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This competition, also held in Lethbridge, starts on Sunday 23 April and concludes on Saturday 29 April.

Women

Group A
England
Lead: Deborah Higgins, Second: Helen Forbes, Third: Val Saville (vice-skip), Fourth: Judith Dixon (skip)
Ireland
Lead: Clare McCormick, Second: Louise Kerr, Third: Marie O'Kane, Fourth: Carolyn Hibberd and Coach: Gerald O'Kane
Also in Group A are Canada, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Russia and Sweden.

Group B
Scotland
Alternate: Janet Lindsay, Lead: Margaret Richardson, Second: Isobel Hannen, Third: Christine Cannon (vice-skip), Fourth: Jackie Lockhart (skip)
Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and USA complete Group B.

Men

Group A consists of Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

Group B
Ireland
Alternate: David Hume, Lead: David Whyte, Second: Bill Gray, Third: Johnjo Kenny (vice-skip), Fourth: Peter Wilson (skip) and Coach: Gillian Russell
Australia, France, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and USA are the other Group B teams.

Group C
England
Lead: Alastair Fyfe, Second: Michael Spain, Third: Philip Barton (vice-skip), Fourth: Thomas Campbell (skip) and Coach: Elaine Spain
Scotland
Alternate: Andrew Hemming, Lead: Graham Lindsay, Second: Ronald Wilson, Third: David McQueen (vice-skip), Fourth: Ian Drysdale (skip)
Wales
Alternate: Alistair Reid, Lead: Gary Waddell, Second: Chris Wells (vice-skip), Third: Richard Pougher, Fourth: Adrian Meikle (skip) and Coach: Dawn Watson
Group C is completed by Canada, Finland, New Zealand and Russia.

Amazingly enough, the Seniors competition starts after the Opening Ceremony and Welcome Reception on Saturday! You can trust the oldies to get the sequence correct.   The English Senior Women curl at the Border Ice Rink, so I have a special interest in their progress. Last year they did very well and hopefully they will produce a similar, if not better, performance. Come on England!!! (did I really say that?)

Sunday's games include the following:-
Men - Russia v England, Finland v Scotland, Wales v Russia, England v Canada, USA v Ireland.
Women - Scotland v Czech Republic, Russia v Ireland, England v Japan, Slovakia v Scotland, England v Lithuania, Ireland v Japan.

[Devongone]

A ridiculous genius of a sport, bet it's wonderful to play, 'cept I wouldn't want to be on the brush ....... Great it is on here!

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Now it's catch up time for the results.

Men - Russia 6 England 2, Finland 3 Scotland 6, Wales 7 Russia 2, England 3 Canada 10, USA 3 Ireland 5.
Women - Scotland 9 Czech Republic 2, Russia 9 Ireland 5, England 6 Japan 12, Slovakia 1 Scotland 15, England 10 Lithuania 0, Ireland 2 Japan 9.

Today's games are France v Ireland, Wales v Finland, England v Scotland, being played just now, followed by Canada v Scotland and Wales v England in the Men's competition with Scotland v Australia, Canada v England, Ireland v Sweden and England v Ireland for the Women.

Photos are proving far too slow to produce on here, so I'll try again later.

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ENGLAND SENIOR MEN AND WOMEN

IRELAND SENIOR MEN AND WOMEN

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SCOTLAND SENIOR MEN AND WOMEN

WALES SENIOR MEN

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And England in the best of spirits at the Opening Ceremony - too many spirits if you ask me!  

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Some big scores to report in today's sessions - some good, some not so good, depending on your allegiance.

Men - France 3 Ireland 11, Wales 1 Finland 7, England 2 Scotland 14.
Women - Scotland 9 Australia 1, Canada 13 England 1, Ireland 8 Sweden 13.

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Tomorrow's games are:-
Men - New Zealand v Wales, Scotland v Russia, Ireland v Italy and Ireland v Israel.
Women - Ireland v Italy, Russia v England, USA v Scotland, Canada v Ireland and Sweden v England.

In the Women's competition, although England and Ireland still have 4 games to play, they are both close to the stage where they cannot afford to lose another game and England are in the same predicament in the Men's competition.

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RESULTS
Men - Canada 7 Scotland 2, Wales 5 England 4, New Zealand 7 Wales 3, Scotland 12 Russia 2 and Ireland 6 Italy 2.
Women - England 8 Ireland 3, Ireland 1 Italy 9 and Russia 11 England 2.

Following these results, England Men now have no chance of reaching the later stages and Wales have only a marginally better chance. Scotland are in a good position with 3 wins and 1 defeat, while Ireland are currently top of Group B with 3 wins out of 3. The English Women must win both of their remaining games and hope for assistance from someone else to progress, while Ireland sit bottom of the same Group with no chance. In the other Group, Scotland are leading, but with nothing guaranteed as three teams still have the chance to overtake them.

In the Men's competition tomorrow Ireland play Switzerland and Kazakhstan, Scotland play Wales and New Zealand, Wales play Scotland and Canada with England playing New Zealand and Finland. This leaves only one other game to be played - Ireland v Australia on Thursday morning.

For the Women it's Scotland v Finland and Switzerland, then England v Italy followed by Ireland v Lithuania to complete the qualifying stages.

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Last night's results
Men - Ireland 8 Israel 3.
Women - USA 6 Scotland 4.

Today's results
Men - Switzerland 7 Ireland 3, Scotland 4 Wales 6 (after an extra end), New Zealand 6 England 4.
Women - Scotland 7 Finland 6 (after an extra end), England 6 Italy 7 (England were 5 behind with only 2 ends to play).

For the Men, Ireland have a strong chance of qualification with 4 wins and 1 defeat with 2 games to go, England are out and still have to win a game and both Scotland and Wales are struggling and need to win their last game to have any chance of a tie-breaker place.

In the Women's competition, Ireland have yet to win a game and England have finished in the bottom half of their group with 3 wins and 4 defeats, but Scotland have already qualified with 4 wins from 5 games, the same record as Switzerland, their opponents later tonight.

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As far as the Men's games were concerned, the results stayed true to the form book. Both Scotland and Wales needed to win their last games against higher rated opposition and both failed. Scotland lost 2-5 to New Zealand and Wales lost 2-7 to Canada, who are still unbeaten (sound familiar?). However, despite both having won only 3 games out of 6, they now play each other in a tie-breaker to decide who goes through to a qualifying game for the last 8.

England are definitely out, although they finished by beating Finland by 10-6 to record their first win. On a much more positive note, Ireland continued their fine performances by demolishing Kazakhstan 16-1, to lie in 2nd place on 5 wins out of 6 with 1 game to go. Just to complicate matters, that game is against leaders Australia, who have already qualified, and 3rd placed Switzerland play 4th placed Israel, both of whom might have the chance to displace Ireland.

The Women's competition is much more straightforward as all the round robin games have been played. It's still not all plain sailing though, as there are 4 teams tied for 2 places. Japan will play Russia and Sweden will play Italy to decide the 2 teams who go through to the next stage. England just missed out on the tied places and Ireland completed their involvement with an amazing high-scoring 11-10 win over Lithuania.

Scotland ensured their qualification with an 8-4 last end win over Switzerland to finish 2nd in the group behind USA and ahead of Switzerland, who also qualify. Unbeaten Canada (deja vu?) are the other definite qualifiers.

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Senior Men
In the tie-breaker game Wales beat Scotland 5-4 to go into the qualifying game. Their opponents will be Israel, who beat Switzerland 5-4. The winners will join Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand in the Quarter-finals. Ireland qualified despite losing 2-8 to Australia in their last game.

Senior Women
In the tie-breaker games Russia won 7-4 against Japan to move to the qualifying game against Scotland later tonight. The other qualifier will feature Switzerland v Italy, who had earlier defeated Sweden 9-3. The winners of the qualifying games will join Canada and USA in the Semi-finals tomorrow.


Dedicated Followers Of Fashion??? - Switzerland and Norway

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MEN
Adrian Meikle's decision to withdraw from his last Mixed Doubles match proved correct, when his Wales team overcame Israel 8-6 by scoring 3 shots in the last end. His "reward" is a game against Canada in the Quarter-finals.
The full draw is:-
Australia v Germany; Denmark v Ireland; Sweden v New Zealand; Canada v Wales:

WOMEN
In their qualifying game Scotland demolished Russia 10-0 to move into the Semi-finals, with Switzerland beating Italy 7-3 in the other game.
The Semi-finals are USA v Switzerland and Canada v Scotland.