[ritchiebaby]

These Championships begin at The Peak, in Stirling, Scotland on Sunday 3 March and continues until Sunday 10 March, when the Medal games will take place. Bafflingly, there will be 6 qualifiers for the later stages. 1st and 2nd from the round-robin stage will go directly into the Semi-finals with 3rd playing 6th and 4th playing 5th to decide the other 2 Semi-finalists.

This year the competition is expanded to 12 teams - Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and United States. Defending Champions Norway are Silver medallists from the Paralympic Winter Games. China, the Paralympic Champions, and Russia (Gold, Gold and Silver in the last 3 Worlds) should all be in the hunt for medals with hosts Scotland a strong contender.

Scotland's team consists of Aileen Neilson (Skip), Hugh Nibloe (Third), Bob McPherson (Second), David Melrose (Lead) and Gary Logan (Altenate). Aileen has already won 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes in these Championships, including 2017 Bronze with Hugh and Bob. They are coached by Sheila Swan.


On Sunday, Scotland play Switzerland, followed by Latvia and Germany on Monday.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland have not had the brightest start to their curling week, but have been competitive all the way. On Sunday, they were beaten 4-5 by Switzerland, who scored the winning shot in the last end. In today's games Scotland were defeated by 7 shots to 8 by debutants Latvia, despite being 2-8 down with 3 ends left to play, and then managed to reverse the trend by beating Germany 9-7 after an extra end.

Scotland play joint leaders Norway and 3rd equal Korea tomorrow and then the other joint leaders China and 3rd equal USA on Wednesday.

[Lord Snooty]

Come on Aileen.

[ritchiebaby]

I'm glad Aileen is listening to you, Snooty. The Scottish team came good once again this morning, beating Norway 7-4 after winning the last 2 ends to record their 2nd win. This was closely followed by an exciting (and nervous) win over Korea by 7-6. Scotland had led 6-1 after 4 ends, but allowed the Koreans back in at 6-6 with 1 end left.

There's been a big turnaround at the top of the table following today's games, with China and Korea losing twice and USA and Norway losing once. The upshot is that Norway and Switzerland lead on 4 wins, with China, Latvia, Russia, Scotland and USA tied on 3 wins. It's still only halfway though and a lot can, and will, happen yet.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland had 2 roller-coaster games today, the first against China who stormed out of the traps to go into a 5-0 lead after 3 ends. Scotland recovered to claw back to 3-5 down, but lost the last end played by 2 shots to be defeated 3-7.

The Scots second game against USA was more of the same, but this time Scotland got off to a good start to lead 4-1 after 3 ends. USA then scored in 4 consecutive ends to leave Scotland 4-6 down, but Scotland scored 3 shots in the last end to win 7-6.

Another day when some of the top teams had poor results, with Switzerland and USA losing twice. Coming from nowhere are Canada with 2 wins to put themselves in a decent position. After 7 games, China, Latvia and Norway lead on 5 wins with Russia, Scotland and Switzerland on 4 wins. Close behind on 3 wins are Canada, Estonia, Korea and USA. Each of these 10 teams have a great chance of getting a qualifying place and even Slovakia and Germany will feel that a good day tomorrow will bring them back into the hunt.

Scotland play Slovakia and Russia tomorrow, closing with games against Estonia and Canada on Friday.

[ritchiebaby]

It's enough to make you sick as Scotland endure another roller-coaster ride today. First of all, they lost 5-9 against Slovakia following a terrible start, when they were 0-6 down after 3 ends. Then they managed to beat Russia by 5-4, scoring 3 single shots in the final 3 ends to sneak a vital win.

This means that Scotland are still hanging on to a potential qualifying place on 5 wins, alongside Canada, Korea, Latvia and Switzerland. Norway lie in 1st place on 7 wins with China in 2nd position with 6 wins.

Remember I mentioned that a good day for Slovakia could bring them back into the hunt? Well, they did have a good day, not only beating Scotland, but also China, bringing them into contention with 4 wins, alongside Estonia and Russia. Canada, Korea and Norway also had 2 wins today with Latvia, Russia and USA the biggest losers with 2 defeats.

Hang on to your hats, folks (and your stomach contents)!

[ritchiebaby]

Thank goodness for Rennies (other brands are available) as Scotland had a much more settled day, beating Estonia 9-3 with 2 ends to go and then Canada by 5-3 to advance the Scots into the play-off games.

China and Norway go directly into the Semi-finals with 8 wins each. Scotland finished 3rd with 7 wins and Switzerland, Korea and Slovakia, having 6 wins each, claim the other 3 available play-off places. Canada and Germany were beaten twice yesterday to be relegated to the B Division along with USA.

Scotland play Slovakia in the first play-off game and Switzerland play Korea in the other to attempt to progress to the Semi-finals tonight.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland have moved round the fairground to the Ghost Train now. They were leading Slovakia by 6 shots to 2 with 2 ends to go but the Ghost Of The Recent Past spooked them and gave them a real fright with a 3 and a 1 to tie the game. After giving their fans the shivers, the Scots came good in the extra end, not needing to play their last stone.

In the Semi-final they then controlled their game against Norway, winning 7-3. In the other Semi-final, Korea, who had earlier hammered Switzerland 10-2 with 2 ends to go, succumbed to China by 2-5.

The Bronze Medal match will be at 10.00am between Korea and Norway with the Gold/Silver Final between Scotland and China at 2.30pm.

Come on, Aileen!

---

If anyone is interested in watching the curling tomorrow, here's how to do it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/disabil...t/47457210

[ritchiebaby]

The Bronze Medals went to Korea following their comfortable 10-3 win over Norway and they must be happy with their performances all week. In the Gold Medal match, Scotland were always behind against a strong, formidable China and were eventually beaten 2-5. No fairytale ending for the Scots, but they came through the competition to earn well-deserved Silver Medals.




Well done to Aileen, Hugh, Bob, David and Gary.