[ritchiebaby]

These Championships are set to take place in Aberdeen, Scotland, from Saturday 12 October until Saturday 19 October for 40 international teams with Kosovo and Nigeria making their Mixed debuts. The competitors are split into five groups as follows:

Group A: Belarus, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Nigeria and Slovakia
Group B: Andorra, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Poland and Wales
Group C: Australia, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Sweden and United States
Group D: Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Scotland, Slovenia, Chinese Taipei and Turkey
Group E: Austria, Belgium, England, Finland, France, Korea, Russia and Switzerland

Round-robin play begins at 08:00 on Saturday 12 October and concludes at 20:00 on 17 October after 24 sessions. At the conclusion of the round robin, the top three teams in each group, along with the best fourth-place finisher, will progress to the play-off stage. The teams are then ranked from one to 16 according to their final group placement and Draw Shot Challenge score. The play-off stage begins with the first session of the last-16 knock-out round at 09:00 on Friday 18 October, culminating in the bronze and gold medal games at 15:00 on Saturday 19 October.

Defending champions Canada begin their defence against Germany in the opening session. Ireland open against Slovenia with Scotland against Italy and England versus Austria, all at 12 noon. Wales play Poland at 16.00 with Ireland playing Italy, Scotland playing Japan and England playing France at 20.30.

On Sunday, Wales play Croatia at 08.00 with Scotland v Luxembourg and Ireland v Chinese Taipei scheduled for 16.00, followed by England v Switzerland and Wales v Denmark at 20.30.

England
4 : Stuart Brand (Vice-Skip)
3 : Fiona Spain (Skip)
2 : Jonathan Havercroft
1 : Kathryn Spain
Ireland
4 : John Wilson (Skip)
3 : Ailsa Anderson (Vice-Skip)
2 : Craig Whyte
1 : Niamh Begley Luke
Scotland
4 : Luke Carson (Skip)
3 : Kirstin Bousie (Vice-Skip)
2 : Mark Taylor
1 : Katie McMillan
Wales
4 : Adrian Meikle (Skip)
3 : Dawn Watson (Vice-Skip)
2 : Andrew Tanner
1 : Laura Beever

[Lord Snooty]

OMG! If we didn't need reminding already that winter is just around the corner, here comes the Curling season.

[ritchiebaby]

Snooty, you've got to remember that you "southern"   softies are not used to winter being so early. I've had my valuables protected from the cold for a few weeks now!  

Anyway, after a full day trying to work out how to extract the results from the WCF website, the permafrost in my brain has thawed out sufficiently to give you a run-down of the results so far.

SATURDAY - Ireland 8 Slovenia 5; Italy 2 Scotland 7; England 7 Austria 4; Wales 2 Poland 5; England 5 France 4; Ireland 7 Italy 6; Scotland 5 Japan 4 (at least some Scots can beat Japan):
SUNDAY - Croatia 6 Wales 8; Scotland 12 Luxembourg 3; Ireland 6 Chinese Taipei 4; England 1 Switzerland 7; Denmark 14 Wales 1:

Tomorrow has Japan v Ireland, Turkey v Scotland and Finland v England at High Noon, followed by New Zealand v Wales having to Wait Until Dark. Just in case I'm not around tomorrow night, Tuesday's Voyage Of The Dawn Treader features England v Russia and Scotland v Chinese Taipei with Ireland v Turkey. Two O'Clock Courage will be needed for the final stages of the game between Wales and Andorra.

Here are some photos of the Home Nation players, courtesy of the WCF website, taken by Richard Gray.

Stuart Brand, England

Ailsa Anderson, Ireland

Kirstin Bousie and Katie McMillan, Scotland

Andrew Tanner, Wales

[ritchiebaby]

MONDAY'S RESULTS - Japan 2 Ireland 9 (revenge for Ireland as well!); Turkey 3 Scotland 5; Finland 8 England 3;New Zealand 4 Wales 5:
TUESDAY'S RESULTS - England 3 Russia 9; Scotland 11 Chinese Taipei 4; Ireland 3 Turkey 5; Wales 7 Andorra 5:

These results leave Scotland the best of the Home Nations, being top of their Group with 5 wins out of 5. In the same Group Ireland have 4 wins out of 5 and are in 2nd place. Wales have recovered from a poor start with 3 wins out of 5 and are mid-table with England on 2 wins out of 5, also in mid-table.

I'll definitely not be on here tomorrow night, so here are the games for the next 2 days.
WEDNESDAY - Just as Morning Has Broken the Czech Republic take on Wales, followed by Belgium v England and Luxembourg v Ireland at 25 Or 6 To 4. Slovenia v Scotland will be Eight Miles High    in the last session.
THURSDAY - Wales v Norway and Korea v England will be at Neon Noon, leaving Ireland v Scotland to Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar) as a Grand Finale.

[ritchiebaby]

Here we are again, happy as can be, with a catch-up on the last two days of the Round Robin.

Wednesday - Czech Republic 8 Wales 3; Belgium 1 England 13; Luxembourg 2 Ireland 10; Slovenia 6 Scotland 8:
Thursday - Wales 1 Norway 9; Korea 7 England 2; Scotland 7 Ireland 3:

That's all the Group games finished with the last 16 teams decided for tomorrow's sessions. Unfortunately England and Wales have not been good enough (more accurately, not consistent enough) to progress to the knock-out stages. England finished with 3 wins and 4 defeats to be 5th in Group E, with Wales also with the same record to be 5th in Group B. Both Scotland and Ireland qualified from Group D as winners and runners-up.
Just to give you an idea of the gulf in class between the top and bottom teams, newcomers Nigeria scored 7 shots in their 7 games, but lost 106. Due to their late arrival, Kosovo only played 6 games and managed to score 17 shots and lost 69.

Tomorrow's games will be:-
09.00 Well, it seems to be a big secret, but it wll involve 4 games featuring 8 teams from Canada, Germany, Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Spain, United States, Hungary, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, Turkey, Russia, Switzerland and Korea.
13.00 Almost as much of a secret, this will involve the other 8 teams who have not already played at 9am in a further 4 games.
I have read that Canada will play Sweden at 9am, but this has not been confirmed on the WCF website (which is as much use as a chocolate fireguard).
The Quarter-finals will take place at 19.00 to decide which teams will fight it out for the Medals on Saturday.

EDIT
By dint of a devious sleight of hand and a huge slice of good fortune, I have managed to decipher the secret code for the 1pm games. They are United States v Switzerland, Germany v Poland, Russia v Korea, Scotland v Turkey. For some unknown reason, the same sleight of hand does work for the 9am games, but only after the second session games come up. They are Denmark v Ireland, Slovakia v Norway, Spain v Hungary, Canada v Sweden. I now know how the Bletchley Park codebreakers must have felt!  
Needless to say, going into the WCF website Schedule Of Games doesn't tell you all this, but you need to know what buttons to press. And I'm good at pressing buttons!  

[ritchiebaby]

Today's Last 16 games finished as followa:-
Denmark 8 Ireland 3; Slovakia 1 Norway 9; Spain 2 Hungary 6; Canada 9 Sweden 4; United States 2 Switzerland 7; Germany 5 Poland 3; Scotland 6 Turkey 3:

Tonight's Quarter-finals saw the end of Scotland's campaign after a defeat by Germany's Andy Kapp (still one of my favourite curling names, though). Results - Germany 9 Scotland 7; Switzerland 3 Korea 6; Canada 6 Denmark 4; Norway 9 Hungary 6:

Tomorrow morning's Semi-finals, scheduled for 09.00, are Canada v Norway and Korea v Germany, followed by the Medal Games at 15.00.

[Lord Snooty]

I loved those Andy Kapp cartoons. One of the main reasons I used to buy the Daily Mirror.

[ritchiebaby]

The final day's play of these Championships went pretty much to form, culminating in extremely close finishes in each of the games. Andy Kapp came off second best as usual, but it wasn't Flo who did it this time.

The Semi-finals resulted in Canada beating Norway 6-5 and Germany beating Korea 6-4. The Gold Medals were won by Canada 6-5 with Germany earning the Silver Medals. In the Bronze Medal match Norway beat Korea by 6-5, obviously the score of the day.