Glynhill coming up

Top women’s curling teams from all over the world will be at the Braehead rink, January 16-18, for the Glynhill Ladies International, the last World Curling Tour Europe event of the season. Jennifer Jones from Canada, the reigning World Champion, will be there with her team of gold medallists.

China’s Bingyu Wang got the World silver medal in 2008, we could see a repeat of the World final at Braehead this weekend.

Mirjam Ott, skip of one of three teams from Switzerland, is on a high after winning the European Curling Championship just a month ago. The Ott team tops the WCT-e rankings. They’ll face some tough opposition from home grown teams. Gail Munro will be back to defend the title she won last year. Members of the initial GB Olympic squad will be in action as well.

Hannah Fleming and her team will represent Great Britain at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Poland in a month’s time. They’ll be looking for a good result at the Glynhill Ladies’ International. Kay Adams and her team are getting ready to head off for China in February to represent Great Britain at the World University Games.

Three teams from Russia feature in the field along with teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Japan and the Netherlands.

It promises to be a great weekend of top class curling at Braehead! For more information and the results, see the event website here.

Top: A scene from the Kelly Wood v Gail Munro final last season, won by Munro. Above: Lucy's fan club will be happy that the Russians are back at Braehead! Both photos are by Richard Gray.

One eye on Oslo

The world, it seems, loves an underdog. It is human nature perhaps that many of those watching what happens on the ice at Perth this weekend will be rooting for the teams which are not starting as 'favourites'!

David Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Peter Smith and Euan Byers hold the mantle as favourites in the men's event, a double round robin against Tom Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell, and Warwick Smith, Craig Wilson, David Smith and Ross Hepburn. Can Warwick or Tom's teams cause an upset? I'm not into predictions on the blog here as to who is going to win, except to say that there will be some very special displays of curling this weekend. Unmissable, and Curling Today will certainly be there!

Murdoch faces Brewster in the first game at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. The scores will be on the Royal Club website here, and you can find Mike Haggerty's preview here.

In the women's event to find Scotland's representatives at the European Championships in Sweden in December, Edith Loudon, Mairi Milne, Claire Milne and Katie Loudon face up against Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood in a best of five series of games, the first of which is at 8.30pm Friday.

I'll also be wondering how our junior teams will be getting on in Oslo, the first of a series of three events for elite junior teams, promoted by the World Curling Tour-Europe. Glen Muirhead and Kerr Drummond field their National Academy teams in the junior men's event, in which Graeme Black's side is also competing, that team funding their own participation. The Claire Hamilton and Hannah Fleming National Academy teams are in the junior women's event.

Twelve teams compete in each event, playing round robins in two sections. I don't know if the results will be on line. Certainly, setting up the events has been a bold step for the organisers, and not without problems I understand! However, it all gets underway this weekend. (Added later. You can find what I think is an up to date draw here, to download. There are only eight teams in the girls' competition, playing in two sections.) (Added even later. You can now find results here.)

The WCT-e Junior Tour moves to Inverness, November 14-16, and then to Hamburg, January 16-18. I look forward to finding out more about this weekend's inaugural event in due course.

Bern Men's Open, Grasshopper Women's Masters

Three Scottish men's teams and one Scottish women's team are in action this weekend at World Curling Tour Europe events in Bern and Zurich ahead of the European playoffs next weekend.

Twenty five men's teams are in Bern including three Canadian teams and one USA team. Tom Brewster with Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell take on one of the Canadian teams in their first round game tomorrow morning while David Murdoch, Ewan McDonald, Peter Smith and Euan Byers take on a Swiss team skipped by Pascal Heimann. Warwick Smith's team of Craig Wilson, Glen Muirhead, in for David Smith, and Ross Hepburn face another Swiss team skipped by Pascal Hess.

The website for results from Bern is here. (Added later: this link might work better)

Meanwhile Kelly Wood's team of Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lyndsay Wood are in Zurich for the Grasshopper Women's Masters, she takes on Marlene Albrecht in her first round game tomorrow at the very precise time of 11.20a.m.

The website for results from Zurich is here.

Top: Tom Brewster. Above: Kelly Wood. Both pics from last season by Bob.

Trainspotting in St Petersburg

Curling Today flagged up back in May (see here) that David Murdoch and his team of Graeme Connal, Peter Smith and Euan Byers had been invited to play in a demonstration event in St Petersburg, Russia. The event, organised as part of the WCT-e, begins tomorrow, July 25, and is sponsored by Adamant, a property development and management company.

Also taking part are Canada's Brad Gushue, Norway's Thomas Ulsrud and Pal Trulsen, and Andy Kapp from Germany. Eight teams play in two sections, and the top two teams from each will advance to Sunday's semifinal. Follow the results here.

The event is taking place on an ice pad in the 'Warsaw Express', an Adamant shopping and entertainment complex constructed within a former railway station. See what it looks like now, and what it used to look like, here. The site is also home to an open air railway museum. There are lots of photos here. Trainspotting heaven!

Top: A semi-streamlined 4-8-4 number P36-0251, one of the last steam locomotives to be built in the USSR in 1956. This is from: http://www.nevsky-prospekt.com/warsaw.html

Above: Swiss icemaker Peter Luck and local helpers preparing the ice on Tuesday. Photos courtesy of Armin Harder.

Invitations out for Edinburgh International

In February, Curling Today noted that the Edinburgh International was to become a World Curling Tour-Europe event, see here. Things have moved on apace since then.

The event, which goes ahead November 28-30, will be known as the Edinburgh International Curling Championship, sponsored by Belhaven Best.

Trevor Dodds is the Chairman of the Organising Committee. Entries are invited, see here. The event should attract the top teams in Europe.

The competition will involve twenty-four teams, and will be run in four sections of six. The top two from each section will qualify for quarter-final places. Positions will be determined on points won. No team can go out of the competition without playing at least a two-end tiebreaker.

The winning team will receive £4000, the runners up will receive £2000, the losing semifinalists teams £1000, and the losing quarterfinalists £500.

Accommodation will be at the Braid Hills Hotel which is one of the sponsors of the event along with Edinburgh Curling Club and Murrayfield Curling Ltd.

The two other WCT-e events in Scotland next season are the Ramada Perth Masters at the Dewar's Rinks, January 8-11, and the Glynhill Ladies International at Braehead, January 16-18. The dates of the other WCT-e in Europe events can be found here.

Team Murdoch invited to demonstration event in Russia

A shopping mall in St Petersburgh, Russia, will be the venue for a demonstration international curling event, July 25-27. New curling sponsor Adamant, a large property management and development company, is behind the promotional event in association with the World Curling Tour-Europe.

The tournament will be held in one of Adamant's shopping centres on a permanent ice surface therein. Photos of what it is like are here.

Participating teams will be skipped by Murdoch, Brad Gushue, Paal Trulsen, Thomas Ulsrud and Andi Kapp, as well as local teams.

This is a demonstration event only, so no Tour points will be awarded. The organisers have planned for several four-end games. Some social events, sightseeing and media events have been organized for the players.

WCT-e Director Armin Harder tells Curling Today that Adamant has signed a long term contract with the European Tour that will see a yearly WCT-e tournament in Russia beginning in season 2009-10.

Murdoch, who is a WCT-e players' representative, will take his team, the current European Champions and runners-up at the World Championship at Grand Forks: Graeme Connal, Peter Smith and Euan Byers. He says, "We are all looking forward to playing in St Petersburg. It's probably a once in a lifetime chance to play in such a historic city. The ice could be interesting thoough, being in a shopping centre and it being the end of July!"

The provisional dates of other WCT-e competitions this coming season are now available on the WCT-e website.

Elsewhere on the Curling in Russia site (here) there is an extensive photo gallery of curling in that country.

Team Murdoch at Grand Forks by Hugh Stewart. L-R: David Murdoch, Graeme Connal, Peter Smith, Euan Byers.

Edinburgh International to become a WCT-e event

I've just received the confirmation that the Edinburgh International at Murrayfield has been accepted as a new World Curling Tour-Europe event. The official announcement is awaited, so consider this a Curling Today newsflash!

It is great news indeed! It will be super to see the Edinburgh event regain the status and class that it once had. And certainly Scotland needs another top men's event, in addition to the Ramada Perth Masters, where we have the chance to see the top teams from Europe, and North America, in action.

It will be a big job for the organisers though. Sponsorship will have to be obtained, and prize money secured. Still, the Glynhill Ladies International showed what all could be accomplished from scratch, given enthusiasm, a good organsing committee and the support of volunteers. And the key issue - the Murrayfield rink has shown recently that it can provide ice that is as good, if not better, than any in Scotland, despite being the busiest rink in the country! Yes, next season already has lots to look forward too.