[ritchiebaby]

These B Curling Championships will take place from Monday 3 January until Wednesday 12 January and is open to junior teams from all World Curling Federation Member Associations that have not already qualified for the World Junior Curling Championships. The top three women’s and men’s teams will qualify from this event to the World Junior Curling Championships.

The Men's Teams are from Austria, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey, and play from 3 January to 6 January in the Round-robin. Their Quarter-finals and Semi-finals are due to be played on 7 January with the Finals on 8 January.

England Men
4 : Jotham SUGDEN (Skip)
3 : Felix WHITTICASE (Vice-Skip)
2 : Archer WOODS
1 : Harry PINNELL

According the WCF website, England are not in any of the 3 Groups, but Chinese Taipei are in Groups A and B and Hong Kong are in Groups B and C. I had hoped that the playing schedule would yield a clue as to the Groups, but England are playing 4 of the 5 teams in Group C, except for Kazakhstan, so that doesn't really help. Add in the fact that Chinese Taipei are due to play Netherlands 3 times (twice in the same session!) and Denmark are playing 2 teams at the same time, which doesn't fill me with confidence as to the accuracy of the draw. It's an absolute bloody shambles. 

Women's Teams representing Austria, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and United States compete in 3 Groups. They play from 10 January to 12 January in the Round-robin, followed by their Quarter-finals and Semi-finals on 13 January and Finals on 14 January.

England Women
4 : Sydney BOYD (Skip)
3 : Annabelle MARTIN (Vice-Skip)
2 : Mia ANDELL
1 : Anna HOWEY
A : Libby DAVIES

Scotland Women
4 : Fay HENDERSON (Skip)
3 : Katie McMILLAN
2 : Lisa DAVIE (Vice-Skip)
1 : Holly WILKIE-MILNE
A : Robyn MITCHELL

The Women's Draw and Groups do seem to make sense with both England and Scotland in Group B.

[ritchiebaby]

One step forward tonight. Chinese Taipei are in Group A and Hong Kong are in Group B AND England have made it into Group C.

However the playing schedule is still nonsense.

Double thumbs up tomorrow?

[ritchiebaby]

England came out of the blocks like a rocket today, scoring 5 shots in the 1st end, eventually beating Austria 10-5. They only scored in 3 of the 7 ends played and dominated the game.

Tomorrow they play France in the morning and Kazakhstan in the evening.

One of the Hungarian team tested positive for Covid during the pre-tournament testing and they duly forfeited their game against Slovenia. The rest of the team and staff will only be allowed to return on production of a negative PCR test, meaning their tournament might be over before it began.

[ritchiebaby]

   

In proper authenticated curling news, England continued their winning ways, albeit it not quite as flamboyant as yesterday. First they beat France 5-3, leading all the way and surviving a nervy last end. Tonight they beat Kazakhstan by the same score with an end to spare.

This gives England 3 wins out of 3 along with Japan, followed by Korea on 2 wins out of 3. Austria have 1 win, then France and Kazakhstan on 0 wins.

Not only are Kazakhstan bottom of Group C, they are apparently bottom of Group B as well. I'm certain that Hong Kong are bottom of Group B, but with the WCF website in complete disarray, I can't really be sure of anything. 

Also, as suggested last night, Hungary Men are deemed to have 1 positive Covid case with everyone else as a close contact. The Finnish Health Authorities have put them all in quarantine, forcing them to withdraw from the competition.

[ritchiebaby]

     

The whole competition is beginning to fall apart before our very eyes. First of all, Chinese Taipei returned a positive Covid result after additional testing yesterday evening, then in more additional testing this afternoon, Spain and Slovenia had positive cases confirmed. That's now 4 teams from Group A isolating until numerous negative PCR Tests can be secured. That leaves Norway, Denmark and Brazil potentially left in the competition. A huge headache with anxiety as a complication for all the teams and officials as well as organisers.

Meanwhile England suffered their first defeat this week against Korea, losing 4-8 after 7 ends, solely because of one bad end, losing 5 shots in the 4th end. They will almost certainly have to defeat unbeaten leaders Japan tomorrow morning to progress.

[ritchiebaby]

We don't need to worry about England's chances of qualifying as the Championships have been cancelled to the number of Covid cases being confirmed. The Women's event due to start on 10 January has also been cancelled.