[ritchiebaby]

This weekend saw the start of the European Championships in Esbjerg, Denmark. There are 2 Divisions - imaginatively called A and B. In the Men's competition, Scotland are in Division A and England and Wales are in Division B. The medal games will be held on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November.


SCOTLAND - Kyle Smith (Skip), Thomas Muirhead (Third), Kyle Waddell (Second), Cameron Smith (Lead) and alternate Glen Muirhead.


ENGLAND - Alan MacDougall (Skip), Andrew Reed (Third), Andrew Woolston (Second), Thomas Jaeggi (Lead) and alternate Ben Fowler.


WALES - James Pougher (Skip), Jamie Fletcher (Third), Rhys Phillips (Second), Garry Coombs (Lead) and alternate Simon Pougher.

So far in the Men's Championships, Scotland have made an indifferent start, with one win - 9-7 against Czech Republic - and two defeats - 4-11 against Norway and 6-9 against Sweden.

The B Division bodes no better with England having beaten Estonia 7-5 and lost to Israel 4-8 and Spain 2-8. Wales have also won one game, defeating Slovenia 7-3, but losing three games - 3-9 v Turkey, 5-8 v Poland and 2-9 v Denmark.

There is also a Women's competition being played at the same time and, other commitments permitting, I'll update you on the British teams and their progress as soon as I can.

[St Charles Owl]

Not a promising start by any of the home countries!! Do any of them have a chance of winning a medal?? Have Scotland gone for a young women's team again like they did in the world championships?

[ritchiebaby]

The Scottish Men's team continued their losing sequence, both to Switzerland by 2-9 and Netherlands by 2-8, leaving them in last place with only one win out of five games.

It's of no consolation, but the other British men's teams are just as bad. England lost to Latvia by 6-7 and Wales lost to Belgium by 7-9, resulting in both countries having won only one game.

Let's move swiftly across to the Women's Championships for some better news.


A DIVISION - SCOTLAND - Eve Muirhead (Skip), Anna Sloan (Third), Vicki Adams (Second), Sarah Reid (Lead) and alternate Rachel Hannen.


B DIVISION - ENGLAND - Anna Fowler (Skip), Hetty Garnier (Third), Angharad Ward (Second), Lauren Pearce (Lead) and alternate Naomi Robinson.

The tried and trusted Eve Muirhead team representing Scotland started off slowly, losing to Denmark by 2-7, then had a complete change of fortune by beating Sweden 11-3 and Finland 8-1. They narrowly lost to Russia by 7-6 and recovered again to beat Hungary 9-3. They currently lie in 3rd equal position with Finland and Switzerland, behind Denmark and Russia.

England's women have also had 3 wins, but have played 6 games. They were awarded a win against Italy in the first game, lost to Czech Republic 6-8, and then to Turkey by 9-10. They defeated Slovakia 9-2, lost to Latvia 6-10 and lastly beat Netherlands 9-2. England are in 5th place, behind Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia and Turkey, and still with plenty to play for.

[ritchiebaby]

We'll stay with the Joy Division to start tonight's report. Scotland's women had important wins today by 8-6 against Germany and by 10-1 against Estonia. This brings them right into contention for a last-four place and moves them ahead of both Finland and Switzerland. Scotland are currently in 3rd place on 5 wins, behind Denmark and Russia. Tomorrow's concluding games are versus Switzerland and Norway.

The English women also continue on their winning ways with a win against Austria by 9-4 and as they are already 10-3 up against France after 5 ends tonight, I'll count that as a winning lead. They will have 5 wins and have given themselves a decent chance to make the semi-finals. England complete their round-robin games against Poland tomorrow when a win might be good enough to qualify.

In the men's competition, Scotland have managed to win another game, this time by 7-3 against Finland, to move onto 2 wins. Considering that the 3rd placed teams are only on 3 wins and that 3 of the teams in the top half of the table were all beaten today, the door to the qualifying stage has been left open for someone to take advantage. Tomorrow the Scots play Italy and Russia and complete their round-robin games on Thursday against Germany.

Both England and Wales moved onto 2 wins today, England beating Austria 9-8 and Wales winning 10-8 against Hungary. It looks like it's too little, too late for both teams, though, with England playing against Slovakia tomorrow and Croatia on Thursday. Wales finish tomorrow against Lithuania.

[ritchiebaby]

The women have been far better value than the men this week, so let's start off with their results.

Women's Championships
A Division - Scotland ended their round robin games in style, beating Switzerland 7-5 and Norway 9-4 to finish second on 7 wins behind Russia on 8 wins. Finland and Denmark tied on 6 wins to earn the remaining two places. Tomorrow night's semi-finals are Russia v Denmark and Scotland v Finland and these are being broadcast live on Eurosport1 at 18.30.

B Division - England went on to beat France by 14-3 last night and also won their final game against Poland 9-3 today. They finish with an excellent 6 wins from 9 games to lie 3rd equal with Italy, who have another game to play tomorrow morning, and Turkey, which should mean that they will at least have a tiebreaker against Turkey tomorrow afternoon for a semi-final place. If Italy lose tomorrow, then they might play either Turkey or England in the tiebreaker.

Men's Championships
A Division - Amazingly, Scotland are still hanging in there by winning today's two games. Firstly they beat Italy 6-4 and then Russia by 8-6 to be on 4 wins with one game to go. Unbeaten Norway head the table on 8 wins and Sweden are second on 5 wins. Joining Scotland are 4 other teams - Finland, Germany, Russia and Switzerland.
There are several possible scenarios from tomorrow morning's games, but one thing is certain - Scotland must beat Germany, which would see the Scots move ahead of the Germans. Sweden play Finland, Switzerland play Netherlands and Russia play Norway in matches where certain results might, just might, mean that a team with only 4 wins could qualify through play-offs. These games are also scheduled for Eurosport1 at 08.30.

B Division - This morning England beat Slovakia 8-6 to keep alive their hopes of qualifying. They have 3 wins and are currently in 4th equal place with Slovakia. Not only do they need to win against Croatia tomorrow morning, but they also need Spain to beat Israel in order to play a tiebreaker against the Israelis. Slovakia could complicate matters by beating Austria to join England and Israel on 4 wins.

Unfortunately Wales have fallen by the wayside after losing 2-5 against Lithuania to finish with only 2 wins in 7th place. One of these wins was against Slovenia who are in a tiebreaker tomorrow.

My brain's beginning to hurt now , so I'm off to bed. And no, I haven't got Eurosport.

[ritchiebaby]

Now that we're at the business end of these Championships, the tension is mounting and control over the game and your emotions is the key to success. A prime example is the Scotland v Finland women's semi-final tonight. Despite trailing 0-5 after 3 ends, the Scots hauled themselves back into the game to eventually win by 9 shots to 7. Eve Muirhead's team scored 8 shots to 1 against in the middle section of the game to take control and put all the pressure onto Finland.

In the other semi-final Russia beat Denmark by 6-5, with Anna Sidorova having a straightforward hit and lie to secure the winning shot with the last stone. Russia now meet Scotland in the Gold/Silver Medal match on Saturday afternoon, with Finland playing Denmark for the Bronze Medal tomorrow night.

In the B Division, England's women did indeed play Turkey in the tiebreaker and they triumphed 8-7, scoring a two in the last end to qualify for the semi-finals, where they played Italy. Unfortunately they were beaten in that game 3-7, losing four shots in the final end. They will play Latvia in tomorrow afternoon's Bronze Medal game, with Italy and Czech Republic competing for the Gold and Silver Medals.

In the Men's A Division, Scotland hammered Germany by 12-5 to tie with Sweden for 4th place. In the tiebreaker, Scotland were beaten 7-8 by defending champions Sweden, with Kyle Smith needing a two in the last end to force an extra end, but could only score one shot. Sweden now play Norway and Finland play Switzerland in tomorrow afternoon's semi-finals.

Everything went England's way in the Men's B Division round-robin games this morning. They beat Croatia 8-4 and Spain beat Israel 7-6 after an extra end. However, in the tiebreaker game this afternoon they were well beaten 2-8 by Israel, who now play Austria in the semi-finals after beating Lithuania 9-7 after an extra end in the qualifying game. The other semi-final is between Denmark and Latvia.

[Lord Snooty]

Noticed Eurosport are showing this. Pity we don't have time to watch it.

[St Charles Owl]

Ritchie, quick question. Each section is split into two groups, A and B, I assume these groups are split by seeding and the group A teams are the stronger teams who then play for Gold, Silver and Bronze??

[ritchiebaby]

First things first - a reply to SCO re the two divisions. The A Division consists of the top ten teams in Europe from the previous season and the B Division is made up of the next best teams. The bottom two in the A Division are relegated and the top two in the B Division are promoted. There are medal games for the B Division teams as well as the top teams.

The B Division games are almost complete with the medals being won and promotion and relegation almost decided. For the men, Denmark and Austria are promoted to the A Division and Estonia are relegated to the C Division - that's another story for another day. Belgium and Croatia have to play-off with the loser joining Estonia. As far as the medals are concerned, Denmark beat Austria 6-4 to take the Gold Medal and Latvia demolished Israel 13-3 to win Bronze. England finished the competition in 7th place and Wales ended in 13th.

In the women's competition, Italy and Czech Republic are promoted and France and Austria are relegated. In two extremely tight games, Italy beat Czech Republic 7-6 to win Gold and Latvia beat England 8-7 in the Bronze Medal game. England had led 5-3 at the halfway stage, but failed to score in the next 4 ends to trail by 5-8. A valiant two in the last end made the score respectable but the damage had already been done.

In the A Division, the men's semi-finals and Bronze Medal games for both men and women were also played today. Sweden beat Norway in a see-saw game by 8 shots to 7 after an extra end and are joined in tomorrow's Gold Medal game by Switzerland, who had a much more straightforward game, beating Finland 10-4. Norway then went on to beat Finland in the Bronze Medal game by 7-4. Czech Republic and Netherlands are the two relegated teams and Scotland finished 5th.

The Women's Bronze Medal was won by Finland, who beat Denmark 10-8 - a first ever medal for Finland. Estonia and Hungary are relegated to the B Division.

That leaves tomorrow's Gold/Silver Medal games to be played. Sweden play Switzerland in the Men's Final, which is being shown live on Eurosport2 at 09.00, with the Women's Final between Scotland and Russia in the afternoon - 1 hour of highlights shown on Eurosport2 on Sunday morning at 10.00.

[ritchiebaby]

The British women's teams did much better than the men's, but it was still second best for Scotland in the final against Russia. They were never ahead of the Russians, but were always in the game. This 4-6 defeat was another reminder that the Russians were definitely the week's form team.


RUSSIA - Alina Kovaleva (Alternate), Margaret Fomina (Third), Anna Sidorova (Skip), Alexandra Raeva (Second) and Nkeiruka Ezekh (Lead).

GOLD - RUSSIA
SILVER - SCOTLAND
BRONZE - FINLAND

Following on from this week's championships, the eight European teams who have qualified for the Women's World Championships in March 2016 are Russia, Scotland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

In the Men's Final, Sweden pipped Switzerland 7-6 after an extra end. Both teams had lost 4 games in the round-robin, the same number as Scotland and Finland, but came good when it mattered.


SWEDEN - Frederik Lindberg (Coach), Henrik Leek (Alternate), Christoffer Sundgren (Lead), Kristian Lindstroem (Second), Oscar Erikkson (Third) and Niklas Edin (Skip).

GOLD - SWEDEN
SILVER - SWITZERLAND
BRONZE - NORWAY

The European qualifiers for the Men's World Championships in April 2016 are Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Scotland, Germany, Russia and Denmark.