[ritchiebaby]

These Championships are run in conjunction with the Mixed Doubles in Stavanger, Norway and are halfway through already with only 1 Home Nation setting the pace.

The women have been divided into two groups as follows:
Group A: Australia, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden and United States
Group B: Denmark, England, Italy, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand, Scotland and Switzerland


ENGLAND - Judith Dixon (Skip), Joan Reed (Third), Helen Forbes (Second), Angela Wilcox (Lead)
Now, I happen to know the ladies in the photograph, and they are from left to right, Angela, Helen, Joan and Judith. The order in the other photographs are quite probably in the wrong order too - AND ARE!

SCOTLAND - Susan Kesley (Skip), Fran Stretton (Third), Vicky Gumley (Second), Morna Aitken (Lead)

The four men’s groups are:
Group A: Australia, Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Sweden and Turkey
Group B: Canada, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Norway and Russia
Group C: England, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia and Switzerland
Group D: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Wales and United States


ENGLAND - David Tranmer (Skip), Richard Jachnik (Third), Philip Townsend (Second), William Brampton (Lead), Graham Stanley (Alternate)

IRELAND - Bill Gray (Skip), David Whyte (Third), Neil Fyfe (Second), Ross Barr (Lead), Peter Wilson (Alternate)

SCOTLAND - David Smith (Skip), Mike Hay (Third), Peter Smith (Second), Sandy Hay (Lead), Gordon Sneddon (Alternate)

WALES - Adrian Meikle (Skip), Richard Pougher (Third), Andrew Tanner (Second), Gary Waddell (Lead), George Fyffe (Alternate)

Round-robin play starts on Saturday 20 April and continues until Thursday 25 April. After that, in the women’s event, the group winners will go directly to the semi-finals while the teams that finish second in each group will play the third-placed team from the other group to complete the semi-final line-up. In the men’s event, the top teams in each group proceed to the quarter-finals, while the second and third-placed teams in each group go into qualification games, with only the winners proceeding to the quarter-finals. In both women’s and men’s competitions, qualification games and quarter-finals will take place on Friday 26 April, while semi-finals and bronze and gold medal games will be played on Saturday 27 April.

I'll update you all on the results so far later tonight, as I'm off out this afternoon for a meeting.