[ritchiebaby]

These Championships take place in Ostersund, Sweden from 20 to 27 April. The teams are divided into two groups -
Group A: Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Türkiye
Group B: Australia, Canada, China, Czechia, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden and United States.

After this each group winner will go directly to the semi-finals, while in cross-over games the second- and third-placed team from each group will play qualification games. These games will take place at 10:00 on Friday 26 April, with the winners also going to the semi-finals. Relegation games will also take place at 10:00 on Friday. The semi-finals will be played at 18:00 on Friday. The losers of the semi-finals will play for bronze medals at 10:00 on Saturday 27 April. The gold medal final will be held on the same day at 14:00.


Newly crowned Scottish champions Duncan McFadzean and Sophie Jackson have been selected to represent Scotland. Having reached two consecutive Scottish Mixed Doubles finals and successfully navigated a field including three former world champions in the discipline, McFadzean is keen that he and Jackson now test themselves on the global stage.

To be honest, it will be very difficult for the Scots to progress from Group B with Canada, Sweden and United States being the stumbling blocks. At best, Scotland could make the last 6 and, at worst, get valuable experience playing the world's best. My picks from Group A are Italy, Norway and Switzerland. There are others who might cause an upset, like Czechia and Estonia.

[ritchiebaby]

I've only one team to worry about here, unlike the Seniors competition. Scotland's games at the weekend are as follows:-

Saturday 20th - v Czechia at 13.00
Sunday 21st - v Korea at 09.00 and v Australia at 17.00
All times are UK times and some of the games might appear on BBC Scotland (or not as the case may be).

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland made a good start to the competition, beating Czechia 7-3, scoring in each of the last 4 ends played. Then followed an upset, a 4-6 defeat against Korea. Things got back to normal later when they won 7-5 against Australia, although it did take an extra end to do it.

Tomorrow sees the Scots duo take on United States at 13.00.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland got off to a terrible start against United States this afternoon, being 0-8 down at the halfway point. Despite a mini-recovery, they eventually lost 4-8 to be mid-table on 2 wins and 2 losses.

They almost need to win all of their remaining games now, but unfortunately their first game tomorrow is against unbeaten Canada at 09.00. The second game is against Netherlands at 17.00.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland's see-saw competition continued with a win and a loss. Things were not too bad against Canada and they trailed by only 5-6 after 6 ends, but lost a disastrous 6 in the next end to lose out. In the next game against Netherlands, they redeemed themselves by winning 7-5. Not the most convincing win, as they were 4-5 down after 6 ends and just scraped through by scoring in the last 2 ends.

Scotland have only one game tomorrow, against New Zealand at 13.00. The Scots have to thank Korea for their chance to remain in the event, after the Koreans beat United States to tighten the race for 3rd place in the Group. United States, China, Korea and Scotland all have realistic hopes of gaining that place.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland crept up the table again, beating New Zealand 9-3 by scoring 4 shots in the 7th end and closing the game out.

Now that United States have lost their last 2 games and China have lost against Canada with Korea scraping past Netherlands, the battle for the 3rd spot in Group B now includes 5 teams. The Scots have joined Korea and United States on 4 wins and China and Czechia on 3 wins with only 2 games to go.

Scotland have a tough finish tomorrow with China at 07.00 and Sweden at 17.00 in the final session. Also in the final session are Canada v United States and China v Korea, so it could be a nervy 8 ends for all of these teams. The Swedes are the only team to have definitely qualified.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland did what was needed today to qualify for the later stages. Firstly they beat China 6-4 in a really tight game, and although they were never behind, it still took a double take-out from Sophie Jackson with last stone to secure the win. Secondly they beat previously unbeaten Sweden 8-4, courtesy of scoring 3 shots in the 7th end. This was more straightforward, running the Swedish duo out of stones in the last end.

The qualifiers after the Round Robin were Norway, Switzerland, Estonia, Sweden, Canada and Scotland. I managed to get 4 out of the 6 correct, with Estonia replacing Italy and the Scots doing the same to United States. No great loss there in my opinion.

Anyway, Estonia play Canada in one Qualifying Game, the winners to play Norway in the Semi-final, and Switzerland play Scotland in the other, with Sweden waiting in the second Semi-final. The Qualifying Games are at 09.00 and the Semi-finals are at 17.00.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland did prove me right for once and made the last 6 at best. They lost 6-8 against Switzerland and although they were tied at 4-4 after 6 ends, they lost 4 shots in the 7th end, with the final 2 Scottish stones failing to trouble the Swiss. This left an impossible task to claw it back in the last end, although the Scots almost engineered a half chance to do it.

One of my outsiders, Estonia, beat both Canada 6-5 in the other Qualifying Game and then Norway 8-6 in the Semi-final to reach the Gold Medal Game. The other Semi-final saw Sweden beat Switzerland 6-3 to play the Estonians in the final game at 13.00 tomorrow. The Bronze Medal Game is between Norway and Switzerland at 09.00 tomorrow.

Sophie Jackson and Duncan MacFadzean had a pretty good event and are certainly worth our congratulations. They had won 6 games out of their 10 played and should be pleased with their week's work.

[ritchiebaby]

Today's Medal Games didn't threaten my concentration levels at posting national colours.

The Bronze Medal Game saw Norway squeeze past Switzerland 6-5. In a really tight game, Norway scored 3 shots in the 5th end to give themselves a slight cushion to defend in the 6th and 7th ends. With the scores level and lying 3 shots against, Kristin Skaslien drew the shot to win Bronze for Norway.

The Gold Medal Game was slightly more straightforward, although Sweden only had a 5-4 lead after 6 ends, they managed to extend that to win Gold by 8-4. Isabella Wranaa probably played the decisive stone when her gentle tap-back of the dangerous Estonian stone protected the centre draw as well as a potential take-out.

GOLD - Sweden (Isabella Wranaa and Rasmus Wranaa)


SILVER - Estonia (Harri Lill and Marie Kaldvee)


BRONZE - Norway (Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten)


Photos are copyrighted by WCF and Celine Stucki