[ritchiebaby]

Now that I've got almost a full week's break from my own curling, I'll be able to bring you up to date with The (abbreviated) WCF VoIP Defender WJCC held from 6 March to 14 March in Taarnby, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The home nations consist of only one - Scotland - for the two events. The women's championships are contested by defending champions Canada, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and USA. Probably Canada, Russia and USA will be the biggest threats to Scotland.


SCOTLAND - Sophie Jackson (Skip), Naomi Brown (Third), Rachael Halliday (Second), Rachel Hannen (Lead) and alternate Katie Murray.
Naomi and Rachel won Silver Medals in last year's competition.


Teams from Canada (the defending champions), Denmark, Korea, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and USA will contest the extremely open men's event. The biggest dangers to Scotland will be Canada, Switzerland and USA.


SCOTLAND - Bruce Mouat (Skip), Bobby Lammie (Third), Gregor Cannon (Second), Angus Dowell (Lead) and alternate Robin Brydone.
Scotland won Bronze last year, with Bruce and Bobby in the team.

So far, Scotland's women have managed to beat Japan 6-4 in the first game, but lost 6-10 to Hungary and 5-6 to Korea. It would seem that virtually everybody is a threat to Scotland. The men have fared slightly better, beating Norway 7-4, losing 6-7 to USA and, rather enjoyably , beating Canada 10-7 after scoring 2 threes in the last two ends. Now crack on from here, lads, and don't waste the opportunity.

[ritchiebaby]

The women continued in the same vein as last night, losing 6-7 to Sweden in the morning session and then 4-8 to USA in the afternoon, after being in contention all the way through in both games. This leaves them in 9th place after 5 games, but very importantly only 1 win behind the 4th placed team. They still have everything to play for, but can't afford any more slip-ups. Canada and Korea lead the way with 5 wins and the Scots play Russia, one of the teams on 2 wins just above them.

The Scottish men scored 6 shots in the second end and 4 in the seventh to ease to an emphatic 13-4 win over Turkey. This leaves them joint top with Russia, Switzerland and USA after 3 wins and 1 defeat. Tomorrow sees the Scots play Sweden and Korea.

[St Charles Owl]

Interesting to see Turkey fielding a team!! Can't be easy finding good ice to practice on in Istanbul!!!

[ritchiebaby]

Turkey are fairly low in the World rankings, SCO, but they're improving all the time. I was on holiday in Turkey a few years ago and came across an ice rink cut into the rock face at an hotel on the sea-front. Only skating there, but it was lovely and cool - a welcome escape from the heat outside.

To me, the most surprising nations to quickly climb up the rankings in recent years are from the Far East. China, Japan and Korea are all in the top ten in women's curling and in the top fifteen in the men's rankings.

[ritchiebaby]

The Scottish men's team get top billing tonight, as they move smoothly towards a qualifying position. This morning they defeated Sweden 9-2, with Sweden conceding after only 6 ends. Then they defeated Korea 10-3, taking 8 ends this time.

Scotland and USA lead the rest with 5 wins out of 6 games, with Canada and Switzerland on 4 wins. Tomorrow sees the Scots play Russia (currently on 3 wins) with 2 games to come on Friday against Switzerland and Denmark (1 win so far).

In the women's event, the Scots lost 2-5 against Russia, a 3 in the seventh end proving their downfall, leaving them with the proverbial mountain to climb after only 1 win. Their search for a morale boosting win continues against Turkey (2 wins) and Switzerland (3 wins) tomorrow, ending on Friday against Canada.

Unbeaten Canada and Korea are well in front after 6 games, with the battle for the other two qualifying places between USA on 4 wins and Hungary, Russia and Sweden on 3 wins.

[ritchiebaby]

Much of the same from the Scottish curlers today.

The men continued on their merry way, beating Russia by 10 shots to 2 after 6 ends. This still leaves them tied with USA on 6 wins each with 2 games to go. Canada and Switzerland are still 1 win behind with Norway, the only other team who can beat one of the leaders to a  last four place, a further win behind. However Norway, Russia and Sweden all have a chance of displacing either, or both, Canada and/or Switzerland tomorrow.

The women did manage a narrow 7-6 win against Turkey this morning, but fell away again tonight, losing 4-11 to Sweden, leaving the Scots in 9th place on 2 wins. Canada, Korea and USA have already qualified for Saturday's play-off games, with the fourth place being taken by either Hungary or Switzerland, if Sweden lose to Russia. If Sweden beat Russia, then they will play the winners of Hungary v Switzerland in a tie-breaker for fourth. Er,   I think.

A tale of caution to teams everywhere - the 100% winning Canadian women's team were leading the 100% losing Japanese team by 6-1 after 5 ends and decided to bring on their alternate player and make a couple of positional changes. The result? - Canada lost 5 shots in the last 4 ends and just scraped through by 7-6!

[St Charles Owl]

A tale of caution to teams everywhere - the 100% winning Canadian women's team were leading the 100% losing Japanese team by 6-1 after 5 ends and decided to bring on their alternate player and make a couple of positional changes. The result? - Canada lost 5 shots in the last 4 ends and just scraped through by 7-6!

So the trend in football of resting players in one game to save them for the perceived more important next match has finally found its way into curling!!!!!  The world is heading for Armageddon!!!!

[ritchiebaby]

The Scots men were hoist with their own petard this morning, losing to Switzerland by 4-10 after 7 ends. However they were soon back on track tonight, beating Denmark 8-2 after 6 ends. After a cagey start, the tightest games involving Scotland were today's.

The end result is that USA topped the section with 8 wins, Scotland and Canada followed with 7 wins and Switzerland completed the four qualifiers on 6 wins. Tomorrow's play-off games will be USA v Scotland, with the winner playing in the Gold/Silver Medal game on Sunday and the loser playing the winner of Canada v Switzerland in a further game, which will decide the other team in the Gold/Silver Medal game. The loser of the Canada v Switzerland game will play in the Bronze Medal match against the loser of the further game. Still with me?

The Scots women fell by the wayside, losing 2-6 to Canada in their final game. They finished 9th and were relegated to the B Championships next year, in which they have a chance to qualify for the main event, providing they reach the final, that is.

Canada finished their section with 9 wins out of 9 and are joined in the 1v2 play-off by USA who had 7 wins. Also on 7 wins were Korea and they will play the winner of tomorrow morning's tie-breaker between Hungary and Sweden, who both had 5 wins. After successfully predicting the final four in the men's tournament, I could only manage two of the women's finalists. Even after all my years of experience, I still haven't managed to fathom them out!

[ritchiebaby]

In the 1v2 Men's Play-off game, Scotland scored 3 shots in the last end to beat USA 7-5 and guarantee themselves a place in the Gold/Silver Medal match tomorrow, as well as ensuring a higher finish than last year.

Switzerland had beaten Canada 6-4 in the 3v4 game and went on to play USA in the game to decide the line-up for the Medal matches. That game went to USA by 5 shots to 2, meaning that Scotland play USA for the Gold and Silver Medals and Switzerland play Canada for the Bronze Medal.

In the Women's Tie-breaker game, Hungary beat Sweden by 10-4, including a 5 and a 4, and then went on to beat Korea in an unbelievably high-scoring game by 12 shots to 11 in the 3v4 game. In the 1v2 game USA pipped Canada by 8-7 to directly qualify for the Gold/Silver Medal match. Canada then had to play Hungary in the next game, in which scoring in 5 consecutive ends saw Canada stroll through 9-4. As with the Men's event the Women's Medal matches are a repeat of the Play-off games - USA v Canada for Gold/Silver and Hungary v Korea for Bronze.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland win Gold at the 2016 WJCC



Scotland's Men - Bruce Mouat, Angus Dowell, Gregor Cannon and Bobby Lammie - beat USA by 6-4 in this afternoon's final to win the Gold Medals. They were never behind after scoring 2 shots in the second end and were 4-1 up after 4 ends. The Scots controlled the game thereafter and kept the USA at bay without much problem.
Quote from the WCF website - After the game, Scottish skip Mouat said, "I feel a lot more relaxed than I thought I was going to be. I was quite happy in that game, I went through an emotional roller-coaster in the 1v2 game and it couldn't have been much worse than that, but I was quite chilled. We controlled that game from the start and that probably contributed to how I felt. Making the two in the second end and forcing the one in the third... after that it was easier."
In the other Men's game Canada won 8-4 against Switzerland after 9 ends to earn the Bronze Medals.
GOLD - Scotland
SILVER - USA
BRONZE - Canada

The Canadian women won Gold by beating USA 7-4 after 9 ends. In an evenly matched game the scores were tied at the seventh end but Canada won the next 2 ends to lead to a concession by USA. Korea won the Bronze Medals, winning 8-4 against Hungary.
GOLD - Canada
SILVER - USA
BRONZE - Korea