[ritchiebaby]

This event is being held in Wetzikon (no, I hadn't heard of it either), Switzerland from Saturday 29 February to Saturday 7 March. Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland are competing for the Medals, with the Medal Games being on the 7th. Teams will garner qualification points for the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing. Just to be different, 6 teams will qualify for the later stages of the tournament. The top 2 in the round-robin will progress to the Semi-finals. The winner of 3rd v 6th and the winner of 4th v 5th will be the other 2 Semi-finalists.

The Scottish squad consists of Hugh Nibloe (skip), Robert McPherson, Gary Smith, Charlotte McKenna and Meggan Dawson-Farrell (alternate). Nibloe and McPherson both won Silver in the 2019 Championships. Unfortunately our local curler, David Melrose, had to withdraw from the team due to injury.

Scotland open their campaign with games against Russia and Slovakia tomorrow and then Switzerland on Sunday.

I will be submitting only sporadic reports this coming week as I'm curling twice on Tuesday, twice on Friday and twice on Saturday, as my season winds up towards a grandstand finish - I was going to say climax, but I can't remeber what that means.

[ritchiebaby]

Not a great start for Scotland on Saturday, with the Scots losing to Russia 3-9 and Slovakia 5-7 in their first 2 games. Today saw an important turning point with a 8-1 victory over Switzerland, scoring in 6 of the 7 completed ends. This convincing win will hopefully give them confidence for tomorrow's games against Estonia and Canada, followed by China and Sweden on Tuesday.

With the generous qualification criteria, Scotland should be there for the final stages, but they must first survive the 3 vital, tricky games against Canada, China and Sweden who are all above them in the table.

[ritchiebaby]

A very mixed day for the Scottish team. Another excellent win by 11-6 in the first game against Estonia, followed by a surrender to Canada by 2 shots to 10. It means that Scotland lie in 7th place with only 2 wins out of 5 games.

Tomorrow's games take on extra importance now and with Latvia and Norway to play on Wednesday, surely only 2 wins will keep them in the hunt.

[ritchiebaby]

Well, not only did the wheels come off, the seat slipped to one side and the foot rest disintegrated completely.

With Scotland desperately needing wins, they went down feebly to Canada 2-10, were eventually beaten 3-6 by China after a thrilling comeback, similarly defeated 4-6 by Sweden in another close game and in yet another tight game were beaten 6-7 by Latvia after leading 5-1 after only 4 ends..

BUT WAIT! What's this? In tonight's game, Scotland again started well and this time they increased their lead to convincingly beat Norway by 7-2 to give themselves a slim chance of making the top 6 to guarantee qualification for the knock-out stage.

They now have to play Czech Republic tomorrow morning and Korea in the afternoon to complete their programme. Although they currently are only in 9th position, they are only 1 win behind 6th place.

China, Canada and Sweden have already done enough to qualify with Norway and Russia in 4th place on 5 wins, and Korea, Latvia and Slovakia in 6th place on 4 wins. It could easily be that it could come down to the Scotland v Korea game to decide Scotland's fate, given Slovakia and Latvia have difficult finishing games.

[ritchiebaby]

No more could be asked of Scotland this morning as they defeated Czech Republic 11-1 with a dominant performance. Unfortunately in common with most Scotland teams in other sports, they promised much and delivered little, losing 4-7 to Korea in their final game this afternoon. The Scots trailed early on but scored 3 shots in the 6th end to tie the game at 4-4. Alas losing 3 shots in the following end allowed the Koreans an easy win to guarantee them a qualification spot.

With one session still to go, Scotland lie in 8th place on 4 wins and 7 defeats with no chance of progressing further. China ensured a Semi-final spot after their 10th successive win. Sweden lie 2nd, but could be overtaken by Canada later tonight. Norway and Korea make up the other qualifiers, with Russia still on tenterhooks in 6th place. Latvia in 7th could still qualify if Switzerland manage to beat Russia in tonight's game.

[ritchiebaby]

An eventual update on the proceedings tells us that Russia beat Canada 5-4 to win the Gold Medals after being behind all the way until the final end, with Sweden, also never in front until the final end, beating China 5-2 to win Bronze.

GOLD - Russia
SILVER - Canada
BRONZE - Sweden

Scotland finished 9th in the final table, just avoiding relegation to the B Division for next season.