[ritchiebaby]

This year's Championships get underway in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Saturday 14 October to Saturday 21 October. Aberdeen was the birthplace of many famous people, notably Henry Cecil, racehorse trainer (I could hardly believe that either), Graham Garden of The Goodies (equally unbelievable), Denis Law and Paul Lawrie (now that's more like it!).

The participating teams are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Czechia, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States and Wales.

The Home Nations are -

England - 4th: Ben Fowler (Vice-Skip), 3rd: Anna Fowler (Skip), 2nd: Scott Gibson, 1st: Annabelle Martin

Ireland - Brian Mathews (Skip), Clare McCormick (Vice-Skip), Jason Medhurst (2nd), Stephanie McDonald (Lead)

Scotland - Jack Strawhorn (Skip), Amy Mitchell (Vice-Skip), Kaleb Johnston (2nd), Kirsty Gallacher (Lead)

Wales - Adrian Meikle (Skip), Dawn Watson (Vice-Skip), Andrew Tanner (2nd), Judith Glazier (Lead)
I've named all the right players, but not necessarily in the right order - now, where have I heard that before!

The 34 teams are split into 4 groups, most notably Group A which contains the 4 Home Nations plus Belgium, Israel, Japan, Netherlands and Sweden. More details to come later in the week.