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These Championships take place from Friday 21 April at the Gangneung Hockey Centre, strange I know but it is one of the venues from the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

The 15 Women’s teams will play in two round-robin groups:
Group A: Canada, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Sweden and United States
Group B: Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Scotland and Switzerland.

England Senior Women Manon Harsch (Skip), Angela Wilcox (Vice-Skip) Helen Forbes (Second) and Deborah Higgins (Lead)

They're on their way - Helen (far left) and Debbie (far right) are from my local ice rink, so I'll be supporting them.

Ireland Senior Women Dale Sinclair (Skip), Bernie Gillett (Vice-Skip), Nina Clancy (Second) and Louise Kerr (Lead)

Nina (second left)is also from my local ice rink, so I'll be supporting her.

Scotland Senior Women  Jackie Lockhart (Skip), Mairi Milne (Vice-Skip), Wendy Johnston (Second) and Katie Loudon

None of them come from my local ice rink, but of course I'll be supporting them.

Round-robin play starts on Saturday 22 April, and will continue through 25 sessions until Thursday 27 April. After this, the top three teams from each group will move onto the play-offs. The two group winners are moving straight to the semi-finals. The second and third teams in each group will play cross-over qualification games, with the winners also going onto the semi-finals. Both the qualification games and the semi-finals are to be held on Friday 28 April. The bronze medal game and the gold medal final will take place on Saturday 29 April.

England start against Sweden at 12 noon (UK time) on Saturday and then Hong Kong at the same time on Sunday.
Ireland play their first game against Czech Republic on Saturday at 4am followed by Switzerland at the same time on Sunday.
Scotland take on Switzerland at 8am on Saturday and then 2 games on Sunday - versus Latvia at 4am and Czech Republic at 12 noon.

The 24 Men’s teams will play in three round-robin groups:
Group A: Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Japan and Poland
Group B: England, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea, Latvia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland
Group C: Australia, Estonia, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Slovenia, United States and Wales.

Round-robin play starts on Friday 21 April, concluding on Thursday 27 April. After the round robin, the group winners, the second-placed teams and the top two of the three third-placed teams will proceed to quarter-finals and then semi-finals on Friday 28 April. Both the bronze medal game and the gold medal final will take place on Saturday 29 April, at the same time as the women’s medal games.

More details on the Men tomorrow.

[ritchiebaby]

Now for the Men. As previously noted, the Men start their tournament today with all 4 Home Nations being represented.

England's team is John Brown (Skip), James Burman (Vice-Skip), David Kershaw (Second) and Andrew Robbins (Lead). Their first game is at 12 noon on Saturday against Korea followed by Germany at 8am on Sunday.


Ireland have Bill Gray (Skip), David Whyte (Vice-Skip), Neil Fyfe (Second) and Ross Barr (Lead) with Johnjo Kenny as Alternate. They have already started with an 8-7 victory over Australia, just hanging on under pressure in the last couple of ends. Their next game is against Estonia at 4am on Saturday.


Scotland are represented by Graeme Connal (Skip), Alistair Scott (Vice-Skip), Mark Fraser (Second) and Mark Brass (Lead). United States are their first opponents on Saturday at 12 noon, then Estonia at 8am on Sunday.

Wales have the usual suspects in their team - Adrian Meikle (Skip), Andrew Tanner (Vice-Skip), Richard Pougher (Second) and Gary Waddell (Lead) and play Slovenia at midnight tonight, then have a long wait until 8am on Sunday to play Norway.

Two photos still to find, but I'm working on it!

[ritchiebaby]

The Senior Men of Wales absolutely hammered Slovenia 14-2 this morning with Ireland doing much the same to Estonia with an 11-4 victory. Two defeats followed that with Scotland going down 5-6 against United States and England losing 4-8 to Korea after being 4-1 ahead.

In the Women's competition, Ireland beat Czech Republic in a strange result, strange because the Irish were leading 6-5 coming into the last end but no final score was recorded, only a win. Scotland had a comfortable win by 10-4 over Switzerland. There was an amazing result in the last session, when England lost 9-10 to Sweden. The English team was 7-1 up after 5 ends, but lost 4 shots in the 6th end and, worse still, lost 5 shots in the 8th and final end.

[ritchiebaby]

A mixed beginning to the 3rd day of competition in the Women's event with Scotland beating Latvia 7-4 after 7 ends and Ireland losing to Switzerland by 6-8 in spite of a spirited comeback in the last 3 ends.

In the evening session England overcame their previous day disaster by beating Hong Kong 6-5 and the Scots dominated Czech Republic winning by 12-4, including a score of 6 shots in the 2nd end.

In the Men's event only Scotland triumphed with an 8-2 victory over Estonia. Ireland were beaten 2-7 by United States, Wales lost to Norway 4-5 after an extra end in an admirable performance and England lost 5-8 to Germany after a really poor start.

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Tomorrow has the first of the Men's derby games - Ireland v Scotland at 2 am with England playing Latvia and Wales playing Australia in the same session.

Later Scotland play their second derby game against Wales at 12 noon with England playing Hong Kong at the same time.

The Women's event has Scotland versus Ireland at 8am in yet another Home Nations derby and also England playing New Zealand at 12 noon.

I'm still looking for the two missing photos. Why do the relevant curling associations not publicise their national representatives more?

[ritchiebaby]

3 defeats for the 4 Home Nations Men this morning. The only winners were Ireland, who beat Scotland 9-7 after an extra end. It should be of little consolation that the Scots led 7-5 after 6 ends and lost the last 3 ends to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

In the same session England were defeated 4-8 by Latvia and Wales lost 3-8 against Australia.

Later England made amends by scoring 10 shots in the first 3 ends to trounce Hong Kong 13-3 and Scotland recovered their poise to beat Wales 7-2, both games won after 7 ends.

The Women of Scotland finished strongly to beat Ireland 10-4 with England exceeding even their own expectations by overwhelming New Zealand 15-0 after only 6 ends.

And I've discovered why Ireland were awarded a win against Czech Republic in their first game. The Czech team ran out of time to complete their game - teams are allowed  thinking time between their shots, I think it's 22 minutes, and the Czechs had been taking too long earlier in the game. I'm sure they'll not do it again.

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The games to be played over the next couple of days are:-

England Men - v New Zealand on Tuesday 25th at 8am; v Sweden on Wednesday 26th at 4am: They only have 1 win, but are only 1 win behind a Quarter-final place, so there's still plenty to play for.

Ireland Men - v v Slovenia on Tuesday 25th at 8am; v Wales on Wednesday 26th at 8am: They have 3 wins in 2nd place in Group B and are the best-placed Home Nation.

Scotland Men - v Norway on Tuesday 25th at 4am; v Australia on Wednesday 26th at 12 midnight: They have 2 wins in 5th place in Group B, but still have a decent chance of progressing.

Wales Men - v Estonia on Tuesday 25th at 4am; v Ireland on Wednesday 26th at 8am: On just 1 win in Group B, they lie in 6th place and have an outside chance of getting to the Quarter-finals.

England Women - v Japan on Tuesday 25th at 12 noon; v Lithuania on Wednesday 26th at 4am; v United States on Wednesday 26th at 8am: They are in 3rd place in Group A with 2 wins at the halfway stage and are in a good position.

Ireland Women - v Finland on Tuesday 25th at 12 midnight; v Latvia on Wednesday 26th at 8am: They are only on 1 win, but still have a good chance of moving up with some good results.

Scotland Women - v Australia on Tuesday 25th at 12 noon: The Scots lead Group B on 4 wins and just need to "keep the heid" to move into the latter stages.

[ritchiebaby]

England Men slipped once again to another defeat, this time to New Zealand by 5-6. The Ireland Men got off to an early lead and kept Slovenia at bay winning 6-4 to keep their challenge on track and are currently in 2nd place. However the Scotland Men didn't erase their previous bad habits by losing the last 5 ends to go down 6-8 to Norway and will now struggle to qualify. Wales Men roared off to an early 6-0 lead and held on to defeat Estonia by 6-4 and are now level with the Scots.

In the Women's event England lost 5-7 against Japan but are still mid-table to stay in the hunt. Ireland squeezed past Finland 9-7 after an extra end and are in equal 3rd place with a definite chance to progress. Scotland had a controlled win over Australia by 7-2 to safely qualify for the final stages.

[ritchiebaby]

There's been no change to the fortunes of the England Men as they were soundly beaten 1-10 by Sweden and are now out of the reckoning. Their last game is against Switzerland at 12 midnight.

Ireland Men also continue their run (on the winning side) against Wales Men by 6-4 and have probably done enough to qualify - all other things being equal. They now play Norway also at midnight. The Welsh team have missed the boat to qualification and their last game is against United States at 4am tomorrow.

Scotland Men also continued their consistent inconsistency by beating Australia by 8-2 to end the day on 3 wins and 3 losses to still have a miniscule chance of progressing. Slovenia are tomorrow's opponents at midnight and the Scots must win and rely on six of Norway, Australia, Germany, Latvia, New Zealand, Japan and Czech Republic to lose. Not much to ask, is it? 

The England Women lost their chance to progress after losing 9-12 to previously winless Lithuania in a fluctuating game. Then they were well beaten by United States 1-9 to end the day with 2 wins and 4 losses. Leaders Canada now await them in tomorrow's game at 8am.

Ireland Women beat Latvia by 6-2 after 7 ends to confirm their qualification.

Scotland Women had already qualified and are now joined by Canada, Ireland, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland after today's games. They play Finland tomorrow at 8am.

[ritchiebaby]

Unfortunately the England Men suffered another defeat early this morning, losing 4-8 to Switzerland to finish in 7th position on 1 win.

At the other end of the scale Ireland Men won the first 5 ends to run out comfortable winners over Norway by 7-4 to secure 2nd place on 6 wins.

Scotland Men finished on a high with a comfortable 8-3 victory over Slovenia. Somewhat amazingly this was good enough to hand the Scots a qualification spot in 3rd place as only Czech Republic, of the teams mentioned last night, equalled the Scots. Scotland's superior Draw Shot Challenge edged out the others, all with 4 wins as well.

Wales Men were beaten 3-8 by United States to end their group in 6th position with 2 wins.

The Men's Quarter-finals are Canada v Ireland, United States v Czech Republic, Sweden v Scotland and Hungary v Switzerland.

The Women had extreme results this morning. England suffered another defeat, this time to Canada by 2-9. Losing 5 shots in the 1st end made an already difficult game impossible and they finished in 5th place in Group A on 2 wins.

Ireland sneaked through against Australia 5-4 in a cliff-hanger ending to end in 3rd place on 4 wins to qualify in Group B.

Scotland absolutely demolished Finland by 18-1. They scored 7 shots in the 3rd end and 6 shots in the 6th end to complete the Round-robin unbeaten on 6 wins and qualifying directly to the Semi-finals along with Canada from Group A.

The Play-off Games are Japan v Ireland and Sweden v Switzerland

[ritchiebaby]

Ireland Men crashed out of the Quarter-finals, losing 1-9 to Canada and they never looked like putting up any sort of fight. Scotland Men did much better by beating Sweden 5-4, then Switzerland to progress to tomorrow's Medal Games.

Ireland Women also lost out, losing to Japan in the Play-off Game by 4-5 after leading by 4-2 with 2 ends to play. Scotland Women had a relatively straightforward win over Japan in the Semi-final by 7-2.

The Men's Medal Games are Scotland v Canada for Gold/Silver and United States v Switzerland for Bronze, both at 2.30am.

The Medal Games for the Women are Canada v Scotland for Gold/Silver and Japan v Switzerland for Bronze, also at 2.30am.