[ritchiebaby]

This year's competition will be held in Sous-Moulin Sports Center, Geneva, Switzerland from 23rd to 30th April and runs at the same time as the World Seniors.

The participating teams are from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United States. These teams are split into the following groups -
GROUP A - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
GROUP B - Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Hungary, Scotland, Spain, Turkey and United States.
The teams ranked 1st in each group get a bye to the semi-finals. The teams ranked 2nd and 3rd in each group play in qualification games (A2 v B3 and B2 v A3). The winners of those qualification games advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-final games, A1 will play the winner of B2 v A3; B1 will play the winner of A2 v B3. The winners of the semi-finals play in the gold medal game, the losers of the semi-final play in the bronze medal game.

England are represented by Anna Fowler and Ben Fowler, playing in their 5th World Mixed Doubles for their country


Scotland's team are Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie, Gold Medallist and Silver Medallist at the recent Winter Olympics

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland is the defending Champion in this event, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat having won in Aberdeen in 2021. Sven Michel of Switzerland is also a previous winner in 2018 with a different partner and in 2011 with his current partner, Alina Paetz.

The weekend games involving the home countries, including an early home derby, are as follows -
Saturday
England - v Scotland at 14.00
Scotland - v England at 14.00

Sunday
England - v Czech Republic at 10.00 and v Hungary at 18.00
Scotland - v Australia at 10.00 and v Czech Republic at 18.00

[ritchiebaby]

Only 1 game involving the Home Countries in this competition today, when Scotland beat England by 8-3. After the first 4 ends, England were only 2-3 down but Scotland's vast experience at the top level pulled them through comfortably.

[ritchiebaby]

England lost to Czech Republic by 4-7 this morning. Once again they were right in the game, drawing 2-2 at the halfway stage, but lost 4 shots in the 5th end and eventually ran out of stones in the final end to concede the game. Unfortunately they lost again in tonight's session, losing 6-8 against Hungary. This time the Fowlers got off to a poor start and were 2-8 down after 5 ends. They did recover well to be 6-8 down with 1 end to go, but again were run out of stones by the Hungarians.

Meanwhile Scotland continued on their merry way with victories over Australia by 9-4, again with a dominant display in the second half of the game after being held to 2-2 at the halfway point, and Czech Republic by 9-3 with yet another strong finish.

Tomorrow sees England play Turkey, both holding up the table, and Scotland play Canada in the afternoon session.

[ritchiebaby]

A much improved performance from England, as Ben and Anna Fowler clinched their 1st win, beating Turkey 9-6 following an extra end. The English brother and sister team were never behind and held their nerve in the big shots.

In the same session, Scotland beat Canada 8-4 after a generally tight game, scoring 4 shots in the 7th end and running the Canadians out of stones in the last.

England play United States tomorrow at 10am, then Australia at 6pm. Scotland have Germany at 10am and United States at 6pm.

On Wednesday England are up against Canada at 2pm with Scotland  playing Hungary at the same time.

[ritchiebaby]

England continued their upturn in form by beating United States 7-4, but unfortunately lost to Australia by 5-8 in their late game yesterday, when they unbelievably led 5-1 after 3 ends but lost the final 5 ends. Today they were defeated 2-6 by Canada to leave themselves an impossible task in their qualification bid. I won't go into the possible permutations, but England can only get to 4 wins and at least one of the 5 teams above them are going to get to 5 wins and the 3rd available place. Their remaining games are against Spain and Germany tomorrow.

Scotland, however, continued their impressive run of wins by beating Germany 8-4, and then United States by 7-2 yesterday. They then defeated Hungary 10-4 today, including 5 shots in the 5th end, to remain unbeaten at the top of Group B and are guaranteed, along with Canada, to qualify for the later stages. Turkey and Spain are their opponents tomorrow.

Group A has still got 5 teams in contention for the 3 qualification places with only 1 game to play.

[ritchiebaby]

England did their confidence a world of good in disposing of Spain by 11 shots to 1, including 5 shots in the 5th end. Unfortunately they lost to Germany by 3-7 in their final game. These results mean that they ended with 3 wins in 8th position in Group B, and now have to face Finland in a relegation battle tomorrow at 9am.

Scotland, on the other hand, completed their round-robin games by scoring in the first 5 ends without reply to beat Turkey 10-2 and then beat Spain 10-3 to finish unbeaten and qualify directly to a Semi-final place. At 4pm they will play the winner of the Sweden v Germany play-off game, while Switzerland await the winner of Canada v Norway.

[ritchiebaby]

In the Relegation Game, England were always in control, eventually beating Finland 6-3 to retain their place in the main event next season. In the Qualification Games, Germany beat Sweden 11-8 and Norway beat Canada 6-5.

Scotland then eased past Germany by 8-3 in the Semi-finals, but it took Switzerland an extra end to squeeze past Norway by 8-7.

The Bronze Medal Game between Germany and Norway will be played at 10am tomorrow, followed by Switzerland v Scotland at 2pm in the Gold/Medal Game.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland's Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie defeated Alina Paetz and Sven Michel of Switzerland by 9-7 to win Gold. The Scots led by 7-2 after 4 ends and played a cagey game to leave the Swiss with too much to do.

After the game, Scotland’s Bobby Lammie said, “It feels good. It hasn’t settled in yet, but the week we’ve had here, it felt like we were controlling everything we were doing, so we’re just delighted today. We’ve had a world-ride of a season and to cap it off this way — it’s been a memorable season for Scottish curling.”
His teammate, Eve Muirhead, said, “In Mixed Doubles, it’s never over till it’s over, and as much as we had that five-point lead you’re always just clinging on. One or two half-shots let them back into it. As much as we gave up that big steal of two, we kept our composure, and we knew if we scored it would be good.”
She added, “That’s the complete set of titles for me now, so I don’t know where to go from here. It’s been a phenomenal year and to cap it off with Bobby is really special.”

Pia-Lisa Scholl and Klaudius Harsch of Germany won Bronze by beating brother and sister Magnus and Maia Ramsfjell of Norway by 7-5 in a fluctuating game.

GOLD - Scotland
SILVER - Switzerland
BRONZE - Germany