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Another Championship being played Gangnam-style in Korea, this time at the Gangneung Curling Centre from Saturday 22 April to Saturday 29 April.

Divided into two round-robin groups, the 20 teams are:
Group A: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Netherlands and Scotland.
Group B: Austria, England, Spain, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United States.

Both group leaders will qualify direct for the semi-finals, while the second and third teams from Group A will play the third and second teams from Group B in qualification games, with the winners also proceeding to the semi-finals. Qualification games, relegation games and semi-finals will take place on Friday 28 April. The bronze medal game and the gold medal final will be staged on Saturday 29 April, at 2am and at 6am, respectively.

Scotland's games this weekend are versus Canada at 2am on Saturday, Denmark at 10am on Saturday and Netherlands at 6am on Sunday.

England start against Switzerland at 6am on Saturday, then Sweden at 2am on Sunday and Spain at 10am on Sunday.

SCOTLAND - Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat

Scotland have won the previous two Championships, in 2021 with Jen and Bruce and in 2022 with Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie.

ENGLAND - Lina Opel and Michael Opel

The Opels are father and daughter with 13 year-old Lina needing time off from school to curl for her country. Michael is a 4-time English Champion.

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Scotland got off to a poor start against Canada, losing 4 shots in the 1st end and eventually going down 4-8. They recovered later, getting off to a flier against Denmark, winning 7-1 after only 6 ends.

England hit a steep learning curve in their first game, losing heavily 2-11 to an experienced Switzerland team, probably one of the favourites.

Here's an article from the WCF competition website about the English duo (actually 75% German/25% Chinese!)
https://worldcurling.org/2023/04/its-not-cricket/

[ritchiebaby]

England suffered a couple of defeats today, against Sweden by 3-10 and against Spain by 3-9. As they realistically point out, they are looking to win a game or two but more importantly, gain valuable experience for the future. Tomorrow they play Japan at 6am.

Scotland beat Netherlands by 7-4 in a tit-for-tat game that saw the Scots experience shine through. Their games tomorrow are at 2am versus Korea and at 10am versus Italy.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland had a convincing victory over Korea by 11-6 at 6 ends after being 8-3 up after 4 ends. In the final session they beat Italy 8-6 in a controlled manner.

England are still looking for their first win but seem to be getting better with every game. Although they lost 7-12 to Japan they were actually leading 6-4 after 4 ends.

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Here are the games to be played over the next 2 days:-

Scotland v Estonia on Tuesday 25th at 6am; v Hungary on Wednesday 26th at 2am; v Australia on Wednesday 26th at 10am: They are currently 1st equal with Canada and Estonia in Group A with 4 wins and 1 loss at the halfway stage.

England v Turkiye on Tuesday 25th at 2am; v United States on Tuesday 25th at 10am; v Germany on Wednesday 26th at 6am: If they are to win a game, the games against Turkiye and Germany night prove to be their best chances.

[ritchiebaby]

England started brightly but fell away to lose to Turkiye by 2-8 and later lost to United States by 2-7 after 6 ends, mainly due to a poor start. Hopefully the 2 games against Germany and Austria might prove fruitful as both of these countries have only 1 win each.

Scotland slipped up against Estonia losing 5-6 in an exciting cagey game. They now share 3rd place with Australia behind Canada and Estonia.

[ritchiebaby]

England suffered another defeat, this time against Germany, losing by 3-8. They are competing well as far as ends scored are concerned, but their opponents are outscoring them in each end. Tomorrow they face Norway, who need the win to ensure their own qualification, at 2am and Austria at 10am in their final games.

Scotland got back on track with 2 victories today, 7-6 against Hungary and 8-6 against Australia, mainly thanks to an emphatic score of 4 shots in the 1st end. This gives them guaranteed qualification to the later stages along with Canada and Estonia. Their final round-robin game is against Czech Republic at 6am tomorrow.

[ritchiebaby]

England finished their tournament disappointingly without a win to their name after losing not unexpectedly 2-9 to Norway, then 2-8 to Austria, which included a loss of 5 shots in the 4th end. This means that they are now relegated to next season's B Division to play in a Qualification Event for 2024. Once again one or two loose ends proved their undoing, but all this will turn out to be part of a learning curve to help them over the next 5 or 10 years.

Scotland's Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds, on the other hand, have over 10 years' experience each, which was desperately needed as they held off a late Czech Republic fightback to squeeze through 6-5. This was to enough to qualify for the Play-off Games in 3rd place with 7 wins behind Canada and Estonia. The other Group had Japan, United States and Norway go through.

In these games Norway play Estonia and United States play Scotland, with Canada and Japan awaiting the winners in the Semi-finals.

[ritchiebaby]

Unfortunately, Scotland's participation in this event also ended this morning. They were beaten by United States 6-8 and the loss of 4 shots in the 3rd end gave them too much to do at this level of competition.

The Semi-finals ended United States 6 Canada 2 and Japan 5 Norway 4. Tomorrow's games for the Medals are Norway v Canada at 2am for the Bronze Medal, followed by Japan v United States at 6am for the Gold/Silver Medals.

[ritchiebaby]

In the Mixed Doubles Medal Games, there were two fairly comfortable wins for United States, 8-2 winners over Japan, and Norway, 6-2 winners over Canada.

Medallists
GOLD - United States
SILVER - Japan
BRONZE - Norway