Edinburgh curler Jennifer Dodds happy to '˜go in at deep end' for inaugural World Cup

Edinburgh curler Jennifer Dodds admits she will be 'going in at the deep end' when she replaces Eve Muirhead as Scotland's skip at this week's inaugural World Cup in Suzhou, China.

European champion Muirhead has still not fully recovered from hip surgery in May, and Dodds has stepped in despite joining the team as recently as July. Another new face, Vicky Wright, joins Lauren Gray and Vicki Chalmers – formerly Adams – in a new-look line-up in Suzhou.

“It is definitely going in at the deep end for our first competition and it’s a challenge for me being skip,” said Dodds. “But it’s an amazing opportunity to play against some of the top teams in the world and it will be a good gauge of the hard work we’ve put in this summer.”

Murrayfield’s world bronze medallist Bruce Mouat and his team-mates Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie and Grant Hardie are representing Scotland in the men’s event after opening their season at last month’s Baden Masters in Switzerland, where they reached the quarter-finals.

“It’s a new experience for me going east. We had to be smart about planning ahead to overcome the jet lag as soon as possible,” revealed Mouat.

“I’m guessing this new event will have more of a World Champs or Grand Slam feel to it and it’s exciting to be part of this historic occasion. It will be good to say in years to come that we were part of the first staging of the event.”

Both Scots face Japanese opposition in their opening group games on Wednesday. Mouat takes on Masaki Iwai, while Dodds plays Satsuki Fujisawa, who beat Muirhead’s team in the Olympic bronze medal play-off in February.