[ritchiebaby]

This B competition held in Oestersund, Sweden is a qualifier for the main event in Gangneung, Korea between 16 and 26 February. The English Men and Women are competing in this as well as the Scottish Women. The competition starts on 3 January, ending on 10 January. The winners of the semi-finals played on 10 January will play in the gold medal games, also on 10 January and will qualify directly to the WJCC 2017. The losers of the semi-finals will play for bronze medals and the last WJCC places.

Mens' Draw (The Scottish Men have already qualified for Korea.)
Group A: Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.
Group B: China, Denmark, England, Spain, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Group C: Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey.

England
Fourth - Jake Barker (Skip), Third - Joe Sugden (fresh from the farm?), Second - Ben Holley, Lead - Felix Price and Alternate - Henry Brown.

Womens' Draw
Group A: Austria, Finland, Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey.
Group B: Czech Republic, Spain, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Romania and Scotland.
Group C: Australia, China, Denmark, England, Germany, New Zealand and Slovakia.

England
Fourth - Lucy Sparks (Skip), Third - Sarah Decoine, Second - Kitty Conlin, Lead - Niamh Fenton and Alternate - Rebecca Watts.
Scotland
Fourth - Sophie Jackson (Skip), Third - Naomi Brown, Second - Mili Smith, Lead - Sophie Sinclair and Alternate - Laura Barr.

Tomorrow's Games
England play Slovakia in both Mens' and Womens' competitions at lunchtime with the English Women taking on New Zealand at night. The Scottish Women play Spain at night.

[ritchiebaby]

Today's Results
Both English teams lost 4-6 to Slovakia at lunchtime, but the English Women recovered tonight to defeat New Zealand 8-4 after scoring 7 shots in 4 consecutive ends midway through the game. The Scottish Women also won tonight, beating Spain by 11-4 after 6 ends, including a 4 in the first end and a 5 in the third end.

Tomorrow's Games
Men - England v Denmark
Women - Scotland v Latvia

[ritchiebaby]

Today's Results
Men - England 2 Denmark 4 in a really tight game.
Women - Scotland 6 Latvia 3 after Scotland led 5-0 in the 4th end.

Tomorrow's Games
Women - Scotland v Estonia; England v Denmark; Scotland v Norway; England v China:
Men - England v Spain:

[ritchiebaby]

Today's Results
Women - Scotland beat Estonia by 5 shots to 3 in a tightly fought encounter, while England beat Denmark 6-2 in a game they controlled all the way. In the late afternoon session Scotland did the same to Norway by 5-2 and the last session saw England lose 1-8 against China, who scored an amazing 5 in the last end played.
These results leave Scotland undefeated after 4 games, leading Czech Republic who are also undefeated after 3 games. England are equal 4th with 2 wins and 2 defeats alongside Denmark.
Men - England lost 6-8 to Spain after an extra end, despite leading 5-2 at one stage. This leaves them without a win in their 3 games, sharing bottom spot with Netherlands.

Tomorrow's Games
Men - England v Slovenia.
Women - Scotland v Romania and England v Australia.

[ritchiebaby]

Today's Results
Men
England 2 Slovenia 6 which will surely see England exit the competition on Sunday night. They have 0 wins and 4 defeats with 3 games to go.
Women
Scotland 13 Romania 2 after 6 ends and the Scots are unbeaten with only 1 game to go.
England 14 Australia 2 including 6 shots in the third end. England have 3 wins and 2 defeats with 1 game to go and must have another win and hope other results go their way to progress.

Tomorrow's Games
Men - England v Netherlands.
Women - Scotland v Czech Republic, England v Germany.

[St Charles Owl]

I am alway surprised to see some of the countries taking part in these tournaments. We have seen Turkey in the past and now in this one there is China and Australia!!!

Great coverage as per usual Ritchie!!

[Lord Snooty]

If its a junior competition, shouldn't the categories be Girls and Boys?

[ritchiebaby]

Yesterday's Results
Men - England 4 Netherlands 5 in a last end loss for England.
Women - Scotland 7 Czech Republic 1, England 2 Germany 6. Scotland finish the Group with 6 wins out of 6 and have qualified alongside Turkey, Japan, China, Germany and Slovakia for the next stage. England have 3 wins and 3 defeats and are now out.

So far today
Men - England 1 China 7. Losing the first 4 ends doesn't help your cause, resulting in England still looking for their first win. China have already qualified for the next stage, along with Germany in Group C.

To come later today
Men - England v Hungary.

Snooty, some of them look as though they are still at school, but I'm sure they think of themselves as much too mature to be described as girls and boys - in common with most teenagers!  

[ritchiebaby]

I don't particularly like being the bearer of bad news, but England Men lost 3-5 to Hungary today to finish with 7 successive defeats and 0 wins. Four of their defeats were by 2 shots and one was by 1 shot, so not that far away. They were not alone though. Austria (best result was a 6 shot deficit) and Hong Kong (best result was a 2 shot defeat) also finished winless.

The 6 definite qualifiers for the Men's quarter-finals are Italy, Latvia, China, Denmark, Germany and Turkey. I find it difficult to believe, but the WCF website states that the other 2 teams will come from tomorrow's tie-breakers involving Russia v Czech Republic, Slovenia v Spain and France v Poland, then even more games. I'm just happy that I don't have to sort that out!

In the Women's competition, the 7 guaranteed qualifiers are Turkey, Japan, Scotland, Norway, China, Germany and Slovakia. The remaining place will be decided by tie-breakers with Poland v Finland and Czech Republic v Latvia in the first session tomorrow, presumably followed by a final.

Just to show I like a good moan, the RCCC (the Scottish national governing body) website mentions on 2 January that the Scottish Women are preparing for these Championships, then .......NOTHING. Perhaps the fact that this is the B Championship means that the out-of-touch "blazers" don't feel it's worth updating!  

[ritchiebaby]

In a mixture of tie-breaker/qualification results and the Draw Shot Challenge (basically "middle for diddle" as in darts or nearest the middle goes through) the Mens' Quarter-Finals were decided tonight as Latvia 3 China 9, Turkey 8 Denmark 4, Italy 6 Slovenia 3 and Poland 2 Germany 6.
The Draw for the Semi-Finals tomorrow morning is Germany v Turkey and China v Italy. The Finals will be played tomorrow afternoon.

The Womens' Quarter-Finals turned out Scotland 8 Norway 2, Turkey 6 Slovakia 2, China 5 Germany 3 and Czech Republic 4 Japan 9.
The Semi-Final Draw is Turkey v Japan and China v Scotland, who play at the same time as the Men in both sessions.

The winners of the Semi-Finals will play for the Gold and Silver Medals and the losers will play for the Bronze Medal and these Medallists will be the qualifiers for the main event Gangneung style in February.

I've also found a photo of the English Women in action

Sarah Decoine (crouching), Kitty Conlin and Niamh Fenton (sweeping) with Lucy Sparks away in the distance having played the stone.