tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17280772944153940152024-03-13T02:20:48.523+00:00Toothy's Curling BlogJohn Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-65013436603276886212015-02-26T21:08:00.001+00:002015-02-26T21:08:36.755+00:00England's Girls are at the World Junior ChampionshipEngland's Junior women have arrived in Tallinn for the World Junior Curling Championship and this is a historic moment for English curling. Three times previously, (1993, 1998 and 1999) a team of English boys had
qualified to play in the World Championships with a best finish of 8th
in both 1993 and 1998. They had had to play in a World Championship
Challenge at that time as well - though their performance in 1998
qualified them direct for the Worlds in 1999, but this is the first time that England has been represented in the Junior Women's World Championship.<br />
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Six years ago I took the first team of English girls to play in an International Competition to the European Junior Challenge in Copenhagen. Since the opening of Fenton's Rink in 2004 there had been a steady flow of junior curlers and now we had found a team to go out and challenge the World - well the rest of Europe initially!<br />
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Here are the girls at Fenton's before they set off:<br />
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Left to right - Anna Fowler (skip), Sophie Hickling (3rd), Kate McKenzie (2nd), Naomi Robinson (lead / alternate), Hetty Garnier (lead / alternate)<br />
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And we had our supporting entourage as well - yours truly, Vicky McKenzie, Jules Fowler and Felicity Robinson all ready to wave the flags for England.<br />
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It was a small field that year - just 11 countries - and so the girls teams were split into 2 groups - we were in a group of 5 along with France, Germany, Finland and Slovakia - a tough task for our inexperienced team but they got off to the best possible start when they defeated Slovakia by 9-1! The Slovakians had played in a previous year and so had some experience at this level and so for Anna and her team this was an unbelieveable start and spirits rose. One interesting thing about the Slovakian team was that at least 3 of them were deaf and they used various hand signals for sweeping calls.<br />
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After a session off it was Finland next and reality struck hard - we were 7-0 down after 2 ends and eventually lost 11-2 after 7. Next it was France and 9-0 down after 2 ends led to a 16-3 defeat. Finally Germany and a 12-0 defeat after 6!! So a chastening end to a week that started off well but lessons were learnt and thoughts turned to Prague a year later. <br />
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One thing that was required was a coach and we found one in the form of Ian Baxter, who was living down South and playing at Fenton's - Scottish Junior Champion in 1990 with Graeme Connal he went to Prague with a revised team. Sophie and Kate were gone and replaced by Lauren Pearce and Madeline Tuz, 2 more graduates from the Fenton's junior programme. Hetty had moved to third and Naomi to second.<br />
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Hopes were high that progress would be made in a 10 team competition that meant 9 round-robin games before the play-offs - a tough schedule. By the end of the week though all dreams had been shattered when the team failed to register a win - Finland (3-7), Slovakia (4-8), Denmark (0-12), Italy (5-6), Spain (7-8), Norway (4-9), Germany (5-6), Estonia (4-6) and Poland (3-7). There were some close games in there though - the Spanish loss was at an extra end - but still some first end nightmares ( losing a 6 v Norway for example).<br />
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Ian Baxter was unable to commit to another year and so we approached Greg Dunn, a Canadian who was playing at Fenton's and had experience of coaching / junior curling at home. Another Canadian recruit was a young girl, just 15 years old, who had been brought up in British Columbia and had taken up curling and been to various camps etc. over there. Her father is English and so when she appeared at Fenton's, having moved to a village just 15 minutes away, she was eligible to represent England without any wait to achieve residency qualifications. Her name was Angharad Ward and she was immediately drafted into the team in place of Madeline Tuz.<br />
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It was back to Prague in 2011 and the new coach made his mark by getting the whole team (and the boys team) to do some runs around the rink as a penalty for being late for a meeting! I accompanied them on this occasion and we began to see that week the beginnings of the progress which had been absent the previous year. Another tough week with 8 games to be played in the round-robin and things did not start well - 2-6 v Spain and 1-10 v Italy, but then a win - against Slovakia by 8-3 and hopes rose. A loss against the top team Germany was followed by a second victor, against Estonia by 5-2, and then another one - 4-2 v Poland. Finally two more defeats - 3-5 v Norway and 0-6 v Denmark. So 3 wins and 5 losses and still not troubling the top teams - but the team were starting to understand the nuances of the game and to get the experience of International competition.<br />
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Copenhagen called in 2012 and Greg needed some help and up stepped Kerr Alexander - nominally to coach the boys' team but also assisting Greg with the girls. Angharad was unable to play this year as she was involved in the Winter Youth Olympics for the GB team and was needed for pre-Games practice and so Lucy Sparks came in as alternate. This was also Anna's last year and she meant to go out on a high.<br />
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Left to right - Greg Dunn Lucy Sparks, Lauren Pearce, Naomi Robinson, Hetty Garnier and Anna Fowler. Compare to the previous picture!!!<br />
<br />Nine teams again and another 8 game round-robin. Wins were recorded against Denmark (5-2), Slovakia (6-2), Hungary (9-4), Spain (6-3), Poland (6-5) and Germany (8-6) and there were two defeats by Italy (3-5 after extra end) and Estonia (3-8). However this meant that England finished second in the round-robin and would play a semi-final against Denmark. This was a very low-scoring game with neither side willing to gamble but eventually Denmark won by 3-1though they then lost in the final to Italy who therefore went to the Worlds. <br /><br />It was back to Prague in 2013 and the major change was, of course, that Anna was no longer a junior, and neither was Lauren, and so Hetty stepped up to the mark to lead the team, Angharad returned to the team at third, Naomi stayed at second, Lucy moved in at lead and Niamh Fenton was the new alternate. Neither Greg nor Kerr was able to commit the time to travel with the team and so Andrew Woolston and myself were this year’s coaches for both the girls and the boys.<br />
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<br />There were 12 teams split into 2 groups of 6 and it started off extremely well, when following a close defeat by Hungary (3-4), there was a win over old rivals Denmark by 5-3 in a game where Hetty was marked as playing 95%. However this was followed by a 3-10 defeat by Poland although a victory over Latvia by 6-4 meant that there was still a chance of finishing in the top 2 of the group if Turkey could be beaten, but this was not to be and a 5-3 victory for Turkey left England 4th in the group when a win would actually have meant that they finished top based on the DSC which would have been needed to separate them from Denmark and Hungary. So 3 wins out of 5 – close but still not there. <br /><br />It was a new venue for 2014 – Lohja in Finland and while the team stayed the same the coach changed again and Sara Jahodova was recruited. Sara is from the Czech Republic and has played for her country at the World Championship , though she currently lives in England. Her partner, Radek Bohac provided some assistance but it was a tough time for her to look after 2 teams. <br /><br />Once again there were 12 teams divided into 2 groups of 6 and the English campaign got off to the worst possible start when they ran out of time in the first game against Hungary and automatically lost the game! However, the girls bounced back and won their next 4 games – Germany (4-3), Latvia (7-2), Estonia (6-4) and Finland (13-0) to finish second behind Hungary and next was a quarter-final v Norway which was won well by 8-2 but the semi-final against Italy saw a disappointing 2-9 loss. With a bronze medal at stake in their final game they won an extra end decision against Poland and those medals by 7-6. So all the time it was getting closer but time was running out a little bit – astonishingly Hetty had now played in 6 EJCC but she still had three years eligibility left, as had Angharad and Lucy, but Naomi was done to just 2 and so 2015 would be a critical year. <br /><br />This year they did it. <br /><br />After 6 previous attempts the England Junior Women qualified for the World Junior Championship with a fairly dominant display at the European Junior Challenge in Prague. A look at their scores emphasises how much better they were than the majority of the other teams they met, but it was the semi-final against Hungary that was a true measure of their improved quality and maturity. After wins by 14-1 against Spain, 9-1 against Slovenia and 8-1 against Slovakia there were two narrow wins against Poland (5-2) and Turkey (4-2) before a defeat by Italy (2-7) in the last round robin game when they had already guaranteed finishing top in their group. <br /><br />A quarter –final win against Latvia by 7-1 was followed by their toughest game of the competition against Hungary who were runners-up last year. It was 5-2 for England after 6 ends and then Hungary scored 3 at the 7th leaving Hetty Garnier with a hit and stick to win the game in the 8th end which she did perfectly. Against Turkey in the final it was back to routine with a staggering 9-1 win in just 6 ends rounding off an incredible week and sending the girls to the World Championships in Estonia at the beginning of March. <br /><br />Congratulations to Hetty Garnier, Angharad Ward, Naomi Robinson, Lucy Sparks and Niamh Fenton who were ably coached by Sara Jahodova. Unfortunately Sara cannot go to Estonia with them as coach owing to work commitments but they will be coached there by John Sharp who has worked with the majority of the team at the European Championships over the past couple of seasons.<br />
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John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-3723910483980431282015-01-01T14:05:00.001+00:002015-01-01T14:05:50.769+00:00Must do better.....With best wishes for 2015 to you all, my New Year resolution is to do a lot more posting on this neglected blog - it may take a while for the readers to come flocking back but let us hope I can do better than 2014. It is not as if I have not been involved in curling since then - maybe I have had too much involvement!!<br />
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And my first excuse for writing less can hardly be deemed an excuse - after all if I retired in May, I should have had more time to do lots of things but as anyone in my situation will say - I do not know how I ever had time to work!!<br />
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To divert from the curling for a paragraph or two - my other passion in life is motor racing - not participating as I have never had the money to do so, but spectating. My father first took me to see motor racing at Ingliston in July 1966 and after a few more visits that year and in 1967 I became a regular at the circuit where the Royal Caledonian Curling Club headquarters are these days. In fact the RCCC offices are approximately behind the building in this old photo of Willie Forbes from Aberdeen in 1966.<br />
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The circuit closed in 1992 but I had long ago moved away by then and discovered the pleasures of the wind-swept spectating facilities at Silverstone and other old airfield circuits in England.<br />
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Previous to 1966 I remember having been to a couple of go-kart meetings at Larkhall and Ingliston and so to celebrate my 60th birthday I decided that this year I would celebrate 50 years of being a motor racing spectator and would visit a race meeting at every circuit currently operating on the UK mainland - there are 15 in total and the full story of my travels can be found on another blog at <a href="http://50yearsmotorracing.blogspot.co.uk/">http://50yearsmotorracing.blogspot.co.uk/ </a>while you can see lots of photos at my Flickr page - <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/125284417@N04/collections/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/125284417@N04/collections/</a><br />
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Most of those trips did of course take place outwith the curling season and so that is not really an excuse for not writing either!!<br />
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So how about a quick catch up on my curling activities since last March!!<br />
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As part of my role on the WCF's Competition and Rules Commission I attended meetings of the commission at the Women's World Championships in Saint John, New Brunswick in March. We spent 3 days going through the new rules which we were going to propose to the WCF Congress in September. The Athletes' Commission would receive our proposals for comment and addition / amendment before they were finally worded for the proposals. By the time this happened there were a number of changes to our original proposals and some of them were eventually put aside for further refinement and discussion.<br />
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The aim is not to change rules for the sake of change but to try and make the game more attractive to sponsors, television and spectators and to make sure that the skills of the best players are fairly rewarded. We also need to preserve the integrity of the game and not to reduce it to the level say of 20-20 cricket, which to me is nothing more than a contest to see who can hit it hardest and farthest in the shortest time with no nod at all to the traditions of the game.<br />
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The English Curling Association, in a change to normal practice, held its AGM at Fenton's rink in Kent in April, combining the meeting with a bonspiel. The aim was to try and attract more people to come to the AGM which had failed to reach a quorum in the two previous years. Unfortunately this disenfranchised the members of the Northern clubs, Glendale and Preston, but it did mean that some changes to the constitution which had been set aside for the previous two years could now be proposed and approved.<br />
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There were no major issues to discuss, though some minor changes were made to the rules which govern how we play our Championships and the changes to the constitution now allow for members to call an EGM if they consider it necessary. Membership of the ECA continues to fall in spite of the presence of a curling rink with the Northern clubs in particular losing members at the top of the age range and not attracting younger members to their ranks. A new wheelchair club was accepted into the ECA - the Cumbria Wheelchair Curling Club.<br />
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The next stop on my curling tour was Dumfries (the town of my birth) for the World Senior and Mixed Doubles Championships. My role there was to coach the Senior Women's team which had come together mid-season but, until a weekend at Fenton's a month before, had never played together! I was helping out with our Mixed Doubles team. Seen below are the whole squad at the opening ceremony<br />
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A great competition all round with a wonderful welcome from the local organising committee and volunteers. The Senior Women (Jean Robinson, Judith Dixon, Susan Young, Debbie Higgins and Jackie Orr) exceeded their expectations and won 3 games against the Czech Republic, Austria and Japan and lost close games to the USA and Sweden, though Slovakia and New Zealand were too good for them. Seen below looking happy before the competition are (left to right) Jean, Debbie, Judith, Susan and Jackie<br />
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And that was the end of the 2013-14 season. Personally I had played 64 games with a success rate of just 43% in spite of winning a couple of weekend competitions. This followed on an even less successful 2012-13 (38%) and it made me look long and hard about the competitions I wanted to enter the following year and also about where (and even if) I should be playing in various teams. I felt certain that I would not be playing mixed doubles for example as
watching at the World Championships had made me realise that this
discipline was very much for the younger and fitter athlete! Was I still enjoying myself at skip or would I be happy to drop down the order and let others take the decisions. The new season was a few months away and maybe the fact that I would be retired by then would alter my attitude. <br />
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Those few months (during which I attended the WCF Umpire course in Fussen and then the WCF Congress in Reno!) passed quickly though and all of a sudden it was decision time!! I would continue to travel to Kent once a fortnight to play league games there and to help with the junior coaching, I would defend the Welsh Bonspiel I had won with the same team (though there was one late change) and would go to Stranraer for the I'Anson Trophy (again with the same team). I would drop down from skip for the Duncan Stewart Trophy (which is an individual entry anyway) and would not seek to enter a team for the ECA Championships or the ECA Senior Championships but would wait and see if I was asked!! A risky strategy you might say but one I was happy with.<br />
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In the end I have been asked to play in the ECA Championships, which will be held at Dumfries in February, when I will be playing lead or second - this will be my 33rd participation in those Championships since 1982, having only missed out in 1984 when I had hurt my back lifting furniture in the office, and I was also asked to play in the European Seniors at Greenacres as a replacement.<br />
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My tour of the motor racing circuits of Britain finished on the 5th October and the curling season began with a league game at Fenton's on the 7th October!! My first weekend was the ECA Duncan Stewart Trophy at Kinross in October - great to be back there in the new rink and it was good to have a full turnout of 24 players to remember Duncan's work for English curling. His widow, Mary, was there to present the prizes to the winning team of John Sharp, Susan Young, Val Saville and Carol Lyon.<br />
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As the Welsh Bonspiel was the following weekend I stayed in Scotland and thence to Greenacres to defend the trophy I won last year with Lana Watson, Alison Barr and replacement Steve Amann (Donald Forbes had to drop out because of a new arrival in his family). A good start in winning the first game by 13-2 was followed by a disaster against Andrew Woolston when we lost a 7 (with the hammer)!! Andrew went on to win the competition and we struggled through 2 more games (winning 6-5 and 4-3) to surprisingly find ourselves in the B final against Ken Horton in a repeat of last year's A final. As last year it was a close game decided really by a 3 at one end - last year we got the 3 and this year it was Ken and so 4th overall was our final position.<br />
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Back home for ten days and then it was back to Greenacres for the European Invitation Seniors where I played for ECA President Tommy Campbell as a replacement for Mike Robinson who was unable to travel up from Kent. Five games there playing lead and second were enjoyable and mostly stress - free as I stayed for the most part out of the decision making process and concentrated on surviving more sweeping in one week than I think I had done for quite a few years!<br />
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After 4 days at home, it was another drive up to Scotland, this time to Stranraer for the Preston CC I'Anson Trophy weekend - always good fun but now packed with a lot of good teams practising for various Championships! The Welsh National men's team, for example, skipped by Adrian Meikle won for the third consecutive year while the English National women's team came second!! A full turnout of 16 teams reflected the hard work done by Phil Barton of the Preston club and my main achievement of the weekend was to avoid either of the early morning starts which are reserved for those teams in the bottom half of the Schenkel rankings though I did manage to cement my reputation as the king of the peeled game - two finished at 5-5, a similar situation to 2 seasons ago - and with the same scores too!!<br />
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Another 4 days at home and it was time to go to the European Championships, but in those 4 days I paid three visits to the <a href="http://www.beckworthemporium.com/" target="_blank">Beckworth Emporium</a> which is about 40 minutes from my home. This was prompted by an email I had received which said :<br />
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<i>Each year the Emporium undergoes a major transformation when part of its
garden nursery section is turned into a 520 square metre ice rink for
the winter – and new for this, its fifth year in operation, it is
offering visitors the chance to try their hand at curling! It has
sourced some stones specially and I know that a number of local bowls
clubs (among others) have booked to try their hand at the ‘winter
version’ of their sport!</i><br />
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My first visit was on the Monday on the way back from Stranraer and the ice rink was flooded - the plant had broken down but I did get to see the stones they had sourced:<br />
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<i> </i>These are two of them - apparently they had bought 8 of them from somebody in Scotland for £900. They had no idea what they were buying and had not thought to contact anybody in the ECA until they had done so. They were due to start curling sessions the following week and so action was required, especially as one of the stones had a rusted together loose handle and another had a bolt standing proud of the bottom of the stone and therefore catching on the ice.<br />
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Of course they would not be playing 'real' curling - the rink was not long enough, the ice was not going to be properly scraped or pebbled (it was only a small rink), they had embedded circles in the ice which were about 4 feet in diameter (as used in New Age Kurling in church halls)<i>. </i>Also they only had two (admittedly new) brushes and had not thought about hacks!!!<br />
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The following day (Tuesday) I returned to the emporium with 12 brushes and a pair of hacks I had in my garage - the ice was melted again - another call to the suppliers and it looked like it would be OK the next day. As it was a Tuesday I was going to Fenton's to play and at Fenton's the London Curling Club has stored its supply of brand new reconditioned stones (well half of them are actually in Sheffield) and so I quickly put 4 yellow handles and 4 red handles on 8 stones and took them home with me that night and delivered them to the Emporium on the Wednesday (my poor car was racking up the miles at an exponential rate it seemed). At last there was some ice and so a quick lesson with the staff who were going to be running the curling and they were all set.<br />
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Now they were not going to be sliding at all and the distance between hacks and circles was a maximum of 12 metres - and sometimes reduced because of ice conditions - so what they were playing was target curling - but all 8 stones would never fit into the small target area anyway!! The curling was advertised for a maximum of 8 people - so one stone each but with an 'end' taking perhaps just 5 minutes they got plenty of throws in their 2 hour slot.<br />
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To add another surreal element to the game, the players were equipped with anti-slip protectors such as elderly people might wear to stop falling over on icy pavements!!<br />
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So all the elements you might think for a PR disaster of immense proportions. To try and add a bit of background and to explain about the differences between real curling and Emporium curling I went up a further 5 times to the sessions (which were only held three times a week owing to pressure from skating - sounds familiar) and you know what - everybody was loving it!! I got a few brave souls to take off their protectors but most were happy to keep them on. The last day I went up was very mild and it had been raining and there they were splashing around in an inch of water and still having fun (and still getting the stones to the house)!<br />
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The Emporium plans to run it again next year but with a bit more advance notice maybe we can improve things - watch this space next year for an update. What it did prove to me was that as long as people can achieve their aim - which in this case was getting the stones into the circle - and there is a competitive element, especially among work colleagues or family members it does not really matter that the conditions were pretty poor - they are generally going to enjoy it. We also had a group of people with learning disabilities who thoroughly enjoyed pushing the stones to the targets with the brooms - again next year I shall source some cues instead.<br />
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After setting the up at the Emporium it was off to Champery for the European Championships. The England teams were both down in Monthey in the B Division - a 20 minute bus ride from the main centre. This was a repeat of the arrangements in 2010 but this year there was a total lack of snow except on the mountain tops which helped with the transport efficiency.<br />
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The men finished top of their group, with just one loss in their last game against Israel when they were already assured of their top position. This meant a 1v1 play-off against Finland which was lost 2-8 and to cap a disastrous Thursday this was followed by defeat against Netherlands by 4-10 in the semi-final, including the loss of a 6! The next day, however, a battling performance against Hungary saw a win by 8-5 and the bronze medals. The team was Alan MacDougall, Andrew Reed, Andrew Woolston, Tom Jaeggi and Ben Fowler, with myself as the coach.<br />
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The women had won the bronze medal in the B Division last year and this year they were very keen to improve on that. One change in the team saw Angharad Ward replace Hetty Garnier at third while another was the replacement as alternate of Lucy Sparks by Sarah Decoine. The girls won 5 of their 9 games to finish tied in 4th position in the Division with Hungary and Turkey. However, under the new rules introduced by the WCF only one tie-breaker is now played in competitions and with each team having one win and one loss against the other two it went to the Draw Shot Challenge scores and of the three countries England had the worst which meant that they were eliminated while Hungary and Turkey played the tie-breaker. So heartbreaking all round for the girls who had played very well to beat Italy in their last game to keep their hopes alive.<br />
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The England women with their coach John Sharp. Left to right - Angharad Ward, Sarah Decoine, Anna Fowler (skip), Naomi Robinson and Lauren Pearce.<br />
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And that was me nearly finished with curling before Christmas - but not quite! Two days back from Switzerland and another trip to Kent for the final league game which we lost 1-10, but even with that result we finished second in the league and thus qualified for the final two weeks later.<br />
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And then a final trip to Scotland, to Dumfries for the ECA Senior Championships. And for the first time we had a women's Championship alongside the men. Last season's women's team at the Worlds had split into two separate teams and added some extra players including the return of Joan Reed who had played for England at the Senior Worlds in 2003 -2005 and 2007 and 2008, winning a bronze medal in 2003. This best of 5 Championship went all the way to a 5th game before Judith Dixon (skip), Joan Reed, Val Saville and Debbie Higgins (pictured below) finally subdued Jean Robinson, Susan Young, Jackie Orr and Wilma McIntyre. For Val in particular it was an amazing experience - she had first approached us in Dumfries at the Worlds back in April as an English curler living in Stirlingshire and she was quickly embraced by the ECA as a possible member. Now here she was winning the right to represent England at the World Championships just a year later!<br />
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Having come so close last year (the 6th end of the 5th game when he lost a 6), John Summers won the men's Championship this year, beating Tommy Campbell by 3 games to 1. He and his team of Charles Jackson, David Sillito and Andrew Taylor will therefore join the women in Sochi in April.<br />
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And then there was just time to play the league final at Fenton's before Christmas - and to finish off the first half of the season with first competition victory - coming from behind to win 7-6 and to qualify for the all-league-winners event in April.<br />
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The final news before Christmas was that Stephen Hinds' application to build a three lane curling rink in an existing barn near Bracknell in Berkshire hadd been turned down by the local Council Planning Committee. Stephen will be going to appeal and we can only hope that the Inspector is more enlightened than the local Councillors.<br />
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The first main event of 2015 is the 4 Nations weekend which the ECA is hosting at Fenton's Rink between the 16th and 18th January.With 30 players arriving from Scotland and around 16 from Ireland and from Wales we are in for a busy time with 9 sessions of play between 1800 on Friday and Sunday afternoon. More about that in a future blog.<br />
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With lots of good wishes for 2015.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-85969402011757180752014-03-12T23:25:00.000+00:002014-03-15T11:48:09.112+00:00Matt MurdochI walked into Lockerbie Ice Rink just before Christmas as we stopped off on our way North - the Junior weekend competition was coming to its climax and I knew that the English girls would be playing their semi-final and I had persuaded my family that we would get a good lunch at the rink - Marion would see us right. <br />
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Sure enough there she was in the canteen, not on duty for a change, but having a cuppa with Matt, both of them enjoying watching the new generation of curlers on the ice before them.We passed the time of day with them and they told me they would be going off to Sochi - but I said I would probably see Matt before then at the 4 Nations as he was a great supporter of that weekend and sure enough four weeks later at Hamilton there he was, playing down the rink for a change, and only just missing out on winning another gold medal as part of Scotland's highest up rink in the match against England. He won 4 of those over the years and was determined that he would match the 5 of England's Michael Sutherland one year - I probably said something like - 'there's always next year' - except there isn't now.<br />
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He won one of those gold medals by beating me and altogether we played against each other 5 times in the 4 Nations and he had the edge on me by 3-2. Apart from the scores that is about all I can remember about the games - but Matt would have been able to tell you chapter and verse about this end or that end. Ever gregarious Matt would chat away on the ice and by the time you realised that he was distracting you, you were beaten - it wasn't deliberate - just all part of his friendly character.<br />
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My last view of Matt was on the TV from Sochi, celebrating his son's silver medal and beaming from ear to ear with pride at David's achievement but I will always remember so much more about him, on and off the ice.<br />
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Rest in peace, Matt - you have left a fine legacy in your family and in the curling scene in Lockerbie - they will not forget you and neither will I.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-45820662196202164822014-02-04T21:51:00.001+00:002014-02-05T21:17:31.314+00:00The European Championships - thoughts part 1In an earlier <a href="http://toothyscurlingtales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/from-coaches-bench.html">posting</a> written in Stavanger at the European Championships I mentioned some of the various European Championships I had been at over the past 30 years.<br />
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For the record, the European Championships began in a small way in 1975 when just 8 nations were represented in the men's event and 7 in the women's event. Since then the Championships have been held as follows with the number of competing nations indicated:<br />
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1975 Megeve (8 men, 7 women)<br />
1976 Berlin (9, 8) <br />
1977 Oslo (10, 8) <br />
1978 Aviemore (10, 9) <br />
1979 Varese (11, 9) <br />
1980 Copnhagen (12, 11) <br />
1981 Grindelwald (14, 13) <br />
1982 Kirkcaldy (14, 13) <br />
1983 Vasteras (14, 14) <br />
1984 Morzine (14, 14) <br />
1985 Grindelwald (14, 14) <br />
1986 Copenhagen (13, 13) <br />
1987 Obertsdorf (14, 13) <br />
1988 Perth (14, 12)<br />
1989 Engelberg (14, 13)<br />
1990 Lillehammer (14, 13)<br />
1991 Chamonix (17, 13)<br />
1992 Perth (19, 15)<br />
1993 Leukerbad (18, 14)<br />
1994 Sundsvall (19, 17)<br />
1995 Grindelwald (19, 16)<br />
1996 Copenhagen (18, 16)<br />
1997 Fussen (17, 14)<br />
1998 Flims (17, 14)<br />
1999 Chamonix (16, 14)<br />
2000 Obertsdorf (18, 13)<br />
2001 Vierumaki (18, 14)<br />
2002 Grindelwald (21, 18)<br />
2003 Courmayeur (22, 19)<br />
2004 Sofia (27, 22)<br />
2005 Garmisch-Partenkirchen (29, 24)<br />
2006 Basel (30, 22)<br />
2007 Fussen (31, 23)<br />
2008 Ornskoldsvik (28, 21)<br />
2009 Aberdeen (30, 21)<br />
2010 Champery (26, 20)*<br />
2011 Moscow (26, 20)*<br />
2012 Karlstad (26, 20)*<br />
2013 Stavanger (26, 20)*<br />
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*Since 2010 the number of nations participating in the A and B Group Championships has been limited to 26 men and 20 women with a C Group being used as a qualifying competition.Including those countries which did not qualify the total entries have been:<br />
<br />
2010 (31, 23)<br />
2011 (33, 28)<br />
2012 (31, 24)<br />
2013 (32, 22)<br />
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It is interesting to see how the numbers have grown at certain times - throughout the 1980s the entries stabilised at around 14 in each Championships and then at the beginning of the 1990s, as the WCF tried to get curling into the Olympics, the number increased gradually with a peak in 1994 before a decline in 1999 to almost 1980s levels. In the early 2000s as the effect of the introduction of curling at the 1998 Nagano Olympics began to kick in the numbers increased slowly until exploding at Sofia in 2004 to record levels which then rose to a peak in 2011.<br />
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By 2009 the numbers were getting unmanageable and so it was necessary to introduce a qualifying competition (the C Group) which allowed for promotion and relegation, while still allowing all nations the chance to reach the World Championship each year. This in itself introduced new issues with the successful nations in the C Group now having to finance two International trips within a couple of months of each other - a difficult proposition for people who are essentially still amateurs.<br />
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Personally I attended the Championships between 1982 and 1986 as a competitor and then have been at all of them since 2000, variously as an alternate, coach or as the ECA's representative at WCF and ECF meetings. So I think it is fair to say that I have been at most of the types of venue - big cities (Copenhagen, Sofia, Basel, Moscow), smaller cities (Aberdeen, Vasteras, Karlstad), Alpine resorts (Grindelwald, Morzine, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Fussen, Oberstdorf, Courmayeur, Champery), out of the way places you would never otherwise go to (Ornskoldsvik, Vierumaki) and coastal towns with no real winter sports connections (Kirkcaldy, Stavanger).<br />
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An interesting cross-section of locations I think you will agree and if I were to rate them as a TripAdvisor critic I think I would group them as follows:<br />
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5 stars - Grindelwald - just the most gorgeous Alpine resort with stunning views<br />
5 stars - Copenhagen - one of my favourite European cities with a great culture and friendly people<br />
<br />
4 stars - Basel - another favourite destination with a superb transport system<br />
4 stars - Garmisch-Partenkirchen - a big town with a small town feel - great views of the mountains<br />
4 stars - Courmayeur - close to Mont Blanc and plenty to do when not curling<br />
4 stars - Aberdeen - one of the best Scottish cities to spend some time in, not too big but lots to do<br />
4 stars - Oberstdorf - a lovely little town with a great atmosphere pre-Christmas <br />
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3 stars - Moscow - a great tourist centre - for a couple of days - but just something about it.....<br />
3 stars - Morzine - a small, slightly old-fashioned resort (at least in 1984), but with character<br />
3 stars - Fussen - a nice enough town but nothing to write home about<br />
3 stars - Champery - lovely scenery but too hilly for some and not much to do<br />
3 stars - Vierumaki - interesting venue in the middle of the Finnish forests - not much to do but just...different<br />
<br />
2 stars - Vasteras - boring Swedish city<br />
2 stars - Karlstad - see Vasteras<br />
2 stars - Ornskoldsvik - see Vasteras and Karlstad<br />
2 stars - Stavanger - see Swedish cities above but also VERY expensive<br />
<br />
1 star - Sofia - the very worst of Eastern Europe communism and social deprivation<br />
1 star - Kirkcaldy - not many package holidays sold for here - cold and dreich in December <br />
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Of course at many of these Championships the chances of getting out and about were limited what with watching games or attending meetings, and that has certainly got worse in recent years with the number of games increasing for each country - although nowadays of course the ECF is being shut down and the WCF no longer holds its meetings at the Europeans and so there is a bit more time to get out of the arenas / meeting rooms and see some of the sights.<br />
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Further posts will follow on different aspects of the European Championships but just to finish off a reminder of how time does not stand still for anyone:<br />
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Kirkcaldy 1982 - Duncan Stewart, Tony Fraser, John Brown, Ronnie Brock (dig the woollen jumpers) [Photo courtesy of Adrian Meikle]<br />
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Moscow 2011 - Tom Jaeggi, Andrew Woolston, Alan MacDougall, John Brown, Andrew Reed [Photo courtesy of Leslie Ingram-Brown]<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-67321509428179432202014-01-12T12:26:00.000+00:002014-01-12T12:26:08.026+00:00Australian Junior Women Win Their First GameSome months ago I wrote a post identifying the winless record of the Australian Junior Women in the Pacific Junior Championship - <a href="http://toothyscurlingtales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/will-they-ever-win-one.html">here</a><br />
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I am very pleased to say that they have at last had a win as they defeated the New Zealand team by 9-5 in Harbin, China yesterday, having been at one time 9-1 up. Unfortunately the rest of their results have followed the usual pattern as they have suffered more heavy defeats including two more when they have failed to score and the Junior Men have continued their winless record.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-46703330781404848002014-01-01T12:44:00.001+00:002014-01-01T12:44:12.165+00:00And so to 2014......A Happy New Year to all my readers for 2014 - I hope it brings you lots of happiness and success.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-55705641427195743762013-12-20T21:42:00.000+00:002013-12-20T21:42:10.650+00:00The History of Curling in London, Part 2 - the Nomadic Years<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b>INTRODUCTION </b><br /><br />
In the first part of this history I looked at the development of curling in London from 1951 to 1980, the “Richmond” Years, a period when I was not involved and which was based on the minute book of the London clubs and the Province of London. What follows is what happened since then until the opening of Fenton’s in 2004 – it all started on a May Bank holiday weekend in 1982. My apologies if this history is interspersed with personal stories and recollections but hopefully they will not detract from the story. <br /><br /><b>Streatham 1982-1983 </b><br /><br />A short article in the Scottish Curler notified readers that curling in London would begin again at Streatham Ice Rink on the Sunday of the May Bank Holiday. This would be for a trial period of 6 weeks and, if successful, might be carried on into the new season. So it began – my involvement with English curling - and it was a shock to find that not only were the stones not on the ice when we all arrived but there were people down on the ice scribing circles on the ice with a nail-studded piece of wood!! <br /><br />This was the way life would be at Streatham and it is not surprising that curling did not last there beyond the one season – games were on a Sunday evening after the ice hockey finished – which could mean starting at 1030 or 1100 on pretty heavy ice with warm stones and scribed circles. Amazingly there were ice dancers going on after us and we also held an England v Scotland International there. <br /><br />One of the games in that International ended as 3-2 – must have been a high quality game you might think, but no that was all the stones that got into the house in the entire game – an end sheet with a vicious swing caused by years of skating made it very difficult to reach the house. One unfortunate incident that day led to the death of Othma Brunner, then President of the POL who fell on the icy car park after the games and later succumbed to the effects. <br /><b><br />Peterborough 1983 – 1987 </b><br /><br />As curling petered out at Streatham, Sandy Blair, President of the ECA picked me up from my home in Bedford and we travelled to Peterborough with two outdoor curling stones and demonstrated curling to Paul French the manager there. From that initial visit ice time was allocated on a Saturday evening at 6 pm to curling and a new club was formed under the presidency of Donald Barclay, formerly of Paisley. <br /><br />In addition to the Province of London stones which were transferred there, 4 sets of brand new stones were purchased from the Billingham Ice Rink in Sunderland. These had been bought when that ice rink was first built but had never been used seriously and were in “as-new” condition. In addition two further sets of reconditioned stones were purchased from Kays. <br /><br />The venture was supported by London curlers and lasted for 4 years until the ice rink decided that it wanted the time for more profitable activities and at the end of the 1986-87 season Paul French suggested that the curling should transfer to Chelmsford – this was managed by the same company and Paul was going as interim manager. There were a couple of final sessions in 1987-88 at Peterborough. <br /><br />It should be noted that two Internationals between England and Scotland were held at Peterborough in 1985 and 1987 with sponsorship from Avon Insurance who did a lot of work with farmers and who were introduced to the club by George Gilmour, formerly of Hamilton and who had been involved at the very beginning of the Lanarkshire Ice Rink. <br /><br />As an interesting sideline there were three trophies which were played for at Crossmyloof Ice Rink in Glasgow when it was operating – the Sandy Miller, the Alexander Blair and the Arthur Gilmour – all named after relatives of people who became very much involved in English curling – Connie Miller, Sandy Blair and George Gilmour. <br /><br />Another notable feature of Peterborough was the enormous wooden cupboard complete with shelves and doors which was built by George’s son, Arthur to store the 96 stones – I wonder what happened to it. <br /><br /><b>Chelmsford 1987 - 1993 </b><br /><br /> One morning in September 1987 I was interviewed for a job at Essex County Council, based in Chelmsford, and then met with Robin Gemmell, the POL President and Paul French and discussed curling beginning at the Riverside Ice Rink there. Both interviews were successful and I was now living within 5 minutes drive of my curling rink!! <br /><br />Curling at Chelmsford followed the same pattern as at Peterborough with one session per week at 6 pm on a Saturday evening. Being closer to London it attracted a lot of the London curlers and a local club was formed, chaired by yet another Scot, Ronnie Scott. There were now sufficient stones to supply two ice rinks with 10 sets at Chelmsford and 8 sets at Peterborough. <br /><br />For two seasons a healthy programme of events was held with very often 4 full sheets and a fifth sheet being used for coaching. A new manager, Martyn Girvan, a former British international hammer thrower and still the holder of the British record, took over and was enthusiastic about the sport, but even he was powerless when the management decided that ice hockey was going to bring in more people and for 1989-90 ice time was transferred to a Sunday evening, when it was available, and the numbers travelling out from London dropped off immediately, especially as the time was also moved to 10 pm. In the end only 7 sessions were held that season. <br /><br />It got worse the next season and no sessions were held until January and even then it was now a Monday evening at 10 pm and it was a loyal band of local curlers who kept the game going. And in fact it survived another two seasons but by the end of 1992/93 it was obvious that it was not worthwhile carrying on – the numbers had dropped to 5 to 8 per night and 5 sessions were lost because there were not enough players or the ice was too bad to play. <br /><br /><b>Alexandra Palace 1990 to 1997 </b><br /><br />One of the factors which helped to bring about the demise of Chelmsford was the opening up of curling at Alexandra Palace in 1990. Martyn Girvan and Dave Loudfoot (the ice man at Chelmsford) transferred to AP and encouraged the curlers to go with them. Curling began there in June 1990 after the stones had been brought down from Peterborough by Gerald Biggs, one of the stalwarts of the Peterborough club, in a trailer behind his Land Rover! <br /><br />Curling was played at AP for seven seasons but eventually the ice was so bad that the Province decided that it would not continue beyond the end of season 1996-97 as it was losing money paying for ice which was not being used. By this time Martyn Girvan had moved on and taken his enthusiasm for the sport with him. <br /><br />However, there were many good times at AP and the club prospered with a variety of ventures being launched. The London Double Decker tournament was played for two seasons, attracting teams from across the World – the USA, Russia, Swizerland etc and the final was actually shown live on Sky TV – I have a copy if anyone wants to see it!! The 3 Nations (Scotland, England and Wales) International Weekend was held there in 1992 and a Corporate Cup was launched whereby members were able to introduce their work colleagues to the sport with the hope of winning a trophy. <br /><br />While the origins of the name of the London Double Decker bonspiel might seem obvious, it did in fact derive from the content of a letter written to the Scottish Curler by Mike Hay, famous Scottish curler and later head coach of the British Olympic team in 2002. He had complained in the letter about the standard of play in the smaller countries in Europe who only had enough curlers to fill a double decker bus and yet who got the same voting rights at the Federation meetings as Scotland! <br /><br /><b>Aldershot 1990 to 1992 </b><br /><br /> At the same time that curling began at AP, the ice rink at Aldershot also decided that it would experiment with curling and once again stones were moved around the country. In the winter of 1990 I had travelled up to Glenrothes in Fife to collect 96 assorted curling stones which had been used at the ice rink there for curling for a short time. <br /><br />They were stored in a barn at Great Dunmow belonging to Chelmsford members Chris and Dawn Trembath and when I collected them they had to be cleaned to remove the evidence of animal occupation! 64 of these were transferred to Aldershot and a good club set up got underway. Many of those who played at AP also played at Aldershot but there were two distinct groups also. Of course in 1990-91 Chelmsford was also still operating and I did manage to play at all three rinks that season, at one time in one mad week! <br /><br />Peter Welsh who later became the secretary of the Province and a great enthusiast for taking people abroad to bonspiels was the hero of the hour the next year when he had to rescue the curling stones from under the hands of the receivers who had moved in when the Aldershot rink went bust! <br /><br />And there the story of curling in London and the South rested until Ernest Fenton opened up his rink in Kent in 2004. And that is surely a third part of this story which is yet to be written. <br /><br /> It is a tribute to the members of the Province of London that they managed to keep the spirit of curling alive through the barren years between the closure of AP and the opening of Fenton’s. The one trophy which links all the history of the Province of London is the Fleming Trophy which has been played almost every season since 1958, and this was played at various venues in Scotland through the turbulent years – the search for good ice on which to play in the South of England ended in 2004 and there have been many changes to the set up of club curling. There is still, however, a London club with a history back to 1951 and hopefully it will continue to flourish. <br /><br /><b>Miscellaneous </b><br /><br />And, before anybody points out my omission, there is one other ice rink in London where curling has been played in the last 27 years – in October 1984, Coutts Bank held a curling day for its staff and customers at Queens Ice Rink in Bayswater in London. The curling stones were transferred from Peterborough to London and two or three sheets were scribed out on the rink which had not been melted for a very long time – the story was that if they melted the ice the barriers around the rink would collapse as they were only being supported by it. The ice was diabolical as it was not flat at all and the stones went everywhere. <br /><br />And there’s more – in 2001 or 2002 a small temporary ice rink was set up in Covent Garden for winter skating and we were invited to demonstrate curling – as the rink was about 15m from corner to corner you can imagine that we were pretty restricted in what we could do. We were sharing the ice with figure skaters who did the most amazing jumps in such a confined space. <br /><br />And how about curling at Center Parcs – in 1998 we were asked to provide curling equipment to the Center Parcs complex at Elvedon in Norfolk for the summer!! They had erected a temporary ice rink (under a tent) and wanted to offer curling to their clients – again it was shared with skating and I am not sure how many people ever played it – the rink was again not long enough and because they had erected a half size ice rink, they drew the circles at half size as well!! Unfortunately we only had full size stones – I think they played target curling – throwing from one end only. <br />
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John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-30761808524785625232013-12-20T21:37:00.000+00:002013-12-20T21:37:26.425+00:00The History of Curling in London, Part 1 - the Richmond YearsIt is now 9 years since Ernest Fenton opened Fenton's Rink on his farm near Tunbridge Wells and many people probably think that the history of curling in the South of England began in 2004, but there has been indoor curling in the area since 1951 and the following blog tells its story, based upon work originally written by Bob Glasgow, the late secretary of the Province of London and then drawing on my personal participation. Part 1 is about curling at Richmond and Part which follows is about the years between 1980 and 2004 when curling took place at a number of ice rinks.<br />
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I would be grateful for any extra information that anyone can provide. I have all the Minute Books for the Province of London and London CC and in future blogs will attempt to flesh out some of the references made here.<br />
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Further history of curling in London can be found by clicking on locations identified in the Historical Curling Places website <a href="http://www.historicalcurlingplaces.org/">here</a> .</div>
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The following is the first part of a potted history of the London Curling Club in all its manifestations since its formation in 1951. It draws upon a history written by Bob Glasgow and based on the old minute books. This part takes the story up to 1980 and the closure of curling at Richmond after 30 years. Part 2 will look at the much more unsettled history since that time which has seen the club play at 6 different ice rinks in 27 years and which is the period when I have been involved in curling in London. <br /><br />Obviously this is a very short version of the history. I have grand plans to expand on Bob Glasgow’s work and perhaps even publish it at some time. There is so much more in the minute books which could be of interest, including the design of the London Curling Club badge which had a depiction of Richmond Bridge above a Scottish saltire with a rose in the middle of it. I have never seen a pin badge of this and maybe none were produced, but if anybody has one then we would be glad to hear from you. I would also like to transpose the minutes to electronic format and this may yet be done. <br /><br />1951-1980 <br /><br />In 1951 a group of Anglo-Scots decided to form a club for the people who played curling at the Richmond Ice Rink in London. A preliminary meeting took place after play on the 21st May 1951. Following an experiment with curling the management of the rink had decided that future curling would be on Tuesday evenings in the winter between 6.00pm & 8.30pm. Five rinks were to be available to 40 curlers for 33 weeks. <br /><br />An inaugural meeting of the club took place on the 10th July 1951 with Mr A.V.Hopkins General Manager & Director of Sports Drome Ltd. in the chair. It was decided that the subscription per season should be £2.2s0d (£2.10) with an ice charge of 7s.6d (37.5p). for each player and 10s.0d (50p). for each visitor. The opening date for the season would be Tuesday 18th September and the Royal Caledonian Curling Club was informed of the formation of the Club. The first Committee meeting on 31st August 1951 reported that there were 36 paid up members. <br /><br />At the first AGM on the 22nd April 1952, it was decided that stones, originally borrowed from Crossmyloof Ice Rink in Glasgow, were to be returned and that more stones were to be purchased. However at a Committee Meeting on the 30th July 1954 it was reported that Crossmyloof had agreed to the sale of their stones which were at Richmond. The sale raised the sum of £26.00! <br /><br />In 1956, the President (Mr Fleming) revealed details of the Sir Alexander Fleming Memorial Trophy on which would be depicted the hill on which his famous cousin was born. This Trophy is still the premium Trophy awarded by the London Club. <br /><br />In January 1957 the first overseas curlers, from Prince Edward Island in Canada were entertained at Richmond. An official programme was produced and the home team won by 67 shots to 50 over 5 games of 13 ends!! <br /><br />During 1959, it was agreed that the Membership limit should be increased to 80. Attendances had suffered during 1959 owing to fog!! At an Extraordinary general Meeting on the 20th October 1959, the decision was made to disband The London Curling Club and form the Province of London. This would consist of 6 different clubs – called City of London, London Northerners, Surrey and Sussex, Thames, Mogador and Hampstead. <br /><br />1962 saw a tour of Scotland by two rinks, 1963 saw the addition of London Watsonians as a 7th club and for the first time, the England v Scotland International was held at Richmond while 1964 saw the Constitution of The Province adopted (5 years after formation!!). It was decided to purchase six sets of matched stones at £23.00 per stone. <br /><br />The most important development during 1968 was the suggestion by Connie Miller that a Ladies Club should be formed. The matter was referred to The Committee. But Richmond Ladies was not formed as the eighth club in the Province until 1973!! <br /><br />And then came the announcement on the 11th December 1979 that curling facilities would no longer be available after the current season. The reasons were purely financial – more money could be made out of skating than curling. So after 30 years it was necessary for the Province to find a new home. <br /><br />REFLECTION <br /><br />Reading through the minutes it is fascinating to see that the problems which the committee had to contend with in those days were similar to those that still exercise our minds these days – attracting new members, the need to raise subscriptions, coaching new and junior members. <br /><br />What is fascinating is that a cap was placed on the membership numbers at various times throughout that period. These days we try and get as many members as possible. It is also noticeable that throughout the 1950s and early 1960s the bad weather (principally fog / smog) affected attendances. <br /><br /> </div>
John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-14714223471773277322013-11-25T12:30:00.000+00:002013-11-25T12:30:20.800+00:00From the Coaches' BenchI have now been to 19 European Championships as competitor, coach, representative and spectator in places as far and near as Ornskoldsvijk and Sofia, Kirkcaldy and Copenhagen and each has had its good and bad points and many have had their problems. I've been to some places I will probably never visit again (the aforementioned 'Ovik') and to others where I have later returned to enjoy a holiday (Grindelwald).<br />
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I have stayed in some grand hotels and in some very basic ones, eaten expensive meals and some ropey hot dogs and burgers, spent up to 4 hours in a bus to get from various airports and sat on a variety of coaches' benches either freezing to death (Sofia) or watching in luxury from behind the glass (Karlstad).<br />
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But I have never been anywhere that could only offer me black coffee before (there was no milk available - not just once but the next day as well)!!!! Or where a plate of pasta cost over £30. But here we are in Stavanger, oil capital of Norway, and I suppose those who remember the days when Aberdeen was the most expensive place to live in Britain will know what I am talking about.<br />
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The stadium here is vast - an indoor speed skating venue so that there is room to have the two ice pads for the A and B Groups in one place, separated just by the scaffolding supporting the A Group coaching, media and TV scaffolding - nicely draped for the A side but exposing the bare scaffolding poles to us here on the B side (see picture below). The curling sheet in the foreground is for the public to have a go.<br />
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As usual it is a full programme of games here with 28 nations represented, 26 in the men's competition and 20 in the women's. It is a first appearance in the main Championships by the Romanian men and the Slovenian women who came up through the C Group Championships played recently in Copenhagen.The other quailifiers from that competition were the Welsh men and the Belarusian women who had both been relegated last year.<br />
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Although the two ice pads are back to back there is not a great deal of noise filtering through from one to the other unless Andrea Schopp or Thomas Ulsrud is in full bellow setting.<br />
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However the standard of the catering in the stadium leaves much to be desired, especially considering it is a purpose built sports venue. There is a small cafe which was the venue of my milk shortage episode mentioned earlier and currently they are unable to produce any hot water for a cup of tea owing to an inoperative water boiler - the idea of boiling a kettle seems alien to them!! (problem has been resolved as just been and got a cuppa).<br />
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There is a standard menu of sandwiches, lasagne or chicken kebabs and one dish of the day which has apparently been variable in quality. The lasagne I had was tepid although full of meat. I presume it is getting better as some are still eating there but then people eat in Motorway service area cafes also because they have no choice!<br />
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It is funny however, that such a pattern has been repeated many times over the years- it is almost as if the venues have been unprepared for the demand and it is not until halfway through the week that the situation is resolved. The life saver here has been the hot dog caravan which sits next to the Group B ice pad and did a roaring trade in hot dogs last night.<br />
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Finally for this short introduction to Stavanger a couple of pictures of the equipment the Norwegian edition of Top Gear is developing for their Christmas special.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-50813635148163865042013-11-13T18:16:00.000+00:002013-11-13T18:16:21.583+00:00Greenacres International BonspielGreenacres has been a very "International" place these last few weeks - they had the Welsh International Bonspiel followed by the European Senior Invitation Curling Championships (or ESICC to its close friends) and then last weekend it was the Greenacres International Bonspiel.<br />
<br />
When many of the teams entered for the weekend it was going to be the Gormac as it has been for a number of years, but by the time we got to the rink on Friday the Gormac tag had been dropped (for reasons I am not necessarily able to talk about) and it was the G.I.B..<br />
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The International moniker was still relevant as there were 3 teams from England entered, plus the Irish team fresh back from the European C Division at Taarnby in Denmark.<br />
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With just 10 teams in total a straight 4-game Schenkel was played and then the top 2 teams played off for first prize and the next two for 3rd prize.<br />
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(I was going to blog a detailed account of the games but I cannot find my results sheet just at the moment - first rule of blogging - don't begin to write until you are sure you have all the necessary information ready!!!)<br />
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Going into the 4th session Alan MacDougall's England Champions were undefeated and would play Graeme Adam who was on 4 points and 14 ends. Graham Shedden (4 and 13) played James Dixon (4 and 12) and Tony Tierney (4 and 12) played Drew Gemmell (4 and 10) and the top 4 teams would come out of those 3 games. Other contestants were Alan Mitchell and Matthew McConnell (2 points) and Fergus Corbett and Anna Fowler (0 points).<br />
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The first game to finish was the MacDougall - Adam game which Graeme won so that both teams ended with 6 points and 18 ends. By this time none of the other teams were going to be able to match that number of ends and so they would meet again in the final an hour later. The decision on who would play the 3/4 final then came down to who would win the other games between the teams with 4 points. In the Dixon - Sheddon game the former had opened out a 6-2 lead to be pegged back at the 7th when Shedden took a two. The Dixon team then contrived to play the 8th end so badly that Shedden was lying 5 when James came to play his last stone - but a straightforward nose hit reduced that to 2 and the win went to Dixon by 6-5. The Tierney - Gemmell also went to the last stone before Gemmell squeezed through by 7-5.<br />
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And so to the finals - Alan MacDougall knew he would have to leave early to catch a plane back to London and he and Graeme romped through the first 5 ends before Alan left with his team losing. That situation did not change and so Graeme Adam, Drew Howie, Stuart Naismith and Jean Lesperance won the Greenaces International Bonspiel. Runners-up were Alan MacDougall, Andrew Reed, John Sharp and Tom Jaeggi, while Andrew Woolston also played in two of the games.<br />
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In the 3/4 final the James Dixon team never seemed to get into the game and Drew Gemmell's team, skipped in this game by Alec Wilson, won fairly easily by 11-5. <br />
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So a good weekend all round on the ice for those who participated - hopefully there will be more entries again next year and we can get back to the 24-team fields of the Gormac in the past.John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-21641048915455476842013-10-31T23:41:00.000+00:002013-11-03T16:03:14.412+00:00I'M BACK - I have been away for too longWow is all I can say - is it really January since I last posted on this blog - so much has happened since then - if you have found me again then please stick around as I hope to post more regularly again. And tell your friends as they may have forgotten all about me too.<br />
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Where to begin is the first question - well I should have more time as I gave up being ECA secretary back at the AGM in May - the new secretary is Nigel Patrick and we also have a new ECA President in Tommy Campbell - we wish them all the best. I am still treasurer of the ECA and also Competitions' Convenor and I have a new role in curling - I have been elected onto the WCF Commission on Competitions and Rules - having been proposed by the ECA, I was accepted and so, along with Hew Chalmers (SCO), Mark Swandby (USA), Danny Lamoureaux (CAN), Karel Kubeska (CZE) and Paul Ahlgren (SWE) under the chairmanship of WCF President, Kate Caithness and Competitions' Director, Keith Wendorf, we will be looking at the way forward for the sport after the Sochi Olympics - are there any rule changes that should be made or are there any competitions we should add or drop from our programme? Look out for more information coming through in the future.<br />
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We held our first meeting in Copenhagen in September at the WCF Congress and will be meeting again at the Women's Worlds in Canada in March.<br />
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<b><u>The New Season</u></b><br />
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Closer to home the season has begun and for me there have already been 4 trips up to Scotland!! Firstly I drove up to support the English team in the European Mixed at Murrayfield where the team of John Sharp, Lorna Rettig, Nigel Patrick and Alison Hemmings won 3 and lost 4 games to finish midfield in their group. I was also supporting two of my team who play with me in the I'Anson Trophy at Stranraer - Dawn Watson who was playing for Wales and Louise Kerr who was in the Irish team. And also of course the Scottish team which included a regular at Fenton's, Karen Barthelemy.<br />
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Two weeks later I drove up with our Junior Women's team to the first Asham Under-21 Slam event at Kinross which was looking bright and sparkling after its takeover by the local curlers following a lot of hard work. The girls did very well to win 2 and peel one of their games and narrowly lost out on qualifying for the semi-final - that would have been good to see - an un-funded team from England doing better than some of the well-funded Scottish Academy teams. That might have been a difficult one for Brad Askew, the Scottish Performance Coach to explain!!<br />
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Back home for just long enough to change my clothes and do a few hours work to help pay for the diesel, and it was back up to Murrayfield for the first ECA event of the season - the<b> Duncan Stewart Trophy</b> which is open to all ECA members and where teams are selected just before the first game. We had 4 teams this year and with some people playing just one of the days we had a total of 19 participants including a few playing in their first ECA event.<br />
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As can be seen in the photo on <a href="http://theviewfromthehack.com/2013/10/24/october-the-month-so-far/">The View From the Hack</a> blog, I was fortunate to win it helped by Alison Barr, Judith Dixon and Andrew Woolston (and Ian Paxton on the Saturday). It did not look like it at the start of the weekend - losing a 4 in the first end of the first game and then another single in the second end does not normally lead to a trophy, but we plugged away - came back to win the first game 7-6 and the second one by 7-4. With the top two teams qualifying for the final and those teams already identified after the first two games (two teams had 2 wins and two teams had 0), we then played new President Tommy Campbell twice on the Sunday - a friendly peel at 3-3 after 6 ends followed by a 7-4 victory in the Final.<br />
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A couple of weeks at home (including a win in a game at Fenton's in the league) before it was back up in atrocious weather for the <b>Welsh International Bonspiel</b> sponsored yet again by Glenfarclas. Things had gone badly even before I left when my lead player, Jean Robinson, contracted shingles and had to pull out - but my first message for help yielded a result and Alison Barr, who had played with me in Edinburgh, was available for all but one game.<br />
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I had a good feeling nevertheless about the weekend ahead in spite of also losing my regular third, Dawn Watson, who had defected to the Dark Side (well Wales). The last time my new third, Lana Watson (no relation), had played with me in the Welsh we had been undefeated, but only won the B Final, as a team we had peeled with qualified for the A Final, also undefeated, having won one more end than us over the 4 games. So there was unfinished business there. My regular second, Donald Forbes, played with me again for the 10th time in 11 years and the only time he had been unable to play, we had won the Bonspiel - yet more unfinished business. And having been undefeated in Edinburgh just two weeks previously with Alison in my team, the omens were good.<br />
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And then they began to look a little shaky as, without the hammer, we lost a 3 in the first end of the first game - but had not something similar happened in Edinburgh?? I am glad to say that we fought our way back into the game to be peels going into the last end where we were fortunate to steal a single to beat Margaret Meikle by 6-5. And it happened in the next game again - lose the toss and lose a 3 at the first end, and the next game - lose the toss and lose a 2 in the first end - but on both occasions we fought back to win, beating Laura Beever 11-6 and Gus Storrie 7-5.<br />
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So there we were sitting on top of the section with a nice rest before Sunday when we would surely be playing Graeme Adam who had come back from a first game loss to win the next two games, the second of those by 18-0 and winning all 8 ends - he was second in the table and we had not played him - but the Schenkel system is strange at times and it depends how the organisers use it to avoid duplicate games. This time if we played Graeme and the other games were played as the system required there would be a duplicate game being played and so we ended up playing Andrew Woolston, the holder, instead - not sure which was the worse option for us!!!<br />
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This was the game Alison could not play and we won the toss, won the first end and lost the game!!! And what a finish there was. I will try to explain as simply as possible - Graeme Adam was playing Gus Storrie and whoever won that game would qualify for a final on 6 points. As I was also on 6 points but losing to Andrew Woolston it would come down to ends - I had 15 before the start of the game, Graeme had 15 and Gus had 11. As the endgame played out with me losing it became apparent that if Graeme won then he would go to A, I would go to B, but if Gus won I would go to A and he would go to B with Graeme out. Going into the last end they were peeled. Hold it there.<br />
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Meanwhile, Andrew Woolston had peeled with Laura Beever the previous day and they were both on 3 points - if they both won then whichever had the more ends would go above whichever of Gus and Graeme lost and would qualify for the C Final. Laura finished her game first and Andrew then knew that he needed to win the last end against me to finish above her. He was leading me 6-2 - but I was lying (thus Laura would qualify) but I had a slim chance with my last stone to get the 4 to peel the game and guarantee myself a final even if Graeme beat Gus. As I began to consider my options for my last stone, Graeme threw his last stone on the other sheet and ........it was a measure - so I still had to try for the 4 as I could not really hang around waiting for the measure - I had strung it out enough already!!<br />
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In the end my bid for the 4 and the peel failed to come off but.........Gus won the measure and I was safely in the A Final and Gus was in the B while Graeme was out. Meanwhile in going for the 4 I had actually taken my own shot out giving Andrew the end and pushing him into the C Final above Laura - but only just - they had the same number of points, ends scored and shots scored and it went down to the shots up before Andrew broke the tie!<br />
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The other group was won by Ken Horton, who had a strong English contingent in his team. Hugh Stewart was second and Adrian Meikle was third.<br />
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In the idle moments before the Finals began it struck me that the Welsh <u>International</u> Bonspiel was really living up to its name this year - of the 24 players in the 3 finals, 17of them had at one time played for their country and all 4 Home Nations were represented. The full list:<br />
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John Brown (England Men and Senior Men)<br />
Lana Watson (England Women and Mixed)<br />
Alison Barr (England Senior Women)<br />
Ken Horton (Scotland Junior Men, Men and Senior Men)<br />
Lorna Rettig (England Women, Mixed and Mixed Doubles)<br />
Ben Fowler (England Junior Men and Mixed Doubles)<br />
Liz Horton (Scotland Senior Women)<br />
Hugh Stewart (Scotland Senior Men)<br />
Carolyn Hibberd (Ireland Women and Senior Women)<br />
Jim Stirling (Scotland Senior Men)<br />
Gus Storrie (Scotland Senior Men)<br />
Adrian Meikle (Wales Men and Mixed)<br />
Dawn Watson (Wales Mixed)<br />
Andy Tanner (Wales Men and Mixed)<br />
Andy Woolston (Wales Junior Men and England Men and Mixed)<br />
Lesley Gregory (Wales Women and Mixed)<br />
Martin Gregory (Wales Mixed) <br />
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Into the A Final then against my old team mate from 4x years ago, Ken Horton - usual scenario - lose the toss, lose the first end - but this time it was the third end as we blanked the first two - a situation repeated next door in the C Final between Adrian and Andrew. A quick reply with a 3 at the 4th end and then it was back to 4-4 after 6 - with last stone I was only able to take a 1 at the 7th and things looked to be against us but we were able to steal the 8th for a famous 6-4 victory.<br />
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Hugh Stewart won the B Final against Gus Storrie and Adrian Meikle beat Andrew Woolston in the C Final. <br />
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And then here we are back home again - a weekend of family stuff and then back North for the next two weekends - to Greenacres for the tournament formerly known as the Gormac (where I am subbing for an injured player) and then to Stranraer for the I'Anson before 8 days in Stavanger at the Europeans. Two trophies in two weekends so far - can it continue - keep watching for further updates!!John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-12869353684845491092013-01-21T17:11:00.000+00:002013-01-21T17:12:41.917+00:00Wales' Grand Slam at 4 NationsIn the early years of the 4 Nations Wales always struggled to win trophies, as a grand tally of just 3 out of 24 in 8 years demonstrates. Things turned around in 2008 when they won their first grand slam of all three for which they compete - the Kay Trophy v England, the Welsh Stone v Scotland and the Meikle Trophy v Ireland.Since then they have always collected at least one every year until this year they got their second grand slam with two substantial victories over Scotland (46-18) and England (33-19) and a closer one over Ireland (27-24).<br />
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England won twice - beating Ireland 25-24 and their men defeating Scotland 58-45 while Ireland beat Scotland 24-22 and the Scottish women won their country's only trophy by defeating the English women in the Connie Miller by 25-8.<br />
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Snowfall in the South meant that some of the English team were unable to travel and this affected their women's teams in particular. In addition the Welsh were also short and both teams were helped out by local curlers, reflecting the spirit in which these games are played.<br />
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<b>FINAL RESULTS</b><br />
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<u>Connie Miller Trophy (England v Scotland women)</u><br />
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Debbie Hutcheon 4 Gail Munro 8<br />
Debbie Hutcheon 4 Gail Munro 17<br />
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<u>Tom Ballantyne Trophy (England v Scotland men)</u><br />
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John Brown 10 Alan Russell 8<br />
John Sharp 4 John Paul 7<br />
Kerr Alexander 5 Alan Durno 7<br />
Tommy Campbell 8 David Jones 3<br />
Alastair Fyfe 7 Alan Durno 8<br />
John Brown 9 James Carswell 4<br />
John Sharp 9 David Jones 4<br />
Michael Sutherland 6 Alan Russell 4<br />
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<u>Kay Trophy (England v Wales)</u><br />
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Doug Andrews 7 Andy Tanner 12<br />
Alastair Fyfe 6 Hugh Meikle 6<br />
Michael Sutherland 3 Andy Tanner 8<br />
Debbie Hutcheon 3 Lesley Gregory 7<br />
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<u>Turnbull Trophy (England v Ireland)</u><br />
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John Sharp 7 Bill Gray 5<br />
John Brown 7 David Whyte 7<br />
John Brown 3 Peter Wilson 10<br />
Alison Barr 8 Marie O'Kane 2<br />
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<u>Welsh Stone (Scotland v Wales) </u><br />
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Euan Lawrence 1 Andy Tanner 12<br />
Robin Aitken 7 Adrian Meikle 9<br />
Hazel Swankie 7 Laura Beever 7<br />
Alan Durno 3 James Pougher 18<br />
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<u>Marshall Millennium Trophy (Scotland v Ireland) </u><br />
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Kate Adams 7 Fiona Turnbull 6<br />
Euan Lawrence 5 Bill Gray 8<br />
Euan Lawrence 8 Bill Gray 5<br />
Robin Aitken 2 Neil Fyfe 5<br />
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<u>Meikle Trophy (Wales v Ireland)</u><br />
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Lesley Gregory 6 Neil Fyfe 8<br />
Adrian Meikle 7 Peter Wilson 6<br />
Lesley Gregory 7 Fiona Turnbull 4<br />
Adrian Meikle 7 Jim Winning 6<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-38847933847414147532013-01-15T19:18:00.000+00:002013-10-31T23:43:51.681+00:00Will they ever win one??A perplexing title perhaps but see if you can guess who we are talking about here.<br />
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They entered this competition in 2003 and have played 52 games since then without winning one. They have lost 13 of those games without scoring a shot and have a total shots aggregate of 83 for and 734 against. This year for the first time they scored more than 4 shots in a game in what was probably their best year to date as they scored 19 shots over 8 games and scored in every one of them. There is a job out there for somebody to go and coach this team because they keep coming back for more and if they are that keen we need to help them improve.<br />
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Their male equivalent entered the competition in 2003 and won their first game - but have not won any since - that is 58 successive losses but they have come much closer to that elusive win having lost one of those games at an extra end and a few others by just one shot.<br />
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You have to admire the way in which these teams keep returning to participate in the World B (2002-2004) / Pacific Asia Junior Championships (2005 onwards) - we are of course talking about Team Australia - we salute you for your perseverance and just wish we could get down under to help you out and find you decent curling ice to play on.<br />
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Is there a volunteer out there who fancies a winter in Australia? I am sure the Australian Curling Association would love to hear from you.<br />
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Oh and the identity of the team which the Australian boys beat in that first game - that would be Team Wales!! <br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-56973716775375288412013-01-08T09:55:00.001+00:002013-01-08T09:55:45.354+00:00Tidying up the loose ends in PragueSo here we are at the last day of the EJCC and after yesterday's confusing and exciting day what did we end up with??<br />
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<b>GIRLS</b> - Fairly straightforward here eventually: Germany beat Estonia, Hungary beat Latvia and Denmark beat Poland in the last round robin games which means that the semi-finals will be Germany v Hungary and Italy v Denmark.<br />
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<b>BOYS</b> - Estonia beat Austria 5-4 in the last round robin game which meant that they finiahed tied on 4-1 with each other and with Netherlands - Netherlands finished top with the best DSC and Estonia and Austria had to meet again in a tie breaker which went to an extra end before Estonia repeated their victory, this time by 6-5.<br />
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In the other section Italy beat Turkey 5-3 which meant they tied for second behind unbeaten Denmark and meant that they also had to replay their game this morning to decide who was second - Italy had beaten Turkey and had the better DSC but had to do it all again and this they did by 7-2 in just 6 ends.<br />
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So the semi-finals will be Netherlands v Italy and Denmark v Estonia.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-92124264303751497472013-01-07T17:09:00.001+00:002013-01-07T19:22:46.025+00:00Happy New Year from Prague (continued)In the last blog I began talking about the girls competition - and just to remind you and to continue the story - here is what I said before:<br />
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<b>GIRLS</b> - There are 12 teams entered in the EJCC, a rise of 3
since last year and only the second time that the numbers have been
above 10 since 2005 and 2 sections have been required. The teams playing
are from Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Italy won last year with
an undefeated 9-0 record but came straight back down in Ostersund last
year. Only one team was relegated as Russia, as hosts, are already in
the WJCC, having finished 3rd last year.<br />
<br />
Germany and
Poland have been ever present in the EJCC since 2005 although Germany
has qualified twice from it but been relegated straight back down again.
Of the teams that have previously qualified from the EJCC only Italy
and Germany are here this week and, as with the boys, they are both in
the same section.<br />
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There is one game left in the girls draw - at 1830 UK time tonight. In Section WA Italy suffered their first defeat at the hands of unbeaten Germany and are finished their round robin games on a 4-1 record. Germany are undefeated on 4-0 and tonight face Estonia who are on 3-1 and so must win to stay in the competition. It would appear to be a Germany, Italy one-two in this section but should Estonia pull off the shock win then it would go down to the DSC results to decide ranking.<br />
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Italy have finished with a DSC of 39.5 which is currently better than either Germany (83.1)or Estonia (50.1), though both could still improve. The Germans will not be able to better either of the other 2 even if they draw the button and so would inevitably be in the tie break for second position if they lose - so it looks like a must win for Germany to save themselves the worry of a tie-breaker.<br />
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In Section WB, England had a great chance to seal top slot this morning when skip, Hetty Garnier played another superb draw to the edge of the button which gave her an average that neither Denmark or Hungary, who were tied with England could beat. However a poor performance by the English girls saw them lose to Turkey who joined them on 3-2.<br />
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Tonight Denmark and Hungary who are both on 3-1 play Poland and Latvia respectively and if they both win then they will be 1st and 2nd respectively. Even if Hungary lose they will be ranked second because they beat both Turkey and England, and so a defeat for Denmark is what England and Turkey must hope for. And having written that I am now not sure if that would be the case or would Hungary have to play whichever of the other two has the better DSC (and that would be England). We shall know at 9.30 tonight when all the games are finished.<br />
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My predictions are for Denmark and Hungary to both win and finish 1st and 2nd, and the semi-finals to be Germany v Hungary and Italy v Denmark.<br />
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<b>BOYS UPDATE</b><br />
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Meanwhile back with the boys and the games that are ongoing at the moment - the Austria-Estonia game on which much depends - see last post - is finely balanced at 3-2 to Austria after 5 ends while in the other crucial game in the other section Italy lead Turkey 4-3 after 6 ends. If Italy win they would be tied for second place with Turkey after the round robin but would be ranked second as they will have won their round-robin game. I am unclear however if this means that there will be a tie-breaker or not.<br />
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More later. John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-31058905042899447692013-01-07T10:35:00.000+00:002013-01-07T10:35:21.014+00:00Happy New Year from PragueAll the very best to all my readers for 2013 - having finished 2012 in Sweden I am now in Prague for the European Junior Challenge (EJCC), the top nation from which will join the rest of the World in Sochi in March for the World Juniors.Those who are interested in the detailed fortunes of the England teams can check that on my English Curling blog <a href="http://englishcurling.blogspot.cz/">here,</a> but I will try to be less parochial on this blog.<br />
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<b>BOYS</b> - There are 13 boys teams entered this year from Austria, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey and they are divided into 2 groups - 1 of 6 and 1 of 7. After a round robin, there will be semi finals and a final with only the winners qualifying for the World Juniors. Italy won this challenge last year and are here again having come straight back down after finishing 9th with one win in the Worlds at Ostersund last year. Finland who finished 10th in the Worlds have not entered the EJCC this year. Although 2 teams were relegated only one will get promoted as Russia, as the host nation, have a guaranteed entry in Sochi and so are automatically 'promoted' from the EJCC level where they played last year.<br />
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Turkey are the newcomers this year, while Slovenia return for a second time and England for a third time. The EJCC has been a home from home for France and Poland since it started in 2005 with neither country having made it to the Worlds. One of the most consistent performers since 2006 has been Estonia who have on at least two occasions been just one win away from getting to the Worlds and their skip Harri Lill returns for his 7th (and last) appearance. In contrast the lead in his team has been playing for just 2 months!!<br />
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Of the teams that are here, Denmark (1), Germany (1) and Italy (2) are those who have qualified previously from the EJCC (which replaced the World Junior B Championship in 2005) and intriguingly all are in the same section and all are in contention as the round robin draws to a close. Denmark are undefeated and will qualify at the top and as I write this they have just beaten Germany leaving the Germans on 3 wins and 3 losses and out of the competition as Turkey and Italy, who are both on 3 wins have to play each other later today.<br />
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In the other section it is Austria who are leading the way, undefeated after 4 games and sure of at least a tie breaker. Estonia and the Netherlands are the other two teams in contention. Things may change before this paragraph is finished however as the Dutch are currently peels with England and if they lose that game Austria will be guaranteed a semi-final place and the Dutch will have to depend on Austria beating Estonia to get into a tie breaker with Estonia. Phew - lots of nervous energy here with players and coaches alike going through the full gamut of emotions. And the Dutch have just won and now they on 4 wins and finished their programme. So if Estonia beat Austria then there will be 3 teams on 4 wins and a tie breaker will be required.<br />
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This is a competition where there will only be one round of tie breakers and so a team could go out of the competition without losing a tie breaker. This first happened at the World Seniors in Denmark in April when Japan were the losers. Here it would happen if 3 teams tied for second place in a section and could not be separated on their round robin results between them - i.e if A beat B beat C beat A - as only one tie breaker will be played between the top 2 ranked teams, based on Draw Shot Challenge.<br />
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<b>GIRLS</b> - There are 12 teams entered in the EJCC, a rise of 3 since last year and only the second time that the numbers have been above 10 since 2005 and 2 sections have been required. The teams playing are from Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Italy won last year with an undefeated 9-0 record but came straight back down in Ostersund last year. Only one team was relegated as Russia, as hosts, are already in the WJCC, having finished 3rd last year.<br />
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Germany and Poland have been ever present in the EJCC since 2005 although Germany has qualified twice from it but been relegated straight back down again. Of the teams that have previously qualified from the EJCC only Italy and Germany are here this week and, as with the boys, they are both in the same section.<br />
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TO BE CONTINUEDJohn Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-84657181970764181742012-12-14T15:12:00.000+00:002012-12-14T15:12:09.415+00:00And now the end.......of many things.The B Division medal games finally panned out as Finland v Latvia for gold and silver and England v Netherlands for bronze in the men's and Norway v Latvia for gold and silver and Austria v Estonia for bronze in the women's.<br />
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The results were:<br />
<br />
Finland 7 Latvia 4<br />
Netherlands 10 England 5 <br />
<br />
Latvia 7 Norway 4<br />
Austria 8 Estonia 5<br />
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Finland will now challenge France for the last place in the World Men's Championship while there will be no challenge to Germany for last place in the World Women's Championship as Latvia are the hosts and therefore automatically qualify and there is nothing in the rules which allows the runners-up in that situation to challenge for the last World position.<br />
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So of the 4 teams that came down from the A Division last year only the Italian men have failed to go straight back up again - replaced by Finland. Looking in the reverse direction, only the Russian men have stayed up in the A Division after promotion last year. Their place in the B Division will surprisingly be taken by Germany who for the first time in the men's European Championships will not be in the top flight next year.<br />
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At the European Curling Federation's AGM the process to begin winding up the ECF began.<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The ECF
will not operate in 2013 though it will still exist in legal terms, but there will be no subscriptions collected. The WCF will take over the running of the European Championships and the European Mixed Championships which means that there will be no entry fees. The next ECF meeting will be at the 2013 Europeans in Stavanger, Norway and the final meeting will be at the 2014 Europeans in Champery, Switzerland. It was decided that basically it was not sensible to fully dissolve the ECF before the final WCF constitutional changes are known.</span></div>
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There were elections, however, to form a new Board to take the ECF through these final two years. Olle Riisanen of Finland was re-elected as President with Karel Kubeska of Czech Republic as Vice President. The elected regional reps are<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">: Gerrit-Jan Scholten (NED), Bjorn Rudstrom (SWE), Hew Chalmers (SCO) and Marjan Petric (SLO) with the members at large being Edith Loudon (SCO), Andras Rokusfalvy (HUN) and Robert Susanj (SLO). </span></div>
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John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-11163279152679955922012-12-13T15:41:00.000+00:002012-12-13T15:41:32.433+00:00Play off time at KarlstadAfter England's defeat of Italy in last night's tie-breaker they were back on the ice for the first of the play-off games today against Netherlands in the meeting of the second place teams in the different groups. The winner would have a rest until the bronze medal game on Friday while the winner would have a chance of getting to the Final and to the A Division against the loser of the game between the two group leaders, Finland and Latvia.<br />
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The equivalent women's games were Latvia v Austria (3 v 4) and Norway v Estonia (1 v 2).<br />
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<b>Men:</b> The England v Netherlands game was close after 5 ends with the Dutch on top by 3-2 though they then scored a 3 and a stolen single to stretch their lead to 7-2. England hit back with a 2 at the 8th end, but the Dutch then hit their way home to win by 7-4. The Dutch will now face Finland who lost a close game to Latvia 5-6. Latvia return to the A Division and will face Finland or Netherland in the B Division final<br />
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<b>Women:</b> Norway and Estonia were tied at 3-3 after 5 ends but Norway then broke the deadlock with a 5 and eventually ran out winners at 10-5. Austria took an early 3-0 lead against Latvia who then scored 6 over three ends without reply and further stretched their lead to 9-4 after 9 ends, when Austria conceded. So Norway are back in the A Division next year and will face either Estonia or Latvia in the final of the B Division. John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-43073484047675557512012-12-12T14:16:00.003+00:002012-12-12T17:55:40.793+00:00Karlstad B Division SummaryNow that the final games have been played in the B Division group, it is time to reflect and summarise who goes up and who goes down.<br />
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The first group to be decided was the <b>Blue Group for the men</b> where the teams that were to qualify for the play-offs had been decided before the last round of games - Netherlands and Latvia then finished with wins over Poland and Lithuania respectively and because Latvia had beaten the Netherlands in their match earlier in the week they finished top of the group with 6 wins and 1 loss, the same record as the Netherlands. Third in the group were Croatia on 4 wins, then Belgium (4 wins), Poland (3 wins), Austria (2 wins), Lithuania (2 wins) and finally Ireland (1 win).The Irish win ironically came over Group winners Latvia but the final ranking relegates them to the C Division next year.<br />
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They were followed by the <b>women</b> where Norway were already clear group winners on 8 points. Estonia had also qualified on 6 points before the last session and faced Turkey who had to win to get themselves into a tie break situation. Austria and Latvia were both on 5 wins at this stage and were playing against each other, the winner would qualify and the loser could face a tie breaker if Turkey won.<br />
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At the bottom there were a number of possibilities, depending on Belarus' fate against Poland combined with England's result against Norway. Basically if Belarus lost then they would be relegated to division C along with the loser of the Spain v Slovakia game. If Belarus beat Poland and England lost to Norway then there would be 4 teams tied on 3 wins from which one would need to be found for the second relegation place. The 4 teams would be England, Belarus, Poland and the winner of Spain v Slovakia.If England beat Norway then it would be the other 3 teams going for one place.<br />
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For England this was an improvement on the position going into the last end of the previous (penultimate) session when they were losing to Turkey and Belarus were up on Latvia. If that had stayed as the situation then England were doomed along with the loser of the Spain v Slovakia game today. Fortunately for England the Turkish skip hogged both her draws at the last end and Latvia also scored 2 to beat Belarus, thus setting up the situation described above.<br />
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The first issue to be decided today was Slovakia's relegation to the C Division when they lost to Spain by 8-3. England then lost to Norway by 4-9 and they and Spain had to sit and sweat for 2 ends while Belarus came back against Poland. In the end Poland held on to win 7-4, Belarus were relegated to the C group and, as so often happens in these situations, when it all settled down there were no tie breakers needed after all.<br />
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At the top Estonia beat Turkey 12-5 to finish second and will play Norway in the Page 1v2 play-off while Austria and Latvia will repeat their game from today, (when Latvia won at an extra end) in the 3 v 4 play-off.<br />
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In the <b>Red Group for the men</b>, Finland finished on top with just the one defeat by England who finished tied for second with Italy and will play a tie break. At the bottom of the Group, the unfortunate Welsh team will join Ireland in the C Group. With the relegation of the Welsh and Irish women last year, it means that just the English teams are still in the B Group.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-4394349100585217302012-12-11T16:19:00.000+00:002012-12-11T16:19:58.561+00:00Karlstad Update 3Further to the last post, the 7th round of women's games in the B Division at the European Championships saw Norway guaranteed a play-off place with their 7th consecutive win, 7-6 against Estonia - a game which looked to be heading Estonia's way until the last few stones. Austria increased their chances of progress by beating Spain 7-4, while the Turkish team overcame a running down time clock to defeat Poland 11-10 with the last stone of the game.<br />
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Belarus doubled their win tally with a 7-5 defeat of England while the last game came to a bizarre end. The score is recorded on the website as 8-7 to Latvia but it was in fact awarded to Latvia when Slovakia ran out of time in the extra end. The software package being used has no facility to record a game as a W or L when this happens.<br />
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It would appear that no one had noticed that the Slovakian time clock had run down as Latvia continued to play their last stone before the umpire intervened. Ironically Slovakia were lying shot and it appears to be incredible that nobody in the team had noticed that time was running out - at 9 minutes for an extra end this is surely enough time to play your 8 stones.<br />
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The current standings and games remaining are:<br />
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Norway 7 (ENG, ESP)<br />
Austria 5 (LAT, EST)<br />
Estonia 5 (AUT, TUR)<br />
Turkey 4 (EST, ENG)<br />
Latvia 4 (AUT, BLR)<br />
Poland 3 (SVK, BLR)<br />
England 2 (NOR, TUR)<br />
Spain 2 (NOR, SVK)<br />
Belarus 2 (LAT, POL)<br />
Slovakia 1 (POL, ESP) <br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-71134109146737794312012-12-11T12:19:00.001+00:002012-12-11T12:26:57.438+00:00Karlstad Update 2As the group games progress here in the B arena in Karlstad the various possible outcomes are becoming clear.<br />
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In the women's competition, Norway remain undefeated after 6 games and one more win from their last three games will see them in the play-offs. Their nearest challengers are Estonia who have recovered from their surprise first session defeat by England to put together a run of 5 victories, while Austria have also bounced back and lie third on 4 wins.<br />
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At the other end of the table Belarus and Slovakia have just one win each with England and Spain on 2 wins. Which leaves the middle ground where Poland, Turkey and Latvia have three wins each.The top 4 teams qualify for the play-offs while the bottom two are relegated to the C Division.<br />
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The men's teams are in two groups. In the red group it looks like the two qualifiers will come from Italy, England and Finland who are all on 4 wins and 1 loss. They have all played each other and since Italy have beaten England who beat Finland who beat Italy, if they all win their last two games then the rankings based on the Draw Shot Challenge will decide who finishes top and who will then play -off for the second qualifying place. Italy's remaining games are against Turkey (2 wins and 3 losses) and Slovakia (1 win and 4 losses) while both Finland and England have to play Spain (2 wins and 3 losses) and Wales (1 win and 4 losses). The other team in the section, Estonia, are also on 2 wins and 3 losses.<br />
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At his 18th Europeans, Adrian Meikle is finding the going tough this year and Wales are staring relegation in the face with difficult games to come against Finland and then England.<br />
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In the blue group, the other home country, Ireland, is propping up the table with the new team, skipped by Alan Mitchell and with John Furey playing last stones, being unable to capitalise on their first session victory over Latvia. They have just one game to play against Belgium which is a must win, as the teams immediately above them, Lithuania and Austria, both have at least one more victory.<br />
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Latvia and Netherlands have 4 victories and 1 loss at the top of the table with Belgium their nearest challenger on 3 wins and 2 losses. While Poland and Croatia also have 3 wins, they have both lost 3 games and have only game left.<br />
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On the ice at the moment are the women and a further update will follow this afternoon.<br />
<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-14504171856969717702012-12-09T15:39:00.003+00:002012-12-09T15:39:50.454+00:00Update from Karlstad - 1Hello from Karlstad where I am attending the European Championships and apologies that we are day 2 without an update but slight hiccup with the date on my laptop meant it would not let me access this blog as according to the date it had not yet been created!<br />
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The Karlstad Curling Club where the B Division games are being played has 8 sheets in two separate halls of 4 divided by a wall with round windows at eye level.While there is a common bar area, it is not possible to see the scoreboards in the other hall from the one in which one is sitting. This means a lot of walking back and forth to see the scores across the full 6 sheets that are being used (3 in each hall). It is a super brand new facility with great viewing from upstairs which is especially good for the coaches who do not need to sit outside in the rink freezing their whatnots.<br />
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With 4 sessions a day the umpires and icemen are very busy and also for those who are supporting a team in both genders, the days are long with first sessions at 0800 and last ones beginning at 2000.<br />
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The restriction to a regular 16 men's teams and 10 women's teams has produced a standardised draw for the B Division compared to previous years when the draw depended on the number of entries, but the unfortunate thing for the men is that their sessions are always at 0800 and 1600 while the women are on at 1200 and 2000. So England men for example have just had two consecutive 0800 starts with one more to come tomorrow - Tuesday will bring a welcome relief with a 1600 start.<br />
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So what of the games. The 10 women's teams include Latvia and Norway who came down from the A Division and Belarus and Turkey who came up from the C Division. The first shock was Turkey's win over Latvia at an extra end in the first session, and this was followed by another defeat for Latvia from neighbours Estonia before they settled themselves with a win over England. Norway had fairly straightforward wins over Slovakia and Belarus before a comprehensive 7-1 win over Poland. Poland themselves had started off in great style with a 14-3 demolition of Austria, which included a 6 at the 4th end.<br />
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After 3 sessions Norway are the only undefeated team while at the other end Slovakia have failed to win a game. England won a tense game 6-4 against Estonia with singles being scored at each of the ten ends, and then lost 4-11 to both Austria and Latvia.<br />
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No other home nation is involved in the women's B Division, with Wales and Ireland not entering at all this year and Scotland, of course, in the A Division, but in the men, England and Wales are in the Red Group and Ireland in the B Group. England began by losing 5-7 to a new young Italian team while Wales defeated Spain by 10-9 after a game of high scoring ends.Ireland were surprise winners by 6-5 over newly relegated Latvia and were 3-0 up against Croatia in their second game before losing by 7-3.<br />
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Wales have since lost 2 further games to Slovakia (2-9) and Italy (7-8) while England defeated a very promising Turkey team by 7-4. As I write England are back on the ice against Estonia while Ireland are playing Austria. Then at 2000 England's women are on against Spain.<br />
<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-22137617117478549472012-11-20T17:49:00.002+00:002012-11-21T19:05:09.202+00:00Wales win the I'Anson for the first time<br />
The First English Province's I'Anson Trophy had never been won by a team from Wales and so the victory by Adrian Meikle and his team of James Pougher, Andrew Tanner and Chris Wells was a milestone for the Trophy, of which the first winners were Carlisle in 1897. A peel of 5-5 in their last game against the holder John Sharp was enough to leave them top of the standings after 4 games, while in a typical Schenkel moment, John and his team dropped to 4th overall.<br />
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John had started his campaign with a 5-5 result as well, against John Brown, who also peeled his second game by the same score!!<br />
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A full house of 16 teams included 2 teams warming up for their European Championship campaign, the winners and Fiona Hawker's English ladies, whose team member Angharad Ward was sporting the scars on her knees from a close encounter with a netball court at school. As luck would have it the two teams were drawn together in the first round and the eventual winners showed the ladies no favours and won all but the last end. Later results for the ladies got them back into the top half of the field.<br />
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The Welsh team had been a late replacement for a team which withdrew, and the second place team at the end of the weekend was an even later replacement skipped by Robert Anderson of Galston Haymouth who had been recruited at the European Invitation Seniors at Greenacres just the week before. His team of Anne Anderson, Murray Stevenson and Gail Thomson had been supplemented on the Saturday by Lyndsay Cumming when Robert had been unavailable and ended the weekend with 3 wins.<br />
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Also on 3 wins and in third place was the team skipped by James Carswell with Richard Stevenson, Stew Sutherland and John McDermott who had first got involved with English curling as members of the rebel Scottish team which went to the 4 Nations in Kent in 2011. <br />
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Entry forms for the 2013 event were waiting on the bar tables as teams came off the ice after the last game and I am sure that next year this great weekend of curling and quizzes will be fully subscribed again.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-16108471606782274422012-11-15T11:29:00.000+00:002012-11-15T11:31:17.421+00:00Shedden and Sloan win Braehead Mixed DoublesThe Braehead Mixed Doubles concluded last night with an exciting final which went all the way to the last stone. Graham Shedden and Claire Sloan triumphed in the end over Lindsay Gray and Lauren Gray by 5 shots to 3.<br />
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Lindsay was substituting for brother Logan who had topped section C with 3 wins out of 4 and he made his presence felt in the semi-final almost immediately when he and Lauren took a full house of 6 off the holders, Hannah Fleming and Billy Morton, at the second end! However, Hannah and Billy responded well and with a pair of 3s they took the game to the end only to lose by 7-9, which is not a bad total of stones for a 6 end game!!<br />
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In the other semi-final Graham and Claire defeated Scottish Champions Judith McFarlane and Lee McCleary by 8-3, and a bad day continued for the latter when they then lost the 3rd / 4th place play-off to Hannah and Billy by 9-1.<br />
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While the High Road, as described above, consisted of the three section winners and the highest up second place team from the three sections, the Low Road consisted of the bottom team in each section and was played as a semi-final between the worst performing two teams with the best team waiting for the winners in a final. John Brown and Dawn Watson defeated John Laverty and Linda Moffat 10-2 in the semi-final and then lost 5-4 to the Dutch pairing of Shari Leibbrandt and Carlo Glasbergen in the final, the Netherlanders extending their stay after the Edinburgh International for a bit of extra competition.<br />
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And what of the other 8 teams in the middle of the sections? Well their results from the Round Robin were carried forward and they were ranked into one big Schenkel table in which they played two further games. At the end of all that Gary Macfarlane and Sarah Reid emerged on top with Cathryn Guthrie and Alan Guthrie second.<br />
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Thanks at the prizegiving were given to all involved in organising the competition and to Leslie Ingram-Brown who has sponsored the event for the last three years and announced that he would continue to do so for another three years for which many thanks are given to Leslie.<br />
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And now for me it is on to Stranraer for the I'Anson Trophy, organised by the Preston Curling Club.John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1728077294415394015.post-23963655475287448092012-11-14T14:55:00.000+00:002012-11-15T11:33:07.220+00:00Braehead just for a changeI nearly missed the turn-off to Braehead last night as I have been heading on to Greenacres so often in the last month, but I remembered just in time and in the pouring rain turned into the Braehead car park last night ready for some Mixed Doubles.<br />
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This is the second year I have participated in this event, paired with Dawn Watson from Carmunnock and Rutherglen, and I was looking forward to some close games with delicate draws and tap backs being the name of the game (though do not tell that to John Sharp and Gary MacFarlane who managed to blank an end in their game last night)!!<br />
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The quality of the entry was high with Scottish Champions, Lee McCleary and Judith McFarlane, holders Hannah Fleming and Billy Morton and a number of other teams practising this rarely played discipline before the Scottish Championships. The only overseas representation came from Holland after the late withdrawal of the Estonian entry.<br />
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The 15 teams were drawn into 3 sections of 5 to play a round robin. One unlucky team in each section played all 4 of their 5-end games last night while the other 4 teams will play their final game tonight (Wednesday) before the teams are divided into High, Middle and Low Roads - I shall explain how that is done once I have seen it in action and will post details of winners etc tomorrow. But if you are not doing anything this evening and you fancy seeing something unusual why not pop down to Braehead for a couple of hours - play starts at 6 pm.<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0