[St Charles Owl]

Assuming there were at least 5 scoring stones when the last Scotland one went down, I would have thought the goal would be to take a few out rather than win the end, so a bit like in bowls, get it down with pace and cause havoc, had nothing to lose I would imagine!!! Of course its easier said than done, but damage limitation should have been the order of the day, so smash a few stones out the back!!!!!!

Of course I am saying this with no experience of really having played and haven't seen how it transpired!!

[ritchiebaby]

Very true, SCO, but I would have been inclined to get the 3rd player to do just that with his two stones, supposing he just opened up the front. Norway would then be forced to use stones to protect their scoring shots, thereby not being able to draw more stones into the rings. But, as you say, perhaps easier said than done.

In the WCF website reports of the Womens Championships, you could get graphics showing the progress of each end, with the finishing position of each stone. Also team and player percentages were available, both overall and for each game. There's nothing like that for these Championships.

[ritchiebaby]

Perhaps last night's words of advice given by a true Scot and a wise old owl   proved to be the turning point in the fortunes of the Scottish team.

Scotland broke their duck by squeezing through 8-6 against Russia (it must have been a Muscovy! ) in the morning session. Scotland managed to lose a 3 in the first end, but then scored the next 3 ends to move into a 5-3 lead. Russia came back to 5-5, but the Scots held their nerve to record a vital win, scoring against the head in the last end. In the afternoon game against USA, Scotland again scored against the head (Duck Head - hopefully SCO will recognise the name - other brands are available) in the last two ends to win by 6-4.

The Scots are now in the unaccustomed position of rising to second bottom of the table on 2 wins, ahead of Russia. Also on 2 wins are China, Italy and USA. Unbeaten Canada have 6 wins, followed by Norway and Switzerland on 5 wins and Japan on 4 wins. A word of caution now - tomorrow Scotland play Switzerland in the afternoon session and Canada in the evening session. However if winning breeds confidence, then we do have a chance of beating one of them, and you just never know, both of them. That would put the cat among the pigeons/ducks!

Terminology - "against the head", also known as a steal - when the team who does not have last stone, scores a shot. Theoretically, the team having last stone can decide whether to play a shot to score or deliberately play a stone to ensure there is no score, thereby retaining last stone for the following end when a better chance might be available.

[St Charles Owl]

Good to hear they finally won a game!!!!

Duck Head - redneck clothing from the south!!

[ritchiebaby]

There are no reports up on the website yet, but the good news is that Scotland beat Switzerland by 5 shots to 4 after an extra end. That's 3 wins in succession for Scotland, a great improvement on the first half of the Championship. Next up is joint leader Canada in the evening session - an after midnight finish in BST, so tomorrow night will be the next post from me.

The final two games for Scotland in the Championship will be against China and Sweden tomorrow. After Session 13, Canada and Norway have 7 wins each after 8 games, then Sweden and Switzerland on 6 wins and 5 wins respectively, after both have played 9 games. Lurking just behind are Finland and Japan with 4 wins from 8 games.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland's recovery didn't last too long, being outgunned by Canada. Despite having last stone on 6 ends, they only scored on one end before conceding 1-7 after 8 ends. Skip Ewan MacDonald struggled with his draw weight throughout and weight accuracy is vital on the last stone.

Yesterday China beat Scotland 10-3 again after 8 ends. The first half of the game was close and Scotland were only 2-3 down after 5 ends, but a 4 in the 6th end and a 3 in the 8th end put Scotland to the sword.

In their final game of a desperately poor Championship for Scotland, they had Duncan Fernie back at third, replacing David Murdoch, to play against Sweden. A poor first end saw the Scots lose a 4, followed by a 1 in the second end. To their credit they came back into things and only trailed by 1 shot after 6 ends. Then the old faults came back and they lost a 2 and a 3 in the last 3 ends to lose by 6-11.

After the game, MacDonald, who has carried out what became excruciating post-game media rituals with enormous dignity, said, ” I’m just extremely disappointed.  Coming into this week, we’d all put in a lot of work and thrown a lot of stones and we were feeling good. We just got off to a really poor start and we were up against it right from the kick-off.  We put ourselves under pressure.  We knew how important it was to get out of the traps, and it didn’t happen.”

The upshot of all this is that Scotland finished in 11th place with 3 wins, just ahead of Russia. The 1v2 play-off will be between Canada and Norway, with Sweden taking third place. Finland and USA will play a tie-breaker for fourth place.

No doubt there will be a major inquest by the hierarchy at home into why the Scots performed so badly, and it's equally certain that the players and coaches will already have had one. There is a points system to decide world ranking positions, which is weighted in favour of recent results, which might see Scotland (and GB in Olympic tournaments) slide down the table if things don't change quickly. Scotland has a proud record in major tournaments and won't want to be overtaken in their top three placement.

[ritchiebaby]

UPDATE - Finland have beaten USA 6-5 to earn the right to play Sweden in the 3v4 game tomorrow.

[ritchiebaby]

The 1v2 game resulted in Norway beating Canada by 7-6 in a really tight game where both teams led, but by no more than 2 shots at any one time. This gives Norway the chance of winning a second successive world title. Canada now play in the semi-final against the winner of the 3v4 game.

This game saw Sweden see off Finland by 7 shots to 4, in a game where the Swedes took an early advantage and never lost it. Finland will now take part in the Bronze Medal game against the losers of the Canada v Sweden semi-final.

Sweden defeated Canada by 6-3 in a virtual rerun of their game against Finland. Sweden swept into an early lead and were in control from then on. They now have qualified to play Norway in the Gold/Silver Medal game, with Canada playing Finland in the Bronze Medal game.

This morning Canada claimed the Bronze Medal with a fairly comfortable win by 8-4 against Finland. The Finns have done very well this week, with little expected of them on the world stage. Canada are always there or thereabouts in the major championships and will be delighted to have won a medal this week after their barren year last year.

In the final game Sweden got off to a flying start with a 3 in the first end and although Norway dragged themselves back into the game to level at 3-3 after 3 ends, Sweden scored another two 3s in the 5th and 7th ends against Norway's two singles in the 6th and 8th end to lead 9-5, leading to a concession by Norway.

FINAL PLACINGS
Gold - Sweden
Silver - Norway
Bronze - Canada

[ritchiebaby]

Podium positions:- Silver - Norway; Gold - Sweden; Bronze - Canada

The winning team - Niklas Edin, Oskar Erikkson, Kristian Lindstroem and Christoffer Sundgren

Japan lead Kosuke Morozumi was the winner of the Collie Campbell Award