[ritchiebaby]

Scotland's team for this year's Championships to be held in Lethbridge, Canada from Saturday 30 March to Sunday 7 April is Bruce Mouat (Skip), Grant Hardie (Third), Bobby Lammie (Second), Hammy McMillan (Lead) and Ross Whyte (Alternate). If the names sound familiar, it's because they are the same four players who won Bronze last year, with a different alternate player and the same coach, Alan Hannah.

Scotland have to play Russia, Switzerland, Netherlands, USA, Sweden, Korea, Norway, Japan, China, Canada, Germany and Italy in the round-robin games. The Qualifying Games and the Semi-finals are on 6 April with the Medal Games on 7 April. Certainly Canada, Scotland, Sweden and USA must be among the favourites with a new Norway team and Switzerland to be also in the mix.

It'll almost be over by the time I get back on here, but I'm sure that there will be games featured on Eurosport and BBC Online, and I'll do a big catch-up late in the week.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland have had a mixed start to the tournament with a win against Russia 8-2, a defeat to Switzerland by 4-5, and then again to Netherlands by the same score, after losing a sloppy 3 in the last end. They followed this by losing to USA by 8-9, then beating Sweden by 6-5 and Korea by 7-3. Norway were their next victims, the Scots winning by 8-4, but then Scotland lost to Japan by 8-6 to leave them with 4 wins and 4 losses with 4 games still to play.

Scotland play China and Canada later today, needing to climb the table a little further to cement a place in the top 6. Japan lead on 8 wins, and have already qualified for the later stages, with Sweden in 2nd place, also on 8 wins. Switzerland are on 7 wins, with Canada and USA having 6 wins each. Next are Italy in 6th place on 5 wins, so it's still very much game on for Scotland, with Germany and Italy their opponents tomorrow.

The only disappointing performance so far has been Norway's, with their new team taking 6 games to gain their 1st victory. Definitely a steep learning curve for them.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland are definitely back on track with 2 wins in yesterday's games - the 1st was against China by 9-6, courtesy of 4 shots in the last end, and the 2nd against Canada by 8-6 with a perfect double take-out by Bruce Mouat with the last stone to claim 3 shots for the win.

Scotland still sit in 7th place but are in a better position now, with their final game against Italy key in Scotland's (and Italy's) chance of progressing to the qualification stage. Sweden have 9 wins, with Switzerland and Japan on 8 wins. There is a 3-way tie on 7 wins for Canada, Italy and USA, with Scotland on 6 wins.

2 wins would see Scotland through as they would have beaten both Italy and Canada, but 1 win would not be enough unless Canada lose to both Switzerland and Netherlands (unlikely) OR Italy lose to both Sweden and Scotland (possible).

[St Charles Owl]

Am I imagining things or do quite a lot of games end up being decided in the final end? Seems you often see a team blow it in the final end and lose a game they were winning. Do teams become cautious going into the final end with a lead and play more defensive or is it simply a case of the other team really going for it and throuwing caution to the wind and pulling off plays that they wouldn’t normally go for?

[Lord Snooty]

Not an expert like Ritchie, but I think the idea is to get to the last end with the hammer, so if you're slightly behind going to the last end you would pass on a scoring chance to be able to throw last.

[ritchiebaby]

SCO is correct, in that if you have a lead going into the last end, it is best to keep taking out the opposition stones until you run them out of stones. If it's only a 1 shot lead and you have the hammer, keep the front as clear as possible, so that you can draw the shot or do a simple take-out with your last stone. If you don't have the hammer, it becomes much more tactical and open to a big end, if you can tempt the opposition into a tricky shot. Snooty is right also about making blank ends when you have the hammer, so that you keep the hammer rather than taking 1 shot. I've seen games won by 3-2 with the skips with the hammer deliberately blanking ends in order to keep the hammer. You should always be looking for 2 or 3 shots with the hammer and keep the opposition down to 1 shot when they have the hammer. All the skips can probably draw into the 4-foot circle 9 times out of 10, but a bit of pressure can change all that. Hope that helps.

Anyway, Scotland got stuck into Germany early on, winning fairly comfortably by 9-2, while Italy lost to Sweden by 4-7. In the final game, Scotland did exactly what was needed, beating Italy 9-5, after being tied at 5-5 after 7 ends. This brought Scotland into 6th place at Italy's expense. Sweden finished clear at the top with 11 wins, with Switzerland in 2nd on 9 wins. Also on 9 wins were Canada and Japan, followed by USA and Scotland on 8 wins.

This morning's Qualification games were Canada v Scotland, where the Scots just fell short, losing 5-6 with Bruce Mouat just failing with a double take-out to score 2 shots to force an extra end, and Japan v USA where Japan won 7-6 after an extra end, with the Japanese skip drawing into the 4-foot circle with the last stone for victory.

Tonight's Semi-finals are Sweden v Japan and Switzerland v Canada and the Medal Games will be contested tomorrow. I'll not be back until Monday night with the results.

In my final take on Scotland's fortunes, they played very well with some results narrowly going against them. Of their 4 round-robin defeats, 3 were by 1 shot and the other was by 2 shots. Not outplayed by any means.

[ritchiebaby]

It was almost inevitable that a ruthless Sweden would win the Mens' World Championships. Scotland were the only team who managed a win against them all week (I just had to mention that!) and it was only by 1 shot. They won their Semi-final against Japan by 8-2 and followed that up by beating Canada 7-2 in the Final. A delighted Niklas Edin (skip) said, “It feels amazing. This was probably the sweetest win of my career. We’ve never played better than this for an event, it felt like we were dominating the whole week. This was Edin's 4th win in the World Championships with the last 2 being in the company of Oscar Eriksson, Rasmus Wrana and Christoffer Sundgren.

SWEDEN (whose stones have shrunk due to the cold!)  

In the Bronze Medal Game, Switzerland beat Japan by 8-4 with a late surge.