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The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2022 will be staged in Oestersund, Sweden, from Friday 18 to Saturday 26 November. The women’s and men’s A-Division will be staged in the Oestersund Arena, a modern and accessible building, opened in December 2013.

The ten A-Division women’s teams are: Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye. Scotland are the defending champions, and are represented by a new-look team, skipped by Rebecca Morrison. Sweden are the current silver medallists, but with a lineup change this year, Sofia Mabergs will play third while Johanna Heldin will play vice-skip and lead. Germany took European bronze last season, and they are skipped by Daniela Jentsch, who will be playing in her ninth European championship.

Scotland
Rebecca Morrison (Skip), Gina Aitken (Vice-Skip), Sophie Sinclair (2nd), Sophie Jackson (Lead) and Alternate Hailey Duff.

The ten A-Division men’s teams are: Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye. Scotland are again the defending champions (and also Olympic silver medallists), skipped by Bruce Mouat. Sweden are the current European silver medallists (and reigning Olympic champions). They will be skipped by usual vice-skip third player Oskar Eriksson, as regular skip Niklas Edin recovers from his knee surgery. Italy are current European bronze medallists, skipped by Joel Retornaz, who is making his 14th appearance at this event.

Scotland
Bruce Mouat (Skip), Grant Hardie (Vice-Skip), Bobby Lammie (2nd), Hamilton McMillan (Lead) with Alternate Kyle Waddell.

In the A-Division round-robin play commences on Friday evening 18 November and will continue until the morning of Thursday 24 November. In both the men’s and women’s events, the top four teams will progress to the semi-finals, where the teams ranked first on the round-robin table will play the fourth-ranked teams, while the second and third-ranked teams will face each other. Both women’s semi-finals and one of the men’s semi-finals will take place from 12noon onwards on 24 November, while the other men’s semi-final will be on the morning of Friday 25 November.  Both the women’s and men’s bronze medal games will be staged on Friday 25 November with the gold medal finals taking place on Saturday 26 November.

The B Division is being played at the same time at the Oestersund Curling Hall and includes England in the Women's competition and England, Ireland and Wales in the Men's event. More of this to come later in the week.

[ritchiebaby]

And here are the remaining details about the B-Division event, from Saturday 19 to Saturday 26 November in the Oestersund Curling Hall. All the qualifying games, relegation battles and the Semi-finals are due to take place on Friday 25 November, with the Finals being held on Saturday 26 November.

The 10 women’s teams are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

England
Lisa Farnell (Skip), Kitty Conlin (3rd), Vikki Brannigan (2nd), Jessica Skelton (Lead and Vice-Skip) plus Alternate Kathryn Spain.

The 16 men’s teams are split into 2 Groups:
Group A: England, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ukraine and Wales.
Group B: Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.

England
Andrew Woolston (Skip), Andrew Reed (Vice-Skip), Scott Gibson (2hd), James Whittle (Lead) and Alternate Martin Gregory.
Ireland
John Wilson (Skip), Kyle Paradis (Vice-Skip), James Russell (2nd), Craig Whyte (Lead) and Alternate Eoin McCrossan.
Wales
James Pougher (Skip), Rhys Phillips (3rd), Garry Coombs (2nd and Vice-Skip), Simon Pougher (Lead) and Alternate Martin Lloyd.

After all the dust has settled, the top 2 teams from the B-Division will be promoted to next season’s A-Division and the bottom 2 teams from the B-Divisions will be demoted to the C-Division.

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England Women - Vikki Brannigan, Jess Skelton, Kitty Conlin, Katy Spain, Lisa Farnell


England Men - Martin Gregory, Jim Whittle, Scott Gibson, Andrew Reed, Andrew Woolston


Ireland Men - John Wilson, Kyle Paradis, James Russell, Craig Whyte, Eoin McCrossan


Wales Men - James Pougher, Rhys Phillips, Garry Coombs, Simon Pougher, Martin Lloyd

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland Women open their pursuit of European Championship medals tomorrow night at 7pm (UK time) when they play Turkiye, followed by another game on Saturday at 1pm against Latvia. They then play twice on Sunday, against Italy at 8am and Denmark at 6pm.


Sophie Jackson, Sophie Sinclair, Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken and Hailey Duff

Scotland Men open their campaign against Germany on Saturday at 8am and then Spain at 6pm. On Sunday, they play hosts and one of the favourites, Sweden, at 1pm.


Defending Champions Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell and their Coach

[ritchiebaby]

The Scotland Women got off to a good solid, if slow, start, beating Turkiye by 9-6 after 9 ends, despite being 4-6 down after 6 ends.

The B-Division starts in earnest tomorrow with the following Home Nation games:-
England Women - v Spain at 12.30pm tomorrow, plus on Sunday, Lithuania at 7.00am and Estonia at 3.00pm.
England Men - v Slovakia at 6.00pm tomorow and v Ireland at 11.00am on Sunday.
Ireland Men - v Ukraine at 6.00pm tomorrow and England at 11.00am on Sunday.
Wales Men - v Estonia at 8.00am tomorrow and v Finland at 7.00pm on Sunday.

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Scotland Women scored their 2nd win, this time against Latvia, winning by 7-4 after 9 ends.

Scotland Men also got off to a winning start against Germany, albeit after an extra end, triumphing 6-4. In their 2nd game, they had a more comfortable time of it, beating Spain 10-4 after 8 ends.

In the B-Division, England Women also beat Spain by the impressive score af 10-2, this time after 9 ends.

England Men beat Slovakia by 6-4 , following an extra end and Wales Men also opened with a win, winning by 6-2 over Estonia.  However Ireland Men slipped to an agonising 5-6 loss against Ukraine.

[ritchiebaby]

Unfortunately, Scotland Women found out they couldn't last the pace today. Firstly they lost 4-10 against unfancied Italy, despite being 4-4 after 5 ends. Then, in spite of being 6-6 after 8 ends against Denmark, they succumbed in the last 2 ends, losing 6-11.

Scotland Men kept up their winning run, by sneaking past Sweden by 8-7 in the last end. The game had been level on 3 separate occasions, but the Scots didn't need to use their last stone as they were lying a single shot by a matter of centimetres.

England Women fell into the same faults as their Scottish counterparts, as they lost 8-9 against Lithuania in their first game, despite being 8-3 up after 5 ends. They had last stone in the last 5 ends, but failed to successfully use it on each occasion. In their second game, they again lost by a single shot, losing 6-7 after an extra ens to Estonia.

In the big derby game between England Men and Ireland Men the result was in doubt all the way through, and the Irish eventually won by 10-9 after an extra end.

In yet another extremely tight game, Wales Men beat Finland 8-7 after an extra end.

Monday's Games
Scotland Women - v Sweden at 11am and v Germany at 7pm
Scotland Men - Czech Republic at 7am and Turkiye at 3pm
England Women - v Belgium at 7am and v v Czech Republic at 3pm
England Men - v Estonia at 11am
Ireland Men - v Finland at 11am and v Lithuania at 7pm
Wales Men - v Slovakia at 11am

Tuesday's Games
Scotland Women - v Switzerland at 1pm
Scotland Men - v Denmark at 8am and v Norway at 6pm
England Women - v Slovakia at 12.30pm
England Men - v Lithuania at 8am and Wales at 6pm
Ireland Men - v Wales at 8am
Wales Men - v Ireland at 8am and England at 6pm

[ritchiebaby]

In a complete reversal of yesterday's form, Scotland Women beat last year's Silver Medallists Sweden 7-5 after being 3-5 down at the 6th end. However inconsistency reared it's ugly head once again, losing 3-9 against Germany, meaning that the Scots sit with a clutch of other teams on 3 wins and 3 losses, behind Denmark, Switzerland and Italy.

Scotland Men outgunned Czech Republic 11-6 after 9 ends in the early game and followed that with a 10-4 win over Turkiye after only 7 ends. Scotland sit on 5 wins out of 5 games with Italy and Switzerland.

England Women were trounced 4-13 by Belgium after 8 ends, including losing scores of 4 shots in the 5th end and then 5 shots in the 8th end. Unfortunately they suffered another heavy defeat this afternoon, losing 4-11 after 7 ends against Czech Republic. England must surely be out of the reckoning now with only 1 win from their 5 games.

England Men fared better with an extra end victory over Estonia by 8-7.
Ireland Men were involved in 2 big victories - losing the first against Finland 2-11 after 8 ends, but recovered well to beat Lithuania 11-6, also after 8 ends.
Wales suffered a last end loss to Slovakia by 9-10.

In this Group, there are 6 teams on 2 wins, including England and Wales on 1 loss and Ireland on 2 losses. Tomorrow's home derbies will go a long way to sorting out the logjam at the top.

[ritchiebaby]

It doesn't come as a big surprise to report that Scotland Women were well beaten 3-9 by Switzerland after 8 ends early this afternoon to leave them with a mountain to climb in their qualification bid. In fact they haven't even reached base camp, with Denmark and Switzerland safely through, and Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Turkiye vying for the remaining two slots.

On the other hand, Scotland Men continue their winning ways, beating a stubborn Denmark team by 7-4 after 9 ends. This leaves the Scots unbeaten after 7 games and they have already qualified for the Semi-finals along with Italy who are unbeaten after 6 games. Switzerland look fairly safe on 5 wins and are trailed by Germany, Sweden and Turkiye on 3 wins.

England Women squeezed through 7-6 against Slovakia in a generally tight game. The exception being England scoring 4 shots in the 4th end and Slovakia replying with 3 shots in the 5th end. With 3 games to go they are in with a slim chance of qualifying, but there are still 6 teams above them.

England Men opened their day with a hard-fought win over Lithuania by 8-6 to stay at the top of the table.
Ireland Men slipped to a last-end defeat by 5-7 to Wales Men and lost ground to both the other home nations.
In tonight's derby match Wales Men took a 2-shot lead into the last end against England Men and succesfully held on to win 9-7, running the English team out of stones.

This means that Wales lead the table on 4 wins ahead of England and Finland on 3 wins, and Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Ukraine on 2 wins. All to play for over the next 2 days.

Wednesday's Games
Scotland Women - v Hungary at 8am and v Norway at 6pm
Scotland Men - v Switzerland at 1pm
England Women - v Finland at 7am and v Austria at 3pm.
England Men - v Finland at 11am
Ireland Men - v Estonia at 11am
Wales Men - v Ukraine at 11am

Thursday's Games
Scotland Women - No game
Scotland Men - v Italy at 7am
England Women - v Slovenia at 8am
England Men - v Ukraine at 6pm
Ireland Men - v Slovakia at 6pm
Wales Men - v Lithuania at 6pm

[ritchiebaby]

What a difference a day makes!!!

Scotland Women shook off their lethargy with a convincing win over newcomers Hungary with a dominant 10-1 scoreline after only 6 ends. However with a higher standard of opponent in Norway, they once again struggled to gain control of the game, eventually recovering brilliantly to score 4 shots in the last 2 ends, to win by 8-6. Not only that, the win was enough to secure their Semi-final spot, because Germany, Norway and Turkiye were beaten in the last game. Sweden did win in the last session, but the Scots had already beaten them in the round-robin. As a result, Scotland play against Denmark, with Italy playing Switzerland in the other Semi-final.

Scotland skip, Rebecca Morrison, said “I honestly just can’t believe it right now. That game didn’t feel like it was ours for a long time. We just pulled it out at the end, and it just feels great. Honestly, I’m blown away! Everything went in our favour in that last session and we couldn’t ask for anything more.” She could have added that "ritchiebaby had written us off, so up yours, ritchie, you haven't a clue what you're talking about".

With the words "proper planning" and "piss-poor performance" ringing in my ears, some clown forgot to add the fact that Scotland Men defeated Norway by 8 shots to 1, in last night's post. Obviously the Scottish team lost their way a bit too, as they conceded after only 7 ends, losing 2-7 to Switzerland. It doesn't really matter in the long run as Italy, Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden have all qualified for the Semi-finals. Only the draw is to be confirmed after the final games tomorrow.

England Women suffered a 3-10 defeat against Finland to leave themselves with no chance of qualifying.They redeemed themselves with a narrow 7-5 win over Austria this afternoon, which might, just might, be enough to save themselves from relegation to Division-C. The 4 teams involved Austria, England, Finland and Slovakia don't play each other and could result in all kinds of permutations, depending on how they handle the pressure.

England Men also suffered against Finland, losing 4-10 after only 6 ends.
Ireland Men went to town this morning with a thumping 16-6 win over Estonia after 8 ends, although, to be honest, they could have stopped a couple of ends earlier.
Wales Men were pipped at the post by Ukraine, losing 7-8.

With 1 game to be played tomorrow, 5 teams still have the chance to fill the 2 available places from Group A - Finland are on 5 wins and have definitely qualified, Wales have 4 wins, Slovakia, Ukraine, England and Ireland have 3 wins.