Tom Brewster and David Smith are being invited to play in the Men’s section and Eve Muiread and Gail Munro for the Women’s. Both playdowns will be run as the best of five.

The times for the competition are Friday 7.00pm, Saturday 12noon & 7.00pm, Sunday 10.00am & 3.00pm.

The winners will represent Scotland at the European Championships 8-15 December 2012 in Karlstad, Sweden.

Please come along and suport these playdowns.

Stand out from the croud with official coaching clothing – There for coaches at all levels!

The Royal Club coaches’ Polo shirts, sweatshirts, rugby shirts, fleeces and track tops are available in addition to the traditional jacket are still popular with many.

Supplied by Civvy logos, the Royal Club has negotiated excellent discounted prices, for current coaches. Click here for link to view the range or download and order form.

This event is open to everyone so come along and meet the stars of the Scottish and International curling scene, catch up with friends and fellow curlers or just sit back and enjoy the occasion!

The Scottish Curling Awards are taking place at the Glynhill Hotel & Leisure Club, Renfrew on 26^th May, 12:30pm for 1pm start. For more information and how to order tickets click:

BUY TICKETS NOW

We look forward to seeing you there!

On 1st May 2012 the 45 athletes selected onto the Curling Performance Programme for the 2012-2013 season were announced. The athletes on the Curling Performance Programme are: 8 Wheelchair athletes (3 women and 5 men), 16 Women and 21 Men.  Names of the athletes in each part of the programme can be found below:

MEN

Podium

Scott Andrews
Tom Brewster
Greg Drummond
Michael Goodfellow
David Murdoch

Performance

Kerr Drummond
Logan Gray
Ali Guthrie
Grant Hardie
Scott MacLeod
Hammy McMillan Jnr
Jay McWilliam
Steven Mitchell
Billy Morton
Glen Muirhead
Thomas Muirhead
Ross Paterson
Cameron Smith
Kyle Smith
Kyle Waddell
Richard Woods

[Selection panel: Dave Crosbee, Soren Gran, Rhona Martin, Tony Zummack.]

LADIES

Podium

Vicki Adams
Claire Hamilton
Eve Muirhead
Anna Sloan

Performance

Kay Adams
Mhairi Baird
Abigail Brown
Jennifer Dodds
Hannah Fleming
Lauren Gray
Jennifer Martin
Sarah Reid
Hazel Smith
Alice Spence
Lorna Vevers
Vicki Wright

[Selection panel: Dave Crosbee, Soren Gran, Tony Zummack, Nancy Smith, Cate Brewster.]

WHEELCHAIR

Ian Donaldson
Gregor Ewan
Jim Gault
Gill Keith
Tom Killin
Angie Malone
Robert McPherson
Aileen Neilson

[Selection panel: Dave Crosbee, Tony Zummack, Rhona Martin, Soren Gran, Nancy Smith, Cate Brewster.]

Erzurum, Turkey – Switzerland won the gold medal game at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2012 in Erzurum, Turkey, beating Sweden 7-6 in the final.

For Martin Rios and teammate Nadine Lehmann it is the fourth championship title for Switzerland in the five year history of the event. Sweden’s Per Noreen and Camilla Johansson take silver.

Claudia Toth and Christian Roth won the first ever WCF curling championship medal for Austria, winning the bronze medal game 12-7 against the USA pair Cristin and Brady Clark.

Both Switzerland and Sweden were cautious to begin with during the gold medal game. The teams traded single points in the first two ends before Sweden scored the first deuce in the third end while the Swiss scored one in the fourth. Sweden’s Per Noreen and Camilla Johansson were also the stronger team after the break, scoring two points the fifth end.

But Switzerland came back in the sixth after scoring three. Martin Rios played a beautiful triple-takeout before Nadine Lehmann could draw the open house to tie up the game 5-5.

In the seventh end, Sweden made an interesting call of giving away one point, to keep  hammer/last stone advantage in the eighth. Unfortunately for Sweden, Per Noreen’s draw came up heavy and let Switzerland steal two.

Nadine Lehmann may have been feeling the pressure with her last stone in the eighth end, coming up heavy on a draw, leaving Sweden an easy takeout for two points. Even though he was left an easy shot for the extra end, Per Noreen decided to go for glory and make a very thin double for a score of three. The last stone of the game would curl a fraction too much and leave Sweden with only one point and Switzerland won 7-6.

Switzerland’s Martin Rios: “I told her [teammate Nadine] that we were down four in the semifinal and we were in the same situation and I told her ‘we can do it’. We were lucky in the seventh and eighth end. For the last one [shot], I think it was a pretty hard shot to do.”

Sweden’s Per Noreen: “I think we have been a little nervous and we both played a little bad with some misses on the last stone. I think we do a great match are we are happy for second place.”

Camilla Johansson: “In the first half we played well and then we started to miss a few very important stones.”

In the Bronze medal game both teams were wearing the disappointment of having lost their semifinals earlier in the afternoon. Austria had lost 13-3 to Sweden and USA had lost 9-7 in a close game against Switzerland.

USA’s Cristin and Brady Clark were 5-4 up by the fourth end break with Brady throwing away hit last shot in the fourth end and taking a single point as there was no shot to make. But Austria began to stretch out their lead in the fifth end when Claudia Toth did a tap up for four. The US duo came back, taking two points in the sixth end but missed shots left the Austrians with a chance for four and they sealed their win 12-7 in the seventh end.

Claudia Toth: “It’s a really great feeling to win a medal. Austria’s never won a medal, neither at Europeans or Worlds. We thought we could make it but we just tried our best and we’re still getting our head around that it actually happened.”

Christian Roth: “If you look back to the tournament our start wasn’t really good. But from game to game we got better and we had a really amazing game this morning against Scotland to make the top four. Sweden played really well in the semifinal we didn’t really have a chance to win.”

Cristin Clark: “Well it’s better than last year, I guess we were seventh last year and now we’re fourth.”

Brady Clark: “We will continue improving and learn some lessons from this year and hopefully win the US Nationals another time and come back to improve our rankings. We had opportunities. We wish we could have medalled. But it is what it is. It was a great championship and congratulations to the Swiss.”

The 2013 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship will be staged in the new Grant-Harvey Centre in Frederiction, New Brunswick, Canada from 13-20 April.

Complete standings at the end of the event are available on the event website: http://www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com

All results are mirrored on the WCF Historical Results Database: http://results.worldcurling.org/

View news, line scores, image galleries, video highlights and full games on the event website: http://www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com

All video is also available on the WCF YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV

Report WCF

————————————————————–

Day 7

Erzurum, Turkey – Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and USA are through to the semifinals of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2012 in Erzurum, Turkey, after winning their quarterfinal games on Sunday morning.

Austria will play Sweden and Switzerland faces USA in the next round which beings at 12:00 local time.

Top ranked Switzerland (Martin Rios and Nadine Lehmann) at the end of the group stage faced winners of Saturday night’s quarterfinal qualification game Estonia (Martin and Kristiine Lill). The Estonian pair struggled to build up their shots to get enough points on the board and eventually conceded after just six ends on a steal of three points for the Swiss pair. Final score 10-2.

“In important places, I missed the key shots,” said Estonia’s Kristiine Lill who threw first and last stones thoughout the game. “It was not a good morning.”

Switzerland’s Nadine Lehmann: “we didn’t expect that it would end 10-2. But we are happy that we only had six ends to play.”

The USA team of Cristin and Brady Clark had China on the run from the second end when they took three points. They stole a total of four points over the next three ends as China’s Sijia Liu who was playing first and last stones missed all her last shots. China changed their playing order in the seventh end to have Yansong Ji play first and last stones and took a single point and conceded on a score of 8-2.

“I think China normally makes more shots,” said Brady Clark afterwards. “I think we took advantage when we had opportunities and that’s a big part of this game. When you have an opportunity, you really stick it to the other team and position your rocks really well and make their shots really difficult. That’s what we did and they faced a lot of really tough shots.”

China’s Yansong Ji and Sijia Liu speaking through an interpreter said they accepted the final result and explained that they didn’t have a feel for the game today.

By the fourth end break, Sweden was 5-0 up on the Canada. Dean Hicke and Chantelle Eberle missed key shots and put their one and only point of the game on the scoreboard in the fifth end. They could have had two, but an attempted hit and stick rolled out. Per Noreen and Camilla Johansson on the other hand made virtually every shot and by the end of the seventh end they were 10-1 up and Canada conceded.

Sweden’s Camilla Johansson: “we expected a really tough game, but they had to struggle the whole time, finding the right ice and the right speed, it went much easier than we expected.” Per Noreen: “we do the best match of the whole week, it was very good play from the first to the last stone.”

Canada’s Dean Hicke: “They played good, better than good, they played great. We just didn’t. The ice was a bit straighter on us. We just had an awful time following them in behind the centre guard. It just seemed to be end after end and perfect shots by them and not so good shots by us and that makes for a big score. I sum up the game by me making a half rock, 15 foot, in-off and picking our own rock off the back of the button in the seventh end! That pretty much sums it up.”

Chantelle Eberle: “they just made everything and we just missed everything.

The game between Austria and Scotland also turned out to be a bit of a landslide. Claudia Toth and Christian Roth stole their way into the game and were 6-2 up by the fourth end break. The Austrian pair managed to get a lot of stones in play and Scotland’s Judith McFarlane and Lee McCleary were playing catch up throughout the whole game and shook hands when Austria took four points in the seventh end with the score at 11-4.

Austria’s Claudia Toth: “We’ve never played mixed doubles and Austria is not a really big curling country. The quarterfinals were our goal. Being in a group with Canada and China we weren’t very optimistic. We just managed to have our best games towards the end and we started bad and always improved ourselves. Today, it was mostly our draw weight. We always managed to be in front of the tee[line], to have them try things and hit things. We always dominated the front house. I think that was the biggest difference.”

Judith “we just didn’t really play well enough today. Austria played really, really, well. They had their weights early on in the game and always made us try to play the big shots. Sometimes it came off, sometimes it didn’t. They were just better on the day.”

Report WCF

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Sunday 29 April

12:00 Semifinals:

Switzerland v USA (Live on event website & WCF YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/worldcurlingtv)

Sweden v Austria

Day 6

Erzurum, Turkey – Switzerland, USA, Canada, China, Scotland, Sweden and Austria are through to the quarterfinals of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2012 in Erzurum, Turkey. The final quarterfinal spot will go to the winner of Saturday evening’s qualification game which will be between Estonia and the winner of a tiebreak game between Denmark and Italy.

Upcoming games:

Saturday 28 April

15:00 Tiebreaker – Denmark v Italy

18:30 Qualification Game – Estonia v winner of Tiebreaker 

Sunday 29 April

08:00 Quarterfinals: (one game Live on event website & WCF YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/worldcurlingtv)

Game 1: Switzerland v winner of qualification game

Game 2: Scotland v Austria

Game 3: Canada v Sweden

Game 4: China v USA

Winners Game 1 & 4

Winners Game 2 & 3

The final two rounds of round robin group play at Erzurum Curling Arena on Saturday morning were full of suspense.

Sweden and Scotland won their final yellow group stage games to guarantee a place in the quarterfinals. The Scottish duo, Judith McFarlane and Lee McCleary, having beaten the Swedish pair – Per Noreen and Camilla Johansson – during the week finish top of the group.

Denmark and Italy, who both finish on a record of 5 wins and 3 losses, must play a tie-breaker to determine which team will finish in the 3^rd place position in the group and have a chance of making the quarterfinals.

The top two teams in each group qualify for the quarterfinals and the best ‘3^rd place’ team based on their Draw Shot Challenge (DSC) result (Austria). The other two ‘third place’ teams face a qualification game to decide the final quarterfinal place. This qualification game is scheduled for Saturday evening at 18:30 local time.

Yellow Group Standings

1. Scotland 6-2 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

2. Sweden 6-2 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

3. Denmark 5-3 (play tiebreaker at 15:00 local on Saturday)

3. Italy 5-3 (play tiebreaker at 15:00 local on Saturday)

5. Hungary 4-4

6. Spain 3-5

7. Korea 3-5

8. Australia 3-5

9. Romania 1-7

In the red group, Canada’s Dean Hicke and Chanetelle Eberle won their last game 8-5 against Latvia to go through to the quarterfinals at 08:00 local time on Sunday morning on an unbeaten record. China won their game against Slovakia 6-4 to finish in second position in the group. Yansong Ji and Sijia Liu also secure a quarterfinal spot having only lost to Canada during the group stage of the event. Austria, with the best draw shot challenge result of the third places teams also qualifies directly for the quarterfinals.

Hosts Turkey, competing in their first ever World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, finish in 7^th position in the group having picked up wins over Slovakia and France during the week.

Red Group Standings

1. Canada 8-0 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

2. China 7-1 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

3. Austria 5-3 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

4. Latvia 4-4

5. Finland 4-4

6. Slovakia 3-5

7. Turkey 2-6

8. France 2-6

9. Norway 1-7

Going into the final session of play for the blue group, only Switzerland had completed all their games and were already through to Sunday’s quarterfinals unbeaten. USA on six wins and one loss, before the last round, had also secured a quarterfinal place with Estonia, Japan, Czech Republic and New Zealand – all in with a chance of being tied up for the final 3^rd place spot.

Estonia won their final group game against England 9-4 stealing three points in the first end and taking four points in the third to shore up their win. Martin and Kristiine Lill put an end to New Zealand’s campaign despite the fact they won their final game against Ireland 9-1. It was the same situation for the Czechs, who won their game against the USA 7-4.

The game between Japan and Germany went right down to the last stone of the eighth end. Manuel Walter and teammate Ann Kathrin Bastian were up 6-2 by the half time break. But Kenji and Michiko Tomabechi picked up four points in the fifth end to tie the game up and make a tense final couple of ends. Bastian had a high pressure draw for an 8-7 win and ended Japan’s hopes of a final stage qualification.

Blue Group Standings

1. Switzerland 8-0 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

2. USA 6-2 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

3. Estonia 5-3 (will play winner of tiebreaker DEN-ITA for final quarterfinal spot)

4. New Zealand 4-4

5. Japan 4-4

6. Czech Republic 4-4

7. Germany 3-5

8. England 2-6

9. Ireland 0-8

The 2013 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship will be staged in the new Grant-Harvey Centre in Frederiction, New Brunswick, Canada from 13-20 April.

Report WCF

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Day 5

Erzurum, Turkey – Canada, China, Switzerland and the USA are through to the quarterfinals of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2012 in Erzurum, Turkey with a further eight teams still in the mix for the remaining four final stage spots.

On Friday morning, things looked a bit messy in the yellow group. All nine teams had a theoretical chance of qualifying. But after the last session of the day, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark and Italy topped the board. Unlike the red and blue groups, no team has yet secured a quarterfinal place. Scotland and Sweden play their final games on Saturday morning and only then will it be clear which teams may go through or face an eventual tiebreaker.

Sweden started off the day by beating Hungary 5-2 and then Australia in a great game. The key shots for Sweden were their first come-arounds. Per Noreen played perfect freezes, setting them up in great positions. Australia’s Kim Forge and Stephen Johns came back strong and Kim played an unbelievable runback to keep the game close. But in the end, Sweden won 11-6.

Scotland beat Korea 7-1 and then saw off Hungary in a close game, where Scotland’s Judith McFarlane played a really nice split to sit three. The Scottish duo took a further three points in the last end, which enabled them to pick up a 7-6 win. This result ended Hungary’s chances of making the final stages.

Denmark played a total of three games on Friday. The first was in the morning against Italy where they were beaten 8-7. Then they also lost against Australia after a big steal of two for Kim Forge and Stephen Johns. The Danish pair Oliver Dupont and Mette de Neergaard came back and saw off Romania with the big score of 13-4.

Korea dropped in the standings after their loss to Scotland in a game where Judith McFarlane and Lee McCleary stole five ones in a row. Finally, Spain beat Romania. None of those teams are within reach of playoffs spots.

Sweden’s Per Noreen after winning their game against Australia: “I think we are playing better and better. We have one match left [against Korea] and if we win that we go to the quarterfinals and I think we have a real chance to do that.”

Scotland’s Judith McFarlane after their win over Hungary: “both teams played exceptionally well. I think that was probably the best game of mixed doubles we have had – opposition wise. It was really tight all the way. In the eighth end, we were two down and we needed to take three or more. They left us a double, I took the double and Ilidi [Szekeres] unfortunately with her last shot, just clipped the guard and left us with a three.”

Yellow Group Standings

1. Scotland 5-2

1. Sweden 5-2

3. Denmark 5-3

3. Italy 5-3

5. Hungary 4-4

6. Korea 3-4

6. Spain 3-4

8. Australia 2-5

9. Romania 1-6

Canada secured the first red group place in quarterfinals with a 9-2 win over Norway. Dean Hicke and teammate Chantelle Eberle remain unbeaten but still have to play Latvia before they head to the final round on Sunday.

China’s Yansong Ji and Sijia Liu became the second team to qualify, as they, in turn, defeated Norway by a score of 10-2.

After being beaten by Finland, Austria’s Claudia Toth and Christian Roth kept their quarterfinals hopes alive by winning their game against Slovakia. They have played all their games and must wait the outcome of the final day of round robin play to see whether they are through.

The top two teams in each group qualify for the quarterfinals and the best ‘third place’ team. The other two ‘third place’ teams face a qualification game to decide the final quarterfinal place. This game is scheduled for Saturday evening.

Red Group Standings

1. Canada 7-0 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

2. China 6-1 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

3. Austria 5-3

4. Latvia 4-3

5. Finland 3-4

5. Slovakia 3-4

7. Turkey 2-5

8. France 2-6

9. Norway 1-7

In the blue group Estonia picked up two wins on Friday to keep their sights on the quarterfinals. Martin and Kristiine Lill got off to a great start against the Czech Republic with a score of three in the first end and stealing two more points in the second. The Czechs were unable to recover and the Estonians won the game 7-5. Estonia went on to beat New Zealand 10-4. The Czech Republic bounced back with a win over Ireland 6-3.

Switzerland picked up two more wins. The Swiss came out winners in an evenly matched game against USA with the score 7-6. Afterwards Switzerland’s Martin Rios admitted that it was their toughest game so far. Switzerland’s game against Germany was also tight, but Rios and teammate Nadine Lehmann took control with a steal of two in seventh end winning 8-6.

The game between New Zealand and Japan was an interesting one. The Kiwis were leading by three before Japan scored five points in the sixth end, then they scored three back the end after. John Campbell made an amazing last stone freeze, leaving no shot for Japan, winning the game for him and his daughter Natalie. The final score was 8-6. Japan went on to win 6-5 over England in the last session of the day and keep in contention for a quarterfinal place.

New Zealand’s John Campbell after their win against Japan and on how they gave away five points to their opponents: “We probably are better at drawing than hitting but when you’ve got that many stones against you and you’ve only got one – you’ve got to try and move some and we didn’t quite make it! That’s the game.”

Blue Group Standings

1. Switzerland 8-0 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

2. USA 6-1 (Qualified for Quarterfinals)

3. Estonia 4-3

3. Japan 4-3

5. Czech Republic 3-4

5. New Zealand 3-4

7. England 2-5

7. Germany 2-5

9. Ireland 0-7

Report WCF

——————————————————

Day 4

Erzurum, Turkey – Canada, Switzerland and the USA are the only teams to remain unbeaten after the fourth day of play at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Erzurum, Turkey.

Denmark is still on top of the yellow group. Oliver Dupont and Mette de Neergard suffered their first loss of the event in the morning session against Korea. They came back against Spain in a close match to remain on only one loss. That game went to an extra end. Spain’s Irantzu Garcia had a draw to the four foot for the win but was very heavy. Denmark stole a win after an umpire’s measure.

Breathing down Denmark’s neck in the yellow group are Hungary and Italy. Gyorgy Nagy and Ildiko Szekeres lost against Italy but picked up a win over Australia, leaving them on 4 wins and 2 losses. Lucrezia Salvai and Simone Gonin suffered one loss in the morning draw to Sweden 6-7.

Sweden and Scotland are just behind are on three wins and two losses. While Sweden picked up two wins on Thursday, Scotland had only one game and went down 10-4 to Australia. Lee McCleary and Judith McFarlane let the Australian duo of Stephen Johns and Kim Forge take two threes and then steal not one but two deuces. It was the first win of the event for Australia.

Romania produced the surprise of the evening draw, pulling out a win over Korea to get their first victory. Romania only started curling two years ago.

Korea’s Jong Chul Beak (speaking in English) after beating Denmark 9-5 said after they had lost their game last night against Spain he and teammate Kyung-Mi Park had talked about their strategy. As Denmark had not lost a game and had four straight wins, they planned a different strategy for this game. He said they played a more aggressive game, getting more stones into the house when they had hammer and when they didn’t have the last stone advantage they played a more simple, take-out game.

Australia’s Steve Johns and Kim Forge on how the altitude in Erzurum has affected them: “we live by the ocean, so being at over 2000 metres has provided us with a bit of a challenge to get used to.” Kim: “I just want to thank our fellow competitors for their understanding, especially Gyorgy from the Hungarian team, who gave us a bottle of oxygen just the night before we had to play against them. I think that shows the true spirit of curling.”

Johns: “But we are feeling much better now and a win makes us happier. I think we’re finding the weight, in Australia we don’t have any curling ice, we play in a hockey rink.”

Romania’s Allen Coliban after their win against Korea: “I think we just got rid of the pressure that we’ve had usually that we must to do something good during the matches. We took one shot at a time and it went great! We came here so see how it is and to win any matches if we can – so we are happy to win this one.”

Yellow Group Standings

1. Denmark 4-1

2. Hungary 4-2

3. Italy 4-3

4. Scotland 3-2

4. Sweden 3-2

5. Korea 3-3

7. Spain 2-4

8. Australia 1-3

8. Romania 1-3

In the red group, the game of the day was the match between Canada and China, both unbeaten until that point. It was a tight game, with both teams tied 3-3 at the fourth end break. China eventually conceded in the eighth end, not even playing their last stone, on a score of 8-5, believing they did not have a shot to tie the game up although two of their stones remained in play. China stays in second spot in the group following their wins against Latvia and Finland on Thursday.

Austria had an astonishing day winning both their games hands down – 10-0 – and allowing neither their French or Turkish opponents to score a single point. With these two additional wins Christian Roth and Claudia Toth remain in quarterfinal contention.

The French pair, Delphine Charlet and Tony Angiboust, found winning form again in the evening to deal a similar blow that they had suffered themselves in the morning to Norway and win that game 14-0.

Canada’s Dean Hicke on their game against China: “We watched them play a little bit and they are quite defensive. They would throw guards up early. So we wanted to get a feel for how they would play the game. We were cautious, but we had a chance for four in the first end, sometimes being cautious works out. We didn’t get our four!”

Latvia’s Dace Regza, who celebrated her 50^th birthday on Wednesday, spoke about how age is a factor in being able to play Mixed Doubles. She said her knee is causing her problems, but not enough of a problem to prevent them from winning their afternoon game 11-3 against Finland. Regza says Mixed Doubles is a physical game but she does a lot of training in the gym and tries to stay fit and strong. [Dace Regaza is the oldest female player at the 2012 Championships, Silvia Sykorova from the Slovak team is the youngest at 15. Spain’s Sergio Vez is the youngest male player (15) and Ireland’s David Smith is the oldest (66)]

Red Group Standings

1. Canada 6-0

2. China 5-1

3. Austria 4-2

4. Latvia 3-3

5. Slovakia 2-3

6. Finland 2-4

6. Turkey 2-4

8. France 2-5

9. Norway 1-5

In the blue group, the Czech Republic started off their day with a win over Germany. Petra Vinsova played a nice tap-back to score two and secure another win for the Czechs. Later in the day the Czech duo lost 7-10 to New Zealand. For John Campbell and his daughter Natalie, they said it was their best game of the event so far.

USA still has a perfect record after beating England 9-4 and Estonia 8-5. Estonia had a slow start and gave away a steal of five points in second end. The Americans are now on five wins.

Switzerland scored in five consecutive ends against Ireland, winning 10-1. David Smith finally scored in the sixth end with a nice double takeout. Switzerland continued to be undefeated with a win over England 6-4 later on, and now sit alone on top of the blue group having played one more game than USA.

Ireland lost their second game of the day against Germany, and is now the only team in the blue group with no wins. The Germans scored the maximum of six points in the fourth end to see off the Irish.

Japan clinched their third win over Estonia with the scoreline 12-5, and with that keeps their hopes of a playoff spot alive as they sit in third place behind the Swiss and USA. Estonia lost both games today and is tied in fourth place along with New Zealand and Czech Republic.

Switzerland’s Martin Rios: “I didn’t know nothing about this game before coming here, this is my sixth game in my life! We knew though that Switzerland has done really well at this in the last couple of years and we are here to fight.”

USA’s Brady Clark after their win against Estonia: “Any day you get two wins is a good day. We just dialled in on our weight – so you’ve got your draw weight and once you get that and throw a reasonable line, the game gets a little easier. Having a couple years experience of having done this before, you feel at ease and you just play as opposed to letting nerves get in the way. The level of the game has gone up and up. There are teams training specifically for this. Each year that we’ve played it feels like the teams have gotten stronger”

Blue Group Standings

1. Switzerland 6-0

2. USA 5-0

3. Japan 3-2

4. Czech Republic 2-3

4. Estonia 2-3

4. New Zealand 2-3

7. England 2-4

7. Germany 2-4

9. Ireland 0-5

News, live & line scores, image galleries and video highlights are available on the event website: http://www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com

Report WCF

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Day 3

Canada, China, Denmark, Switzerland and USA continued their winning ways on Wednesday at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Turkey to remain unbeaten in the event.

In the yellow group, Denmark stands alone undefeated. In the morning Oliver Dupont and Mette de Neergaard beat Sweden by 11-4 and went on to pick up a win against Scotland in the evening.

Scotland did lead the game to begin with. Then, after a missed shot by Lee McCleary in the fifth end, the Danish pair managed to pick up a steal of three points. This turned out to be the key to the game as Denmark kept applying pressure and ended up winning the game 8-7.

Scotland drops to one loss but are still very much in the mix when it comes to making the playoffs. They beat Italy in the afternoon session after thinking hard about the tactics. McCleary and teammate Judith McFarlane were discussing how important it is to remember to peel off the guards. It is easy to forget because of the offensiveness that is in mixed double but crucial to be effective on the ice.  Italy is now trailing Scotland by one loss.

Hungary is the other team chasing the two playoff spots for each group. Ildiko Szekeres and Gyorgy Nagy have only lost one game so far. On Wednesday, the Hungarians managed to pick up two easy wins. They saw off Spain after stealing three points and then a further four. Later, they also beat Romania 6-3.

The Korean team has produced a less steady performance. Jong Chul Beak and Kyung-Mi Park seem to be riding a bit of a rollercoaster in Erzurum. They looked very strong after beating Australia with huge 12-2 score. But then, they then ended up losing to Spain 11-7.  Finally, Italy ended up beating Australia in an extra end 7-6. This leaves Australia and Romania still looking for their first wins.

Oliver Dupont on how they got back into their game against Scotland after being 4-2 down at the break: “we just had to play more offensive – more stones in play. We had struggled with the weight – so we were horrible in the first four ends!” Teammate Mette de Neergaard added: “we just talked about playing one metre short, then we could make it in.”

Italy’s Simone Gonin (in Italian) after winning their game 7-6 in an extra end against Australia: “we had the game in hand in the first half, but then we lost our concentration and they got back into the game. But we really wanted to win. I can’t say what our expectations were coming into this event, we have a tough group. We’ve already won three games and we hope to win more!”

Yellow Group Standings

1. Denmark 3-0

2. Hungary 3-1

2. Scotland 3-1

4. Italy 3-2

5. Korea 2-2

6. Spain 2-3

7. Sweden 1-2

8. Australia 0-3

8. Romania 0-3

In the red group Canada picked up a further two wins against Slovakia 9-3 and hosts Turkey 8-3. China won their sole game of the day 9-3 against France. Yansong Ji and Sijia Liu, who say they have more fun played Mixed Doubles than traditional curling because of the technical skill involved, took advantage of the several mistakes made by the French duo Tony Angiboust and Delphine Charlet.

It was the second defeat of the day for France as they went down 7-5 to Turkey in the morning.

Austria’s Christian Roth and Claudia Toth managed to turn their fortune around after having been at the bottom of the group on Tuesday winning 11-4 against Norway and 10-4 against Latvia.

Turkey’s IIhan Osmanagaoglu after winning their game against France (in Turkish): “Yesterday was not a good day for us. [Turkey lost both their games] Today things were better, and in that game we were lucky. We are patient and are taking each game one at a time.”

Canada’s Chanetelle Eberle speaking after their game against Turkey: “I think they play well for only having curled for a few years. I don’t know what the coaching is like here, but in two years that’s pretty good. We’ve been curling for some 20 years!”

Finland’s Jussi Uusipaavalniemi (in English) on the level of competition since he took the silver medal at the inaugural Mixed Doubles World Championship in Vierumäki Finland in 2008: “The teams are tougher than they were at that time. I consider Canada, China to be semi-pro players. Today, more active and very good players are getting involved in the game.”

Red Group Standings

1. Canada 5-0

2. China 3-0

3. Austria 2-2

3. Finland 2-2

3. Latvia 2-2

6. Turkey 2-3

7. Norway 1-3

7. Slovakia 1-3

9. France 1-4

The Swiss team of Martin Rios and Nadine Lehmann are at the top of the blue group with wins against Czech Republic and Estonia on Wednesday. Switzerland and Estonia were both undefeated prior to their game, but now it is only USA that can match the Swiss record having played one game less.

Czech Republic – Switzerland was a very close game, the Swiss wound up winning 9-6 after scoring three points in the seventh end. Lukas Klima from the Czech team admitted they played a very bad seventh end, but it had been close up until then. Klima and teammate Petra Vinsova went on to lose 2-11 to Japan.

The American duo of Brady and Cristin Clark had a close battle against Germany, but after stealing two points in the sixth end they saw off the Germans 7-4. In their game against Japan they took four points in the third end and went on to win 9-5.

In their third game of the championship, New Zealand picked up their first win against Germany with a score of 7-4, but later lost to England 4-11. England scored a massive four in both the third and fifth ends to secure their win. England had a very good day, winning their first game of the event over Ireland 8-4.

Switzerland’s Nadine Lehmann explains what she thinks about mixed doubles. (Switzerland does not have a national mixed doubles championship and the Swiss mixed doubles team is selected for the World Championships): “It’s great to play with Martin, but it’s the first time I play with him. It’s been difficult to get into our games. You have to think about the tactics of this game, you only have six stones and only five to throw. It’s interesting to think differently and change your tactics. It’s really good and fun.”

USA’s Cristin Clark on Mixed Doubles: “I like playing regular mixed curling too, but I love mixed doubles. It’s a different style of curling – you get right into the action, right away. There’s no sweepers. You have to throw your shots naturally without relying on any sweepers and their correction factor!”

Japan’s Kenji and Michiko Tomabechi, who are married, on what it is like to play competitive curling with a spouse (in Japanese):

Kenji: “when we lose a game I don’t bring it home, instead I think about the next game and what we should do.”

Michiko: “I do bring it home!”

Blue Group Standings

1. Switzerland 4-0

2. USA 3-0

3. Estonia 2-1

4. England 2-2

4. Japan 2-2

6. Czech Republic 1-2

7. Germany 1-3

7. New Zealand 1-3

9. Ireland 1-2

News, live & line scores, image galleries and video highlights are available on the event website: http://www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com

Report WCF

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Day 2, Tuesday 24th:

Scotland recorded a 7-4 victory in their first game against Romania this morning at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Erzurum. Their second game is against Sweden at 15:45pm today (UK time) and this will be broadcast live on the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV which is also embedded onto the homepage of the event website www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com. Click Live Coverage Schedule for a full list of live games.

Yesterday on Day 1 of the competition Turkey created the surprise of the opening session of play by stealing a 7-6 win against Slovakia in an extra end. Elif Kizilkaya and teammate Osmanagaoglu, are Turkey’s first ever representatives to play at a World Mixed Doubles Championship.

In the other games, the Canadian team – Dean Hicke and Chantelle Eberle – set up an early lead against the Finnish pair Jussi Uusipaavalniemi and Jaana Hämäläinen and were 7-0 up by the fourth end break. Finland took 3 points in the fifth end and a further 2 in the seventh, but were eventually run out of stones in the eighth end and Canada secured a 9-5 win.

Another surprise of the opening round, was Latvia’s 11-3 win over France. Delphine Charlet and Tony Angiboust, with his men’s world championship and Olympic Winter Games experience, were amongst the favourites coming into this event.

The Chinese duo, Yansong Ji and Sijia Liu, set themselves up for a win early taking 5 points in the second end. Their Austrian opponents Christian Roth and Claudia Toth struggled to make their mark in the game and eventually conceded with the final score at 8-4.

The game between Spain and Italy saw experienced World Mixed Doubles Championship players Sergio Vez and Irantzu Garcia being beaten by Italy’s Simone Gonin and Lucrezia Salvai. A series of mistakes by Garcia let Italy steal a total of 5 points over the game. Even changing the playing order in the seventh end, to let Vez throw last stones, was not enough to turn the game around and the Italians won 9-3.

Report RCCC/WCF

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Erzurum, Turkey – 27 Mixed Doubles Curling teams from around the world will compete in the 2012 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship which gets underway on Monday 23 April 2012 in Erzurum, Turkey.

It is the fifth edition of the event since its inauguration in Vierumäki, Finland in 2008 and the first time that Turkey, which joined the World Curling Federation in 2009, has hosted a WCF World Curling Championship.

The teams competing in the event which runs to Sunday 29 April are:  Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and USA.

Representing Scotland are Judith McFarlane and Lee McCleary who won the Scottish Mixed Doubles in December 2011. Two of Scotland’s games are so far scheduled to be broadcast live on the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV which will be embedded onto the homepage of the event website www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com.

Scotland v Sweden, Tuesday 24^th April, 15:45pm (UK time)

Denmark v Scotland, Wednesday 25^th April, 19:00pm (UK time)

Click Live Coverage Schedule for a full list of live games.

The 2012 event will be held in the Milli Piyango Curling Arena in Erzurum, Eastern Turkey which hosted the curling competition at the 2011 Winter University Games (Universiade).

Instead of playing in teams of four, mixed doubles curling is for teams of two players – one male and one female (no alternate/spare player is allowed).

-       The game is played on the same sheets of ice as “traditional” curling.

-       Teams have only six stones each (instead of eight) – and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned on the centreline before each end of play starts.

-       Player one delivers the first and last stones and player two plays the second, third and fourth stones. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next.

-       Sweeping can be done by both team members.

-       Each team receives 46 minutes of playing time and games are fixed at 8 ends – compared to 73 minutes and 10 ends for “traditional‟ curling.

Among the 27 teams taking part four nations – hosts Turkey, Romania, Germany and Ireland – are fielding teams for the first time ever in the history of the event. It is a sign of the growth of this relatively new discipline of curling.

Mixed Doubles curling is part of the Continental Cup – the annual curling event which pits teams from North America against teams from the rest of the world. Mixed Doubles was also introduced for the first time at the New Zealand Winter Games in August 2011. (Hungary’s György Nagy and Ildikó Szekeres won gold at the event with Japan’s Kenji and Michiko Tomabechi taking silver). A unique version of Mixed Doubles, which saw athletes from different nations paired together to play as teams, was part of the Inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in January 2012.

Of the 54 athletes competing, 19 have past Mixed Doubles World Championship experience. They include 2009 Silver Medallists from Hungary György Nagy and Ildikó Szekeres. Finland’s Jussi Uusipaavalniemi, who won bronze on home soil at the inaugural event in 2008.  Kenji and Michiko Tomabechi return to play for Japan and Spain’s Sergio Vez and Irantzu Garcia make their fourth World Championship appearance.

Among the other athletes taking part are France’s Tony Angiboust who will be paired with Delphine Charlet but is better known for playing fourth stones on Thomas Dufour’s men’s curling team and finished 10^th at the 2012 Men’s Worlds in Basel. China’s Yansong Ji who has three Pacific Junior titles and skipped the Chinese men to a ninth place finish at the 2011 Ford World Championships in Regina, will be playing with Sijia Liu. Liu skipped the Chinese junior women’s team at the 2010 World Championships in Flims and has already experience of the Milli Piyango Curling Arena in Erzurum as she was third on the Chinese Winter University Games team in 2011. The Czech Republic’s Lukas Klima is one of the other athletes returning to curl in Turkey. Klima won bronze at the 2011 Universiade.

For this Championship, the 27 Mixed Doubles teams have been divided into three groups: Blue, Red and Yellow. Each group will play a round robin from Monday 23 to Saturday 28 April. Quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal games al take place on Sunday 29 April.

News, live scores, image galleries and video highlights will be available on the event website: http://www.wmdcc2012.curlingevents.com

WCF Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/WorldCurlingFederation

Twitter hashtag for the event: #wmdcc2012 #worldcurling

Report WCF/RCCC

Click to see lists of Royal Club qualified coaches by area and qualification level.

As a result, Scotland picked up the silver medal, something that skip, Barbara Watt, agreed was a great achievement. She said: “We’re sorry we didn’t make a better game of it but they didn’t let us. They played absolutely beautifully. If you had told us at the start of the week we would be getting the silver medal we would be absolutely thrilled and we are – absolutely thrilled. We weren’t in that game, they were just too good, that’s all.”

In the women’s bronze medal game, Sweden defeated New Zealand 10-3 in seven ends. This was a particularly memorable win for the team as skip Ingrid Meldahl explained. She said: “It’s always great to win medals, especially for Mia (Maria Lehander, Sweden alternate). She is undefeated because she didn’t play the game this morning (the Semi-final) and this is her first medal, so we’re especially glad for her. We’re sorry that we had a completely stupid game in the Semi-final but that was the first bad game we’ve had this week.”

Ireland’s men created history when they won their first ever world curling championship title by beating Canada 6-5 in an extra end and become World Senior Men’s Curling Champions 2012.

The main turning point in the game came in the fourth end when Ireland skip, John Jo Kenny, hit a double take-out to score four points. Canada battled back and the teams were tied 5-5 going into an extra end, Canada with last stone advantage. However they could not make it count as Canadian skip, Kelly Robertson, was long with his last draw shot to hand Ireland one point and the championship title.

After winning the gold medal, Ireland skip, John Jo Kenny, said: “Scrape me off the ceiling! I feel unbelievable. It didn’t look good out there for a long time. I went through a bad patch but the team hung in until the end and we persevered.

“What can I say, it’s a great moment. A country of a million curlers against a country of 52 curlers – but on the ice it’s four against four. We came here hoping to win four games and  we’re unbeaten.  Hopefully it gives us some support and some exposure in Ireland. We’re hoping to get a rink in Dublin this year and hopefully this will be the catalyst that we need to get some coverage over there.

Canada skip, Kelly Robertson, shared his feelings shortly after the game. He said: “It’s like the wind has been sucked right out of me. They played a good game – we gave up a four ender which was a little hard to take but we came back. It was a hell of a game. Actually, he made a great shot with his first one in the extra end. If mine heads a little bit more it’s like check-mate and he doesn’t have a shot. I had the chance to win it with a draw, I’ve had draw weight all week, but it’s the way it goes I guess.”

In the men’s bronze medal game, Sweden beat Norway 8-4 in seven ends. Two scores of three points in the third and fifth ends and a score of two in the seventh end sealed the victory. Afterwards, Swedish skip, Connie Östlund said: “It feels great because a medal was one of the things we wanted, especially after we reached the play-offs. It’s always a rivalry with Norway but it’s fun to play against them – there is never any hard feelings, both teams can win – of course it’s fun to beat them. But today we played really, really well in all positions and got that vital win.”

RESULTS

Senior Women’s Semi-finals:

Canada 7, New Zealand 6

Sweden 5, Scotland 9

Senior Men’s Semi-finals:

Sweden 5, Canada 9

Ireland 5, Norway 4

Women’s Gold Medal Game:

Canada 12, Scotland 2

Women’s Bronze Medal Game:

Sweden 10, New Zealand 3

Men’s Gold Medal Game:

Ireland 6, Canada 5

Men’s Bronze Medal Game:

Sweden 8, Norway 4

FINAL STANDINGS (according to WCF ranking procedures)

Senior Women

1. Canada

2. Scotland

3. Sweden

4. New Zealand

5. USA

6. Switzerland

7. Czech Republic

8. Ireland

9. Denmark

10. Japan

11. Italy

12. Finland

13. Russia

14. Slovakia

Senior Men

1. Ireland

2. Canada

3. Sweden

4. Norway

5. New Zealand

6. Finland

7. Australia

8. Scotland

9. Switzerland

10. England

11. Germany

12. Italy

13. Japan

14. USA

15. Austria

16. Netherlands

17. Czech Republic

18. Latvia

19. Wales

20. Hungary

21. Russia

22. Denmark

23. Slovakia

Report WCF/Photo WSCC 2012.

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Day 7

The Scottish senior women secured their place in the final this morning after beating Sweden 9-5.  They face Canada, who beat New Zealand 7-6 in the other semi-final, this afternoon at 13:00 (UK time).

Day 6

Scottish senior women’s skip, Barbara Watt, after winning their tie-breaker against USA 8-5 and progressing into the Semi-finals where they will play Sweden, said: “We feel absolutely wonderful, especially after my horrible game last night. I played a lot better and it surpassed everything we ever expected, we’re so happy. We played very well again, we put pressure on them and that was key to winning this game.”

Upon facing Sweden in the semi-finals, Watt added: “It will be a very tough game. They are a very experienced team. I have never played them before but we know they are very good. We just have to play well, as simple as that.”

In the Men’s Canada won their game against Scotland 5-2 to progress to Saturday’s Semi-final. Afterwards skip, Kelly Robertson, said: “I feel just fantastic (to reach the Semi-finals). That was a battle out there tonight. Scotland really played well – they had a tough day today with two extra ends and tonight they played really solid. There were a couple of ends earlier in the game, I think in the fourth, and we got out of it with three doubles. We always kind of had control, we had the hammer and we’re always one but up, but I’ve got to take my hat off to Scotland, they played well.

“We’ve played solid all week and if we continue to do that then we’ll be fine. But I realise everyone will be bringing their A-game because the prize is getting closer.”

RESULTS

Senior Men’s Tie-breaker:

Scotland 7, Italy 5 (Scotland proceeded to Quarter-final Qualification game)

Senior Women’s Tie-breaker:

Scotland 8, USA 5 (Scotland proceed to Semi-finals)

Senior Men’s Quarter-final Qualification game:

Switzerland 5, Scotland 6 (Scotland proceeded to Quarter-finals)

Senior Men’s Quarterfinals:

GAME 1 – Canada 5, Scotland 2

GAME 2 – Norway 6, Australia 3

GAME 3 – Ireland 8, Finland 4

GAME 4 – New Zealand 4, Sweden 5

FINAL STANDINGS (according to WCF ranking procedures)

Senior Women

1-4. Determined following Saturday’s play-offs (Canada, Scotland, Sweden, New Zealand)

5. USA

6. Switzerland

7. Czech Republic

8. Ireland

9. Denmark

10. Japan

11. Italy

12. Finland

13. Russia

14. Slovakia

Senior Men

1-4. Determined following Saturday’s play-offs (Canada, Sweden, Norway, Ireland)

5. New Zealand

6. Finland

7. Australia

8. Scotland

9. Switzerland

10. England

11. Germany

12. Italy

13. Japan

14. USA

15. Austria

16. Netherlands

17. Czech Republic

18. Latvia

19. Wales

20. Hungary

21. Russia

22. Denmark

23. Slovakia

SCHEDULE OF PLAY – Saturday April 21, 2012

Semi-finals (09:00 CET)

Men’s Semi-final 1: Canada v Sweden

Men’s Semi-final 2: Norway v Ireland

Women’s Semi-final 1: Canada v New Zealand

Women’s Semi-final 2: Sweden v Scotland

Gold & Bronze Medal Games (14:00 CET)

Teams: TBC

Report WCF, Photo WCF/Richie Laurie

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Day 5

Final Round-Robin Standings (listed as games won – games lost)

Senior Men’s Group A:

1. Canada 6-0 [Qualified for Quarter-final]

2. New Zealand 4-2 [Qualified for Quarter-final]

3. Italy 3-3 (To play Tie-breaker against Scotland)

3. Scotland 3-3 (To play Tie-breaker against Italy)

5. Japan 3-3 (Eliminated due to head to head record against Scotland & Italy)

6. Netherlands 2-4

7. Hungary 0-6

Senior Men’s Group B:

1. Ireland 7-0 [Qualified for Quarter-final]

2. Finland 6-1 [Qualified for Quarter-final]

3. Switzerland 5-2 (DSC 94.37) [To play winner of Tie-breaker to qualifying for Quarter-Finals]

4. England 3-4 (Ranked by DSC – 29.32)

5. USA 3-4 (Ranked by DSC – 32.12)

6. Latvia 3-4 (Ranked by DSC – 62.02)

7. Russia 1-6

8. Slovakia 0-7

Senior Men’s Group C:

1. Norway 6-1 (Ranked by DSC – 33.15) [Qualified for Quarter-final]

2. Sweden 6-1 (Ranked by DSC – 33.60) [Qualified for Quarter-final]

3. Australia 6-1 (Ranked by DSC -41.88) [Qualified for Quarter-final]

4. Germany 4-3

5. Austria 2-5 (Won against Czech Republic in round-robin)

6. Czech Republic 2-5

7. Wales 1-6 (Won against Denmark in round-robin)

8. Denmark 1-6

Senior Women’s Group A:

1. Canada 6-0 [Qualified for Semi-final]

2. USA 4-2 (To play Tie-breaker against Scotland)

2. Scotland 4-2 (To play Tie-breaker against USA)

4. Ireland 3-3

5. Denmark 2-4

6. Finland 1-5 (Won against Russia in round-robin)

7. Russia 1-5

Senior Women’s Group B:

1. Sweden 6-0 [Qualified for Semi-final]

2. New Zealand 5-1 [Qualified for Semi-final]

3. Switzerland 4-2

4. Czech Republic 3-3

5. Japan 2-4

6. Italy 1-5

7. Slovakia 0-6

With Scotland losing to Canada and USA’s 7-2 win over Finland, Scotland will now play a tie-breaker against USA to decide who finishes in second spot in Group A. Upon finding out, Joni Cotton, USA alternate and coach, said: “We couldn’t be happier – being in the play-offs at some point is always your goal. The chips fell in the right direction and we have ourselves a tie-breaker game.

“Scotland beat us last time. We needed a steal in the last end and we didn’t quite get it taken care of, but it was a close game. A couple of missed shots turned the game around and that’s how curling goes. So we’ll be looking for a little sharper execution and we’ll give them all our guns tomorrow.”

Schedule of Play

Friday April 20, 2012

TIE-BREAKERS (09:00 CET)

Women: Scotland v USA

Men: Italy v Scotland

QUALIFICATION GAME FOR MEN’S QUARTER-FINALS (14:00 CET)

Switzerland v winner of Tie-breaker (Italy v Scotland)

MEN’S QUARTER-FINALS (19:00 CET):

Game 1: Canada v winner of qualification game

Game 2: v Norway v Australia

Game 3: Ireland v Finland

Game 4: New Zealand v Sweden

Saturday April 21, 2012

SEMI-FINALS (09:00 CET)

Men’s Semi-final 1: Game 1 winner v Game 4 winner

Men’s Semi-final 2: Game 2 winner v Game 3 winner

Women’s Semi-final 1: Canada vs New Zealand

Women’s Semi-final 2: Sweden vs winner of tie-breaker (Scotland v USA)

Gold & Bronze Medal (14:00 CET)

Teams: TBC

Report WCF, Photo WCF/Richie Laurie

—————————————————————-

Day 4

After beating USA 6-5, Scotland skip, Barbara Watt, said: “That was a very important win for us. It helps to beat one of the others as we are all very much the same (in the group).

“We played some good shots at the right time today. There was one end, I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but we had four against us and I played two really good stones, which if I hadn’t, we would have had it, and that almost turned the game for us. In that last end my lead played two excellent shots, which made it difficult for the opposition.

“It’s utterly vital to be strong throughout the team – it’s very much a team game curling. You cannot rely on individuals, on the odd stone yes, but it’s very much a team game in every aspect – throwing the stone, sweeping, calling – it’s all team work and certainly today it worked.

“The USA were very, very good. I was just really pleased not to have to play my last stone. They are a very good team so it is very satisfying winning against a team that good.”

Standings (listed as games won – games lost. During the round-robin, teams with the same record will be ranked alphabetically)

Senior Women’s Group A:

Canada 4-0

Scotland 3-1

USA 3-2

Ireland 2-2

Denmark 1-3

Finland 1-3

Russia 1-4

Senior Women’s Group B:

Sweden 6-0

New Zealand 4-1

Czech Republic 3-2

Switzerland 3-2

Japan 2-3

Italy 0-5

Slovakia 0-5

Senior Men’s Group A:

Canada 5-0

New Zealand 4-1

Italy 3-2

Japan 3-3

Scotland 2-3

Netherlands 1-4

Hungary 0-5

Senior Men’s Group B:

Ireland 5-0

Finland 5-0

England 3-2

Switzerland 3-2

Latvia 2-3

USA 2-3

Russia 0-5

Slovakia 0-5

Senior Men’s Group C:

Australia 6-0

Norway 5-1

Sweden 5-1

Germany 3-3

Czech Republic 2-4

Austria 1-5

Denmark 1-5

Wales 1-5

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Day 3

Standings (listed as games won – games lost. During the round-robin, teams with the same record will be ranked alphabetically)

Senior Men’s Group A:

Canada 4-0

New Zealand 4-0

Japan 2-2

Italy 1-2

Scotland 1-2

Hungary 0-3

Netherlands 0-3

Senior Men’s Group B:

Finland 4-0

Ireland 4-0

Switzerland 3-1

England 2-2

Latvia 2-2

USA 1-3

Russia 0-4

Slovakia 0-4

Senior Men’s Group C:

Australia 4-0

Norway 4-0

Sweden 4-0

Czech Republic 1-3

Denmark 1-3

Germany 1-3

Wales 1-3

Austria 0-4

Senior Women’s Group A:

Canada 3-0

USA 3-1

Scotland 2-1

Denmark 1-2

Ireland 1-2

Finland 1-3

Russia 1-3

Senior Women’s Group B:

Sweden 5-0

New Zealand 3-1

Switzerland 3-1

Czech Republic 2-2

Japan 2-2

Italy 0-4

Slovakia 0-5

Photo WSCC

——————————————————————————–

Day 2

Scotland’s Women recorded their first win of the Championship with an 8-5 victory over hosts Denmark, skip Barbara Watt said: “We’re happy! We performed very well throughout the game. The difference today was that basically, we made the shots. We put pressure on our opposition and they didn’t make all of their shots as a result.

Watt added: “We certainly hope we can continue our form. Because we played very well, it wasn’t a fluky win, it gives us confidence. It was a well played win – we knew we had to win to still have a say in the competition.”

Standings

(Please note, standings are listed as games won – games lost)

Senior Women’s Group A:

Canada 3-0

USA 2-1

Denmark 1-1

Scotland 1-1

Finland 1-2

Russia 1-2

Ireland 0-2

Senior Women’s Group B:

Sweden 3-0

Japan 2-1

Switzerland 2-0

New Zealand 1-1

Czech Republic 1-2

Italy 0-2

Slovakia 0-3

Scotland’s men lost 9-4 to Canada. Afterwards, skip Kelly Robertson said: “It was a good game. We knew that Scotland were going to come and play. Early on there was some really good shots. We made a couple of mistakes in the sixth end but we were able to get out of it. But we were quite happy with the way things went.

“For me, I thought about it all day. We only had one game and playing Scotland – I’ve played some boys back home from Scotland – but over here in Europe, playing a Scottish team, it’s just a thrill of a lifetime and it was everything I hoped it would be. At the end of the day we’re probably going to meet each other again, I know they’ve got two loses and we happened to beat them today, but they’ll be around near the end.”

Senior Men’s Group A:

Canada 3-0

New Zealand 3-0

Japan 2-1

Italy 1-2

Netherlands 0-2

Scotland 0-2

Hungary 0-3

Senior Men’s Group B:

Finland 3-0

Ireland 3-0

Switzerland 3-0

England 1-2

Latvia 1-2

USA 1-2

Russia 0-3

Slovakia 0-3

Senior Men’s Group C:

Australia 2-0

Norway 2-0

Sweden 2-0

Germany 1-1

Wales 1-1

Austria 0-2

Czech Republic 0-2

Denmark 0-2

Standings WCF / Photo WSCC

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Day 1:

Standings (games played-games won)

Senior Men’s Group A:

Canada 2-2
New Zealand 2-2
Japan 2-1
Italy 2-1
Netherlands 1-0
Scotland 1-0
Hungary 2-0

Senior Men’s Group B:

Switzerland 1-1
England 1-1
Finland 1-1
Ireland 1-1
Russia 1-0
Slovakia 1-0
USA 1-0
Latvia 1-0

Senior Men’s Group C:

Sweden 1-1
Australia 1-1
Wales 1-1
Norway 1-1
Czech Republic 1-0
Denmark 1-0
Germany 1-0
Austria 1-0

Senior Women’s Group A:

Canada 1-1
USA 1-1
Russia 1-1
Scotland 1-0
Ireland 1-0
Finland 1-0
Denmark 0-0

Senior Women’s Group B:

Sweden 2-2
Switzerland 2-2
Japan 2-1
Czech Republic 2-1
Italy 1-0
New Zealand 1-0
Slovakia 2-0

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The World Senior Curling Championships 2012 get underway this Sunday, 15th April, in Taarnby, Denmark, with 14 women’s and 23 men’s teams competing for this year’s medals.

The championships will run until Saturday 21 April and the men’s and women’s events will be staged simultaneously in the 7-sheet Taarnby Curling Club, in Kastrup, on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

14 nations are represented in the women’s event, which is split into two groups.
Group A: Canada; Denmark; Finland; Ireland; Russia; Scotland and United States.
Group B: Czech Republic; Italy; Japan; New Zealand; Slovakia; Sweden and Switzerland.

Representing the Women for Scotland are Barbara Watt and her team of Jean Hammond (Third), Maggie Barry (Second), Valerie Mahon (Lead) and Judith Carr (Alternate) [pictured].

In the women’s championship, Denmark have experience in Olympic silver medallist Jane Bidstrup who will skip, while two-time senior world champion, Swedish skip Ingrid Meldahl, will be looking to improve upon last year’s silver medal at the championship. Another returning skip is Switzerland’s Chantal Forrer who won bronze last year.

The men are split into three groups.
Group A: Canada; Hungary; Italy; Japan; Netherlands; New Zealand and Scotland.
(Poland, who were originally listed in group A, have had to withdraw from the championship therefore each team in this group will have a bye during the games scheduled against Poland.)
Group B: England; Finland; Ireland; Latvia; Russia; Slovakia; Switzerland and the United States.
Group C: Australia; Austria; Czech Republic; Denmark; Germany; Norway, Sweden and Wales.

The Scotland Men’s team is skipped by 2007 WSCC gold medallist, Keith Prentice and his team of Lockhart Steele (Third), Robin Aitken (Second), Tommy Fleming (Lead) and Archie Craig (Alternate) . Here they are pictured with the Scottish Senior Men’s Championship trophy.

Among the men’s competitors this year are three-time world champion Eigil Ramsfjell who will skip Norway and nine time pacific champion and last year’s WSCC bronze medallist, Hugh Millikan who skips Australia.

In last year’s event, which took place in St Paul, USA, Canada (skip Mark Johnson) won the senior men’s title, USA (skip Geoff Goodland) took silver and Australia (skip Hugh Millikin) won bronze.

In the women’s event, Canada (skip Christine Jurgenson) won the senior women’s gold medal, Sweden (skip Ingrid Meldahl) took silver and Switzerland (skip Chantal Forrer) won bronze.

This is the 11th edition of formally-sanctioned WCF World Senior Curling Championships. Games are limited to eight-ends and in order to be eligible to play, players must not be less than 50 years of age by the end of the 30th day of June of the year immediately preceding the year in which the WSCC is to take place.

For more information about the event, visit:
http://www.wscc2012.com/

Event websites for news & photos:
http://www.worldcurling.org/world-senior-curling-championships-2012

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WorldCurlingFederation
WCF Twitter Fan Feed: @worldcurling

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