Poland here we come

The young curlers who will be wearing GB shirts at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival fly out to Poland early afternoon today, Friday, February 13.

Until now, only the individuals in the two squads have been named (see here), but Curling Today can reveal that the starting lineup for the first games in Bielsko-Biala will be Anna Sloan (skip), Hannah Fleming (3rd), Lauren Gray (2nd) and Alice Spence (lead). The fifth is Rebecca Kesley. The team coach is Debbie Knox. Rhona Martin has been in charge of putting the GB challenge at the EYOF in place. She intends to ensure that everyone plays and says it is likely that Alice and Rebecca will alternate at lead. All the girls were battling it out in different teams in the final stages of the recent Scottish Junior Championships, but competed together at the Glynhill International in January.

The men’s team will line up as Colin Dick (skip), Blair Fraser (3rd), Jay McWilliam (2nd) and Kerr Drummond (lead). Struan Wood is the 5th. Hazel Wood is the team coach. I think this is a strong team and will be out to put their respective disappointments of the past weekend behind them!

You can find out more details about the curlers here.

Official website for the event is here. Hopefully this will be good for getting all the results, but if it's not and I hear news I'll post it here. The teams will have plenty of support in Poland, as most of the families will be in the arena to cheer them on. No doubt messages will be being passed home so can I ask any readers of the blog to please let me know what is happening. I wish I could be there!

Top: If my Polish is up to scratch this looks like a pic of the hall where the curling is to take place!