Graeme Connal and his team of Scottish Senior Curling Championships winners can now prepare for the trip of a lifetime.
The Perth-based skip joined Alistair Scott (Stirling), Mark Fraser (Inverness) and Mark Brass - the latter also from the Fair City - in lifting national gold in Hamilton on Sunday.
That special triumph has rewarded Team Connal with a ticket to the World Senior Championships in Korea in April.
“It is great for us to now get the chance to go to a world event,” said Connal, a world and European champion.
“The competitiveness is still there and I could see it in the team. The four of us got better as the games got bigger.
“If you can be put under pressure and perform like that, it stands us in good stead. It is a fantastic achievement for us all.
“There will be three sections at the worlds and the first target will be to try and qualify out of that.
“If we do that, we’ll take it from there. It is the same mindset as we had for the Scottish Senior Championships. If we’re playing well enough, you never know what can happen.”
The team’s successful week at the nationals reached its conclusion with a 7-4 win in the final against Team Kennedy, following on from a quarter-final victory over Team Prentice and semi-final triumph over Team Cormack.
“We struggled a wee bit with the ice early on,” admitted Connal, who still reflects on the importance of his successful playing days at school with Perth Academy.
“We had a low point in the fourth and fifth games of the round robin where we didn’t play as well as hoped. Fortunately we had managed to win the first three - playing reasonably well - to qualify for the playoffs.
“We qualified in third place and that was possibly a good thing. We got that extra game in the quarter-final.
“We seemed to get better as a team as the weekend went on and played exceptionally well in the final.”
Particularly welcome was a score of four in the seventh end which, ultimately, closed out the match.
“In the sixth end, we lost a two but our sweepers - Mark Fraser and Mark Brass - swept so well to get my draw in,” Connal reflected. “If that had been short and we’d lost a three, that probably would’ve been curtains.
“Then in the seventh end we set it up perfectly. We ended up with five perfect shots with our last five stones.
“I had an open hit with my last stone and that is how the four came about. But it was all about putting the stones in the right place. We played the end as well as we could’ve.”
The team will be putting in as much practice as possible between now and their date with destiny in Korea. The World Senior Championships will run from April 21-29 in Gangneung.
“A lot of the major events I’ve played in have been in Canada or Europe,” Connal said. “Nothing really on the Asian side but I have always wanted to. Korea has now come up, so I will be able to tick that off the list.
“I’m sure the rest of the guys are really looking forward to it too because it will be a trip of a lifetime.
“I noticed the Swiss team who have qualified - although in another section - is a chap Christof Schwaller who I have played against at world championships before. He is a good player and has a great team.
“If there are teams like that, then the field will be very strong. The ice and stones will be good so there should be a lot of nice curling over in Korea.
“We have still got a few Super League games to go. Myself and Alistair Scott will be playing in those.
“We’ll need to see about getting some practice together and hopefully Mark Fraser can come down and join us. It is difficult with Mark Brass being in Belgium but we will get round that hurdle.”
With European golds in 2007 and 2008 behind him, as well as World Championships titles in 1991 and 2009, of course Connal is now keen to secure a senior honour.
With a smile, he said: “It would be nice to add to the set, yes.”
