[ritchiebaby]

The 58th playing of the Men’s World Curling Championship is being held in Switzerland for the eighth time at the St Jakobshalle in Basel. The round robin games will be played from Saturday 2 April until Thursday 7 April, with the medal placings being decided on Sunday 10 April.

The twelve teams are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden (holders), Switzerland and the USA. Norway and Canada filled the other medal positions last year, when Scotland finished a distant 11th.


Hammy McMillan, Ross Paterson, Glen Muirhead and Tom Brewster after winning this year's Scottish Championships 

Tom Brewster has been a World silver medallist twice and also has a silver medal from the Sochi Olympics.

Scotland open their campaign against Korea on Saturday afternoon and Norway on Saturday night. They have one game on Sunday, against Russia.

[St Charles Owl]

Do Scotland have any chance of a medal?

[ritchiebaby]

Only a slim chance, SCO. The favourites must be Canada, Norway and Sweden, with probably another 4 as decent outsiders. Finland and Japan will possibly be ahead of Scotland and USA, but one of these countries might sneak a medal. Of the rest, Korea are improving all the time and with the 2018 Winter Olympics being held in PyeongChang, they will be doubly keen to be a medal chance there.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland managed to avoid the banana skin that the Korea game might have been and won comfortably enough by 9-3 after 8 ends. They did even better in their second game, beating Norway by 6-3.

However, Scotland had a bit of a nightmare against Russia, losing 6-9. It doesn't sound a terrible defeat, but they lost a 4 in the fourth end and a 3 in the sixth end to be 3-9 down with two ends to go. They did manage to score 3 shots in the ninth, but far too little and far too late to trouble the Russians.

Canada and Sweden lead with 3 wins each and Scotland are joined in 3rd place by Denmark, Japan, Norway and Russia with 2 wins. Tomorrow's opponents are Japan and Canada.

[ritchiebaby]

Scotland narrowly lost 5-6 to Japan after being 5-3 up with 2 ends to play. From the graphics it looked as though a complete miss by Tom Brewster with last stone allowed Japan the single shot in the last end to claim the win. In the following session, the Scots then lost 3-5 to Canada. It was 3-3 after 5 ends and still 3-3 after 8 ends. Canada then scored 2 shots in the ninth end and proceeded to run Scotland out of stones in the last end for a concession.

These results mean that Scotland are way behind at the halfway stage. Unbeaten Canada lead the way with 5 wins, with Norway and Sweden on 4 wins. Next come Denmark, Japan and USA on 3 wins. In the bottom half of the table are Finland, Russia, Scotland and Switzerland on 2 wins. Germany and Korea have yet to win a game.

The Scots didn't play in the last session tonight and get a long lie tomorrow morning, so they should be fresh enough to play Switzerland in the afternoon and USA at night. These games fall into the must-win category as the opposition are roughly in the same position as Scotland - must do better. Here's hoping we can move up the table by the time of my next report.

[St Charles Owl]

I would imagine a complete miss is a relatively rare occurrence at this level? Shame as it would have kept the momentum up, probably precipitated the second defeat of the day.

[ritchiebaby]

SCO, I'd be very annoyed with myself, as a club curler, with a complete miss like that, never mind an experienced internationalist doing it. With hindsight it was an open shot and possibly too easy, resulting in a momentary lapse of concentration and the damage is done. And you're right. It probably contributed to the second defeat.

Anyway, Scotland again made it hard for themselves, losing 4-5 to Switzerland after an extra end. Every stone played in the extra end scored 100%, but the Swiss had last stone and drew the shot for the winner. As if that wasn't bad enough, Scotland then lost their next game against USA by 7-9, again after an extra end when they didn't have last stone. Failing to draw in with their second last stone cost the Scots, as they were left with an extremely difficult take-out with the last, which didn't come off. Scotland won the percentage game in both instances, but the only statistic that counts is the one on the scoreboard.

Even with 4 games still to go, it must be impossible for the Scottish team to be in the top four come Thursday night. All teams have played 7 games and Canada still lead the way with 7 wins, followed by Norway with 6. USA have 5 wins with Denmark, Japan and Sweden on 4 wins. Scotland with their 2 wins are in ninth place and can only manage 6 wins.

Next up for Scotland is Finland and Germany tomorrow, with Denmark and Sweden to come on Thursday.

[ritchiebaby]

Strange that when it's all too late, Scotland start winning games. They scored 3 shots in the eighth end to beat Finland by 7-3 and then Germany by 7-6 after an extra end. This time the Scots had last stone, which was a successful take-out to win the game.

These results mean that Canada lead with 8 wins out of 9 games. Tied in second place with 6 wins out of 9 are five teams - Denmark, Japan, Norway, Sweden and USA. Next come Finland, Scotland and Switzerland on 4 wins, followed by Russia on 2 wins and Germany and Korea on 1 win.

For Scotland to qualify to play in a tie-breaker on Friday, they need to beat both Denmark and Sweden tomorow - unfortunately, Denmark play Sweden in the final session, which means that one of them will move on to 7 wins - PLUS two of the three following scenarios must take place -
1. both Russia and Finland must beat Japan
2. both Canada and Switzerland must beat Norway
3. both Korea and Germany must beat USA

I'll not even bother to try to work out the odds of that happening. Let's just say it's extremely far-fetched wishful thinking.

[St Charles Owl]

The scary thing is someone has worked out the permutations!!! That seems an awful lot that has to go right for Scotland to progress!!!

[ritchiebaby]

Even scarier, SCO - I worked it out!

As ever, none of the scenarios came to fruition. Scotland were beaten 6-7 by Denmark after an extra end, but then won 6-4 against holders Sweden with a 3 at the last end, to help put the Swedes out of the tournament. Japan and USA won twice to qualify and Norway won once, just missing out. By also beating Sweden, Denmark did what Scotland should have done and sneaked in unnoticed.

The final standings for the round robin are Canada finished top with 10 wins, and Denmark, Japan and USA coming second equal on 8 wins. The 1v2 match tomorrow is Canada v Denmark and 3v4 is Japan v USA.

Scotland ended up in seventh place with 5 wins and 6 defeats - an improvement on last season, but still a disappointing tournament.