[ritchiebaby]

The CPT World Women's Curling Championship 2017 gets underway at the Capital Gymnasium in Beijing, which also hosted the Mens' Championships in 2014.

The venue, originally opened in 1968, has a seating capacity of more than 17,000 and was renovated and used as a volleyball venue during the 2008 Olympic Summer Games.
Following the opening ceremony on Saturday 18 March, the teams battle it out in 17 sessions of round-robin play, until the evening of Thursday 23 March. If required, tie-breakers will be played on 24 March, followed by the 1v2 Game. The 3v4 Game will be played on 25 March followed by the sole Semi-final. The Medal Games will take place on Sunday 26 March.

The 12 teams who have qualified are Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Korea, Russia, Scotland,  Sweden, Switzerland and USA.

Defending champions Switzerland have won a remarkable four world titles in the last five years – with three different teams – and the team that represents Switzerland this time, skipped by Alina Paetz, was one of them – taking Gold in Sapporo, Japan in 2015. Anna Sidorova leads a Russian team that has taken Bronze in the last three World Curling Championships, while having won World Curling Championship Silver in 2010 and Gold in 2013, Scotland's Olympic Bronze medallist skip Eve Muirhead will be looking to return to the podium. Another World Champion, Bingyu Wang from China, makes up the list of previous winners. Italy’s Diana Gaspari is making her tenth appearance at these Championships while Lene Nielsen of Denmark has "only" made seven previous appearances.

Scotland's team is made up of Eve Muirhead (Skip), Anna Sloan (Third), Vicki Adams (Second), Lauren Gray (Lead) and Kelly Schafer (Alternate). Their first game is against USA on Saturday afternoon, with their two games on Sunday being against Italy and arch-rivals Russia.

Some of the games are on Eurosport and the schedule is as follows:-
20 March 1230-1500 Canada v Switzerland (Eurosport 1) LIVE
21 March 1230-1500 Canada v Scotland (Eurosport 1) LIVE
22 March 1230-1500 Germany v Denmark (Eurosport 1) LIVE
23 March 1230-1500 Russia v China (Eurosport 2) LIVE
24 March 1230-1500 Playoff 1v2 (Eurosport 2) LIVE
26 March 0930-1200 Gold Medal Game (Eurosport 2) LIVE
27 March 1200-1300 Gold Medal Game (Eurosport 1) HIGHLIGHTS

Unfortunately I have better other things to do on Saturday, so it will be Sunday night before I give my first report.

[ritchiebaby]

SCOTLAND - Kelly Schafer, Lauren Gray, Vicki Adams, Anna Sloan and Eve Muirhead.

[Lord Snooty]

Will this be next year's Winter Olympics line up?

[St Charles Owl]

I see this will be Eve Muirhead's 8th World Championships!!! That is some record!!

[ritchiebaby]

In a see-saw game, Scotland eventually beat USA 9-8 after an extra end, by scoring single shots in the last 3 ends, after losing the previous 3 ends.

I'm not sure what went wrong in their second match against unfancied Italy. They lost a 3 in the seventh end and a 2 in the 9th end, to give Italy a huge advantage. Despite scoring 2 shots in the last end, the Scots suffered a 6-7 defeat. In the big match against Russia, Scotland dominated the opening ends to be 8-1 up after 4 ends. Russia put up a spirited resistance in the middle of the game, but Scotland ran out comfortable 10-7 winners.

Tomorrow has Scotland playing Denmark and Sweden, and knowing the Scottish style, they are probably in more danger from bottom of the table Denmark, than the Swedes.

Eve Muirhead - if (more probably when) she qualifies for the 2018 Winter Olympics by finishing in the top 7 countries, her team will be selected for the GBR Olympics team. It would be incredible if that didn't happen as she has the best chance of winning a medal. Scotland currently lie third in the rankings table, behind Switzerland and Canada.

As for the Eurosport schedule, from a cursory glance at my TV planner, I see the first sessions shown are at 10.30am (CET time difference?).

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland once again dominated a game from the start, this time against Denmark to win 7-2 with 2 ends to spare. In the final session the Scandinavians gained some solace from the Scottish Womens' defeat by 3-7 from Sweden. The Scots were behind all the way, but were only 3-4 down after 7 ends. From then on, Sweden played a canny game and won the last 2 ends to seal victory.

The day's results put Canada on top with 5 wins out of 5, with Switzerland and Sweden 2nd on 4 wins out of 5. Czech Republic and Scotland share 4th place on 3 wins out of 5.

Scotland play 2 games tomorrow, against mid-table Korea and leaders Canada.

[Lord Snooty]

Watched Canada play Switzerland this afternoon on Eurosport. Looked good the Canadians.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland slipped right out of the top ranked teams today with 2 consecutive defeats against Korea and Canada. In the Korea game, Scotland traded alternate ends but were always behind, losing 5 scores of 2 shots, in a 6-10 defeat with Scotland conceding with 1 end to go. Against Canada, Scotland suffered even more, being beaten 2-8 after only 7 ends. It took the Scots 6 ends to get on the scoreboard and this was immediately followed by Canada scoring 4 shots with a straightforward take-out.

Canada certainly are the team to beat, with 7 wins out of 7 to head the table. Sweden are 2nd with 6 wins out of 7, then a gap to Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland and USA on 4 wins out of 7. Tied on 3 wins out of 7 are Germany, Korea and Scotland. It looks like there are 7 teams fighting it out for the 2 places available behind Canada and Sweden.

Scotland's games tomorrow are against China and Switzerland. One win is the minimum requirement for Eve Muirhead's team and two wins will be enough to give them a fighting chance on Thursday. Fingers crossed.

[ritchiebaby]

Apologies for being late with this report. I was on airport duty through the night and needed my beauty sleep.  

The Scots ladies took advantage of my absence by seeing off China 8-6 after winning 3 of the last 4 ends, then repeated the dose by beating Switzerland by 7-4, winning 2 of the last 3 ends. This elevated them to 5 wins and 4 defeats, alongside Germany and Switzerland, behind definite qualifiers Canada on 9 wins, Sweden on 7 wins and Russia on 6 wins.

Today's games saw Scotland earn a place in the 3v4 game after beating Germany 7-2 in a game that was tight early on but Scotland settled it with 3 shots in the last end. They then scraped a vital win against Czech Republic, scoring 2 shots in the last end to win by 7-6.

Four wins in the last four games have rescued the tournament for the Scots and these wins also ensured that GBR have qualified for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea.

There are no Tie-breakers required, so the games to come are:-
Tomorrow's 1v2 Play-off Game - Canada v Russia
Saturday's 3v4 Play-off Game - Sweden v Scotland

Saturday's Semi-final is between the loser of the 1v2 game and the winner of the 3v4 game.
The Medal Games will take place on Sunday.

[Lord Snooty]

Hey up, the BBC have now noticed this is going on, now that Olympic qualification has been mentioned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/39314407