Winter Olympics: Vancouver ice excites British curlers

David Murdoch's team get their campaign up and running with a tough opening match against European champions Sweden, the first of nine round-robin contests designed to produce four semi- finalists.

While Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Euan Byers, Peter Smith and squad member Graeme Connal are looking to get off to a fast start and comfortable with the high expectations of them to bring home a medal, they have been further boosted by the presence of the world's leading ice-maker Hans Wuthrich in Vancouver.

Swiss-born Wuthrich has lived in Canada for more than 30 years and produced the ice in Moncton, New Brunswick on which Murdoch's Scotland side won last year's World Championships.

"We're used to curling on nice, swinging, fast ice that Hans has always produced in past major championships," team third MacDonald said.

"He's got a great reputation and every time we've played in the worlds he's been involved and they've been great conditions."

MacDonald believes Wuthrich has produced such conditions at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

"He talks to all the teams and we've had a chat with him and he likes the arena, he likes the facility and likes the air flow, which is important to these guys and I'm sure he'll make a good job of it."

Murdoch said Wuthrich's ice will make for a more enjoyable tournament.

"In the past there has been just really straight ice, not very good for viewing and not very good for players either," the GB skip said. "The fact that Hans is making ice, great curling ice that makes for aggressive play, is only going to help make the curling far more interesting."

With the right ice in place, Murdoch is determined to see his team get off to a strong start in their opener against the Swedes. "They're a young team, extremely good and very talented and they're going to be at the top levels for the next few years.

"They're also off the back of a European Championship win where they performed really well and I think they're a team that gets stronger as the week goes on.

"So I think the fact that we have them early gives us a chance to hopefully get on and play our game. We need to get off to a good start and get up and running."

The skip is also happy that, as world champions, the British team will be the ones with the targets on their backs.

"I think it's part and parcel of being world champions," Murdoch said.

"It happened in 2006 and we went into the 2007 season and everyone was playing incredibly well against us. It's certainly happened again this season but I think for us that's a positive thing.

"It makes sure we don't get complacent and means we can raise our game even further so it's a good thing we're in that position. It brings out the best in us for sure."

MacDonald added: "Ultimately we have to make sure we're in the top four at the end of the round robin of nine games and so that's our first target, to make sure we're in the semi-finals.

"Getting up and running against Sweden is probably a good thing, we have to be sharp right from the kick off and that gets you focused right from the start.

"We're feeling sharp, everybody's up for it and we're looking forward to getting going."