Team Smith in good place ahead of PyeongChang, says coach

Team Smith reached the quarter-finals of the Mercure City of Perth Masters at the Dewar's Centre before losing out to Swiss outfit Team De Cruz, last week.

It was revenge for Peter de Cruz's rink, who had recently lost out to Team Smith in the semi-finals of the recent European Championships, the Scots eventually winning silver.

Smith's rink face a final competitive tournament ahead of the Games – the German Masters in Hamburg on January 18.

And despite being disappointed with the defeat their coach, Viktor Kjell, believes the quartet of Smith, younger brother Cammy, Kyle Waddell and Thomas Muirhead are making solid progress ahead of their trip to South Korea.

"I am pleased with the team's performance, even though we would have hoped to get past the quarter-final stage," the Swede said.

"It was good to get quality games on great ice conditions. This puts us in a good place moving forward over the next few weeks leading in to February and I am looking forward to our final preparations for South Korea."

Fellow Scots Team Bryce, made up of Cameron Bryce, Ross White, Robin Brydone and Angus Dowell, also reached the quarter-final stage but lost out to Thomas Ulsrud's Norwegian rink.

Sportsbeat 2018