[ritchiebaby]

I've been hanging about waiting to post this, but in the absence of any more information, I'll go with what I've got.

These Championships take place in Lohja, Finland, starting on Sunday 3 November until Friday 8 November. The Top 4 after the Round Robin Games will play the Semi-finals and Finals on the Friday.

England are represented in the 'B' Championships with a team of Stewart Pimblett (skip), George Potts (3rd), Julian Mattison (2nd) and Karen Aspey (Lead) with Jason Kean as Alternate. The attached photograph shows the 5 players plus non-travelling reserve Jean Guild.


The team play Poland at 07.30 and Finland at 16.30 on Sunday in the first 2 of 10 games, both times are GMT.

[ritchiebaby]

England made a great start today, beating Poland 10-0 after only 6 ends. In the evening session they went on to beat Finland, another big winner in their first game, by 7-4. Scoring 5 shots in 3 sucessive ends during the second half of the game proved decisive.

Tomorrow England play Switzerland at 7.30am and then United States at 4.30pm.

[ritchiebaby]

England committed a cardinal error in this morning's game against Switzerland - they ran out of time to complete the extra end, forfeiting the game. As I like to say Proper Planning Prevents PPP!

They had drawn 4-4, trading shot for shot, after the regulation 8 ends, but had foolishly let the clock run down with one stone left to play in the extra end. If they had a tough tactical decision to make, they still had 1 time-out left, so it's unlikely that was the problem.

It didn't deter them though and defeated one of their nearest challengers, United States, by 6-3 following a quick start, leading 5-1 at the halfway stage. I hate to say it though, but they only had 39 seconds left on the clock in that game.

Hopefully England will not cut it so fine in tomorrow's games against Hong Kong at 7.30am and Japan, another close challenger, at 12 noon.

Here is the official team photo I managed to find on FB

[ritchiebaby]

The England team cruised past bottom-of-the-table Hong Kong by 12 shots to 0, after 6 ends this morning, to keep up their chances of progression to the Semi-finals. Unfortunately they couldn't keep up their good form against Japan, losing 2-5 after being level at 2-2 at the 6th end. The 4 wins and 2 defeats sees them in joint 4th place alongside Finland with 4 games still to play.

Tomorrow's games are against new bottom-of-the-table Thailand at noon and top-of-the-table Czechia at 4.30pm. England must win at least one of them to put some pressure on the teams around them with Thursday's final 2 games against Spain and Estonia possibly proving decisive.

[ritchiebaby]

One win out of two games for England today, as required. First up was a win over Thailand by 17 shots to 0, one of the biggest thrashings the Thais have suffered. Things were looking good in the second game too, being 4-2 up after 4 ends over Czechia, but a late collapse saw them lose 4-9 after 7ends.

These results still leave England in 4th place on 5 wins behind Japan and United States, who have already qualified on 7 wins, and Czechia on 6 wins. Estonia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland are all on 4 wins and any of these teams could snatch 4th place. Finland and Poland would need to win both of their games to squeeze past England. I only hope the drastic loss against the Swiss doesn't condemn them to lose out.

Tomorrow the English team play Spain at noon and Estonia - a possible 4th place decider - at 4.30pm. One win is a must and two wins would guarantee a Semi-final place on Friday.

[ritchiebaby]

First part of the job done for England. In a wildly fluctuating game against Spain, they roared ahead, leading 4-0 after 2 ends, then were pegged back immediately and fell behind 4-8 after 4 ends. If that wasn't wild enough, they made a remarkable recovery themselves, scoring 9 shots in the final 4 ends to win by 13-8!

Now onto the afternoon game, when they play Estonia in a crunch game. Estonia are out of the running but can play an important part in England's fortunes. Finland and Poland are also out of it, as although they can catch England on wins, they have both lost to the English curlers in the earlier games. The real and present danger are Switzerland who play Poland in the final session. Basically, England have to equal or better Switzerland's result in order to qualify.

[ritchiebaby]

England had yet another topsy-turvy game this evening against Estonia. They started off losing the 1st end, but won the next 3 to lead 7-1 at the half-way stage, but the nerves/inconsistency set in once again and lost 6 shots in the next 4 ends to be pegged back to 7-7. Even with last stone advantage for the 4th end in a row, they lost the extra end to lose 7-9.

But never fear, Poland came to the rescue, defeating Switzerland convincingly by 10-4 to put England into the Semi-finals.

In the Semi-finals England will play United States, who they've already beaten, at 7.30 tomorrow morning. Japan and Czechia play each other in the second Semi-final at the same time.

The Medal Finals take place at 1.30pm, so come on England, you've made it to the business end of the Championships. Let's go all the way to win the Gold Medal with promotion to the "A" Championships in Scotland in March 2025 for all the medallists.

[ritchiebaby]

Two really tight Semi-final games saw United States beat England 8-7 in the last end. The English were 4-7 down with 2 ends to go and scored an excellent 3 shots to tie the game going into the last end. On the other sheet, Japan had an even harder win by 9-8 against Czechia, the game being decided in an extra end.

In the Medal Games, United States had a much easier time of it, beating Japan 9-4 after 7 ends, helped by scoring 5 shots in the 4th end to get ahead. England made sure of the Bronze Medal by winning 7-6 against Czechia and ensure qualification for the "A" Championships in March.

MEDALS
GOLD - United States
SILVER - Japan
BRONZE - England

Well done to the England team in persevering to the end, especially after their wildly fluctuating fortunes during the week.