world stage in Aberdeen for the next week.

The 2023 World Mixed Curling Championship will start at Curl Aberdeen tomorrow until October 21 as 34 teams from around the globe come together to compete.

Scotland will be represented by Dumfries duo Jack Strawhorn and Kirsty Gallacher, Stranraer’s Kaleb Johnston and Amy Mitchell of Greenacres, Renfrewshire.

They earned the right to represent Scotland at this tournament by winning the Scottish Curling Mixed Championship earlier this year, with Robyn Mitchell playing instead of Gallacher, beating Team Bryce, who clinched silver at the 2022 World Mixed Championship, in the final.

Scotland will compete in Group A alongside Belgium, England, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, and Wales.

Jack said: “As this is the first major championship for three of us in the team, it will be mainly about gaining experience in playing in big championships, but of course we still hope to perform well. So, we are hoping to make it through to the knockout phase of the competition.

“It’s always special representing your own country at any major championship, but as we are performing in front of our own crowd that will only add to the anticipation of the competition with the hope that more people get the chance to come and support us and provide a bigger buzz around the competition from our point of view.

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Kaleb added: “Our ambitions for the championship are to take it one game at a time; we are hopeful to qualify out of the group stage as this is our goal for the week. We just want to enjoy our first time at a championship.

“It will be a great feeling playing on home ice. Aberdeen is where our junior nationals are