[ritchiebaby]

Snooty, there's absolutely no doubt that she released the stone well before the hogline, but there might be a doubt whether or not there was a double touch. If she touched it again before the hogline, that's OK, but if she touched it again on or after the hogline, it would be a fouled stone. An umpire or a camera at the hogline would have made a decision right away and there would be no problem. Unfortunately in curling, technology has replaced the human eye and must not be challenged.    I feel that a perfectly good stone was removed (I would say that, wouldn't I?). The man who came on and tested the stone, didn't do it to see if the red light came on with a deliberately fouled stone at the hogline, so he was a complete waste of time.

Anyway, it is what it is, so the Women have got to move on to the next games which are now vital to our progress. They play Switzerland tomorrow lunchtime, Japan on Tuesday at breakfast time and finally Canada at just after midnight on Wednesday. Amazingly after today's defeat by 6-8 against Sweden, they are still in 4th equal position with China, although both teams have played one game more than the rest. Surely another defeat would see them fail to qualify. What is needed is Sweden or Korea to win their remaining games and keep the others at bay. They are definitely good enough to get through but the overall aura/mood surrounding the players is fairly negative. I would say that there might be something going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

As far as the Men are concerned they won 7-6 against Italy after an extra end. They should have had a reasonably comfortable time of it, but an occasional bad stone at a vital time changed the whole dynamics of the game and the Italians always felt they had a chance. They too are equal 4th with Japan and Norway and have 3 games to play. As they have already played all 3 teams above them, they have an "easier" finish against Denmark tomorrow at 05.05, Norway at 00.05 on Tuesday and USA at 05.05 on Wednesday. Again Sweden could be our good friends with Canada helping out along the way.

To quickly summarise the other sports, James Woods came an agonising "minging" 4th in the Slopestyle and Brad Hall and Joel Fearon lie a very respectable 7th in the Bobsleigh event with 2 runs to come tomorrow at 11.15 and 13.00.

Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland begin the Ice Dance competition at 01.00 tomorrow and Aimee Fuller starts her qualification attempt at 01.00 in the Snowboard Big Air with Molly Summerhayes and Rowan Cheshire competing in the Ski Halfpipe also at 01.00. Aimee, Molly and Rowan should qualify for their Finals with Rowan being an outside medal chance on Tuesday.