Scotland qualifies for World Juniors

Congratulations to Glen Muirhead, Greg Drummond, Scott Macleod and Scott Andrews, and all the support team, who have secured a place for Scotland's junior men at the World Junior Championships in Vancouver. The Muirhead team completed an unbeaten run of games with a 5-1 defeat of France at the European Junior Challenge in Taarnby. All the results, line scores and photos are here. Well done guys, great show!

Scotland's women are already through to the World Junior Championships, and indeed it is the current world champion skip Eve Muirhead, Glen's sister, who features on the home page of the event website, above.

Added later. France now plays Russia, the winner also qualifying for the Worlds. In the junior women's event, the French girls are through, and the Czech Republic will play Italy for the second place at Vancouver.

Final add. Russia beat France, and the Czech girls beat Italy.

How are our boys doing in Taarnby?

Well done to Glen, Greg, Scott and Scott on their extra end win against the unbeaten Russians this evening. Scotland now has played, and won, four games. Slovakia and Estonia are the remaining games on Tuesday.

The top team in the section will play the top of Section B. The winner qualifies for the World Juniors. The loser of this game still has a life and plays the winner of the game between the teams placed second in the sections. Again the winner of that qualifies for Vancouver.

Just a reminder that the end by end results can be found on the event website here. There is also a web cam, and an extensive and fun photo gallery, from which the photo below of a Russian team meeting has been 'borrowed'! I'm puzzled a little about what Scott Macleod is doing! Does he speak Russian. Is he listening in? Suggestions welcome!

Thanks to those behind the scenes for posting all the pics on their site. Much appreciated by those of us who are unable to be there in person.

Memories - good and bad - from 2008

I was fully intending to post a list of the various 'happenings' from this past year, the good and the bad of 2008, as seen by Curling Today. I must admit that I found this difficult to do. Highlights included moose hunting in Ostersund, seeing Scottish teams winning medals, learning that the National Curling Academy project is finally off and running ....... But when I started thinking about the bad, such as the Vernon saga, I had to stop. It is all so depressing. Then I realised I was just getting maudlin.

Maudlin is what many Scots get at this time of year! Most dictionaries have a couple of definitions:

a. tearfully emotional
b. foolishly sentimental because of drunkenness.

So, this Hogmanay, let's not look back but instead look to the future. I'm sure that today four young men, Glen Muirhead, Greg Drummond, Scott Macleod and Scott Andrews are doing just that. They are about to head off to the Taarnby rink in Copenhagen to try to win Scotland's place in the World Junior Curling Championships in Vancouver, March 5-15. You will remember the story. In Ostersund last season Scotland's junior men finished in ninth position at the World Juniors with a 2-7 win-loss record, and we were relegated (explained here).

Rather than have a playdown, the Royal Club decided to nominate Glen Muirhead's new season team, with three still eligible from Ostersund, to try get us back into the world junior top ten (see here). They will compete in the European Junior Curling Challenge, January 2-8. There are thirteen junior men's teams looking for two places at the Worlds in Vancouver. The Scots play in section A, with seven teams. Team Muirhead are up against Spain on Saturday evening, and then have the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia and Estonia, in that order. The top teams from Section A and section B (which has Poland, France, Italy, Belgium, Latvia and Finland) then play each other. The winner goes to Vancouver. The loser plays the winner of a match between the two second placed finishers in each section. The winner of this game also goes through.

There are eleven junior women's teams also fighting it out for two places. Scotland (the current world junior champs) already has a place in Vancouver. Anna Fowler's English team are challenging for the first time.

The event website (for results) is here.



Here they are at Lockerbie recently. Top: Scott Andrews and Scott Macleod. Above: Glen Muirhead and Greg Drummond. Pics by Bob.

Right, that's it for now. May I wish all Curling Today and Scottish Curler supporters health and happiness in 2009!

Muirhead team selected for European Junior Challenge

Glen Muirhead, Scott Macleod, Scott Andrews and Gordon McDougall, with David Reid as fifth player, did not have the best of weeks at the World Junior Men's Championship in Ostersund, Sweden in March. They finished in ninth place in the rankings, winning two and losing seven of their round robin games. That means that a Scottish team will have to compete in the European Junior Challenge Competition 2009 in Taarnby, Copenhagen, early in January, to try to win one of two qualifying places for European teams for next season's World Junior Championship in Vancouver.

With McDougall now too old for juniors, Muirhead has put together a new team for next season, recruiting one of his main rivals, Greg Drummond, to play third. Scott Macleod will play second stones and Scott Andrews will be lead in the rink.

The Muirhead team have been selected to be the Scottish team in Taarnby. There had been some suggestions that there might be a playoff to decide which team would go to Denmark. But the Royal Club's Performance Committee has invited Glen and his team to take the responsibility of getting Scotland into the world top ten for the Vancouver Worlds.

The dates of the competition are January 2-8, 2009. The Taarnby Club's website is here.

Last season's European Junior Challenge was held in Prague, and twelve countries took part in the junior men's event, see the Curling Today post here.

Glen's photo from Ostersund is by Bob.