European Championships in Aberdeen

There's not been a lot of publicity yet for the next European Curling Championships which will be held in Aberdeen, December 4-12. There is a link now from the European Curling Federation's website to the Aberdeen event's site here, where you can download a season ticket application form, and details of how to be a volunteer.

I had the opportunity to talk briefly to George Esson, the chaiman of the local organising committee, last week. He confirms that arrangements are forging ahead on all fronts, and that Aberdeen will host a successful Championships.

Curling Today can reveal that the Linx Arena, on the beach front, is now being considered as the venue for the A Division games. Originally, these were going to be in the new Curl Aberdeen facility in Eday Walk, off the Lang Stracht, with the B Division in the Linx. However, in the current economic situation, the costs of putting in temporary seating, with provision of a marquee to provide additional space for spectators to meet and mingle, have increased. The Linx Arena, on the beach front, already has seating. This arena is currently closed for refurbishment (see the story here), but Esson has no doubt that it will be ready in time for the Championships.

ECF President Andrew Ferguson-Smith and representatives from WCTV, who will provide the television feed from the event, visited Aberdeen last week and have concluded that both venues could be successfully covered from a TV point of view. Esson's team are now looking at the cost implications and a decision on what will be held where is expected soon. Watch this space!

Pics by Bob

Scotland's wheels avoid relegation

Scotland has finished in fifth place at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Vancouver. Aileen Neilson, Michael McCreadie, Tom Killin and Jim Sellar beat Norway in a tiebreaker. Mike Haggerty's game report is here. All the results and stats are here, by Curlit. For more insight from someone who knows the game backwards, check out Eric Eales' wheelchair curling blog.

Last year, the rules in place were that ties in ranking for relegation would be determined by the pre-event draw shot challenge. Japan were relegated by the smallest of margins, blatantly unfair. The WCF rules were changed, a result I reported in a blog post in which I was able to use the famous Vulcan quotation by T'Plana-Hath, see here! (A blog highlight of 2008 to enjoy and treasure)

Now, no team can be relegated except by losing a match. As it should be. And of course in Vancouver this year no fewer than five teams ended with 5-4 records! Just the situation that the use of DSC ranking was trying to avoid. China, Italy, Korea, Norway and Scotland were involved in a three-level series of tiebreak games to determine who would be in ninth place and join Switzerland, who finished bottom of the table, in the qualifying tournament for the World Championship in 2011. There is no World Championship in 2010 as this is a Paralympics year.

Scotland's win over Norway has secured our place at the Wheelchair Worlds in 2011. Tiebreaks continue today, Korea v China and Italy v Norway, and the losers then play to avoid ninth place. Scotland's Ian Addison is chief umpire - he will have had the job of sorting this all out!

Aileen Neilson, seen here in Yadranka McAulay's photo, has assumed the role of Scotland's skip.

Harbin update, updated, update

Sarah Reid's team missed out on the medals at the World University Games. The GB curlers lost to Canada in the semis, and to Russia in the bronze medal playoffs. Bingyu Wang's Chinese side beat the Canadians to take the gold.

The GB team was 5-1 up against the Canadians after five only to lose 7-5 to Nicole Hollie's side. Liudmila Privivkova's Russian team were 8-4 winners over GB.

In the men's event, Niklas Edin's Sweden beat Thomas Lovold's Norway in an extra end in the final. China won bronze over Korea.

There's a Canadian take on the women's semifinal and other aspects of the Harbin event here. I note that this blogger ventures to suggest that Liudmila Privivkova looks 'extremely burnt out'! Now, apart from the anguish that such a comment gives to all the members of Lucy's fan club, she obviously still had enough of a spark to beat the GB team.

And who is this blogger that is giving his opinions? None other than the Canadian Curling Association National Development Coach, Paul Webster! Now, is it just me, or is this not a brilliant innovation? National coaches having time/being encouraged to blog. I'm globsmacked. Would it not be great if Scotland's National Coach could put up a blog post every day from the World events? Or the GB team coaches could do it all next year. Perhaps twitter accounts would be better? No, more depth on a blog. Let's have womenscurlingGBcoach.blogspot.com, or davehayscurlinginsights.blogspot.com, or Rhonasrocks.blogspot.com, or delboyatGangneung.blogspot.com. Then we could get an insight into what they are thinking.

Sorry, forgot to take my medication.

Team Munro retains Henderson Bishop trophy

Some days things go better than expected - not too often in the life of the Editor, it has to be said - but today worked out well. I signed off on the final proofs of the March Scottish Curler by lunchtime in Dunfermline and realised that, given an open road and a following wind, my wee Almera could probably get me to Kelso in time to see most of the Henderson Bishop final. And it did.

Border Ice Rink hospitality was at its best, it had obviously been a great week for the women's premier competition, and there was a big crowd of fans in the Kelso four-sheeter for the High and Low Road finals. Both were great games to watch, and well worth the effort in getting there.

Gail Munro's team, the defending champions, were in the final again. Unfortunately, Lorna McMillan had had to return home due to a family illness, and Gail, Lyndsay Wilson and Fiona Hardie had recruited a local lass, Lorna Shaw, to play with them for their last three games in the event. Fourteen-year old Lorna played her heart out... and became the youngest competitor ever to get her name on the Henderson Bishop trophy!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Stranraer team was against the local foursome of June Swan, Glynnice Lauder, Gillian Smith and Myra Thomson. They were 2-2 after four, 3-3 after six, and still tied at 5-5 after eight, as you can see on the linescore here (with all the other results too). The ninth end proved to be the decisive one, the Stranraer team exerted the pressure, the Kelso side could not respond and Gail was sitting with three shots in the house when she went to play her last. She wiggled in another and four went up on the board. They kept the last end clean to run their opposition out of stones.

Above: Sheila Miller, President of the RCCC Ladies Branch, presents the Henderson Bishop trophy to Gail Munro, Lyndsay Wilson, Fiona Hardie and Lorna Shaw. The photo is a joint effort between Jim Buchanan and Bob (Jim's camera, Bob pressed the button, Jim forwarded the end result. Thanks Jim).

We don't usually say too much about event Low Roads, but today's Cherrystone final between Lisa Mackellaich, Morven Bridges, Abie Brodie and Wee Barras (above, Inverness), and Jean Robertson, Pat Keith, Susan Scougal and Angela Wilcox (Kirkcaldy) was a great game too. (I only saw two games from the whole week, so I really have to mention it!) The Inverness girls stole a three at the fifth to gain the advantage, but there was only a shot in it playing the tenth. Lisa chipped away a Kirkcaldy counter for the win with her last stone. As a fan of wee curling stones, I have to say how much I admired the individual prizes, handcrafted locally. The pic above is again a Bob-Jim co-production!

Scottish Curler Future

The March 2009 Scottish Curler is now being printed. It contains the following statement:

"The publishers of the Scottish Curler, Clyde and Forth Press, are looking at the options for the future of the magazine and they are discussing these with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

After seven years as Editor, Bob Cowan will retire at the end of this season.

There will be further news for readers in the April Scottish Curler with information regarding current and future subscriptions."

The final print issue will be the May edition. Hopefully the title will continue in a different form. The first Scottish Curler was published in January 1954.

There will be a thread on the Scottish Curling Forum for comment and questions. This blog, which exists to support and promote the printed magazine, will be run down over the next few weeks.

GB in semis in Harbin

I don't have more than the bare result, but I was pleased to note this morning that Sarah Reid, Kay Adams, Vicki Adams and Sarah Macintyre, representing GB, have made it through to the semifinals of the World University Games in Harbin, China. They came back from a 5-1 deficit against Sarka Doudova's Czech Republic team to win 8-5. They will meet the undefeated Canadians in the semifinal tomorrow.

Fifth players for the World Championships

Jackie Lockhart will be the fifth player for Eve Muirhead's team at the World Women's Curling Championship in Gangneung, Korea, March 21-29. The event website is here.

Graeme Connal will again be the fifth player for the Murdoch team at the Ford World Men's Championship in Moncton, New Brunswick, April 4-12. The event website is here.

Furth of Skip Cottage

Having enjoyed a great week's curl watching, taking pics and blogging from Perth, being shackled to the computer this week is hard! But the March 'Championships Issue' of the Scottish Curler is just about ready to go to print.

But curling is continuing out there. Our teams at the Winter Universiade in Harbin have had a difficult time, looking at the results. But Sarah Reid's team are still fighting. They finished the round robin on five wins and four losses, jointly fourth in the ranking. They now have a tiebreaker against the Czech Republic to get into the playoffs. That will be tomorrow. Canada, China and Russia are the top three.

John Hamilton's team have three wins, having played eight of their nine round robin games, and cannot make the playoffs.

I've been following the World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Vancouver, online here. The playing stats are interesting. I note that Aileen Neilson is throwing last stones now. Mike Haggerty will now be in Vancouver, and his reports will be on the Royal Club website here.

I'm sorry not to be able to get over to the Border ice Rink, Kelso, this week where the Henderson Bishop trophy is being contested, the premier event in the Ladies' Branch calendar. The results are here.

Top: The GB girls who are at the WUG in China. L-R: Sarah Macintyre, Vicki Adams, Sarah Reid, Kay Adams, Laura Kirkpatrick. Photo by Hugh Stewart.

Scotland's wheels in Vancouver

Michael McCreadie's team have won one and lost two at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Vancouver. You can find all the results here, and the WCF reports here.

Michael McCreadie's pic is by Dallas Bittle, courtesy the WCF

Salute the champions

Back L-R: David Hay (coach), Euan Byers, Pete Smith, Ewan MacDonald, David Murdoch
Front: Anne Laird, Rachael Simms, Karen Addison, Eve Muirhead, Isobel Hannen (coach)

The winners of the Bruadar Scottish Men's and the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies' Championships.

Pic by Bob.

The Men's Final

Tom Brewster, David Murdoch

Tom Brewster and Duncan Fernie

As in the women's event, the Bruadar Championship game was a rematch of the yesterday's Page 1-2 encounter. David Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Peter Smith, Euan Byers were the holders. Tom Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster, Colin Campbell is a new lineup this season, although Tom has the reputation of always being there or thereabouts, but never winning the big one.

There was little to separate the teams. Murdoch engineered a two at the fourth and Brewster responded with a pair of his own in the fifth. After six ends, the score was 3-2 to Brewster. End seven was an aggressive end by both teams - two timeouts, lots of discussions. Murdoch played a key last stone, a brave one which could have been disastrous had it gone wrong, to get a two and take the initiative. Real class! David and his team then stole in the eighth after a measure - this game comes down to millimetres so often. That put them two up. Brewster blanked the ninth.

There was not a lot for Brewster to hide behind as the tenth end progressed. Coach Gordon Muirhead was called in on a timeout and Duncan Fernie had two attempts to hide behind a Murdoch stone at the top of the four foot. One was wide (and was quickly removed by Ewan MacDonald), the other just ticked it and lay open. It was removed too.

Two stones to go, and Brewster put the first of these half behind the Murdoch stone right at the back of the house. Murdoch's removal team then did the job expected and David Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Peter Smith, Euan Byers, the European Champions, were the Bruadar Scottish Champions, and will be our representatives in Moncton at the Worlds. Great game, well done to both teams!

More pics later.

Find all the linescores and stats here.
Ewan MacDonald

Euan Byers and Pete Smith

Duncan Fernie and Colin Campbell

The contestants: L-R David Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Peter Smith, Euan Byers, Tom Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster, Colin Campbell.

Gillie McNab did the honours for the teams at Perth today.

The Women's Final

The gladiators enter the arena.

The Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship title was on the line as Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood matched up against Eve Muirhead, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird, in a repeat of the Page 1-2 game.

Wood elected to choose the stones rather than to go with last stone advantage in the first end, but got the first shot on the board anyway as Muirhead missed with her last stone in trying to blank the end.

Not a lot went right for the Muirhead team in the fifth and Eve was facing six Wood stones when she went to throw her first. She removed three, but was looking at four opposion counters when she went to play her last of the end. She drew perfectly to the four foot for shot. The score 3-3 at the break.

Wood faced the pressure too in the eighth, drawing to the tee with her last stone with a bundle of Muirhead counters facing her.

The break for Muirhead came in the ninth, a count of two giving her team a 7-5 lead coming home. A double takeout by the Junior Champion skip on her first, saw off much of the danger. Then when Wood failed to freeze perfectly, Muirhead had a straightforward clearance for the game. Eve Muirhead, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird are the champs, and bound now for Korea!

Linescores and playing stats are here.

Top: Kelly Wood and Eve Muirhead

Rachael Simms, Karen Addison, Anne Laird

Jackie Lockhart in the head for skip Kelly Wood's stone.

Rachael and Anne sweep their skip's draw for two in the eighth.

Eve Muirhead

Team Wood timeout in the last end.

This was the photo we were going to use if Eve had lost! She's pondering how her team got in to such difficulties in the fifth!

L-R: Annie Laird, Rachael Simms, Karen Addison, Eve Muirhead, Lindsay Wood, Lorna Vevers, Jackie Lockhart and Kelly Wood.

Pics by Bob.

Perth update

Right, where are we? We missed the Page 1-2, which was won by Kelly Wood's team after Eve Muirhead was a couple of inches heavy with her last stone for the game. That put Eve, Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird in the semi with Claire Hamilton, Claire MacDonald, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr, the survivors of last night's playoffs.

It came down to the last end. Hamilton was one up without the hammer, got into trouble, and jammed her clearance with her last, leaving Eve a draw for two, which she made. Whew! Team Muirhead now meet Kelly Wood for the Columba Cream Championship title tomorrow morning. Find all the results here.

Eve Muirhead

Tom Brewster lost to David Murdoch in the Page 1-2 of the Bruadar Scottish Men's Championship, and faced Glen Muirhead's junior team, who got past Peter Loudon's side earlier in the page 3-4.

Here is Glen and third Greg Drummond with lots of stones!

Glen Muirhead

And the rest of the team - Scott Andrews on the left, Scott Macleod on the right.

Tom Brewster was fired up for this one - here he is getting excited!

Oops, you want to know who won. In a good game, Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell always held a slight advantage, and came down the tenth one up with the hammer. Tom drew the four foot for the game. All the results and stats are here.

Pics by Bob who promises to be more coherent tomorrow!

Medals now... and then

Family and friends await the arrival of Team GB from the European Youth Olympic Festival.

Here are the curling GOLD MEDALLISTS. L-R Becca Kesley, Hannah Fleming, Anna Sloan, Lauren Gray, Alice Spence with coach Debbie Knox.

Here are the curling SILVER MEDALLISTS. L-R: Blair Fraser, JayMcWilliam, Colin Dick, Kerr Drummond, Struan Wood with their coach Hazel Wood.

Here is Rhona Martin, who was responsible for the GB curling squads at the EYOF, with Debbie Knox, the coach of the girls' team. They were teammates in the GB Olympic team in Ogden, and seven years ago to the day (with Janice Rankin, Fiona MacDonald and Margaret Morton) they won the gold medals! February 21, 2002, it was. It just added an extra poignancy to the welcome home today at Glasgow Airport.

Curling Today says a big 'Well done' to both teams... and to the coaches, parents and supporters.

Winter Universiade

What's happening in China at the 24th Winter Universiade. Remember I gave instructions on how to find the results - see here. Anyway, John Hamilton's GB team lost in an extra end to Canada earlier today and currently sit on a 1-3 win-loss record. Sarah Reid's side beat the Russians and are on 2-2.

There's some more about the Universiade in the Curling News blog here (I like the photo, I believe kit like this is being considered for next season's RCCC Regional Academy athletes!) where you can read the following words: "Hats off to FISU for organizing a great competition. Scotland’s Jeannette Johnson (sic) and her Chinese organizing committee have done an outstanding job covering all the bases. The best decision they have made was bringing in icemakers Scott Henderson and Doug Wright... conditions have been amazing and continue to impress all of the teams."

BLOG INFO: Don't be looking here for anything from Perth until later tonight. I'm off to greet our two young GB teams back from the EYOF with their medals! The results from the Bruadar and Columba Cream Championships can be followed on the RCCC website.

Scots at World Wheelchair Championship

Rosemary Lenton, Jim Sellar, Tom Killin, Aileen Neilson, and Michael McCreadie (above) get down to business today when the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship begins in Vancouver's new Olympic/Paralympic Centre which was only officially opened on Thursday.

The Scots play Canada in their first game later today (Saturday).

Real-time results will be available at wwhcc.curlit.com. Daily match reports and photos will be available at the main WCF website, and there will be reports on the RCCC website from Mike Haggerty from early next week. The event website, with the draw, is here.

I liked the wording on the official press release from VANOC about the new arena, and I share this with you:

"Six thousand spectators can watch the rocks curl and twist at the venue, the largest seating capacity for wheelchair curling in Paralympic Winter Games history. The Government of Canada and province of British Columbia contributed $40.25 million to the centre via VANOC. The curling venue is perched on one of the highest point of land in the city, with views of downtown’s glass towers and the snow-capped peaks of the North Shore mountains. Construction started in February 2007 – the last competition venue for the Games to break ground. The Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre is targeted for the gold standard in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. This eco-friendly venue captures rainwater and siphons it into the building to flush toilets and urinals. The toilets, showers and sinks also use low-flow water systems, reducing water usage by up to 30 per cent. The building is wrapped in a high-performance envelope that helps keep temperatures just right inside for the perfect ice sheet. Heat is reused during the ice-making process and the building is powered by a mixture of electricity, natural gas and solar energy."

So, there you are, watching the rocks curl and twist! Let's Twist Again. The new venue will also host the World Juniors, March 5-15. There's a pic of the arena ready for play here.

Photo courtesy of Tom Pendreigh

Second tiebreaker

What a great game of curling! Claire Hamilton, Claire MacDonald, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr took a pair at the first and always had their noses in front for seven more ends. One down in the ninth without the hammer, Gail went for it... and was looking at three when she went to play her last. Her attempted freeze was heavy and slipped through and she conceded. Gail, Lyndsay Wilson, Sharon Stewart and Kerry Adams will not be on the ice tomorrow.

The linescore is here. The shooting percentages are here, and these show that, on the night, the Hamilton team were the stronger.

Claire's side will meet the losers of the Eve Muirhead v Kelly Wood Page 1-2 game which is at 2.30 Saturday. The 'semi' is at 8pm.

But listen, we need to say more about these girls who were battling it out as the clock ticked towards midnight. So here is the Ed's salute to all tonight's gladiators!

Gail Munro

Lyndsay Wilson (and umpire Pat Edington)

Sharon Stewart

Kerry Adams

Claire Hamilton

Claire MacDonald

Rhiann Macleod

Caitlin Barr

"Psst. What time is it Claire?" "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Pics by Bob

Last round robin at Perth

David Murdoch eight wins, Tom Brewster seven wins, Peter Loudon six wins and Glen Muirhead also with six wins are the four teams in the playoffs at the Bruadar Scottish Curling Championship. That's what the standings on the RCCC website say here, with the linescores and playing percentages for all the games.

But there was quite some drama at the Dewar's Centre on Friday evening. Glen Muirhead (above) had to play Warwick Smith. Perhaps not many would have favoured the Juniors against last season's Scottish runners-up, but Glen's team demolished the veterans with ease.

Pete Loudon had not only his own future in his hands, but if he lost his game to Lee McCleary that would bring Smith, and Hammy McMillan, back into a tiebreaker. Loudon controlled the game. Drawing to win in the tenth his stone picked up! In the extra though, he was able to push out a near perfect McCleary freeze for the win.

Page playoffs 1 v 2, and 3 v 4 are tomorrow (Saturday) at 2.30 pm. Murdoch v Brewster; Muirhead v Loudon.

Top: Glen Muirhead

Pete Loudon

Pics by Bob

First women's tiebreaker at Perth

Gail Munro got past the first hurdle in getting to this year's Columba Cream Ladies Curling Championship playoffs when she and her team of Lyndsay Wilson, Sharon Stewart and Kerry Adams beat Mairi Milne, Claire Milne, Lynn Cameron and Katie Loudon in the first tiebreaker at Perth this afternoon. The Munro side now meet Claire Hamilton's team later this evening.

It was a tight game, with Munro going into the last end one behind with last stone advantage. Mairi played her last and corner froze it to a Munro counter at the back of the tee. Gail was on target with her last to push the Milne shot away and count four, more than she needed for the win.

Find all the results, linescores and links to the stats, here.

Top: Kerry Adams and Sharon Stewart bring Lyndsay Wilson's stone into the house as Gail checks if it's level with the other Munro stone in the house.

Mairi Milne and Gail Munro

Defending champion Gail Munro

Gold for GB girls at EYOF

Anna Sloan, Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Alice Spence and Becca Kesley (alternate) beat Kershin Iten's Switzerland in the final of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Poland this afternoon. The GB team were four up playing the tenth.

Colin Dick, Blair Fraser, Jay McWilliam, Kerr Drummond and Struan Wood (alternate) won the silver medals, losing at the last end to Roger Gulka's Swiss side. Dick and his team went into the last end one up, without last stone, and saw the Swiss draw for a two.

Very well done to both GB sides!

Murdoch tops the standings

Lee McCleary had the beating of the Murdoch team at the Bruadar Scottish Championship Finals today, but his attempted double with last stone was well off target. McCleary was one down without at the last, and could have elected to draw for a single for the extra. When the big shot to win the game did not come off, Murdoch was alone at the top of the standings.

Warwick Smith's side beat Hammy McMillan at the last stone of their game, to keep themselves in contention on five wins, the same count now as Glen Muirhead's team. Tom Brewster's team could have been sharing top spot with Murdoch, but his last draw in the extra end of his game against Pete Loudon was just long, and he stays on six wins. That victory brought the Loudon team to five wins too.

So, the ninth games in the round robin will see Loudon v McCleary, and Muirhead v Warwick Smith, the results decisive in determining who will be in the last four. McMillan (on four wins) plays Colin Hamilton.

See all the results, stats and linescores here.

Top: David Murdoch. Above: Team Murdoch work out what to do against McCleary.

Lee McCleary

Pics by Bob.

Newsflash from Poland

Both GB teams have reached the finals of the EYOF curling, and will contest the gold against the Swiss this afternoon!

Follow the linescores here.

More men on Thursday

Christine was on blog duty tonight for the seventh round of the Bruadar Scottish Men's Curling Championship. She writes, "David Murdoch met Warwick Smith in round seven, and this turned into quite a surprising game. Before it started the teams on paper were evenly matched. But ice is different, and so it proved in this one! With last stone Murdoch took two in the first and dominated the game from there, Smith was forced to take one in the second, Murdoch got another two in the third. And that set the pattern for the game, the Murdoch four were the strongest team making all the shots. It was over in just five ends, Murdoch lay three, Smith failed with his last stone, he conceded.

Peter Loudon against Alan Smith was over in eight ends. A steal of three in the fifth gave Loudon a lead of three shots, he held on to that, killing the game with three in the eighth for a final score of 7-2.

Hammy McMillan got another win on his card against Iain Watt, 6-4.

And Tom Brewster had a tight game all the way against Glen Muirhead. Neither team could get the advantage, and they went in to final end tied at four all. Muirhead didn't bury his last stone draw. Brewster had a hit, he didn't need to stick, he got one shot for the game 5-4.

Tom Brewster and David Murdoch are now both on 6 wins, Warwick Smith, Glen Muirhead, Peter Loudon and Hammy McMillan all on 4 wins. Two more rounds to play. Find all the linescores and stats here."

Then there were five

Eight women's teams started out in the Columba Cream Scottish Curling Championship last year at Curl Aberdeen, and after the double round robin, five are still in contention for the 2009 title. The teams skipped by Kelly Wood and Eve Muirhead finished tied for top spot with 11 wins, and three teams, skipped by Gail Munro, Claire Hamilton and Mairi Milne were equal on seven wins. Wood and Muirhead will play the 1-2 Page game, the loser of that will play who ever comes forward from the tiebreakers tomorrow. These are set up as Munro v Milne at 2pm, the winner to play Claire Hamilton at 8.30pm. See the RCCC website here.

Here are all the surviving skips!

Eve Muirhead (above) and her team of Karen Addison, Rachael Simms and Anne Laird beat the Gail Munro side in the last round robin game.

Kelly Wood (above), Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood beat Claire Hamilton in their last game.

Gail Munro, Lyndsay Wilson, Sharon Stewart and Kerry Adams are still battling away.

Claire Hamilton (above) had to recruit Claire MacDonald as third for this week, as Lauren Gray is off winning medals in Poland with the GB girls' team. But with Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr as the front end they have done really well to be in the mix for tomorrow's tiebreakers.
After a slow start, Mairi Milne and her team of Claire Milne, Lynn Cameron and Katie Loudon, recovered from being the Curling Today Team of the Day (here) and won their place in the playoffs by beating Gillian Howard today.

Elsewhere in the curling world

The GB teams at the World University Games have had their first games in Harbin. Sarah Reid's team lost to the Chinese favourites in their first game but beat Korea in their second match.

John Hamilton's team beat the USA in an extra end in their first round match.

Finding results is just a little problematic. This link takes you to the English home page. From there, click schedules and results on the left, and on the next page scroll down until you find 'curling', at the bottom. Click on that - and you are presented with another page that has little on it, except one link 'curling'. If you haven't lost the will to live by this time, click on that link and you will be presented with a page where you can download, as pdf files, all the draws!

It's rather easier to find the results from the EYOF in Poland thanks to curlinglive.com. Norway beat the Czech Republic for third place in the men's event, and now play Colin Dick's team in the semifinal. The GB women, skipped by Anna Sloan, missed out on a place in the final (with the guarantee of at least a silver medal) by less than a cm as the Draw Shot Distance was used to decide the rankings after three teams finished tied for first place in the rankings on 4 wins. The Swiss are through to the final. The GB team has to play Denmark, who beat them when they met this morning, in the semifinal.

The semifinal games are tomorrow.

And last but not least, the World Curling Tour Europe has relaunched itself as the Curling Champions Tour, see here.

This is a fascinating development, and more about it here in due course.

Men on Thursday

This was a big game today, in the sixth round of the Bruadar Scottish Men's Curling Championship. Both Tom Brewster and Warwick Smith were on 4-1 win-loss records and it was to be Team Brewster who would improve that this afternoon. You can find all the linescores, results and standings here.

In other games, Peter Loudon's side took David Murdoch's team to the last stone, the Lockerbie skip having a straightforward hit for the game. Murdoch and Brewster head the table with five wins. Three rounds remain. In the men's it will be the top four teams which will contest the playoffs (in contrast to the women where it is the top three).

Above: Tom Brewster and Warwick Smith

Tom Brewster

Warwick Smith and Craig Wilson

Pics by Bob.

More Perth Thursday

It was the battle between the two GB Olympic Squad teammates this morning in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship at Perth. And it was Eve Muirhead and her team that came out on top against Kelly Woods' side. Two behind in the ninth, the Scottish Junior Champ made a raise takeout for a pair, and in the tenth, with the end set up well by her team, she placed her last two stones perfectly. Kelly was left with a delicate raise to the button. She was close, but not close enough, and the two teams share top spot in the rankings, which you can see here.

Jackie Lockhart and Kelly Wood discuss options.

Claire MacDonald (left) is substituting for Lauren Gray this week as third player in Claire Hamilton's side. They took a three from Gail Munro this morning in the seventh end and ran out 8-6 ahead. Hamilton and Munro are jointly third on the standings now, on seven wins apiece.

Sharon Stewart, Gail Munro and Kerry Adams.

Pics by Bob.

Thursday

The skirmishings are almost over in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship. I'm writing this as the eight teams are practising before the start of their penultimate match of the double round robin. The top four teams in the rankings battle with each other today. Wood plays Muirhead and Munro plays Hamilton this morning. In the afternoon Muirhead is up against Munro, Wood against Hamilton. Howard and Milne are not necessarily out of it yet, depending on the results of these games. Only the top three go forward to the playoffs.

Find all the results and linescores here.

The Bruadar Men's Championship is still very open after five rounds, with four round robin games to go. Note that Colin Hamilton and Lee McLeary sides have fallen off the board - actually just out of sight at the bottom of the rankings in the photo above. Follow the results and linescores here.

Elsewhere in the curling world you should keep an eye on our GB young curlers in Poland here, and our students in Harbin (here). I note Sarah Reid's team lost their opener to Bingyu Wang's Chinese side.

GB medals at EYOF in Poland

Both GB curling teams at the EYOF in Poland are guaranteed to be bringing home medals - the question is which colour? Colin Dick's team finished the round robin with a 4-1 win-loss record, in second place in the standings, and will meet the winners of a tiebreak between the Czech Republic and Norway in the semifinal, the winner will play Switzerland in the final.

There's a report of the boy's game against Poland on the event website here which I think you will enjoy. Just to explain, the 'new player', to which Colin refers is Struan Wood, who got a game when Blair Fraser had to sit out with an injured shoulder. The report says, "Our new player hasn’t anything to do with the old one playing bad, we just gave him a shot. We’re quite confident and not afraid of other teams.”

Anna Sloan's girls are unbeaten with one game to play. If they win this match against Denmark they will be straight to the final and will come home with silver at least!

The scores and standings are here.

There's a photo gallery on the official website here, from where these two pics have been taken (thank you to the organisers for putting them up). The pics in the gallery give a good impression of the rink, and as I've said before I really like the wall bars! The only one that shows anything of the GB teams is below - that looks like Colin Dick in the far distance.

The photo at the top shows the spectators. I recognise a few faces!

Focus on seconds

I've decided to carry on the serious tone in last night's blog. We are all concerned with the consequences of the recession and looking to save the pennies. So today's blog is all about 'seconds'. Not 'first quality' today. All seconds. Is there anyone out there who still remembers when the player who delivered the third and fourth stones for the team was called the 'silly second'? The main qualities of that player was the ability to make takeouts, keep his or her mouth shut, and be able to count, this latter attribute being useful for keeping the scorecard up to date.

So, as a former member of the Front End Union myself, I give you.... the seconds at Perth!

Steven Mitchell is second player for the Iain Watt team, and Scottish Junior Champ too.

Richard Woods is a stalwart of Pete Loudon's side.

Lorna Vevers is second for the Kelly Wood team, and a member of the GB Olympic squad, see here. Horses and quad bikes are passions outwith curling.

Scott Macleod, here trying his best for a Wallace and Gromit impersonation, is second for Glen Muirhead.

Jennifer Priestley is usually lead for the Gillian Howard team. But today, with 3rd player Alison Kinghorn sidelined with illness, the team had to play with three. So Jen was having to work hard as the single sweeper! In vain as it turned out, as the team went down to Kelly Wood.

Ross Paterson is number two for Hammy.

Eyes of the Day award goes to Ron Brewster, from the Tom Brewster side.

Sharon Stewart delivering here - this season she's second stones for Gail Munro. Seen here with 3rd Lyndsay Wilson.

Robbie Stevenson from the Ross McLeary team. He's the one with the perspiration problem - see yesterday's blog! Wearing his sweat resistant outfit today.

Always popular on the blog, here's Team Claire Hamilton's second Rhiann 'I've got a friend to lean on' Macleod. Caitlin Barr is the friend in this case.

Well kent television commentator - amongst many other talents - David Smith from the Warwick Smith side.

Rachael Simms is second with the Eve Muirhead team. She's my favourite colour on the ice.

Everyone knows Pete Smith from Team Murdoch.

Lynn Cameron is second for Mairi Milne. There's been a huge amount of interest (well, one comment) since we highlighted the fact last night that she can pass her body through a wire coathanger, see here.

David Reid from Alan Smith's team.

Karen Strang is in the programme as lead in the Judith McFarlane team, but today certainly she was playing second stones.

Barbara McFarlane, second for Sarah Reid whose team this week is being skipped by third player Kerry Barr as Sarah is in China at WUG where the curling begins tomorrow.

And today's caption competition. This is Billy Johnston from Colin Hamilton's side.

Find all the serious stuff here and here.

Nominations at Perth

"I like the Curling Today blog, Bob, but it's just too ..... superficial. Too flippant. Not enough seriousness, analysis, depth." So the conversation went. I have resolved to change, forthwith.

It was talk of the nominations that did it. You will have seen (here) that for the first time there is going to be an election for the Royal Club Vice-presidency, and even more significant, there are five candidates for the two available places as Directors on the RCCC Board. I look forward to hearing more about their platforms, and if any want to take out a full page ad on Curling Today, then my palm is waiting to be crossed. I'm totally unbiassed... "Go Bob!" No, not me. Another one.

So what did talk of the nominations do? It being nomination season, why not have some nominations at Perth. I sought nominations for the Columba Cream 'Team of the Day'. There was just one anonymous nomination nominated anonymously by Edith Loudon, for Team Milne. So, tonight we will look in depth at just one of Scotland's top eight women's curling teams!

Here they are - Team Milne. Check out their website at www.milnemaniccurlers.co.uk. They don't yet have a fan club, but if you are a member of the Scottish Curling Forum, log in and send a personal message to Gramacho83, he could probably be persuaded to be the interim secretary!

So let's start by introducing the hard working front end, above, bad hair day.

Katie Loudon is the shy one on the left, and Lynn Cameron on the right.

This is a bit better pic of lead Katie. She's had a long and distinguished career - see here. Ask her about her Olympic rings tattoo on her 'lower back' and if the yellow ring has faded?

This is second player Lynn Cameron. She's a member of the GB Olympic Squad. You can see her profile here, where you will learn that she can fit her body through a wire coathanger!

And here's the front end getting ready to do the job they're paid to do on skip Mairi Milne's stone.

This is the back end. Third Claire Milne is on the left, Mairi, her sister, on the right. I would say which is older, but I prefer to think of them as twins!

Whenever Team Milne competes, the stands are always packed with excited fans.

They are looking for a new sponsor. Their current arrangement with Homebase Own Brand Duck Tape runs out at the end of the season.

Coach Edith Loudon is an integral part of the team. A formidable competitor, she announced her retirement recently and has embraced new challenges in Wine Country, see here.

Third Claire is a stalwart member of the side! She's the local curling development officer.

One of Team Milne's best attributes is that they approach every game with the utmost concentration.

All the team are very receptive to the coach's suggestions in timeouts.

And did they win tonight? Well.... no. Scottish champ Gail Munro (above) did it to them in a close game that went to the last stone. You can find all the results from all the games here, with a link to the CurlingZone stats and shooting percentages.

Pics by Bob. That's all for tonight. I'm going to put the camera away now and watch some of the men's games. You know where to find the results! Back tomorrow.

More Tuesday at Perth

Second round of the Bruadar Scottish Men's Finals. Colin Campbell and Tom Brewster. You can find all the results, standings and linescores here. Brewster beat McMillan this afternoon.

Pete Loudon

Warwick Smith. Don't panic, concerned wellwishers are taking a collection to buy him some new blades for his razor.

Chief ice tech Paul Martin begins another chapter of his biography. He's looking for a title. Any suggestions? "Life in the freezer." "Travels with my nipper." "Sanding Stones for Beginners."

David Murdoch. Bit of an 'oops' today as they gave up a point to Glen Muirhead's juniors.

The Editor brought his halo with him today. (Photo courtesy of Liz Paul)

Richard Woods and Logan Gray

Lee McCleary

Steven Mitchell and Iain Watt

It's a problem with perspiration. When he sweats his tattoo shows through his shirt. Who said the men's teams weren't colourful?

Hammy McMillan

Gerry CurlingZone Geurts. He's bashing his stats volunteers into shape. By the end of the week they might have the hang of it! See the stats here. Brought to us this week with support from British Curling.

Alan Smith and Colin Hamilton. Colin has donated his Easyjet uniform to a charity shop!

And talking of Seniors, here's newly crowned Scottish Senior Champion Anne Malcolm on the timeclocks!

Pics by Bob except where indicated.

Tuesday at Perth

This is how the standings were before this morning's games in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Championship. You can find the linescores and results here, and stats here.

Cream of Curling, Eve Muirhead!

Katie Loudon, Mairi Milne, Lynn Cameron. The Milne team are right back into it with a win over the Muirhead team this morning.

Just to prove that black is occasionally allowed on the blog, this is Rhiann Macleod.

There were some new faces on the ice this morning. Sarah Reid's team were missing two players, on international duty elsewhere, so Kerry Barr moved up to skip the team and it was good to see Jacqui Byers competing again.

Gail Munro and Kerry Barr

Gail angled the red on to the yellow to count a four and ensure her win this morning.

Former World Champion Katriona Fairweather was also recruited to play today for Kerry.

Judith McFarlane had her chances today. A hit on the nose with her last stone would have given her team a win over Kelly Wood. But she was wide, and failed to get shot.

Here's Jude again with Karen Strang and Fiona Steele. Jill MacDonald's in the head.

Kelly Wood

Lindsay Wood, Jackie Lockhart and Lorna Vevers

Here's two more well kent faces, but new here. Claire MacDonald was in place of Lauren Gray in the Claire Hamilton team. Alison Kinghorn was in place of Kay Adams in the Gillian Howard side.

Dor Borthwick is Chief Umpire (second attempt to get her name right!)

Remembering our roots

It may be the biggest week of the curling calendar within the confines of the Dewar's Centre, but I was reminded today of our sport's roots with this photo of Valentine's day play at Tarland. On Saturday eight clubs (16 teams) from the Deeside Curling Association played a bonspiel on outside ice, competing for the Barclay Harvey Trophy. The cup was won by Bouties Curling Club with Banchory CC second.

George Rogerson, the Banchory CC President, reports, "The ice was very stiff, so those who had not maintained a keen side on their stones had great difficulty getting anywhere near the head."

I don't think those playing in the Bruadar Scottish Men's Championship and the Columba Cream Ladies Championship will have that problem!

George says about Tarland, "A very good time was had by all." I hope they do too, at Perth!

Many thanks to George Rogerson for the photo above.

EYOF girls post first win

Anna Sloan and her GB team (see here) have won their first game in Poland, beating Anna Siderova's Russian side 8-4. (Siderova competed at the Glynhill Ladies International last month, her photo is here)

You can follow the results from the other round robin games this week on curlinglive.com. Thanks to those behind the site there for posting the end by end linescores live. Much appreciated. Now, if they could just archive the linescores as well as the final scores! Please. (Note that it says on the site, "We're still in development stage, site exclusively for this event." There's no email contact.)

Above L-R: Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Anna Sloan, Becca Kesley and Alice Spence. Photo by Hugh Stewart.

EYOF off and running

Heavy snowfall may have delayed the start of some of the events at the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival in Poland but the curling is underway.

Colin Dick and his GB team have won their first game, against Norway, 10-2 in seven ends. The results are here. The girls are up next against Russia.

The RCCC website is carrying a BOA story about Anna Sloan getting the honour to carry the flag at the Opening Ceremony. See it here.

Top L-R: Struan Wood, Kerr Drummond, Blair Fraser, Colin Dick and Jay McWilliam. Photo by Hugh Stewart.

Now for the Grand Masters

Well, that's the Seniors Championships over. What next this week? Well on Friday, February 20, Greenacres is hosting a brand new event, the Grand Masters Bonspiel 2009. Grand Masters? We have Schools, Under-12, U-13, U-15, U-17, Juniors, Seniors, Masters. The Grand Masters is a natural progression for those over 70.

We like the idea. Curling is inclusive of so many groups in our society. There's special competitions for men, women, farmers, teachers, doctors, police, oil workers, postal workers, Rotarians, the media - I even have my name on the Brass Whisk! The top curling students in the World will be competing this week in China.

In my collection of curling memorabilia a treasured newspaper clipping has the headline 'Blackface Breeders Compete'! (Think sheep)

There's wheelchair curling, and the sport is becoming available to the deaf and those who are visually impaired. Left handers even have their own World Championship! There's active gay and lesbian curling leagues in North America.

Blondes, brunettes and redheads all have their own spiels in many countries. No sign yet of an event for bald editors, but the World Curling Federation sent some scouts to Bangkok recently to investigate the suitability of the three rinks in the Thai capital (see here) for the world's first ladyboy curling championship, following the successful day that the touring group (see here, parental advisory) had at Murrayfield during last year's Edinburgh Festival. Now, that would be colourful!

(OK, so some of the above is not true, but curling needs visionaries!)

Sixteen teams have entered for the 2009 Grand Masters, including well known names like Jim Waddell, Bill Watt and (the original) Hammy McMillan. They’ll play in two sections, games will be of six ends and the winner will be determined by games won, ends, shot difference, shots scored.

PS: The Bonspiel is a couple of Grand Masters short, if you know any who would like to take part, please get them to contact the Greenacres rink. Note that the competition is not yet open to Grand Dames (or should that be Grand Mistresses) - something about the reluctance of the organisers to ask any of our ladies their age! Next year perhaps.

But wait. There's something else happening this week. The Bruadar Scottish Men's Championship and the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies' Championship are on at Perth! The men begin this evening (Monday). You can find the draw here. The women are first up Tuesday morning. Results to date are here.

Expect blogging from Perth come Tuesday.

Scotland's Senior Champions

Marion Craig (skip), Rhona Fleming, Catherine Raeburn and Anne Malcolm

Tommy Fleming, Robin Aitken, Lockhart Steele and Keith Prentice (skip)

Seniors' finals

The two finals went ahead this afternoon, deciding the Scottish Seniors curling titles and who would be representing Scotland at the World Seniors in Dunedin.

It was David Clydesdale against Keith Prentice, for the men's championship. Prentice, Lockhart Steele, Robin Aitken and Tommy Fleming took a three at the fourth and stole a pair at the fifth for a 6-1 lead. It should have been all over, but David Clydesdale, Alistair Wood, Jim Taylor and Douglas Rodger did not think so. They came back strongly with four at the sixth and it was game on. They stole at the seventh to be in a tied game coming home. There were lots of stones around in the eighth, but Clydesdale could not get a shot counting and Prentice did not need to play his last.

Marion Craig was up against Jacqui Crawford for the women's title. This was a friendly game. Marion took a three at the first and promptly gave up four. By the fifth end it was 5-5. Crawford, with Elaine Semple, Pat Ross and Fiona Macfarlane, stole a single in the sixth, Craig took a fine three in the seventh to be two up coming home, without. With her last stone of the eighth Marion had a straightforward takeout for the title... and missed. But she and her team of Rhona Fleming, Catherine Raeburn and Anne Malcolm clinched the title in an extra end.

Marion Craig and Jacqui Crawford

David Clydesdale

Keith Prentice delivers, with Tommy Fleming and Robin Aitken in attendance.

World Champs before, let's hope that Keith and team can keep it up in Dunedin!

Pics by Bob. Presentations later.

Seniors' semis

Four semifinals this morning at the Lanarkshire Ice Rink, Hamilton. First to be decided made the home support happy, when Marion Craig, Rhona Fleming, Catherine Raeburn and Anne Malcolm beat Kay Gibb, Judith Carr, Rosemary Morrison and Kate Henderson, a stolen four in the fifth end sealing that game.

Jacqui Crawford hit and stayed to count a three in the sixth end of the other semi. Although the teams played on for another end, Jacqui, Elaine Semple, Pat Ross and Fiona Macfarlane would have another match today. Janette Wilson, Norma Brown, Irene Hird and Maggie Mauchline would not.

Keith Prentice made a double takeout to count four at the seventh end of his semifinal, and that prompted the handshakes from the Don Stark team of Gordon Mackie, Bill Allison and John Wallace. Prentice, Lockhart Steele, Robin Aitken and Tommy Fleming, the 2007 World Senior Champions, were into the Scottish final.

Colin Hamilton, Gary Macfarlane, Don Rutherford and Gordon Crawford were two up without, playing the last end against David Clydesdale, Alistair Wood, Jim Taylor and Douglas Rodger. Clydesdale rolled his first off a front guard behind cover. In trying to wick it away for the game, Hamilton edged his own front stone into shot position behind another guard. Clydesdale then had to play the run back, rolling the shooter into play to force the extra end. This he did.

With his final stone of the ninth, Hamilton had to draw fully to the eight foot for a place in the final. He threw it well enough, but for a couple of sweeps more he would have made it. After a measure, it was Team Clydesdale which advanced.

All the linescores are here.

It's Pinocchio again! Irene Hird, Janette Wilson and Maggie Mauchline.

Keith Prentice comes out to join Lockhart Steele and Robin Aitken. Good to see Robin has discarded the black bin bag look!

Elaine Semple and Pat Ross work on Fiona Macfarlane's stone.

Don Stark

Bill Allison and John Wallace work on Gordon Mackie's stone.

The rink got even busier as the semis progressed.

'I just can't bear to watch.' Other captions are available.

I was impressed that there were three Royal Club Directors on the ice this morning. Here is Lockhart Steele at work with Tommy Fleming. This reminds me. Nominations for two positions on the Board closed yesterday. I wonder if anyone wants to be a Director?

And I thought curling was supposed to be fun! Kay Gibb and Marion Craig.

Here's another Director - Irene Hird!

'Easyjet ground staff have training exercise at Hamilton.'

Anne Malcolm and Catherine Raeburn sweep Marion Craig's stone.

'Right Gary, when I put this hand out, that means I want you to play the outturn. The stone should rotate anticlockwise when you let it go. You're not a left hander are you?' Colin Hamilton and Gary Macfarlane. (Other captions are available)

David Clydesdale joins his sweepers.

Alistair Wood and David Clydesdale

And here's the third Director - Anne Malcolm

Pics by Bob

GB teams for Universiade

Here are the two GB curling teams at the airport today ready to depart for Harbin, China, to compete in the World University Games.

Back L-R: Michael Goodfellow, Sarah Macintyre, Vicki Adams, Sarah Reid, Kay Adams, Laura Kirkpatrick, Thomas Pendreigh. Front: Andrew Craigie, John Hamilton, Ian Copland.

Photo by Hugh Stewart.

More Saturday Seniors

Playoffs are the order of the day at the Senior Championships at Hamilton! In the women's event Jacqui Crawford's team won their rematch against Annette MacDonald (just - it took an extra end after the four end tiebreaker)) and they are through with Marion Craig from Section B to Sunday's semifinals. So too is Janette Wilson's team, top in Section A. There was a three way tie in this section for second place. Ena Smith had beaten the other two teams and gets a bye, while Kay Gibb and Mary Barr contest a tiebreak. The winner of this plays Smith, again over four ends, for the semifinal place.

Keith Prentice and David Clydesdale are both through to tomorrow in the men's event. The others are still battling away for the other semifinal places. Find all the results, linescores and standings here.

Here is what the camera captured today!

Mary Barr - 'Before'.

Mary Barr - 'After'. Actually she played a good shot, against two. I would not like to show the pic when she plays a bad one!

Kay Gibb v Janice Howard

'Everything was OK until they started to mate!'

Janette Wilson. 'What was that about Pinocchio?'

Ena Stevenson and Wilma Brownlie

International umpire Dor Borthwick shows good style as a competitor.

Team decision making from the Jim Hogg team.

Billy Henderson (right) pretending he's not with teammates Will Davidson-Gall and Greig Henderson!

Gary Macfarlane and Don Rutherford working hard on Gordon Crawford's stone.

David Clydesdale

This is the David Clydesdale team discussing options!

Billy Nairn implementing Section 4 a of the Beginners' Manual. 'Always check to see that the stone is still there.'

Andy McGlynn

Pics by Bob. That's all from today. More tomorrow.

Saturday at Hamilton

Marion Craig's team are through to the semifinals of the Scottish Seniors Championship. They defeated Kate Burnett's team in their last round robin game this morning.

Annette MacDonald and Margaret Armstrong. The MacDonald team beat Jacqui Crawford's side this morning to set up a tiebreaker. That will be at 14.00 this afternoon, winner to the semifinal. The other section has another round to play later today. The men have two rounds remaining. The RCCC website is up and running again after a problem yesterday with the hosting service, and all the results are here.

Jacqui Crawford

Pat Ross of the Crawford team delivers, with Fiona Macfarlane and Elaine Semple in attendance.

Anne Malcolm looks as if she has been spending too many nights agonising over the Vernon Report!

Harbin bound

Sarah Reid (skip), Kay Adams, Vicki Adams, Sarah Macintyre and fifth player Laura Kirkpatrick, and John Hamilton (skip), Andrew Craigie, Thomas Pendreigh, Michael Goodfellow with Ian Copland (5th) will be on their way to Harbin, China, later today. The two teams will compete for Great Britain in the Winter Universiade or World University Games.

There's more about the curlers on the British Curling website here.

The event's English website is here, and is full of information. That's where the photos are from!

The Universiade runs from February 18-28. Youth, future, ice and snow! Is it too late for me to get a flight?

Top: This from a dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony, which is certain to be spectacular!

The curling competition will take place in the Heilongjiang Skating Gym, in Harbin City. The first games are on Thursday February 19, with the finals on Friday 27. Scott Henderson is ice technician. There are more photos of the venue here.

This is a group of volunteers taking a 'solemn oath' prior to the event.

Rehearsing presentations.

EYOF teams

Here they are, at the airport today, on their way to one of their life's big experiences, the two GB curling teams heading for the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. Back L-R: Kerr Drummond, Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Anna Sloan, Becca Kesley, Alice Spence, Blair Fraser. Front: Struan Wood, Colin Dick, Jay McWilliam.

Photo by Hugh Stewart

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!

The Seniors are on the ice

So, here we are again. Juniors last week at Perth, Seniors this week at Hamilton. What was that about 'sublime' and 'ridiculous'. No, it's great. You can follow all the linescores, standings and results on the Royal Club website here.

This is the Keith Prentice team in the photo above. They have some story about ordering new colourful uniforms and them not being available in the appropriate XXXXXL sizes! Aye, right!

I haven't quite figured out what Maggie Rutherford is doing in this pic!

Marion Craig and Rhona Fleming

Caption competition 1. Marion Craig and Jean Robertson

Chief Umpire Malcolm Richardson

Maggie Scott is third for the Jean Robertson team

Lockerbie's Kate Burnett

Jan Howard

Jacqui Crawford

Ian Gillespie and Barton Henderson

'No animals were hurt in the making of this movie.' Ena Smith

'Through A Glass Darkly' is an abbreviated form of a much-quoted phrase from the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 13. The phrase is interpreted to mean that humans have an imperfect perception of reality. See Curling Today, see Educational! See Wikipedia.

Caption competition 2. Bob Smellie and Colin Hamilton

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr - Elaine Turnbull

Will Davidson-Gall ready to sweep Barton Henderson's stone

Pretty in Pink. RCCC Board member Anne Malcolm.

Pics by Bob. More on Saturday and Sunday if all goes well.

Outside curling at Glenesk

The Glenesk Curling Club has a new outside rink at Tarfside, and play was possible recently... at night. The full story is on Edzell CC's fine blog here.

One of the stars of the evening was World Curling Federation Vice-president Kate Caithness, here demonstrating good form on the crampit.

Thanks to Mike Ferguson for the photos.

The Road to Dunedin

Twelve men’s and thirteen women’s teams will compete in the Scottish Senior Curling Championships this week at the Lanarkshire Ice Rink, Hamilton. The winners will be Scotland's representatives at the World Senior Championships in Dunedin, New Zealand, April 25 - May 2.

The World Curling Federation took a bit of a gamble in awarding the World event to New Zealand, the first time such a prestigious competition has gone 'down under'. There were fears that many countries would withdraw because of the increased costs. This has not proved to be the case as fourteen countries will send men's teams and eight women's teams, just slightly less than last year.

However, it has been a dilemma for some teams on the Scottish Senior circuit, where members felt unable to commit to time away from work or family, and the additional expense, should they win at Hamilton. These teams have not entered. Aware of the problem, the Royal Club has made available additional funding for our representative teams this season, see here.

But there is controversy looming. As recently as last week, the skip of one of the favourites for the men's senior title had not committed to travelling to Dunedin, if his team were to win the championship. A replacement is on standby. The question is really what are the teams playing for this week? Are they playing just to become National Champions, or are they competing for the right to represent Scotland at a World Championship?

I am not happy with the thought that the team which wins the title does not go on to the Worlds. I don't want to see an untried team - all of whose members did not win the right to go to New Zealand - don Scottish jerseys, and travel, partially at members expense, to the world event. I believe that if you know you cannot play at the Worlds, you should not be competing at Hamilton. I suspect I am not alone in that view.

But let's see what happens! In both the men's and women's competitions, there are two sections with the top two from each moving forward to Sunday’s semifinals. The women begin their games this afternoon, the men tomorrow morning. Find all the results on the RCCC website here.

Fifth players for World Juniors

Just a postscript to the Scottish Junior Championships. The fifth player who will go to Vancouver for the World Junior Men's Championship with Team Black is Glen Muirhead, who skipped the team which secured Scotland's place in the event at Taarnby in January. Alan Hannah is the coach.

Kay Adams, who did such a great job as fifth for Eve Muirhead in Ostersund last year, will again take on that role in Vancouver. Note to Vicki - careful on the stairs this year! Isobel Hannen is the coach.

The World Junior Championships website is here.

Top: Glen Muirhead photo by Richard Gray
Below: Kay Adams photo by Bob

Wheels off to Vancouver

The Scottish wheelchair curling team flies out tomorrow to compete in the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Canada. Rosemary Lenton, Jim Sellar, Tom Killin, Aileen Neilson, and Michael McCreadie, seen above with coach Tom Pendreigh, will spend the time before the championship begins at a holding camp in Richmond, just south of Vancouver itself. Bon voyage and good luck to our team!

The World Wheelchair Championship, February 21-28, is the first event to be held at the new venue which has been built in Hillcrest Park, Vancouver, for the curling competitions at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. More information about the Vancouver Olympic Centre is here.

I've taken the following from the official WCF press release. "The 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship features ten teams from three continents vying for wheelchair curling supremacy, including two-time defending champions Norway, skipped by Rune Lorentsen; 2008 world finalists Korea, led by Hak Sung Kim; and the 2008 world bronze medallists from the United States, skipped by Augusto Perez.

Canada will be skipped by Vancouver's Jim Armstrong, an accomplished able-bodied competitor from the 1970s and 1980s who will represent Canada at the event for the first time.

Other teams include Sweden's 2006 Paralympic bronze medallist Jalle Jungnell, Germany's Jens Jaeger, Italy's Andrea Tabanelli, China's Haitao Wang and Switzerland's Daniel Meyer.

The championship features two daily draws from February 21-26 with tiebreakers and the Page Playoffs scheduled for Friday, February 27. The semifinals take place Saturday, February 27 at 9:00am local time with the championship and bronze medal games taking place the same day, at 2:30pm local time."

The event website is here.

Photo courtesy of Tom Pendreigh

More Perth pics

Someone had to be first into the cheap seats! Jane Barr, Caitlin's mum. And here are more photos from Sunday, in no particular order.

This from the semifinal. Kerr Drummond had lost his voice by this time. His team have had a hard loss to thole, but we'll see more of these young curlers in the future.

Caitlin Barr looking worried in the semifinal.

The seating filled up later. I'll leave you to work out who this lot were supporting!

Becca Kesley sets out on a delivery with Abi Brown and Alice Spence in attendance.

Anna Sloan

Abi and Alice work on Hannah Fleming's stone.

Steven Mitchell doing the work to the encouragement of Ally Fraser and Graeme Black.

Coach Allan Hannah in a timeout with Graeme Black and team.

Sunday bling. Rhiann Macleod.

Thomas Sloan, Graeme Black, Steven Mitchell.

Graeme Black and Jamie Dick

Ally Fraser and Colin Dick ready to sweep Jamie's stone.

Jamie and Graeme

Lindsay Gray

Sarah Macintyre and Vicki Adams at work.

Eve Muirhead with Sarah and Vicki in attendance.

Hannah and Eve

Thomas Pendreigh, Blair Fraser, James Dunn

Claire Hamilton

Pics by Bob

The Junior Finals

Jamie Dick, Colin Dick, Lindsay Gray and Michael Goodfellow were the favourites going into the final against Graeme Black and his team, who had had little time to recover after their comeback win against Blair Fraser's side this morning.

But Graeme with Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell (sorry Steve for previous typo) and Thomas Sloan were on a roll. They took a four at the third, and in the fourth stole a two. Jamie had come up just short with a draw against two, and without waiting to confirm that his team had lost a single, Colin Dick kicked his team's stone away, and so it was a two that went on to the board. Black was 6-2 ahead. He stole again in the fifth.

Jamie and his team fought on valiantly. A superb split in the ninth saw the Edinburgh medical student get two back, to trail by just two, 8-6, going in to the last end. It was too little, too late. Graeme's team played it well in the tenth, keeping the front open, and with last stone had an open hit for the championship title. He was right on target.

Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Sarah Macintyre were the favourites in the girls' final. But Hannah Fleming, Becca Kesley, Alice Spence and Abi Brown were more than a match for the reigning champ.... for much of the game. The score was 4-4 after six. Then Eve and her team counted a big three, and they were on their way to Vancouver for the World Juniors. Hannah offered the handshakes after eight.

You can find a synopsis of the games here.

L-R: Sarah Macintyre, Vicky Adams, Anna Sloan and Eve Muirhead

L-R: Graeme Black, Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell and Thomas Sloan

Pics by Bob

Junior semifinals

The semifinals of the Scottish Junior Championships took place at Perth this morning. In the girls' event Hannah Fleming, Becca Kesley, Alice Spence and Abi Brown lined up against Claire Hamilton, Lauren Gray, Rhiann Macleod and Caitlin Barr. In a close, well fought game, Hannah's team counted two at the ninth to be two up coming home, and ran the Hamilton team out of stones for their win and a place in the final against Eve Muirhead.

In the junior men's semi, it was Graeme Black, Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell and Thomas Sloan against Blair Fraser, skipping the Kerr Drummond team. Kerr was playing third stones, Thomas Pendreigh second and James Dunn was lead. When Blair and his team stole a two at the sixth for a 5-1 lead, it should have been all over. Graeme and his team didn't think so. They took a single at the seventh and then stole three singles in a row to set up an extra end.

It came down to the last stone. Blair had a draw to the eight foot, but was too heavy. It would be the Graeme Black team which would contest the final agaist Jamie Dick.

Linescores and some comments on the game (that's new) here.

Top: The Murray Trophy and other trophies on show as play gets underway.

Becca Kesley calls line for her skip, as Claire Hamilton and Lauren Gray watch behind.

This was the shot that almost cost Team Black the game, as the red stone just finished a couple of sweeps short.

Graeme Black and Blair Fraser

Caption competition: "Now, what do you think we should play?".... says coach Marion.

Pics for Bob.

Perth Saturday

It looks to be an interesting Saturday at Perth as the Scottish Junior Championships reach their climax.

I've been following the results on the RCCC website here. In the junior men's event, Jamie Dick's side beat Glen Muirhead at an extra end in their last round robin game, and that has eliminated the holder from the competition. Now Jamie plays a tiebreaker against Graeme Black who also finished on a 6-1 win-loss record. The winner goes to tomorrow afternoon's final. The loser will play a semi against Kerr Drummond tomorrow morning at 10.00, the winner of that game going forward to the final too.

A similar situation has occurred in the junior women's event. Hannah Fleming needed to win her last round robin game to go straight to the final. But she lost to Jennifer Dodds. However, Fleming's 6-1 win-loss record was the same as Eve Muirhead's, both jointly in first place in the standings, and that has set up a tiebreaker to see who will advance directly to the final. The loser will play Claire Hamilton tomorrow morning for the second place in the championship game.

Join me at Perth tomorrow!

The Vernon Report

Michael Nicholson has completed his report and it was delivered to the main parties involved this week. It apparently runs to more than a hundred pages.

It was discussed at the Royal Club's Board meeting today. Chairman Bob Tait has been in touch to explain that the Board wishes to discuss issues raised in the report with the Royal Club partners, principally I understand, sportscotland. As soon as this/these meetings have taken place he assures me that the report will be published in full, as promised, on the Royal Club website. He would not be drawn on a timescale.

We have to continue to be patient! But, hey, after nearly a year, what's a few days more.

National Curling Academy

I came home from Perth last night by way of Kinross and took in the open meeting about the National Curling Academy. Some seventy-five interested curlers attended in the Windlestrae Hotel. Jamie Montgomery outlined the history of the project. Significantly he emphasised that the Montgomery Hotel Group will have no involvement in the facility and no part in the running of it. It will be run by the Kinross Curling Trust.

I've talked about this in the blog (start here) and in the Scottish Curler magazine. A newsletter was sent out recently and is on the RCCC website, see here.

The projected cost is £3.2 million. Of this £1.5 million is expected from sportscotland. The Royal Club and the RCCC Trust will put up £300,000. A bank loan of £1.0 million, and contributions of £400,000 from 'other sources' make up the total.

The centre is not going to be a 'shed' - one would hope not with this price tag! Indeed, what it will look like is anyone's guess at the moment, as the plans for the building are just a blank page! It was announced last night that Turner and Townsend have been appointed as project managers. Ten companies applied, and five were shortlisted and interviewed. The design team has still to be put in place.

When it came to question time, Steven Kerr, the current ice manager at the existing Kinross four-sheeter, voiced his concerns that the design team, whoever gets the brief, will be competent enough to provide a building in which a world class curling ice pad could be laid and used for most months of the year. The very fact that the biggest criticisms were being voiced by the local expert whose knowledge and expertise have apparently not been saught by those already involved in the project, is worrying to an outsider like me.

On a more positive note, Alistair McCabe has been looking at needs of the users. The elite coaches at the Scottish Institute of Sport, the Royal Club and the Trust (which has the responsibility for the museum) have (or will be) consulted. Visits to Greenacres, the new Stirling rink, and to Curl Aberdeen have been arranged. The last facility is a good example of how mistakes can easily be made. No-one can deny that this is a fabulous rink, but remember the early problems with temperature control in the rink, and the lighting? Surely it should have been possible to get an even level of illumination over the full length of a sheet of ice! Yes, a competent design team is an imperative.

The people who will benefit most from the new facility are the local curlers. If all goes as it should, they will get the best rink in Scotland ... and hopefully the best ice. There was some surprise that local curlers will be targeted in the fund raising. That idea was not in the original submission. Jamie Montgomery addressed this point at length. He feels that it will be important that the facility "retains a club atmosphere," and that having curlers' contributions to the project, "will give all a sense of ownership." He has a point, although it was noted that these contributions are "not a crucial part of the fundraising effort." Quite different then from the Cupar approach, see here.

I have been following the NCA saga for seven years. That it might eventually happen is exciting. RCCC CEO Colin Grahamslaw outlined key dates. Design team appointed and working by late April. Planning application by mid-July. Contractor appointed by December. Building started by February 2010 and doors open in autumn next year. It got the biggest laugh of the evening!

But it was obvious that Grahamslaw is serious about making the NCA a reality this time. He recognised the failures of the past. He said, "What we're trying to do is keep the momentum going."

There was a plea for (local) people with the skills to come on board to help and push things forward. Let's hope they do. I continued my drive home rather more encouraged that I thought I might be. I really hope those with the vision are successful.

Jamie Montgomery

Even more from Perth

Some days are diamonds, others..... not. John Penny.

Team Glen Muirhead

The Paul Russell team

Michael Reid

Kerr Drummond in full voice

Jamie Dick

Graeme Black. Good to see him back skipping his team today.

Ally Fraser calls line on Graeme's shot.

Well, I've enjoyed my couple of days at Perth. Work to do at home tomorrow and Saturday (or there won't be a March Scottish Curler magazine), back up on Sunday. As usual I'll be following what happens thanks to the RCCC website. The results page is here.

Police presence at Junior Championships

The early stages of the Junior Women's round robin is over. Three teams have been eliminated from the eleven which started out, and we are down to eight. Carrying forward only the points gained against the teams they have played already - and are still in the competition - the position now, with four more round robin games to play, is Eve Muirhead and Hannah Fleming three wins, Claire Hamilton and Claire MacDonald two wins, Jennifer Dodds and Rebecca Steven one win, Jennifer Paul and Jennifer Marshall no wins. The round robin continues tonight at 7.00pm. Find the results here.

And who is Little Miss Sunshine? See below.

Claire MacDonald

Lauren Gray and Claire Hamilton discuss options as their team went down to Hannah Fleming's side this morning.

Hannah Fleming

Kirsten McNay and Jennifer Martin

Jennifer Marshall and Claire MacDonald

Jennifer Marshall, her team now in the top eight.

And here she is - Carolyn Clark

In fact all the Helen King team wore their colourful tee shirts this morning, and get the ABB Foundation award today! Here, Carolyn (we like the hair) Clark and Louise MacColl work hard on their skip's stone, with Eilidh Templeton in the house.

And what was that about the police? The British Police Curling Championship is on at the Dewar's Rinks this week. Here Neil Fyfe follows his stone with Trevor Harrison and Gordon McKnight in attendance. Dave Murchie is in the house for the Dumfries and Galloway side.

More from Perth

Scary, what? Vicki Adams and Sarah Macintyre

The ABB Foundation presents the award for today's most colourful side to Team Claire Hamilton. (ABB= Anything But Black) This is Rhiann Macleod and Lauren Gray.

Team Howden. Find all the results and standings in the Junior Men's, after two rounds, here.

Men at work. Junior women's standings below.

Team Black: L-R Thomas Sloan, Ally Fraser (who skipped both games today), Graeme Black and Steven Mitchell.

Rebecca Steven rehearses her script.

John Penny, with Dave Hibberd and Robert McBride.

Paul Russell

Claire Lang and Zoe Bain work on Mhairi Baird's stone.

Eve Muirhead looks like she's having a wee nap in this game against Jennifer Marshall.

This guy looks a bit old for the Juniors! Former Scottish Champ Greg Henderson in an Aberdeen timeout.

I think Glen Muirhead wants his sweepers to sweep HARD!

Ally Fraser and John Penny

Abi Brown and Becca Kesley

Here are the standings in the girls event. The top four in Section A will go forward, Eve Muirhead leading the way. Section B has two games still to play.

The boys

That's the Scottish Junior Men's Championship now underway at Perth. You can find all the results and standings here. This is Blair Fraser, playing last stones for the Kerr Drummond team, who came second today against Colin Howden.

Hibby is the new member this season of the Scottish Curler team. (Comment column in the Scottish Curler magazine - what do you mean, you don't read it!)

Here he is, as embedded reporter (aka lead) for John Penny's side!

And working hard with Robert McBride on their skip's stone.

'My flying chicken impression', by Greg Drummond. (Other captions are available)

Gavin Reid, Craig Kirkwood and Michael Reid

There was certainly ice available as Lindsay Gray, Colin Dick and Michael Goodfellow (Jamie Dick's team) romped to a win over Paul Russell in six ends.

Craig Kirkwood and Colin Smith work on Gavin Reid's stone.

All pics by Bob.

Here come the girls

Here we are at Perth and the girls are in the third game of the Scottish Junior Championship finals. Naomi Whyte and Fiona Telfer discuss options. The young Dumfries team seem to be enjoying their first adventures at the Scottish finals.

Kirsten McNay and Jennifer Martin work on Claire MacDonald's stone, with Emma Craig in the head. You can find all the results and standings here.

Mhairi Baird, with Jennifer Dodds behind.

The joy of coaching! Former Scottish Junior and World Junior Champ David Aitken.

Claire Hamilton - and she could well be, come Sunday!

Kimberley Smith and Mhairi Anderson sweep Jennifer Dodds' stone.
And here is Jennifer.

Alan Stanfield is the Chief Umpire.

First outing in the big time for the Jennifer Paul team. Here third Katy Richardson joins the front end Rachel Hannen and Hazel Smith on Jennifer's stone.

Now, I promised to explain how the eleven teams are going to end up as three for Sunday's semi and final. There are two sections of six and five. After the round robin, the top four teams in each will play in a further section of eight. Each team will have already played three of these teams, and their record against these teams is carried forward. After four more games, against the four teams that had started out in the different section, the top ranked team progresses straight to the final; second and third contest a semi. Let me know if that still doesn't make sense.

Scottish Junior Championships

Scotland's junior curling teams have been looking towards this week all season, as the Scottish Junior Championships get underway at the Dewar's Rinks in Perth tomorrow. There are eleven teams in the junior women's event, as there were no qualifying competitions. These teams will play in two sections and the top four in each will fight it out to semis and final. Exactly how, I have no idea. Check out the draw, here. Clear as mud to me, but when I get to Perth I'm sure it will all become clear, and of course I'll explain here.

Who is favourite? Eve Muirhead, above, is the Scottish and World Champion skip. She is fast becoming (or should that be already is) the country's most talented player. Her senior team is top of the rankings in the Columba Cream Scottish. Her junior team is Sarah Macintyre (lead), Vicki Adams (second) and Anna Sloan (third). The four have not had a lot of opportunity to play together this season, but they are undoubtedly the team to beat. Who can do that? Claire Hamilton's team of Caitlin Barr, Rhiann Macleod and Lauren Gray have the potential. We shall see!

The junior men's field has already been reduced to eight after a qualifying round. There will be a round robin beginning on Wednesday with a single semifinal and final on Sunday. Glen Muirhead is the reigning champion, with former rival Greg Drummond now at third, Scott Macleod at second and Scott Andrews at lead. This team had the unenviable task of securing Scotland's place at the World Juniors in Vancouver, and this they accomplished in style (see here). Glen will be keen to get back to the world event to show that his side have much more in them than they were able to produce in Sweden last season.

Who else will challenge? Graeme Black's team have had a great season. Jamie Dick's team qualified for the Bruadar Scottish Finals, although they are not in the draw which has just been published and can be found here. The reason has not been officially announced as I write this but two of the team are involved in the World University Games and in the European Youth Olympics that week. However, the full team - Colin Dick, Lindsay Gray and Michael Goodfellow - will have their full attention on capturing the Scottish Junior title.

Junior curling is passionate, exciting and unpredictable. I love it! Can't wait. Weather permitting, I hope I'll be able to make some posts from Perth this week.

Top: Eve Muirhead. Above: Glen Muirhead

Pics by Bob

The women's battle continues

The eight teams in the Columba Cream Scottish Ladies Curling Championship are playing a double round robin at three different rinks to find the top three for the Page playoff. I missed the first set of games at Aberdeen and so I enjoyed the opportunity to see the girls in action at Kinross this weekend. Competition is extremely tight - every team seems capable of beating any other on the day. But as the weekend's competition came to a close, Eve Muirhead's team (that's her above against Judith McFarlane's side last night) were sitting on a 6-2 win-loss record.

Jill MacDonald and Fiona Steele, from the Judith McFarlane team, work on lead Karen Strang's stone. Judith's team finished the weekend with a 2-6 win-loss. You can find all the results and linescores here.

Sarah Reid's team are on four wins from eight games.

Eyes of the weekend award goes to supersub Megan Priestley!

Here's a closeup!

"What's that you're saying, Bob?" Mairi Milne, here with sister Claire, finished Kinross on three wins.

Lauren Gray concurs that the Kinross rink gets very noisy when the women are playing!

This was a big match on Saturday. Gail Munro (in white) beat Kelly Wood (in black).

Karen Addison and Anne Laird at work.

Gillian Howard's team are very much in contention this season. Four wins after Kinross.

But Gillian will be without third player Kay Adams for the Perth matches as she is in the GB World University Games squad. (My mother always used to tell me, don't frown like that, Robert, the furrows might stick! Be warned, Kay.)

Scottish Champion Gail Munro and her team are also on four wins.

Claire Hamilton's team are playing well, with the Scottish Junior Championship due to begin this Tuesday. Three wins so far in the Ladies' event.

Caption competition time! Karen Strang, Fiona Steele and Judith McFarlane. What's going on?

Joint top of the table is Kelly Wood and her team with a 6-2 record.

Pics by Bob.

Scottish Championship Qualifiers

The ten teams which will contest the Bruadar Scottish Men's Curling Championship, February 16-22, were decided at Perth today. (Or were they, see below)

Section B was decided first. Warwick Smith, with seven wins and Hammy McMillan with six, were through with no need to play their ninth game. Tom Brewster and Lee McLeary are also through. Glen Muirhead's team won their last game, against Brewster, to get the fifth spot from this section.

In Section A, David Murdoch was top with seven wins, and had no need to play his ninth round game. Jamie Dick's team had a fine weekend and they had no need to play their last game. David Edward's side, in contrast, had a disappointing qualifying competition, and will not be at the Finals. However, as the last round today got underway they had the fate of a number of teams in their hands. If they beat Ian Watt's side, it was all over, regardless of the other results - Logan Gray (with Pete Loudon skip), Colin Hamilton and Alan Smith would be the other qualifiers. That's what happened. Edwards took four at the second end, stole a two at the third and a single at the fourth. It would have been a bitter sweet victory, that one.

All the results, linescores and standings are here.

Simple, all over. But wait. Jamie Dick has team members committed to the World University Games (Michael Goodfellow), and to the European Youth Olympics (Colin Dick). Will he have an eligible team for the Scottish Finals? Colin Hamilton's team has similar problems, with Mike Dick and David Ramsay unavailable.

Anticipating this problem, the RCCC Rulebook has this new regulation for this season:
(iv) Any team with a member who is selected to represent Scotland or Great Britain at an International Event that takes place during the Finals shall be allowed to use a substitute. That substitute may have been a member of a team eliminated at the Qualifying or Pre-qualifying stage.

However, just how this rule should be interpreted is now in the hands of the Events and Competitions Committee. A tiebreaker was played at Perth today to decide who finished in sixth and seventh place in the ranking for Section A. Find the result here.