[ritchiebaby]

Following on from the fine example of last season's post, the Qualification Games for this event will be held at Dumfries Ice Bowl for Sunday 1 December to Saturday 7 December. These include England and Ireland as 2 of the 29 teams in the Championships.

Photo to follow
Ireland's double are Ailsa Barron and John Wilson, who have their first game in Group B on Monday 2 December at 12.30pm against Saudi Arabia.


England are in Group C and the usual duo of Lina Opel and Michael Opel will play their first game on Sunday 1 December at 7.30pm against Slovenia and their second on Monday 2 December at 4pm against Spain.

[ritchiebaby]

England got off to the worst possible start yesterday, losing 6-12 to Slovenia after being 6-5 ahead with 3 ends to play. Today they repeated the dose, losing 7-8 against Spain after being 7-5 ahead with only 1 end still to play. They are showing great promise, but are not clinical enough to finish teams off.

Ireland finished off Saudi Arabia by 13-6 after 7 ends in a dominant display, but I'm certain much harder games are to come.

England's games tomorrow are against Guyana at 9am and then Brazil at 4pm. Ireland play Mexico at 12.30pm and Portugal at 7.30pm.

[ritchiebaby]

England had a disastrous game against Guyana, losing 1-14 after 7 ends. They scored in the first end and that was it. However they picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and beat Brazil comfortably by 10-0 in 6 ends.

Tomorrow they will play against Chinese Taipei at 4pm, with no chance of progressing further.

Ireland routinely disposed of Mexico by 11-3 after 6 ends, but slipped up against Portugal by 5-9. They were 0-6 down after 4 ends and left themselves far too much to do in the latter stages.

They play Kyrgyzstan at 12.30pm and also Austria at 7.30pm tomorrow. They still have a reasonable chance of making the Play-offs with a crunch game against Turkey on Thursday.

[Lord Snooty]

Never realised Guyana was such a Curling superpower.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Never realised Guyana was such a Curling superpower.

Well, it's certainly not like England to get hammered in a winter sport by a team who've never seen ice before

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Some people, say you know they can't believe
Guyana, we have a curling team

[ritchiebaby]

England continued their late return to form with a 7-3 win over Chinese Taipei after 7 ends. They finish off tomorrow at 9am with another winnable game against Greece. Interestingly Guyana have a great chance to qualify tomorrow at 4pm, also against Greece.

Ireland certainly like keeping us on tenterhooks with 6-5 wins over Kyrgyzstan, despite losing 3 shots in the last end, and then Austria, this time losing only 1 shot in the last end. They have now got a chance to qualify for the last 8 with a game at 12.30pm against Group B leaders Turkiye, with their only dangers being Portugal, who play Austria.

[ritchiebaby]

England finished their campaign with a 3-8 loss against Greece. Both teams scored 3 single shot ends and Greece made sure of the win with a score of 5 shots in the 5th end. The English duo ended up with 2 wins from 6 games in 4th place in their Group.

Ireland went out with a whimper, losing 2-8 against Turkiye after only 6 ends. Portugal also lost 9-11 to Austria after being 9-3 up at the halfway stage, but that was enough to see them through by virtue of their win over the Irish. However they did finish in 3rd place in their Group with 4 wins from 6 games.

The Quarter-final draw is Latvia v Guyana, Turkey v New Zealand, Spain v Portugal and Finland v Slovakia. These games will be played at 10am tomorrow with the Semi-finals later at 3pm which decides the 2 promoted teams.

[ritchiebaby]

The 4 Qualifiers for the Championships in March 2025 are New Zealand, Spain, Turkiye and Finland. In the grand scheme of things, Ireland were ranked 12th and England 14th.