Clan Muirhead will spearhead Scotland’s bid to repel Continental invaders at the European Curling Championships in Braehead Arena next month with representation in both the men's and women's teams.

The 3-0 victory in a best-of-five series achieved by the quartet led by former world champion Eve Muirhead over Hannah Fleming's improving rink in the two team women’s qualifying competition held at Perth over the weekend was, of course, no more than business as usual.

However older brother Glen’s success as part of Team Brewster - which won the longer drawn out three team men’s competition - will add an extra dynamic to curling discussions at family gatherings over the next month and not just because of sibling rivalry since his girlfriend, Anna Sloan, is poised to return to action as the third member of Team Muirhead next week after completing her recovery from knee ligament damage.

“That’s going to be exciting for us both,” said Glen.

“We’re going to be motivated to push each other on and likewise with my sister, so it’s just that extra little couple of per cent and on home soil at Braehead, so there’s even more to look forward to.”

The nature of these relationships demonstrates both the strength and weakness of the Scottish curling community, drawing as it does from a tight-knit, but consequently relatively limited pool. That can also be an environment which can encourage suspicion and there was just a hint of that in Glen’s assessment of how difficult he had previously found it to gain international recognition.

“In terms of success I’ve just been missing out the last few years, but it’s a different era of curling now,” the 27-year-old observed.

“We’ve got a different national coach, a different set-up, so it’s going to be earned as opposed to selected and hopefully that should stand me in good stead.”

In a sport that has become increasingly professionalised across the globe he has a challenging regime since he also runs a sheep farm. However with the team skipped by Tom Brewster having also won the Scottish Championships earlier this year, he has justified the flexibility of the programme’s management in accommodating him as they seek to stimulate domestic competition.

Their victory this time around extended the extraordinary sequence that means Team Murdoch has not qualified to represent Scotland at any of the six World or European Championships that have taken place since they claimed silver medals for Great Britain at Sochi in 2014.

A year ago it was Kyle Smith’s rink - which also includes the youngest of the Muirheads, Thomas – that upset the more experienced teams, but they were eliminated without registering a win in the double round-robin section of this year’s play-downs, before Brewster’s men eased past Murdoch’s 2-0 in the final.

Generating genuine domestic competition in the women’s game is a rather harder proposition, however, Eve Muirhead and her colleagues once again asserting themselves, albeit Team Fleming were getting closer to them as the competition went on, Saturday night’s decisive match going to an extra end.

The whitewash was all the more impressive because Team Muirhead is in a transitional phase under a new tactical coach in Canadian Glenn Howard, while Lauren Gray, formerly a rival skip, has been drafted in as their new lead this season and Kelly Schafer (nee Wood) has been over from her home in Canada for the opening, highly successful, segment of the season to deputise for the injured Sloan.

The recruitment of Howard and Gray demonstrates Muirhead’s relentless determination to exhaust every avenue in seeking to maximise her team’s competitiveness and there is no doubt where her priorities lie since, while many would have been highly satisfied with the bronze medal claimed in Sochi, she arrived there as the reigning world champion skip and was disappointed not to reach the final.

“This is a really, really important season, not only for making sure you get (Scotland’s) spot at the World Championships through the Europeans and then making sure you get enough points to qualify (Britain) for the Olympics, but I think setting down a marker for the Olympics as well,” she said.

“I’d like to think for ourselves, having qualified for this Europeans, it’s almost one step on the plane to Korea as a team because we’ve been pretty dominant the last few seasons.

“We’ve been doing pretty well, but it’s next season that’s the important season, isn’t it?”

A home European Championships is another major target, however.

“For us, having been to quite a few European Championships, it’s exciting to get to play one on home soil,” she said.

“I think that makes a massive difference. To get the chance to represent your country in your country is something quite special.”

That is not least because of the effect the support can have.

“Hopefully we can get a lot of crowds in there and it does make a difference having people supporting you,” said Muirhead.

“Even when you’re away in other countries when your parents and a few friends come out it does make a difference knowing you have support.”

Which brings us back to the matter of Glen’s involvement and Eve welcomed the prospect.

“Thomas was playing in the men’s Europeans last year with Kyle Smith so I have played at a major event with one of my brothers and it’s exciting because you’re always keeping an eye on what the guys’ scores are,” she noted.

“Not that you’re not at any other championships, but it’s a little bit more exciting when it’s one of your family as well.”