Third fall title wrecks Brash Brad’s surge

ST. JOHN’S—Scotland’s Bruce Mouat defeated Alberta’s Brad Jacobs 5-3 to win the KIOTI National at Mary Brown’s Centre, a remarkable third Grand Slam of Curling series victory in a row.

The methodical nature of the Scots’ victory put an end to the drama of Saturday’s quarterfinal round, where Jacobs playfully duked it out with a partisan crowd en route to a win over Brad Gushue’s hometown heroes.

That win marked the return of Brash Brad, the 2014 Olympic champion who pumps himself up in loud displays of pro athlete moxie.

The debate still rages, however, between players and fans about injecting live curling with a supercharged dose of crowd chaos.

For Team Mouat, the 2022 Olympic finalists, the win also continues a stunning turnaround from a difficult end to last season, where the Scots—who were the defending world champions—finished third at their national championship, failing to make the final.

In a controversial decision based on existing criteria, Team Mouat were still selected by British Curling to represent Scotland at the world championships, where they finished fourth.

But that was then, and this is now.

Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr. won two earlier Slams in Charlottetown, PEI and Nisku, Alta. with undefeated records and only lost one match here in the Newfoundland & Labrador capital, a 6-3 setback to USA’s John Shuster.

Jacobs and Mouat watched their championship tilt resemble a chess board through five ends of a cautious 2-1 scoreline.

Things got spicy in the sixth end, after a Lammie miss left Jacobs—supported by Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert—in a steal position until Mouat’s first stone, a brilliant come-around to lie one.

Jacobs was forced to try a wide in-off ricochet and when he missed, the 30-year-old Scot scored the first deuce of the game for a 3-2 lead.

The two skips then traded double-takeouts in the seventh, and another ace Mouat throw left Jacobs a hit and stick for a tying point coming home.

Mouat’s front-end stones were played perfectly, and Jacobs missed an attempt to lie two on his final throw, leaving Mouat a simple hit for the win. The pro-Scottish crowd, numbering close to 6,000, erupted in cheers.

In the semifinals, Jacobs defeated Scotland’s Ross Whyte 6-3 while Mouat upended Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen by a 5-1 count.

Earlier Sunday, Rachel Homan made it two Slam titles out of three with a nifty last-stone 6-5 win over Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg.

The fourth Grand Slam tournament of the season, the WFG Masters, gets underway on Jan. 14 at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ont.