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