[ritchiebaby]

Play begins in the World Senior Curling Championships in Sochi, Russia on Saturday 18 April 2015, with 13 women’s and 24 national men’s teams competing for the world titles. In both men's and women's competitions, semi-finals will be played on the morning of Saturday 25 April with bronze and gold medal games taking place later that day. Scotland are the reigning Women's Champions with Canada being the 2014 Men's Champions.


The Iceberg Skating Palace Training Rink seen above, used by figure skaters to warm up during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, will play host to the curlers.

The women will play in two groups.
The yellow group includes the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, Russia, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland.
The pink group is comprised of Canada, England, Italy, New Zealand, Slovakia and USA.

Scotland - Barbara Gibb (Fourth, Skip), Carol Scott (Third, Vice-Skip), Elinor Ritchie (Second), Margaret Archer (Lead)

England - Judith Dixon (Fourth, Skip), Joan Reed (Third, Vice-Skip), Valerie Saville (Second), Deborah Higgins (Lead)

As an aside, 3 of the English team play regularly at my local ice rink (in Scotland) and I find it hard to believe they are over 50!

With far more teams, the men are divided into three groups.
In the red group: Canada, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Scotland.
The blue group includes Denmark, England, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Turkey.
The black group is comprised of Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and USA.
More details about the Men's teams will follow tomorrow.

At the same time as staging the World Senior Curling Championships, Sochi will also host the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2015 (separate thread to follow) in the Ice Cube Curling Centre, the venue for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games curling competitions.

[ritchiebaby]

It's a bit disconcerting to see a curler playing with a couple of palm trees in the background, just not what I would expect at all! I know some of you won't care about the dates of the games, but here are the first few to get you started.

Women
Saturday - England v Slovakia, Japan v Scotland.
Sunday - Scotland v Russia, Italy v England

Men
Saturday - Czech Republic v Scotland, Kazakhstan v Ireland, England v Russia, Japan v Scotland
Sunday - Sweden v England, Kazakhstan v Scotland, Ireland v Japan.

Qualifying
The women are playing in two groups and the four semi-finalists are made up of the first two from each group, the other two being the winners of 2nd in one group v 3rd in the other group.
In the men's event, the top two teams in each of the three groups and the best of the three 3rd-placed teams proceed to the quarter-finals. The remaining two 3rd-placed teams play-off for the other quarter-final place.
In a change from the usual World Championship procedure, the rest of the competition is on a straight knock-out basis.

Teams
Continuing on from last night, here are the men's teams from the British Isles who will be playing for their countries.

England - John Summers (Fourth, Skip), Charles Jackson (Third, Vice Skip), David Sillito (Second), Andrew Taylor (Lead)


Ireland - John Kenny (Fourth, Skip), Bill Gray (Third, Vice-Skip), Neil Fyfe (Second), David Whyte (Lead), David Hume (Alternate)


Scotland - Gordon Muirhead (Fourth, Skip), Norman Brown (Third, Vice-Skip), David Hay (Second), Hugh Aitken (Lead), Michael Hay (Alternate). The gentleman second from the right is Jim Cannon, who was at the Scottish Seniors Championships when this photograph was taken, but is not at the World Championships.

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Note
I've just read an article on the Irish Curling Association website, which reports that Johnjo Kenny will not be in Sochi for the Men's Championships. He is due to undergo a small operation in the next few weeks and his doctors have advised that a week's curling would not be the ideal preparation. Best wishes to Johnjo for a full and speedy recovery.

[St Charles Owl]

Well I will be following this via you of course, looking forward to your updates!!

One question, you mention 50 year olds, is that the minimum age to qualify for this??

[ritchiebaby]

You're very welcome as always, SCO. I'll make you a curler yet! Are there any curling rinks in your neck of the woods or is it mostly ice hockey?

The Seniors rules are that the players must be 50 or over on 30 June in the preceding year. And don't forget there are two threads to follow at once. Then there's no more curling until September.

[St Charles Owl]

I have played curling once at the ice arena in Sheffield a few years ago. Loved it, just like I used to like crown green bowls when I was younger. I might just check out if there is anything here in California.

[ritchiebaby]

Saturday scores

Men - Czech Republic 4 Scotland 8, Kazakhstan 1 Ireland 9, England 10 Russia 5, Japan 3 Scotland 9.

In the first end of the whole competition, Scotland scored a 5 against the Czechs and Ireland scored a 4 against the Khazis (?). Spare a thought for the Turks who were beaten 1-20 by Norway, a veritable hammering. England were always in control in their game, building up a 7-0 lead in the first 5 ends. Scotland were also well ahead of Japan all the way in their second game.

Women - England 8 Slovakia 6, Japan 7 Scotland 3.

England were never behind in their game, but Scotland had a poor time of it in the middle section and were well beaten by Japan.

[ritchiebaby]

More scores on the doors

Sunday - Men
Sweden 8 England 2, Ireland 5 Latvia 3, Kazakhstan 2 Scotland 14, Ireland 4 Japan 7.
England could only muster 2 single shots against Sweden in the early session and conceded with an end to go. Ireland defeated Latvia in a tight game, courtesy of a 3 in the fourth end, but suffered a defeat against Japan after being 0-5 down after 3 ends and scoring 4 singles without reply to be in with a chance. Scotland had an easy win against Kazakhstan after only 6 ends. 

Sunday - Women
Scotland 9 Russia 2, England 5 Italy 10.
Scotland scored a 4 in the fourth end and never lost another one to comfortably beat Russia. England also scored a 4, but undid all the good work losing a 4 in the following end and were always out of the game after that.

Monday's games
Men - Norway v England, Czech Republic v Ireland, Scotland v Latvia.
Women - Finland v Scotland, Scotland v Czech Republic.

[St Charles Owl]

Are any of the home nations expected to progress??

[ritchiebaby]

Today's results - Men - Norway 6 England 3, Czech Republic 3 Ireland 11, Scotland 6 Latvia 7.
Norway scored 3 shots in the third end to get ahead of England and stayed there in an otherwise close game. Ireland won comfortably by scoring a 3 in the first end, then another 3 in the third end to control the game. Scotland and Latvia battled it out right to the last stone, when Latvia played a spectacular shot coming in off a wide stone to score 2 shots for the win.
Finland had an interesting game against Poland in the first session, losing a 5 in the first end, but scoring a 6 in the fourth end, which demoralised the Poles, Finland winning 14-6.

Today's results - Women - Finland 6 Scotland 7, Scotland 9 Czech Republic 5.
In a really tight game, the Scots got the numbers game right, scoring 2 shots in the last end for victory over Finland. In another close game against Czech Republic, Scotland were only 1 up with 3 ends to play, but scored 3 single shots to bag their second win of the day.

Tomorrow's games
Men - England v New Zealand, Ireland v Canada, Scotland v Italy.
Women - Canada v England, Switzerland v Scotland.

Scotland are looking good at the moment, both teams having 3 wins and 1 loss. The men are joint second along with Ireland, just behind Canada who have 4 wins. The English men are in another section and have 1 win and 2 losses, but are by no means out of it. The Scots women are joint top with Sweden in one section and England have only played 2 games with 1 win and 1 loss in the other. There's a long way to go yet, so expect a few changes to come.

[ritchiebaby]

Yesterday's Results

Women - Canada 10 England 2, Switzerland 6 Scotland 2.
Men - England 2 New Zealand 8, Ireland 5 Canada 6, Scotland 6 Italy 3.

Today's Results
Women - New Zealand 6 England 10, Scotland 5 Sweden 8.
Men - Canada 6 Scotland 5, England 12 Turkey 1, Italy 2 Ireland 10.

To have any real chance in the Women's Seniors, Scotland would have had to win one of the above games. They have now finished their round robin games and it would take a couple of amazing defeats from the teams above them for them to progress.
On the other hand, England, whilst not setting the heather on fire, have a chance to finish in a play-off position if they win tomorrow.

The Scottish Men have a battle royal against Ireland tomorrow, with the winner qualifying in 2nd place for the quarter finals. Even the loser can progress to the quarter finals, depending on other results.
The English Men are unlikely to make it any further, as they must win both their games and depend on New Zealand beating Sweden.

Tomorrow's Games
Women - England v USA.
Men - Scotland v Ireland, Hungary v England, England v Denmark.