British Curling shakes up rosters for Craik, Waddell
James Craik and Kyle Waddell’s lineups will look vastly different next season.
British Curling announced Monday its program teams for the 2025-26 campaign, and a busy season at that with the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina on the horizon.
Top-ranked Bruce Mouat and Ross Whyte’s rosters remain untouched at the Olympic program level and for good reason after sensational seasons. Mouat won the world championship for the second time in three years and became the first to capture four Grand Slam of Curling titles in a single season. Whyte, who finished the season No. 5 in the world rankings, claimed his first Grand Slam title at the WFG Masters in January, helping Scotland sweep all five men’s trophies in the series, and earned his second consecutive Scottish championship.
Craik, No. 18 in the world rankings, will work with a clean slate at the performance foundation level playing alongside program newcomers Jake MacDonald, Fraser Swanston and Rory MacNair.
The former world junior champion Craik curled with Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell for the past three seasons and captured gold together at the 2023 Winter World University Games.
Watt, Bryce and Haswell will link up with brothers Kyle and Craig Waddell on a five-player roster.
“I’m excited by the potential of this team,” Kyle Waddell said in a release. “There have been a lot of conversations over the last few months amongst ourselves and British Curling, with British Curling ultimately selecting the teams, but I think they liked our proposal.
“There were a lot of discussions in terms of why we wanted to create this team and I’m glad it’s happened.
“We already have a clear set of goals for this season and beyond, have already started planning next season and will be back on ice in July to start preparing.”
Waddell, No. 25 in the world rankings, competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics at second for Kyle Smith and has captured the world championship twice as the alternate on Team Mouat. He also won the Grand Slam of Curling’s National title in 2018 while playing third for Ross Paterson.
On the women’s side, Rebecca Morrison’s team will stay the same while Fay Henderson’s five-player rotation sees Laura Watt take over for Robyn Munro, who has opted to step back from the sport.