Kinross curler Beth Farmer is benefitting from pitting her wits against some of the best players in the world.
Farmer, who skips the team of Hailey Duff, Kirstin Bousie, Katie McMillan and Amy MacDonald, has this season been enjoying more competition overseas.
As well as heading to the continent for events in places like Norway and Switzerland, the jet-setting squad has also made multiple trips over to Canada across the past few months.
Included in the schedule have been appearances at tournaments such as the Western Showdown in Swift Current, Hearinglife Tour Challenge Grand Slam of Curling in Grande Prairie, Alberta Open and the Red Deer Classic.
Farmer, who grew up playing the sport in Kinross and is now supported by British Curling, has used the experiences abroad wisely and feels they can only help in terms of making further improvements.
“We’ve had an up and down start to the season you could say but we’re a new team so trying to just take every opportunity we can,” Farmer explained to the Perthshire Advertiser this week.
“The couple of trips to Canada have been brilliant and the thing we’ve taken away from these trips the most is the experience of playing some of the best.”
Farmer returns to the familiar setting of the Fair City’s Dewars Centre from January 4-7 for the always-popular Mercure Perth Masters, which makes its welcome return following a Covid-19-imposed lay-off.
Chairman of the organising committee Pete Loudon has again worked hard to bring a high-class field to the region.
And Farmer is looking to implement what she has learned from her various curling journeys this season.
“We were training on December 28 and 29 like normal, then will have another day on ice before we head to Perth,” Farmer explained.
“We are looking to bring everything we have learnt from the first half of the season into the second half and see what we can do from there.”
Not competing at the Perth Masters this time round will be local curing legend Eve Muirhead, who announced her retirement earlier this year.
Before Muirhead decided to hang up the competitive brush in August, Farmer was actually called into the Olympic gold medal-winning team to play with Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff.
“When I got the call it was surreal and took a while for it to sink in,” Farmer admitted with a smile.
Back skipping her own team, Farmer hailed the role Muirhead has - and continues - to play for curling thanks to a glittering career packed full of medals and memories.
She said: “Being such a consistent part of curling for the last 16 years has done massive things for the sport.”
