It's the British Isles v Canada in the finals

The "Shot heard 'round the world’" is a phrase that has come to represent several historical incidents. The line is originally from the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" (1837), and referred to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

Since then, the phrase has also been used to allude to the importance of single actions in sporting as well as other cultural and social events.

• In baseball, it refers to Bobby Thomson's game winning home run that clinched the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants.
• In International Men's Ice Hockey, it refers to the winning goal of Paul Henderson in the final seconds of the 8th and final match to secure Team Canada's victory in the 1972 Canada-USSR Super-series.
• In golf, it is used most often to describe Gene Sarazen's albatross on the fifteenth hole at the 1935 Masters Tournament, which helped propel him into a 36-hole playoff with Craig Wood.
• In US soccer, it is used to describe the goal scored by Paul Caligiuri for the United States against Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain in 1989. The win propelled the team to the 1990 FIFA World Cup, helping to start a resurgence of American soccer.

And now we can maybe add two more shots that were heard around the World, certainly around the world of Senior curling.

They were Jonjo Kenny’s hit and stick which gave Ireland a victory over Norway at an extra end in the men’s semi-final and Barbara Watt’s similar shot which ensured that she and her unheralded Scottish team would face Canada in the women’s final. Ireland will also face Canada.

The Scottish and Irish flags were flying high above the hotel in Taarnby this lunchtime:



Full details of Ireland's 5-4 extra end victory can be found on Louise Kerr's blog here.

I was a wee bit late getting to the rink this morning and the Irish and Norwegians were already on their half time break with the score at 1-1 but my eyes were raised by the other scores - New Zealand were leading Canada by 3-1 in their women's semi-final and Scotland were 3-0 up against twice World Champion Ingrid Meldahl from Sweden. Sweden had taken a 2 at the first in their semi-final against Canada though Canada had replied with a 3 before Sweden squared it all up with a single.

The latter game swung back and forth with no steals but unfortunately for the Swedes, while they were taking 1 when they had last stone the Canadians were taking 3, and they eventually shook hands after 7 ends with the score at 9-5 to Canada. Canada thus maintained their record of appearing in every Senior Men's final since it began in 2002, but it only the third time they have not faced USA. What a day for Irish curling - and let's hope it can get even better!!

Canada's women have only missed out getting to the Seniors' final on one occasion - in 2005 when Scotland won their only gold medal against Japan in the Lagoon Centre in Paisley after the round robin games at Greenacres. They started off slowly and were 3-1 down after 3 ends but struck a killer blow when they scored 5 at the 4th end. However, the Kiwis fought back and were only two down going into the last end without the hammer. In the end they could only score 1 and so Canada marched on undefeated into the final by 7-5.

The Canadian team are vastly experienced and have 36 appearances for New Brunswick at the Canadian National Championship Finals (the Tournament of Hearts) amongst them. The skip Heidi Hanlon and third Katthy Floyd have 11 appearances each, the lead, Judy Blanchard has 8 and the second Jane Arsenau has 6, all between 1984 and 2004. On none of those occasions did they play together as a team ironically and they have not won any Canadian Championships but when you play against that class of competition it is difficult not to be overawed, but Wendy Becker and her team were certainly not overawed today.

This is a new team from New Zealand, all 4 players coming from the Otago region, the heartland of NZ curling. Wendy Becker is the mother of Sean and Scott who did so well for New Zealand in Basel the other week and has played in 5 previous World Seniors while Carolyn Cooney first played in 2009. Christine Diack and Helen Greer are at their first World Seniors but have represented their country at a number of Pacific Championships previously.

And what about the Scottish ladies. I have no record but I imagine that Barbara Watt is possibly the oldest player to represent her country in a World Championship final. She is of course the mother of Janice Rankin who won gold for Great Britain as lead for Rhona Martin at the 2002 Olympics, and she has won a number of competitions across Scotland, including the Henderson Bishop in 2005, playing with Janice and her other daughter Shona, and 1989 when playing third to Marjorie Kidd.

She and her team of Jean Hammond, Maggie Barry and Valerie Mahon surprised everybody, including themselves when they won the Scottish title and, after a shaky start which saw them lose to Russia, they have gone from strength to strength. The last Scottish women's team to get to the final was Kirsty Letton in 2008.

In today's game they lost their good early lead when Sweden got a three, but only by means of an angled raise onto the guarded Scottish stone. The Scots gave Sweden little room to work in and some great work in the 5th end left Barbara to draw for 4 shots. Again at the 6th end there were lots of Scots stones in and around the 4 foot and they were lying 3 before Sweden's last stone. When the dust settled there was still one Scottish stone counting and it was 8-3 with two ends to go.

When Barbara caught a guard with her first stone at the 7th it enabled the Swedes to lie 2 frozen. Barbara removed one but Ingrid had a free draw for two and then came a nervous last end for the Scottish supporters. Barbara's first stone was a half freeze on the Swedish shot but it was then removed leaving the Swedes lying 3 and Barbara needing to remove 1 for the win. Halfway down the ice the arms were raised and they were in the final.