[ritchiebaby]

The World Championship series moves to the south from 2nd to 10th April in the Orleans Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada. An ice rink in the desert seems pretty far-fetched, but Las Vegas has Venetian gondolas and Egyptian sphinxes, so I suppose anything is possible.

The 13 participating teams are Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and United States. Scotland are represented by skip Kyle Waddell, vice-skip Ross Paterson (who plays last stones) along with Duncan Menzies (2nd) and Craig Waddell (lead). This is a fairly new team with only Ross Paterson having experience at World Championship level, but he has won Bronze as alternate for Bruce Mouat's team in 2018, also in Las Vegas.

I should add that there was a bit of a "hoo-ha" regarding the selection for these Championships, but Paterson's team are the National Champions and there was no requirement to hold a play-off with the Olympic team, as was done in 2018. No doubt changes will be made to the selection process in the future, but we are where we are.

Scotland start their campaign at 3am (UK time) against Italy on Sunday followed by Korea at 5pm, also on Sunday. Now these are my interpretation of the times but I think I've added on the time difference correctly.

Looking further ahead, the teams ranked first and second after the round-robin will proceed directly to the Semi-finals while, for teams ranked third to sixth, qualification games will take place on Saturday 9 April. The qualification games will see the third-ranked team play the sixth-ranked team and the fourth-ranked face the fifth-ranked team, with the winners progressing to the Semi-finals, which will follow in the evening — the team ranked first will play the winner of 3v6 game and the team ranked second will play the winner of 4v5 game. The Bronze Medal game and then the Gold Medal final will be staged on Sunday 10th.

[ritchiebaby]

Now it's time for my reckless predictions, featuring the 2 hot favourites and 4 outsiders to make the top 6 who qualify for the later stages.

Defending champions, Sweden, skipped by Niklas Edin supported by Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wrana and Christoffer Sundgren are the really hot favourites, having won the last 3 Championships. For me, Canada are the only realistic challengers and they are skipped by Brad Gushue with Matt Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker, who won in 2017 and were runners-up in 2018.

The best of the rest could almost come from any other country, but I would be inclined to go for Switzerland, United States, Italy, and Korea. I'm afraid Scotland are not experienced enough to cope with the demands of the competition, but I suppose that could also be said for my picks. And what about Norway as well? The possibilities are endless in the margins.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland overcame Italy 5-4 thanks to a last-stone take-out from Ross Paterson in a tight match all the way through with never more than 2 shots in it. In their 2nd game, the Scots were beaten 6-9 by Korea in another tight game. This time Ross Paterson got sucked into a long promotion shot, instead of a pin-point draw which could have tied the game.

Scotland now play Norway at 3am tomorrow morning, followed by Denmark at 10pm.

[ritchiebaby]

The steep learning curve continues for Scotland, who lost 4-7 against Norway earlier today. On the final end with a lead of 3 shots, all the Norwegains had to do was take out all the front stones, then the Scottish stones so that they could not lose a big end.

Any time now Scotland will be playing Denmark in a bottom of the table clash, both teams needing a win to resuscitate their Championship ambitions. I will be following this game closely, probably more in hope than anticipation.

Tomorrow the Scots will play Germany at 3am and United States at 10pm.

[ritchiebaby]

Obviously Scotland felt the heat of my stare last night, as they eventually secured victory over Denmark by 7 shots to 3, then beat Germany 6-4. Ross Paterson, although not the best player in the team, seems to be playing the big shots well in the final end or two.

These 2 results lifted them up from a dismal 9th= to an inspiring 2nd=. Still a long way to go, but there's now a bit of hope and, dare I say it, expectation.

I'll be giving them the stare again tonight at 10pm when they take on United States and hopefully they will continue the good work in their game against Finland at 3am.

[Lord Snooty]

[ritchiebaby]

The stare from me obviously worked wonders again (not Snooty's, they're just pussycats - well, one of them is - not tigers), as Scotland beat United States by 9-7. I suppose a rejuvenated Ross Paterson must take some credit as well with 2 convincing take-outs in the last end to raise his percentage from a best of 79 to an impressive 89.

In their second game, the Scots benefitted from another excellent performance with Paterson the worst player of the four on 85%, to beat Finland 10-5 with an end to play.

The ritchie stare will be employed again tonight, when Scotland play Czech Republic at 10pm. Tomorrow they play Netherlands at 5pm and Sweden at 10pm.

[ritchiebaby]

The ritchie stare (TM pending) triumphs yet again, as Scotland comfortably dispose of Czech Republic by 6 shots to 0. Each of the Scots players scored more than 90%, a rare feat, to dominate the game - nothing too spectacular, just good, solid curling.

Hopefully the boys will have loads of confidence to take into their game against Netherlands later, as wins on the board might prove vital in their remaining games against Sweden, Canada and Switzerland. Currently Scotland lie in 2nd place, behind Canada and ahead of Sweden, Korea, Switzerland and United States.

[ritchiebaby]

No matter how effective the ritchie stare might be, Scotland still managed to fall back into the old bad habits by losing a game they should have won.      They lost 4-5 against Netherlands, who were bottom of the table at the start of play. Both Ross Paterson and Kyle Waddell dropped their percentages down to 79% and that is just not good enough at this level, even against one of the weaker teams. 2 poor shots from Paterson in the final end allowed Netherlands to gain 2 shots for the win. I knew I should have followed the game instead of going out. 

Despite this Scotland still sit in 2nd position on 6 wins alongside Sweden and United States, behind Canada on 7 wins and ahead of Korea, Italy, Norway and Switzerland on 5 wins. Korea have 4 games to go, with all the rest still to play 3 games.

The only consolation (and it's not much) is that, although Scotland have a tough finish to their week, Sweden have us, United States and Norway to play, United States have Sweden and Italy, Korea have Switzerland and Canada, Italy have Norway and United States, Norway have Italy and Sweden and Switzerland have Korea and us. They can't all win their remaining games, so we may have a chance to progress courtesy of the difficult end to the week.

One win for the Scots might just be enough to stay in the top six. And that win could come against Sweden tonight at 10pm, when the ritchie stare will be back in action, against Canada at 5pm tomorrow or against Switzerland at 3am on Saturday. And it's game on now! Come on, Scotland!!!

[ritchiebaby]

The ritchie stare has been recalled for an urgent overhaul, after being rejected by Dragon's Den and bitter-sweet Alan Sugar. Scotland are in free-fall following their chastening defeat by Sweden by 2 shots to 8 and then Canada by 6-8. Not putting too fine a point on it, Ross Paterson had a percentage of 59 against Niklas Edin's 89 in the first game, and then 65 against Brad Gushue's 83.

With one game to play, Canada lead with 9 wins, then Sweden on 8 wins. Both Italy and United States have 7 wins and are followed by Germany, Scotland and Switzerland. Korea have 2 games still to play on 5 wins and also Norway, if they beat Sweden, are the only other teams with a chance to qualify. Canada, Sweden, Italy and United States have all guaranteed qualification for the later stages with 2 places still up for grabs.

Despite 3 successive defeats, Scotland are still in with a shout to qualify with their final game against Switzerland at 3am tomorrow, when only a win will do. Germany are still to play Korea tonight at 10pm and the Koreans will play again at 3am tomorrow against Netherlands. Norway play Sweden at 10pm tonight

As usual in these close round-robin games, there are several permutations to consider. Either Scotland or Switzerland will move on to 7 wins, leaving only 1 place available, which can be filled only by either Germany or Korea getting to 7 wins. If Korea beat Germany and then lose to Netherlands and Norway defeat Sweden, there will be 4 teams on 6 wins and then the fun begins, working out who beat who and possibly the Draw Shot Challenge will come into the reckoning (we are pretty good at that and it could yet prove useful).

Now is the hour to stand up and be counted. Can we do it? YES! Will we do it? We'll have to wait for that answer.