[ritchiebaby]

These Championships start on Saturday 26 April for the Men and Sunday 27 April for the Women in Fredericton, Canada.There are 31 Men's teams (what do you make of that, theo?) in 5 Groups. England, Ireland and Wales have been drawn together in Group A (allegedly a fair draw) with Scotland in Group D.

Germany play Scotland at 7.30am tomorrow with Ireland playing Portugal and England playing Wales at 11.30am. At 5pm, Netherlands will play Ireland. I've taken these timings from the World Curling Federation's website, but with an apparent 1 hour time difference between Canada and the UK , I'd rather add a further 5 hours on, following Welsh Curling's fine example.

Wales Men
Once again Wales have helped out by quoting their full schedule on their team photograph.

Andrew Tanner, Richard Pougher, Alistair Reid, George Fyffe

And Ireland have followed suit.
Ireland Women

Louise Kerr, Nina Clancy, Bernie Gillett, Dale Sinclair

Ireland Men

Bill Gray, Neil Fyfe, David Whyte and Tommy Campbell


And Scotland? Nah, don't be silly. This is all Scottish Curling could come up with. Honestly, if it's not Bruce, they don't seem to be interested.
Scotland Women

Jackie Lockhart, Mairi Milne, Claire Milne, Katie Loudon
Scotland Men
Tom Brewster, Frazer Hare, Robbie Stevenson, Don Frame

England Women
Viv Kerr, Carole Topping, Desna Fielding, Jean Moat
England Men
Ken Horton, Douglas McGlynn, Martin Gregory, Stuart Brand
England do summarise their playing schedule, but it's not in a snappy photograph.

[ritchiebaby]

In the first Men's session at 12.30pm, Scotland lost 3-5 to Germany in a tight encounter. Tomorrow they will play Spain at 4pm.

Ireland slipped up against Portugal 5-6 after an extra end, despite scoring 4 shots in the 1st end. It was only 1 shot all the way after that, but Portugal scored in each of the last 5 ends. They seem to be due to play Netherlands at 10pm tonight (not what their schedule says, as that is Canadian time) and have a full day off to compose themselves before two local derbies.

England got off to a flying start with a clinical demolition of Wales by 12-5 after 7 ends with some high-scoring ends in there. Tomorrow night at midnight England will play Netherlands and Wales will play Belgium.

The Women get their tournament under way tomorrow when Denmark take on England at noon, the same time as Australia play Ireland, both in Group C. Scotland play Hong Kong in Group B in the second session at 4pm.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland Men got back on track with a vengeance by defeating Spain 11-2. They scored a 3 and a 4 in the first 2 ends and that was that. Tomorrow they take on New Zealand at midnight.

Scotland Women repeated that scoreline in their opening game against Hong Kong. Three consecutive ends in the middle of the game, scoring 8 shots in the process, finished it all off nicely. Their next game is against Latvia at 4pm tomorrow.

Ireland Men did turn up at the right time last night to comfortably beat Netherlands in a high-scoring game by 12-7. After their day off today, they are due to play Wales at 8pm tomorrow.

Ireland Women edged out Australia by 6-3 in a very tight game and now play Switzerland at 4pm tomorrow.

After their midnight shift tonight, England Men are due to play Canada tomorrow at 8pm.

England Women slipped to an agonising defeat against Denmark, losing 4 shots in the final end, going down by 5-9 after scoring 3 shots in the 7th end to tie the scores going into the last end. They now play Lithuania at midnight tomorrow.

Wales Men are also involved in the midnight shift tonight and, amazingly, are due to play Ireland at 8pm tomorrow.

[ritchiebaby]

MEN

Wales lost 7-8 against Belgium in the midnight game, losing 2 shots in the last end of a very competitive game. They now face Canada at noon tomorrow, followed by Portugal at 8pm.

In the other midnight game, England trounced Netherlands 15-3, including scores of 5 shots in the 2nd and 7th ends. Later they lost their way in the second half of the game against Canada, losing 2-8. They now play Ireland in a High Noon showdown tomorrow.

Ireland? Well, all you need to know is in the reports above.

Scotland will play Korea at 4pm tomorrow.

WOMEN

Scotland breezed past Latvia by 10-1 after only 6 ends, having scored in the first 4 ends. United States await them in tomorrow night's midnight game.

Ireland squeezed past Switzerland 6-5, after having last stone in the last end. Their next game is also at midnight tomorrow against Denmark.

After their own midnight game tonight, England take on Switzerland at 4pm tomorrow.

[ritchiebaby]

Despite checking every day, I've not managed to find any photographs of the England teams, so here are the Scotland team photos.




WOMEN

England look as they are on their way out, weakly succumbing 2-9 to Switzerland after only 6 ends this afternoon. They now play Australia at midnight tomorrow night and finish up against Ireland at 8pm on Thursday.

The aforementioned Irish team play their second midnight game in a row against Lithuania and finish up against the aforementioned English team at 8pm on Thursday. As tings stand, Ireland have a really good chance of qualifying for the later stages.

Scotland are due to play Finland at 8pm tomorrow and complete their group games against New Zealand on Thursday, also at 8pm. As things stand, they too have a really good chance of qualifying for the later stages.

MEN

In the midnight game Scotland finished off New Zealand by 8-1 after only 6 ends and followed that up by beating Korea, one of their closest challengers, 5-3, the game going right to the wire.

Ireland had two poor results, losing 5-8 against Wales and then by 3-8 against England. Wales then were beaten 3-7 by Portugal.

Ireland play Canada tomorrow at 4pm and finish off against Belgium at noon. Wales take on Netherlands at 8pm tomorrow to complete their games.

England play Belgium tomorrow at 8pm and finish at noon on Thursday against Portugal. Only they and Scotland have a reasonably good chance of qualifying.

[ritchiebaby]

MEN
England saw off Belgium by 14-6 after 7 ends in a game that was only 7-6 after 5 ends. They then confirmed their qualification by beating Portugal 6-4 in a really tight, tense game, where only a win would do.

Ireland were outgunned again, losing 4-9 to Canada but finished on a high by beating Belgium 7-4, both games taking 7 ends.

Wales also finished with a win, beating Netherlands 7-6 after an extra end. They had won the first 3 ends to lead 5-0, but lost the next 4 ends to be 5-6 behind before the big rescue mission.

Scotland blew Denmark away with a winning score of 17-1 after only 6 ends, 15 of those shots coming in the first 4 ends. This game also confirmed their qualification.

The Qualification Games at midnight tonight are Sweden v Czechia (the winner to play Finland), Germany v Poland (the winner to play Canada), United States v Hungary (the winner to play Norway) and Scotland v England (the winner to play Switzerland). The Quarter-finals will take place at 5pm tomorrow followed by the Semi-finals at 11.30pm.

WOMEN

Scotland comfortably disposed of Finland by 8-1 after only 6 ends to ensure qualification and absolutely thumped New Zealand 16-2 after another 6 ends. The Kiwis had the temerity to lead at the 2nd end and just got the Scots annoyed.

Ireland dominated Lithuania to win the game 9-2 and qualify and then comfortably defeated England by 10-1 in the final session.

England had previously been well beaten by Australia by 2-11 to finish their tournament without a win.

The Quarter-finals are Scotland v United States, Switzerland v Japan, Ireland v Finland and Canada v Sweden. These games are at 1pm tomorrow with the Semi-finals later at 11.30pm.