[ritchiebaby]

The World Women’s Curling Championship of 2019 gets underway on Saturday 16 March in the Silkeborg Sportscenter in the town of Silkeborg – “in the Lake District of Denmark” - and continues until Sunday 24 March with the medal games. Again there will be 6 teams who qualify for the later stages, giving some of the "lesser" teams a real chance of gaining a medal.

The 13 teams in the competition are Denmark (hosts), Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Latvia, Scotland, Korea, Japan, Canada (defending champions), United States, China and Finland.


Scotland are represented by Sophie Jackson (skip), Naomi Brown (Third), Mili Smith (Second), Sophie Sinclair (Lead) and Lauren Gray (Alternate). It is a young upcoming team (pictured with the Scottish Championship tropy) and Lauren Gray, who has won 10 medals dating from 2011 to 2017, and coach Tom Brewster, 9 medals from 1995 to 2014, are easily the most experienced part of that team. Sophie and her team finished an impressive 4th in the recent Winter Universiade Games, but I would realistically expect the Scots to be in the frame for a mid-table qualifying position and Canada, Sweden, Korea and USA to be there or thereabouts in the final reckoning. However, it's a slippery game and there will be a lot of twists and turns along the way.

Scotland play Japan on Saturday, followed by China and Finland on Sunday.

[Lord Snooty]

Is this the competition where Eve's team were controversially selected despite being beaten in the qualifiers and then dropped on appeal? Think I read something along those lines.

[ritchiebaby]

Exactly right, Snooty. Go to the top of the class!  

It just goes to show that the "blazers" (Scottish Curling in this instance) make up the rules and then ignore them to get the desired result. Scottish Curling had to issue an embarrassing statement in support of the winning team - https://www.scottishcurling.org/team-jac...mpionship/

The Championships will be shown on Eurosport and BBC Online.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland suffered an opening defeat 4-10 against Japan, despite being only 1 down at the half-way stage.

That was bad enough, but what was far worse was the BBC Sport website's report on the match. According to the Beeb, the Scots were 0-5 down after 4 ends (the score per the WCF website was 1-4) and that they were losing 2-9 after 6 ends (3-8 per the WCF website). Fake news par excellence! To be fair, I didn't see the game, but I'm more inclined to believe the World Governing Body's version.

Also according to the Beeb, Scotland's game against Canada will be on the BBC Sport website on Tuesday at 12.45pm, but I would check and double check if you want to be sure of seeing it.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland were involved in a dramatic game against China this afternoon. Sophie Jackson was replaced by Lauren Gray after 2 ends with China leading 6-0. The reshuffled Scottish team immediately responded with 5 shots in the next 2 ends to be only 1 down at the half-way point. But, also like yesterday, they then fell away to go 5-10 down with 2 ends left. There was a mini-recovery in the next end when they scored 2 shots, but left themselves too much to do, eventually losing by that score.

Scotland continue tomorrow with games against Germany and Latvia.

PS I take it all back about the WCF website. After my comments about the BBC yesterday, the current WCF scoreboard showed that Scotland trailed China by 7-8 after 9 ends, even though my arithmetical genius managed to calculate that 2+4+2+2=10. What is going on in the world??? I blame Brexit.  
And during the 10th end it's now been put back to 10 for China. Will it stay at that, will we ever know what happened? Who cares, anyway? Answers on a postcard to .....................

[St Charles Owl]

I blame Trump and Brexit, causing chaos in the world of curling!!! Having said who care, no Eve, no interest!!!

[ritchiebaby]

Comiserations to you, SCO, but we'll have no favouritism here. COME ON SCOTLAND.  

I've discovered that the reason for Sophie Jackson being replaced in the game against China was because of her knee injury. Lauren Gray came on as 3rd player to Naomi Brown, and was then moved up to skip in tonight's game versus Finland. The move certainly worked as Scotland, who had been held to a 4-3 lead after 7 ends, finished with a 3 and then a 2 to win by 9 shots to 3.

Hopefully the confidence gained with that win will hold them in good stead for tomorrow's games.

---

Lauren Gray, Mili Smith, Naomi Brown and Sophie Sinclair

PS Absolute chaos on here tonight trying to get this posted. Think it's OK now.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland did secure their second victory, this time against Germany 9-8, but they continue to make life as difficult as possible. Well in control, winning 6-3 after 6 ends, they allowed Germany to claim an easy 4 shots in the 7th end and had to rely on Lauren Gray to make a double take-out with the last stone of the game to sneak a win.

They had a similar game tonight against Latvia, although each end was much tighter. For the second time in a row, Scotland went into the last end 1 down and again relied on Lauren Gray with the last stone to save the day. And once again she did, with a perfect draw for 2 shots to win 5-4.

Now that makes the competition very exciting, but I'd much prefer to have Scotland with a comfortable lead in the last end.

Scotland now play Canada tomorrow afternoon and meet Switzerland and Denmark on Wednesday, before a tough finish on Thursday and Friday with games against 3 of the top 4 countries.

[ritchiebaby]

This morning's results went Scotland's way, with the teams immediately behind them, Switzerland and USA, being beaten.

And to cement their position, Scotland, with a fully recovered Sophie Jackson at the helm, defeated Canada 6-5 after an extra end. They were 2-4 down after 7 ends but came good with a 2 and a 1 to go into the lead. Canada had last stone in the 10th end, but had to settle for 1 shot to tie the game. This gave Scotland the last stone in the extra end, which Sophie used to great effect, taking out Canada's shot to win the game.

This now puts the Scots in one of the qualifying positions with 6 of the 12 games completed. China, Korea, Russia and Sweden have 5 wins each with Scotland 1 behind.

[ritchiebaby]

The BBC and WCF are at it again - or at least, one of them is. The Beeb report that Sophie Jackson has now recovered from her back injury, while the WCF reported alternate Lauren Gray as saying that Sophie needed to recover from her knee injury. Did she injure both/only one and which one and is it recovered or are both recovered?

Just for the sake of giving the BBC a boost, they are to be commended for televising Scotland v USA on Friday, as well as the Semi-final if Scotland are involved on Saturday and also the Medal Games on Sunday, whether or not Scotland are involved. All on the BBC Sport Website.