tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34967724510520461432024-03-13T03:08:51.787+00:00Toothy TalesBob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-61979493380738086742012-03-07T23:32:00.000+00:002012-03-07T23:32:05.148+00:00And it is on to New HorizonsWith a bit of trepidation I have started a new independent blog to this one so I hope to relieve Bob of having to upload all my postings - I have just launched it tonight - follow me at <a href="http://toothyscurlingtales.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://toothyscurlingtales.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.com/</a> where hopefully I will continue to post items of curling information that will be of interest. And over the ensuing weeks maybe I will be able to play about with the design as well!! Look out for news from the ECA Mixed Championship this coming weekend at Fenton's<br />
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<br />John Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08438862501056289859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-46131274325392816992012-02-12T22:42:00.004+00:002012-02-13T11:28:33.427+00:00And this week the snow stayed away<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FCSqsQDrdf4/Tzjy_j45TiI/AAAAAAAAbGo/wRSN0he8pSg/s1600/English-women%2527s-champions.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 325px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FCSqsQDrdf4/Tzjy_j45TiI/AAAAAAAAbGo/wRSN0he8pSg/s400/English-women%2527s-champions.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708579701471661602" border="0" /></a>The weekend after the English Men’s Championships escaped from being snowbound by an early finish, the English Women’s Championship went all the way through from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon as two teams battled for their trip to Sweden. A light flurry of snow on Sunday morning as the teams arrived at the rink came to nothing and battle continued.<br /><br />Mind you when we all left the rink on Friday evening it was -9 degrees and that was probably why the teams were wrapped up in multiple layers the following day having experienced the bitter cold on the ice the previous evening.<br /><br />So who was playing? Well originally it had been going to be Anna Fowler’s Junior team against Fiona Hawker who had recruited a team older than herself this year since two of her team from last year had defected to the juniors. However, a mix up over dates saw two of Anna’s team drop out and she recruited her mother, Jules, to join Angharad Ward and Lauren Pearce in her team. Fiona had her lead from last year, Debbie Hutcheon, together with Susan Young and Alison Hemmings.<br /><br />The first game was nip and tuck all the way and it was 3-3 after five ends (remember those numbers) but Fiona had last stone at the tenth and she used it to win 6-5. Game 2 on Saturday afternoon saw Fiona jump into a 3-1 lead before Anna pegged it back to 3-3 after five (again). It was still close at 5-4 to Anna after eight but a three for her at the ninth saw handshakes from Fiona and her team. So one game all.<br /><br />Saturday evening and once again Fiona got the early jump to 3-0, but once again when it came to the fifth end break the score was….3-3! It was then 5-5 after eight and this time Fiona was unable to make last stone at the tenth count and a steal for Anna saw her win 7-5 and take a 2-1 lead overall.<br /><br />Sunday morning and an early start for us all at 0900. This time it was Anna who got the early lead with a four at the third end and after five ends, for a change, it was 5-3 for her. But after six we were all square at 5-5 and then Fiona stole a big three to make it 8-5 after seven. However Anna was not done and got a two back at the eighth, which Fiona copied at the ninth to go into the last end 10-7 up without the hammer. A brave attempt by Anna to remove three of Fiona’s tightly packed stones to force the extra end just failed to come off and the one she scored was scant consolation for an 8-10 defeat.<br /><br />And so it all came down to the fifth and deciding game and after four tense struggles it was a shame that Anna and her team ran out of steam in this one as Fiona raced into an 8-1 lead after five, a further single at the sixth leading to handshakes all round and a very relieved Fiona, Alison, Susan and Debbie celebrating their success and looking forward to Sweden in December.<br /><br />It was Fiona’s fourth Championship victory, her first having been back in 2000 when she played with Joan Reed, while she also won it in 2002 (with Sarah Johnston) and then again last year as skip in her own right. In 2002 she was successful in getting a large sponsorship deal from Twinings Tea which helped them gain promotion to the European A Group at the Europeans in Grindelwald and then in 2003, when the same team had been unchallenged in the English Championships, she was thrown into skipping in that A Group when Sarah had to stay at home when she fell ill. A baptism of fire indeed. Again in 2004 she represented England in Sofia when there were no other English challengers.<br /><br />For Anna and Angharad, having done so well in Moscow in December, it was a bitter disappointment for them to lose, and while Angharad still has Juniors to look forward to next season, and has memories of Innsbruck to keep her spirits up, Anna is now too old for Juniors. It will be a long year before she gets another chance to win the Championships, but she has time on her side and I am sure she will become one of England’s great champions in the future.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Top L-R: Fiona Hawker, Susan Young, Alison Hemmings, Debbie Hutcheon. Photo © John Brown.</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-44530166242349831102012-02-06T20:39:00.003+00:002012-02-13T21:20:15.843+00:00Snow almost stops play<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O_wEBRmAeTs/Tzl91-64NpI/AAAAAAAAbHY/BC0Hj0B_55U/s1600/English-men%2527s-champions-2012.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O_wEBRmAeTs/Tzl91-64NpI/AAAAAAAAbHY/BC0Hj0B_55U/s400/English-men%2527s-champions-2012.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708732369045304978" border="0" /></a>Of course we all know that the South of England has a great climate and it never snows very often, but when it does, it stops everything. Well, it nearly stopped the English Championships in its tracks this weekend and, but for a fortunate bit of programming, I think we would still be waiting to hear who had won this year’s English Men’s Championship.<br /><br />The curling rink at Fenton’s sits on the border of Kent and East Sussex and, like many boundaries, this runs along a rivercourse. And of course rivercourses all lie at the bottom of valleys, which is where the problems occur because to get out of valleys you generally have to climb hills, which is why during Saturday evening’s session at the Championship worried spectators were periodically peering out of windows to see if the snow that was forecast had arrived.<br /><br />Indeed it had started to fall as it was time to leave and the convoy of cars that wound up the lane to the A21 left distinct tracks on the flurry of snow that presaged the storm to come. By the early morning three to four inches had fallen and there was a curling session due at 0900 to settle the Championships, with a possible tie break at 1400.<br /><br />Except there wasn’t, because the Championship had been won the previous evening just as the snow began to fall and, instead of a ski ride down the lane to the rink, a relieved group of curlers could begin to contemplate driving home.<br /><br />And the piece of good fortune was that the draw for the seven team competition, which gave each team a bye in one of the sessions, had given the bye on the Sunday morning to the team which won all of its 6 games and so could not be caught. So it was a case of game over, shut up shop and let’s hope it clears up for Tuesday evening’s league games.<br /><br />So who were the winners? Well the teams entered were the reigning champions, skipped by Alan MacDougall; the previous championship winning rinks of Jamie Malton and James Dixon / Bruce Bowyer; the English junior men’s team of Ben Fowler (with some overage help from brother Sam); John Brown’s team of Canadian English (see Bob’s Haggis report) skipped by Greg Dunn; Ken Maxwell’s team skipped by another Canadian, Bryan Zachary and a final multi-national team skipped by another Canadian, Doug Andrews, with Duncan Spence (ex-Lockerbie) throwing last stones (most of the time)! Probably the most cosmopolitan English Championships of all time.<br /><br />For the first time at the National Championships the procedure followed the WCF rulebook with a pre-game practice and Last Stone Draw to decide the hammer and then at the end of the competition the use of the average LSD to decide ranking if unobtainable by the results in the round robin between the equal teams. Only one tie breaker was programmed and so any decision on who should be in a final tiebreaker could depend on the LSD results.<br /><br />Thursday night and it was wins for Alan MacDougall (v Greg Dunn by 10-6), Doug Andrews (v Ben Fowler by 8-4) and for Jamie Malton (v Ken Maxwell by 10-7). Nothing unusual there but in the next session at 0930 on Friday morning it seemed as though Doug Andrews had caught Jamie Malton napping as it took an extra end to decide the game 11-10 in Malton’s favour. MacDougall beat Maxwell 8-3 and Dunn beat Dixon by 8-5.<br /><br />Just an hour or so after the end of the session, for those playing slowly and long, it was back on and Sheet 1 threw up another extra end finish. After just three ends, James Dixon was 5-0 up on Alan MacDougall and a shock looked likely, but a thrilling comeback eventually saw MacDougall win 8-7 in the extra while Greg Dunn shocked Jamie Malton by winning 8-5 and an outrageous fluke helped Ben Fowler defeat Ken Maxwell 8-3.<br /><br />An early finish on Friday but it was a full day on Saturday with, for some teams, three games to played between 0900 and 2200. The first session saw the game considered by many to be the most crucial one of the weekend, that between MacDougall and Malton, and the latter needed to win after losing to Dunn on the Friday. Jamie’s wife was expected to deliver their first child over the weekend and so he had to dash off to the hospital that morning leaving Michael Opel to skip the team. And what a game it was, finally decide by a great draw to catch the edge of the four foot by Alan for a 6-5 win.<br /><br />So with four wins out of four it looked like the reigning champions would retain their title and only Greg Dunn could realistically hope to catch them if they slipped. He had recorded a 14-5 win over Ben Fowler while James Dixon won his first game by 8-6 over Doug Andrews.<br /><br />Greg Dunn had the bye in the middle of Saturday and while he and his team were off enjoying a long lunch, a session which featured probably the least excitement of the day saw MacDougall beat Fowler 8-1, Maxwell win his first game by 14-5 over Andrews (though Ken Maxwell did not play in this game) and Malton got back on track with an 8-5 win over Dixon.<br /><br />And so to the last session on Saturday, and with snow threatening to cut them off from their accommodation, James Dixon and his team forfeited their game against Ben Fowler as neither could win the title, leaving just Alan MacDougall and Greg Dunn to record further wins, and, by dint of winning six out of six, that was enough for Alan MacDougall, Andrew Reed, Andrew Woolston and Tom Jaegii to win their third consecutive championship (and they have a win - loss record of 18-1 over those three years).<br /><br />A quick drink and presentations and it was off into the wintry scenes and the convoy to safety………..<br /><br />And what about the women’s Championship? It is next weekend and features just two teams – skipped by Fiona Hawker and Anna Fowler. There will be one game on Friday with two on Saturday and two if needed on Sunday. Look out for a follow up report next week.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Top L-R: Alan MacDougall, Andrew Reed, Andrew Woolston and Tom Jaegii. Photo courtesy of Kerr Alexander.</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-79810499853853380642012-01-23T09:13:00.005+00:002012-01-23T10:09:56.451+00:00Four Nations ReportAn action packed Four Nations weekend kept everyone on tenterhooks right up to the last stone of the last end of the last of the thirty games as England’s ladies tried to squeeze one shot out of Ireland to win back the Turnbull Trophy. In a situation typical of the to-ing and fro-ing of the weekend the Irish had fought back from a twelve shot deficit after two games (5-7, 3-13) and, while their men had increased the deficit by losing by three shots following a spectacular triple raise double take-out from England, their ladies were holding a 15-0 lead to tie the match with their match-winning stone well guarded. With no repeat of the final stone on the next sheet forthcoming, an amazing turnaround was complete and Ireland won by 29-28, their third win in five years by the same one shot margin!<br /><br />Ireland won just one more trophy when they beat Wales, also by one shot (25-24) in a match where, by comparison, all the games were close and two of the games ended up peels, both achieved by the same Irish skip.<br /><br />It was seven years since Scotland last beat Ireland but they came out fighting this year and after two games (men and women) it was 19-8 in their favour. Unlike England, Scotland managed to hold on to their lead and actually extend it by two shots to win by 30-17.<br /><br />It is only in the last few years that Wales have managed to consistently beat Scotland and they were the holders of the Big Bertha Curling Stone Trophy. The first session of games showed that they meant to retain the trophy as the scores were 12-1 (women) and 12-3 (men) for the Welsh and an amazing twenty shot deficit faced the Scots as their mixed teams took to the ice. While one team clawed back a couple of shots with a 12-10 win, the other could not find the 19 shots required and in fact lost by one to make the final score 43-24 for the Welsh.<br /><br />The Welsh also held the Kay Trophy having beaten England on home soil in Kent last year and with three of their teams winning by close margins it looked like they might retain it but having performed heroics against Scotland, the Welsh ladies suffered against England, losing 1-14 and enabling England to regain the Kay Trophy, their only win of the weekend.<br /><br />Scotland against England is the bedrock on which the Four Nations weekend is founded and the matches between the two retain the old format with men and women playing separately for two trophies and, as Andy Tanner, the Welsh President, pointed out at the dinner on Saturday evening, it has a long history with the Tom Ballantyne Trophy (for men) having been first presented in 1933, though of course matches between the two countries date back to the nineteenth century. The trophy, which the Scots won last year, was absent this weekend but the competition was as strong as normal. Eight games were played and after four it was 30-27 to the visitors. With one score still to come in it was still England leading by five shots but that last game saw the Scots turn that around with a 12-3 victory to retain the Trophy by 55-51.<br /><br />The Connie Miller Trophy (which Connie originally won for a points competition at Crossmyloof in 1955) had spent the last year in my house following England’s thrilling win last year and after the first game it was on course to stay there as a close fought game ended up 7-7. After five ends of the second game it looked even more certain that it would be coming back South as the English led 5-3 but a late rally by Scotland produced a 9-5 win and an overall score of 16-12 to leave the trophy back in Scottish hands. For a short while!<br /><br />Once again the staff at Greenacres did a marvellous job producing ice which stood up to two days of almost continuous curling and also a great carvery on Saturday evening at which the speeches were short and sweet. Thanks go to the Welsh Curling Association for the hospitality which should transfer to the Irish for 2013. I say 'should' but the likelihood is that it won’t – but not for any sinister reason.<br /><br />Bill Gray, the Irish President, announced at a meeting on Saturday that they were hoping that a new ice rink in Dublin would be ready for curling next season and they would love to hold the Four Nations there, but he did not think it would be ready for January 2013. He asked if the Scots would consider swapping their hosting duty of 2014 to 2013 while the Irish took responsibility for 2014, either in Dublin (preferably) or elsewhere if that venue was not ready. The RCCC reps were going back to consult and a decision would be forthcoming soon, but Pat Edington, RCCC President, was fairly sure that the Irish wishes could be accommodated. Watch this space!<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q4gG4LiPMnI/Tx0s4QzC2rI/AAAAAAAAZ1Q/jE3pFzRmYvA/s1600/4Nations-7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 393px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q4gG4LiPMnI/Tx0s4QzC2rI/AAAAAAAAZ1Q/jE3pFzRmYvA/s400/4Nations-7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700762048414276274" border="0" /></a>Fakery! This is NOT the Tom Ballantyne trophy. RCCC President Pat Edington and ECA President Alison Arthur act out the presentation, as if the real trophy was present. Scotland won the competition though. Well done to the five men's teams.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UBeHczXKbfo/Tx0s4NDpFyI/AAAAAAAAZ1I/aN_nsC8q1Sc/s1600/4Nations-6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 343px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UBeHczXKbfo/Tx0s4NDpFyI/AAAAAAAAZ1I/aN_nsC8q1Sc/s400/4Nations-6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700762047410149154" border="0" /></a>The Meikle Trophy, between Wales and Ireland, is contested by one men's, one women's and two mixed teams. Ireland won this by a shot. Bill Gray and Andrew Tanner.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MOUrN6A5_oQ/Tx0s4l9JxGI/AAAAAAAAZ1g/hiFWFCMfKmU/s1600/4Nations-8.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 343px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MOUrN6A5_oQ/Tx0s4l9JxGI/AAAAAAAAZ1g/hiFWFCMfKmU/s400/4Nations-8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700762054093816930" border="0" /></a>England v Ireland play for the Turnbull Trophy, two mixed, one men's, one ladies' match, won by Ireland by one shot, <span style="font-style: italic;">again</span>! <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5--ca8rX4ks/TTyXW7uTErI/AAAAAAAATYU/NfJIUH7BvJ4/s1600/Fenlast-next-year.jpg"><br /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GzwnUri8DPI/Tx0smU6_bzI/AAAAAAAAZ0o/CA4SiOkIeVg/s1600/4Nations-3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 365px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GzwnUri8DPI/Tx0smU6_bzI/AAAAAAAAZ0o/CA4SiOkIeVg/s400/4Nations-3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700761740283703090" border="0" /></a>Andrew Tanner and Alison Arthur with the Kay Trophy for competition between Wales and England (one men's, one women's and two mixed teams). England retained this trophy.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LQSxA4CI-NU/Tx0sl-8VEFI/AAAAAAAAZ0g/BxYwkHeiVrA/s1600/4Nations-2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 337px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LQSxA4CI-NU/Tx0sl-8VEFI/AAAAAAAAZ0g/BxYwkHeiVrA/s400/4Nations-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700761734383734866" border="0" /></a>The Marshall Millenium trophy is for the Scotland v Ireland competition. Two mixed, one men's and one women's team. Scotland won this.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Zc5uhLQmNE/Tx0slnbfADI/AAAAAAAAZ0U/kB4p_ZD8g60/s1600/4Nations-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 350px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Zc5uhLQmNE/Tx0slnbfADI/AAAAAAAAZ0U/kB4p_ZD8g60/s400/4Nations-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700761728071958578" border="0" /></a>Alison Arthur presents Claire McLaren with the Connie Miller trophy, played for between Scotland and England by two ladies teams. A Scottish win.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xbdBTGiQZgs/Tx0smgGMDAI/AAAAAAAAZ04/AyQPm4DawOc/s1600/4Nations-4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 359px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xbdBTGiQZgs/Tx0smgGMDAI/AAAAAAAAZ04/AyQPm4DawOc/s400/4Nations-4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700761743283457026" border="0" /></a>Big Bertha is for competition between Scotland and Wales, one men's, one ladies' and two mixed games. Wales won this again.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Photos are courtesy of Gill Maguire. Captions are by Bob Cowan.</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-26443133659744667392012-01-16T23:07:00.005+00:002012-01-16T23:25:33.722+00:00A Triumph of Experience over YouthI remember when I won the RCCC Rink Championship with Graeme Adam back in 1971, the lead of the opposition team said at the presentation after the final that he knew it was time for him to give up as he had just been beaten by a team whose combined age was the same as his – 62. On that occasion youth triumphed. This year while playing in the ECA Mixed Doubles Championship I looked around and suddenly realised (after a quick mental calculation) that the combined age of the six juniors that were also on the ice was less than that of my partner and I combined!<br /><br />But it was the team that was not on the ice at the time, a combination of experience and relative youth, who were the eventual victors in the English Mixed Doubles Championship at the weekend. John Sharp has won the last three English MD titles playing with Jane Clark, but Jane has decided to have some time off from curling and so John found himself a new partner in Lorna Rettig and they came to the Championships fresh from a win in the Wetzikon MD in Switzerland.<br /><br />There were originally six entries for the Championship but unfortunately Nigel Patrick and Alison Hemmings had to withdraw when Nigel was admitted to hospital just a few days before, leaving John and Lorna, and myself and Jean Robinson to face the massed ranks of the Kent Juniors!<br /><br />For the first time in the ECA, LSD was used to determine choice at the first end with each team having five minutes practice before throwing their draw. In the event of a tie for a play-off position the average LSD would be used instead of tiebreakers and so it was very important to get your draws close to the tee. With five teams in the competition even those with a bye went through the practice/LSD routine to give an extra LSD to use in the average.<br /><br />In the first session the Sharp-Rettig combo swept aside Harry Mallows-Lucy Sparks by 13-1 while the junior pairing of Ben Fowler and Hetty Garnier had a fairly easy victory over Brown-Robinson by 7-2. Session 2 and the first appearance of Anna and Sam Fowler, who were runners-up last year, but against Sharp-Rettig they were to fall to an 8-2 defeat while, in the battle of the juniors, Mallows-Sparks surprisingly got the better of the Fowler-Garnier pairing.<br /><br />It was in the middle of the next session, when Sharp-Rettig had their bye, that my mental arithmetic about the relative ages kicked in as we were in the process of defeating Mallows-Sparks by 7-3. In the battle of the Fowlers, youngest sibling Ben gained the bragging rights by defeating his elder brother and sister by 10-6.<br /><br />Sunday morning and a bad session for all the Fowlers as Sharp-Rettig defeated Ben F and Garnier by 9-5 while Brown-Robinson defeated Anna F and Sam F by the same score.<br /><br />So it all came down to the final session and the game between Brown-Robinson and Sharp-Rettig. A win for the former would mean a play-off was required while the latter would be crowned champions if they won.<br /><br />While Sam and Anna Fowler scored a full house 6 on their way to defeating Mallows-Sparks by 12-1, Sharp-Rettig had a fairly straightforward victory by 10-3 to win the right to go to Erzurum, Turkey, in April as English champions.<br /><br />Well done to John on his fourth successive title and to Lorna for winning her first opportunity to play in a World event.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--fCNRPe2Ft4/TxSxh5NYIUI/AAAAAAAAZds/AmjDKM9UeoU/s1600/English-MDs-winners.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 370px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--fCNRPe2Ft4/TxSxh5NYIUI/AAAAAAAAZds/AmjDKM9UeoU/s400/English-MDs-winners.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5698374624381247810" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Lorna Rettig and John Sharp, ECA Mixed Doubles Champions. Photo by John Brown.</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-6423885258358202312012-01-05T17:11:00.003+00:002012-01-05T17:20:18.489+00:00And Not Forgetting the Juniors!Well, Copey has done his bit about the Seniors (see <a href="http://behindtheglasscurling.blogspot.com/">Behind the Glass</a>) so I thought I would bring a bit of balance by posting from here in Copenhagen about the European Junior Challenge.<br /><br />It is always a pleasure to come to Taarnby, though today’s flight was a bit on the bumpy side both taking off and landing! I arrived in time to find Italy’s girls blanking their fourth successive end against our English girls to make the score 1-1 after six ends. The tactic worked as they then got their two at the seventh but an overthrown take-out by the Italian skip enabled Anna Fowler to draw for two at the eighth and send the game into an extra end. Unfortunately Anna’s last draw came up short and Italy won without playing their last stone. This was the English girls’ first defeat after three victories and so they are still well in the hunt. It was also a pretty quick game as they finished the nine ends while other games were still in the seventh!<br /><br />As I write they are playing the undefeated home team who have looked impressive so far. (Currently it is 2-2 after 5 ends).<br /><br />Three teams qualify for the play-offs in the girls’ event with one semifinal and then a final. Even if they lose to Denmark, if England can avoid defeat in their next three games against Germany, Poland and Estonia, then a play-off place is a definite. Those will not be easy games but Anna Fowler’s experience from playing in the Europeans in Moscow will be a big help.<br /><br />One of the surprises so far in the girls’ competition has been the poor form of the Polish team, three of whom recently did so well in Moscow. One of those missing is the third, Magda Straczek, and it is obvious that she was one of the strengths of the team in Moscow as here they have lost their first four games.<br /><br />Another country struggling this year is Germany, with a new team to the Championships, who are also without a win after three games. Unusually this year there is no team who played in the World Championships last year as France who were relegated have not entered, but there are still nine girls’ teams as Hungary have entered for the first time since 2007.<br /><br />While England’s girls have played four games already and are playing their fifth, the boys have just played two – a smaller group and an early bye have brought this about. Their first game against Russia was a low scoring affair with a three for Russia the only thing really separating the teams.<br /><br />Earlier today they played Latvia and, in spite of a bad start and being three down after two ends, they fought back well and ran the Latvians out of stones at the last end to win 7-4.<br /><br />There are two groups of boys’ teams, one of eight teams and one of seven. In the group of eight there is a definite split occurring as four teams have won three games and four teams have won none.<br /><br />One of those on three wins is Estonia, skipped for the fifth time at this level by Harri Lill, who is turning into the king of the extra end! Two of his three wins here have been after an extra, to add to three out of seven that he played at the Europeans in Moscow, though he only won one of those. The other form teams in that group are Spain, Germany and Italy.<br /><br />Unfortunately I am only here for the day, unless of course the winds get up again later, but you can follow all the news and scores at <a href="http://www.ejcc2012.com">www.ejcc2012.com</a>.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-1263309242462001852011-12-09T14:50:00.002+00:002011-12-09T14:54:40.330+00:00The End of the B GroupNo not that way – just the last games of the week. Early Friday morning and Ireland are back on after their close defeat against Hungary to take on the home nation in the semifinal to decide which other team goes to the A group next year and to the B final this year. Although the game was tied at 3-3 early on, the Russians proved too strong in the end and ran out 6-3 winners. Ireland will now play off against England for the bronze medal tomorrow morning – why that game has been delayed until then is a mystery as there is plenty of ice for it to be played alongside the main finals.<br /><br />In the ladies semifinal it was a much closer finish with Finland winning 8-7 at the last end. The only issue to be resolved is the bronze medal which will be contested between Poland and Slovakia – again tomorrow morning.<br /><br />The ice in the B hall, which early on was drawing a lot, has now become a lot straighter – which has played right into the hands of the big hitting Russians ... as England found out the other day, if you cannot bury a stone behind a guard they will just blast it away. It is a while since I last saw a player at this level with a backswing as high as the Russian skip Aleksei Tsesoulov. Today in the final, Hungary experienced the power of the Russian team as they lost 7-4 – a reverse of the result earlier on in the week when the ice was much swingier.<br /><br />Hungary gained their first gold medal in International curling when the ladies won their final against Finland by 4-1. They cannot rest on their laurels however as they now have a three game rubber against the Czech Republic for the final World Championship place. Russia’s men will play Thomas Dufour’s France in a similar series of games.<br /><br />I went into the A arena for the first time this afternoon for the conclusion of the men’s semifinal between Norway and the Czech Republic and you could have heard a pin drop – there was next to no crowd and it is such a vast auditorium that what little crowd there were seemed lost in the masses of multi-coloured seats – which surprisingly make it quite difficult to spot the crowd which merge into the kaleidoscope of colour.<br /><br />So a long week draws to a close – this will be my last blog probably, apart from a quick round up of the bronze medal games, but I hope you have enjoyed reading about the parts that other journalists cannot reach!<br /><br />And apologies for all outbreaks of Mr Grumpy who now has an appropriate mug donated by an admiring reader!<br /><br />(Thanks, John, we like Mr Grumpy, and have enjoyed all your posts this week. Bob)Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-27922112148145445152011-12-08T18:20:00.002+00:002011-12-09T09:30:57.543+00:00Quick updateHungary have reached the finals of the B Group in both the men's and women's Championships when a thrilling afternoon of games ended with Robin Gray of Ireland throwing his last stone with just 2 seconds left on the clock. His attempted tap back for two drew too much and left Hungary lying shot for a sensational 6-4 win.<br /><br />Just 10 minutes earlier Hungary's women had defeated Finland by 7-4. This also means that Hungary will have two teams in the A Group next year - a great follow up to Latvia's similar success this year and an indication of how the power balance of European curling below the very top level is shifting to the East.<br /><br />More to come...Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-21375642455930294172011-12-08T10:23:00.004+00:002011-12-09T09:31:32.237+00:00Games and FunB Group Round-Robin Round-Up<br /><br />As the week here in Moscow progresses my time becomes split between watching games and attending meetings and so apologies if the blogs become disjointed.<br /><br />Firstly to wrap up the round robin stages of the B Group. In the women’s competition an exciting last session included an extra end win for Finland over Poland. Both teams had already qualified and this confirmed them in second and third place respectively while Hungary finished on top. Hungary’s defeat of Slovakia in this session meant that the battle for fourth place was carried over into tiebreakers as victories for Austria (over Wales) and Estonia (over England) brought them level with Slovakia on five wins. The first tie breaker saw Slovakia beat Estonia and they then defeated Austria, a great result for a team that had to come through the C Group this year to get here. The play offs today will see Hungary playing Finland with the prize of a final slot and promotion to the A Group to the winner while Poland take on Slovakia for the second semifinal slot against the losers.<br /><br />Below the top six the order was England, Spain, Ireland and Wales which means that the latter two will need to play in the C Group next year if they want to try and qualify for the B Group in Karlstad.<br /><br />England rang the changes for their final game against Estonia with Anna Fowler skipping for the first time as well as playing last stones (as she has been all week), Angharad Ward playing third and Fiona Hawker moving to second from skip and third stones. This was to give the younger players a chance to experience life at the top end of the team before the European Junior and Winter Youth Olympics. Things started badly and they were 2-7 down after four ends but a run of five singles brought them level going into the last end when unfortunately Estonia finally found out how to make their last stone count!<br /><br />So it has been a frustrating week for the England girls – three wins plus four games which were lost at the last stone mean that qualification for the Play-offs was a realistic target when they arrived and a final finishing position of seventh is no reflection on the quality of their play or the effort they have put into the whole week. Without having a fifth player it was hard work playing nine games (seven of them going to ten ends or more) on such keen ice where sweeping was crucial.<br /><br />As expected Hungary and Russia won their last games in the Men’s Red Group so that the playoff games will be Hungary against Ireland and England v Russia. In addition Slovakia beat Belarus to remain in Group B and relegate Belarus down to Group C.<br /><br />EUROPEAN CURLING FEDERATION NEWS<br />Away from the curling, the European Curling Federation has held its Annual General Meeting. After the last two years of conflict under the Presidency of Andrew Ferguson-Smith there is a new mood of co-operation between the ECF and the WCF.<br /><br />Interim President Olle Riissanen stated that his mission when he took over was in three parts – to regain the trust of the ECF Board in the Presidency, to regain the trust of the Member Associations in the Board and to restore a co-operative working relationship with the WCF. So far he is well on the way to doing so.<br /><br />In Esbjerg in March the past President had announced that Champery would become a new centre of excellence for curling and that he would be the first Chief Executive of the centre. Following the resultant outcry that this had not been approved by the Member Associations and then the resignation of the President, further negotiations with Champery and feedback from members led to a revised proposal.<br /><br />This led to the formulation of a set of 'Criteria for an Approved European Curling Federation Centre for Curling'. If these conditions are met then any facility can obtain ECF approval. One of the criteria is the payment of 5000 Euros to the ECF and the question was raised as to what a centre might gain from the payment of such a sum of money just to become an 'ECF Approved Centre'.<br /><br />The criteria include:<br /> • Curling ice available for eight months of the year<br /> • Plant and equipment maintained to a high standard<br /> • One international bonspiel / competition to be held every year<br /> • Ice technicians and officials to maintain a three yearly programme of skills updating and training<br /> • A dedicated contact for administration and organisation of events<br /> • Insurance to cover public liability<br /> • Centre will arrange competitively priced accommodation for curlers<br /> • In partnership with ECF / WCF the centre will assist curlers to find coaches and instructors required for courses<br /> • Centre will promote its activities on the ECF website<br /> • ECF branding will be used on all the Centre’s communication<br /> • Centre will provide to the ECF annually an activity report<br /> • Centre will pay 5000 Euros to the ECF each year<br /> • Centre must have approval of the National Association<br /><br />In return the ECF will<br /> • Promote the Centre on the ECF website<br /> • Provide ECF branding / logo information<br /> • Provide a list of Member Associations’ contact details for marketing purposes<br /> • Provide contact information on coaches and trainers when required<br /> • Provide a certificate of approval that will be renewable after 3 years<br /> • Have the right to rescind approval at any time in case of loss or damage to the ECF’s reputation<br /><br />Champery has met these criteria and so will be announced as the first Approved Centre for Curling.<br /><br />It would seem to me that very few centres might want to follow suit unless there was a necessity to be a curling centre in order to gain some benefits from other initiatives, such as a proposal from the ECF that there should be much more pan-European work done with children and youth curling.<br /><br />Following Karlstad in 2012 the European A and B Groups will be held in Stavanger in 2013 and Champery in 2014 (and the B Group will be held in Champery and not in Monthey as in 2010 which will make it seem like one rather than two separate competitions). Both Stavanger and Champery will be held in the last ten days of November rather than early December. This movement to an earlier date is to avoid the risk of jeopardising the broadcasting of the Championships because of other sporting events taking place in December.<br /><br />The C Group and Mixed in 2012 have already been announced as being in Erzurum, Turkey in September and it was now announced that the organising committee will pay 75% of the accommodation costs for the teams in both competitions.<br /><br />The ECF also announced that they were raising the entry fees for the competitions by 100 Euros per entry although the Annual Subscription would remain the same! Afraid that Mr Grumpy came to the fore and I vented my disapproval of such a move as it meant that the English Curling Association’s payment to the ECF would rise to 2300 Euros in total next year.<br /><br />One hope on the horizon is that talks are beginning today between the ECF and the WCF about the running of the European Championships in such a way that it becomes a WCF competition for which the entry fee would be zero, as it is for the Pacific Championships and Americas Challenge, the two other competitions that lead to entry to the World Championships. It was announced on Tuesday that the WCF’s idea of World Championship Qualifying competitions was not being taken any further and that the European Championships would remain the qualifier for the World Championships.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-89461505996758831622011-12-07T10:04:00.004+00:002011-12-09T09:32:02.451+00:00Almost perfectionThe showdown between the two former Scottish Junior Champions, Alan MacDougall (1991) representing England and Robin Gray (1982) representing Ireland, got off to a great start when both skips covered the button with their Last Stone Draw meaning that the umpire had to get out the old faithful coin to decide who would get the hammer. Ireland called wrongly but then drew first blood when Alan was heavy with a draw against two at the second end after a blanked first end.<br /><br />For those who may not appreciate the concept of the Last Stone Draw, a quick summary. Before the start of every game each team has 9 minutes practice and at the end of that time they are required to draw one stone to the house. The team with the nearer stone has the hammer at the first end. Obviously a stone covering the hole cannot be measured and scores a 0.0 distance while a stone that does not end up in the house is given a distance of 185.4cm.<br /><br />The idea was introduced to bring another skill level to curling rather than depending upon the luck of a toss or simply allocating the hammer evenly between the teams. For the majority of teams the pre-game practice becomes focussed for at least the last three minutes on throwing practice draws to the button.<br /><br />After all the round robin games the worst score is discarded and the others are averaged, with the resultant Draw Shot Challenge (DSC) distance being used to determine ranking where this is needed for deciding who plays who in tiebreakers or the final overall ranking of teams where there is more than one group.<br /><br />Alan MacDougall’s average over seven games this week, with one discard, has been 5.23cm (2 inches in old money)! His sequence was 9.0, 5.5, 0.0, 8.7, 8.2, 64.8 (discarded) and 0.0! So my question is – if teams become so good at this that a coin toss starts to be needed more often will we need to find some other procedure to decide the hammer? Those are quite amazing numbers from Alan but he is not alone in getting the draw spot on – for the last four games of the Round Robin Stuart Hills of Wales covered the button three times and the fourth distance was 6.5cm! Of the 8 teams playing the last session in the Blue Group 3 covered the button, while the others were 2.3, 2.8, 32.3, 81.1 and one with the maximum of 185.4 (must try harder).<br /><br />Of course having done all that hard work just to get the hammer one then needs to make sure that one uses it! And after failing to draw against two in the second end, further mistakes from England left them 1-7 down at the halfway stage. A further loss of one at the sixth end and it was early handshakes.<br /><br />Ireland go to the 1/1 Page play-off game, probably against Hungary, while it looks as though England will face Russia in the 2/2 play-off game – these games will take place Thursday afternoon/evening.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-37177468081159738972011-12-06T17:53:00.003+00:002011-12-06T17:58:55.158+00:00It is all there in black and whiteOne of the features of International sport is the variety of bright colours that distinguish different nationalities, often, though not always, based on the colours of their national flag or some national mythology. Hence we have red and white for England and blue and white for Scotland, green and yellow for Australia and South Africa. I have never quite worked out why it should be blue for Italy (though of course all Ferraris should be red).<br /><br />So it is with curling – the bright yellow and blue of Sweden, the red and white of Russia or Canada and the yellow and red of China. So why am I sitting here in the B arena looking out over a sea of black and white! We have from left to right in the black corner (if that is not a geometrical impossibility) the black of Spain (why?); the black (with blue undershirts) of Estonia – national flag contains blue and black so that is not too surprising; the black of Slovakia (why?), the black with green highlights of Ireland (green obviously, but black?) and the black of Finland (why?).<br /><br />In white we have Wales (why?); Poland (flag is half white – so OK); white with red highlights of England (pretty obviously OK); white with red undershirts of Austria (again reflecting their national flag) and the white with red and green highlights of Hungary (matches National Flag).<br /><br />So as regards suitability the whites win hands down, so what is it with the BLACK!<br /><br />Sounds like Mr Grumpy is back again (see previous blog), but until the players turn around it is not possible to know at a glance on many occasions which country you are watching. It used to be that red was the universal colour and it is still very prevalent, and of course it is specifically identified in WCF rules as not being a light colour!<br /><br />(John, you're beginning to sound just like me. Bob)<br /><br />Anyway enough inconsequentials – what about the action. While Ireland and England have sewn up the blue group (and tomorrow’s game will be the first between their men’s teams at this level), the red group is still wide open. In the last session Hungary, Russia and Finland all won while Austria lost and so with one game to go Hungary and Russia are on 5-1 and Finland and Austria on 4-2. Finland and Austria play each other in the last game tomorrow, Hungary play Spain while Russia have the potentially easier task of defeating Lithuania.<br /><br />England beat Croatia 9-1, and with Wales winning against Netherlands this consigned Croatia to the C Division next year where they would have been this season if Bulgaria had not withdrawn from last year’s Europeans. Croatia have now had two winless European Championships but maybe they can break the sequence in their last game against Belgium.<br /><br />In the red group the threatened countries are Slovakia on one win and Belarus on zero and they play each other tomorrow. A win for Slovakia will make them safe but if Belarus are victorious then they will be back on the ice for another go at each other.<br /><br />In the ladies’ competition the top three of Finland, Poland and Hungary are definitely in the playoffs while behind is a bit of a log jam for the fourth and final slot. Slovakia are on 4-3 while Estonia, England and Austria are on 3-4. Austria have the easiest finish with games against Ireland and Wales while England have their fate in their own hands as they have to play Slovakia and Estonia.<br /><br />It looks almost certain that Wales will be relegated to Division 3 next year although a victory against Spain would help their chances of survival enormously as it would leave them level with Spain before they play Austria in the last game. Ireland and Spain are the other two countries under threat – two out of the three will go down.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-40550012607751929572011-12-06T10:02:00.003+00:002011-12-06T10:30:47.413+00:00England and Ireland Through to Playoffs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_TbiJK6qs28/Tt3toxvj0lI/AAAAAAAAYng/GAzohTgLPGc/s1600/Mos-England-men.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 251px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_TbiJK6qs28/Tt3toxvj0lI/AAAAAAAAYng/GAzohTgLPGc/s400/Mos-England-men.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682959589614801490" border="0" /></a>The first qualification issue was decided in the B arena this morning, before most of you back home in Britain were up, when the men of Ireland and England were assured of their places in the Page play-offs with a couple of games still to play. The only thing to be finalised is who finishes first and who finishes second and that will be decided in the last session of round robin play tomorrow morning when the two countries meet.<br /><br />England’s morning got off to a bad start when they lost four to Wales in the first end. But after blanking the second end they picked up two and then stole a three before Wales drew level after five ends. So the second half began back at square one and it was a complete turnaround as England jumped into a lead and held on to win 9-6.<br /><br />Meanwhile Ireland were suffering their first defeat of the week, losing to Belgium. England’s qualification depended on Estonia beating Poland and this one went to an extra end, Estonia’s third in six games. For the first time this week they won one and thus the qualified teams were determined.<br /><br />England play Croatia later today but Ireland have only the game against England left to play. No matter the result of the England v Croatia game the top qualification spot will depend on the winner of Ireland v England, because if teams are tied on games won, it is the result between the teams that is the first determinant for deciding ranking.<br /><br />None of the top teams in the other section were playing this morning and so it is still all to play for among Russia, Austria, Hungary (all 4 wins and 1 loss) and Finland (3 wins and 2 losses).<br /><br />England’s ladies continued to play well and impress last night but fell at the final hurdle to Hungary when Anna’s draw for an extra end fell half an inch short. That is three consecutive games, against the top three teams in the group, that have been lost by such a small margin. The team were very down and exhausted last night but they can still pick themselves up and qualify. Games left against Wales, Slovakia and Estonia should be easier than the previous three – it may all come down to stamina in the end because that is now five out of the six games that have gone to the tenth end or beyond and on ice as keen as it is here, and as swingy, there is an awful lot of sweeping to be done.<br /><br />Eve Muirhead is not the only one to be timed-out this week. This morning Belarus started the last end against Lithuania with approximately three minutes on the clock! Ironically, although they were five down at the time, they were lying three when the clock stopped. A quick shrug of the shoulders and a handshake finished the game. It was pretty obvious earlier that they would struggle unless they sped up but that did not appear to be a worry for them and the inevitable happened!<br /><br />All the results and standings can be found <a href="http://ecc.curlit.com/aspnet/event.aspx">here</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Top: Team England. L-R Alan MacDougall, Andrew Reed, Andrew Woolston, Tom Jaeggi. Photo © Leslie Ingram-Brown</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-37955991396880401382011-12-05T13:53:00.005+00:002011-12-05T14:05:37.776+00:00The B Arena<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pn8NBv_F744/TtzOZr7RI6I/AAAAAAAAYnI/6bUBvTaPAhY/s1600/Mos-B-Hall.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 249px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pn8NBv_F744/TtzOZr7RI6I/AAAAAAAAYnI/6bUBvTaPAhY/s400/Mos-B-Hall.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682643770518086562" border="0" /></a>The B arena at a European Championships has its own atmosphere away from the glitz and glamour of the A arena and, as the week progresses, a little community establishes itself therein. Some in the past have been further away than others so that it felt like a different competition – last year’s train ride down the mountain from Champery was probably the most extreme, but the tram ride in Basel and the journey up from the Linx Arena beside the beach to the Curl Aberdeen club were not atypical. In fact is not since 2007 in Fussen that it has been possible to easily see both A and B groups at the same time.<br /><br />Here in Moscow it is probably a good five minute walk between them but it is all indoors as you wander the corridors of this massive building. We are located in an ice hockey rink though there is very little spectator space so I imagine it is either mainly used for practice or for minor league games. The changing rooms are well fitted and each small bay in the locker room has a lockable box for valuables though not for our use this week. The ice crew is led by Jurgen Larsson and the umpires by Dor Borthwick and both have long days with four sessions beginning at 0800 and finishing at about 2300.<br /><br />Security is everywhere and without the right pass you do not get anywhere – even if you have been going past the same man every day I can see that there would be a 'Niet' for you if you ever appeared without one – pins are a great bargaining tool of course. A players’ restaurant is open from 0900 to 2100 with hot food, including breakfast, on offer all day.<br /><br />At the end of a long four game day for the coaches yesterday our women's team gave us an additional present by going to an extra end against Finland! This was a great game and a super fightback from the team who had lost a three at the first end against probably the strongest team in the B Group. Unfortunately Anna’s last draw just refused to turn enough and the Finnish skip was able to tap it back for victory to stretch their unbeaten run to four games (now five after a straightforward win over Slovakia this morning).<br /><br />Poland are probably the surprise of the Group. The current Polish junior team came through from the C Group after last year’s exclusion of Poland for non payment of subscriptions and have gone four games undefeated including a win over the experienced Hungarians. Their one flaw is possibly their commitment to throwing big weight takeouts which leave little room for error. [Having written this before our ladies played Poland I have now been hoist by own petard as it was only their ability to throw such a big weight that enabled Poland to beat England with a high speed tick-out at the last end this morning!].<br /><br />After yesterday’s close encounter with Estonia, who also took Netherlands to an extra end later in the day, the England men won a fairly comfortable game against Belgium who had to bring on their alternate after threeends. The game was also notable for the first coach interaction call from an England team when yours truly had to go down and give Alan MacDougall some advice – not something I ever expected to see written down in black and white! So that is three out of three for England with Ireland also undefeated in that group. In the other group it is Hungary who lead the way with four wins out of four.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HjCZqtj_a5M/TtzOZeVsVAI/AAAAAAAAYm8/PzeX0kZAPpY/s1600/MosB-John-Brown.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 274px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HjCZqtj_a5M/TtzOZeVsVAI/AAAAAAAAYm8/PzeX0kZAPpY/s400/MosB-John-Brown.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682643766870823938" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Top: The B Arena in the Megasport Complex.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Above: John on the coaches' bench.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-78357118396679433752011-12-04T13:25:00.003+00:002011-12-04T13:42:58.782+00:00Day 2 in MoscowRodger Schmidt was European Champion for Germany in 1985 and also took Russ Howard to the last end in the World Final in Vancouver in 1987. Since then he has plied his trade as a coach to the World at large including the Czech Republic (1999-2000), Italy (2000-2007) and the USA (2010 Olympic Games). Since 2007 he has been working with the Austrian teams and is sitting next to me as we watch our respective women’s teams in action against each other. (His ex-teammate, Johnny Jahr, is making a comeback at this level in the A Group upstairs.)<br /><br />As well as sharing the bench we seem to be stalking each other as we both have similar responsibilities for our small nations, with two teams to coach, and the timetable for a regular day here is 0800 men’s game, 1200 women’s game, 1600 men’s game and 2000 women’s game! When you realise that practice begins half an hour before each game you can see that the time for eating is fairly restricted. Add in the fact that England's men had to play an extra end this morning before finally beating Estonia and you can see why healthy eating and the European Championships are kind of mutually exclusive! Thank goodness for time clocks, but you sometimes pray for a six end game, as long as your team is on the winning side of course! Last night those prayers were answered when, at almost exactly the same time as I was posting yesterday’s blog, Anna Fowler played a delicate backring weight tap back to collect a six against Ireland who then gave up after seven ends with England winning 14-3.<br /><br />This morning’s game for the men against Estonia seemed to be ours all the way. We scored six singles, including three steals, and headed into the last end 6-4 up. But we lost two against the hammer and then in the extra it required a cold draw to the button by Alan MacDougall to put away the Estonians who had beaten us last year in Champery.<br /><br />By the way, the 'High-tech' A4 flip chart scorecards (see Blog 1) go up to 29 per side! I think they must have looked at the record books and found that the highest score in International Competition history was 28-3 and just added one! Everything is bigger and better in Russia!<br /><br />Except the service! When a '4 star' hotel takes an hour to prepare a pizza at 11pm and it then arrives in a box 20 minutes after the waiter has mysteriously dashed out, one does wonder how they ever got a man in space!Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-22780025808544269072011-12-03T18:01:00.003+00:002011-12-03T18:08:36.478+00:00Moscow: View from the B ArenaWell sorry, actually not a view as I forgot the lead which would have downloaded pictures from my phone, so you will have to do with a 1000 words instead ...<br /><br />English teams arrived safely on Thursday from their various connecting points, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm - geography determined that teams should arrive at Sheremetyevo Airport in the North rather than the other one in the South. Problem is that only Aeroflot fly directly to Sheremetyevo from London and fears, possibly unjustified, of Aeroflot’s reputation led to the option of changing flights midway - and it was slightly cheaper.<br /><br />I travelled out on Friday, in the company of ECA President Alison Arthur, and got to Copenhagen no problem, only to find that the flight to Moscow had been cancelled for technical reasons and we would have to travel via Stockholm, but we had to wait over two hours! Eventually arrived four hours later in Moscow than expected just in time for the opening banquet. But at least our luggage arrived in spite of the changed itinerary, unlike that of WCF President Kate Caithness which got lost somewhere in Schiphol on her way here.<br /><br />And so to the Stadium on Saturday morning. A well organised and pleasantly short opening ceremony. This is an enormous building and the B Arena is in the basement - but it is a light airy rink and very similar to curling rinks elsewhere, though it is a hockey rink in everyday life.<br /><br />Ice is good - as fifth player for the men’s team I threw a few stones in the practice session this morning before the first game against Poland which was won 9-2. And with the ladies winning 6-4 against Spain in their first outing it has been a successful day so far for England. Currently they are on against Ireland and leading 6-0 and so more news in a tomorrow’s blog.<br /><br />Footnote – all mod cons here in the B arena with flat screen electronic scoreboards – only problem is that they are only at one end below the coaches bench and so invisible to those who matter! So for this session the latest Russian technology has appeared at the far end. Red and yellow coloured A4 pads with numbers to be turned over as the game progresses – no line scores obviously but sufficient for what is needed!Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-58774442988534798272011-11-17T14:35:00.006+00:002011-11-17T16:46:38.961+00:00Toothy Travails<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-69hjK2-NxZk/TsUy0bBpNlI/AAAAAAAAX50/tGT_bGQq9ms/s1600/MDs-John.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 313px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-69hjK2-NxZk/TsUy0bBpNlI/AAAAAAAAX50/tGT_bGQq9ms/s400/MDs-John.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675998781559617106" border="0" /></a>The extra spare time in my life forced upon me by Her Majesty’s Civil Service has been put to good use in recent weeks. Before my last blog from the Welsh Bonspiel I took a day trip over to the European Mixed. There can be very few curling rinks which are 20 minutes walk from a major airport but in Copenhagen there is the five sheet Taarnby rink which has recently been expanded by two extra sheets which were finished just in time for the European Mixed at the beginning of October. In addition the high pitched roof on the extension allows for the inclusion of a large function suite at first floor level, which in future plans will have a glass wall overlooking the main rink. Should be spectacular.<br /><br />The European Mixed is the first of three international championships being held there this season – the European Juniors in January and the World Seniors in April are the others, and it is remarkable how a relatively small club manages to produce the funding and the organisation to run these events. The main promoter is Johannes Jensen and one of the features of the Taarnby rink is the display cases full of just a part of his collection of curling memorabilia.<br />I intend to repeat my day trip with a visit to the European Juniors and probably the Seniors as well - £45 return from Stansted with Easyjet is less than most internal flights in the UK!<br /><br />At the Mixed I must admit to getting confused as to which event I was attending – there were juniors, seniors and all ages participating and when you have seen people like Harry Lill of Estonia playing in Europeans as well as the Juniors and now the Mixed, just a quick glimpse on to the ice can be disconcerting.<br /><br />I am currently in Scotland as I write having just played in the Braehead Mixed Doubles and will be heading off to Stranraer tomorrow to play in the Preston Club’s I’Anson Trophy. There is a full entry of sixteen teams with many new curlers about to enjoy the Stranraer experience for the first time.<br /><br />It was only my second MD competition (after the English Championships in 2007) and my partner, Dawn Watson’s, first. The rules of MD are a little bit different and I made a <span style="font-style: italic;">faux pas</span> in our first game when I thought that the winning side placed the stones for the next end when of course it is the losing side (as you all knew). So this meant that we had to replay the second end and my apologies to our opponents, Angus Shearer and Nicola Evans who went on to win the best under 25 prize in spite of losing to us.<br /><br />It was just one of two wins for us in the competition which was two evenings of intense curling – three games per night, five end games for the first four, and then two six end games. If you are throwing the middle set of 3 stones in the team, and getting up to sweep those stones as well, it is a very good work out for your curling muscles. It was great to see so many juniors playing and also the two wheelchair teams.<br /><br />So those are the travels – the travails are around the European Championships in Moscow. As I said to somebody recently, how did they manage to put a man in space! Maybe that is unfair and it is just cultural differences, but the whole issue of getting a visa has been remarkably stressful and there are still some of my players without them just two weeks before they go.<br /><br />To summarise - the players were not allowed to apply for their visas before the 1st November – already a tight schedule. To apply for your visa you had first of all to receive a letter from the organising committee inviting you to play in the Championships. The website said that, obviously, this had to done before doing your visa application and a form was provided on the website to supply information about your passport number etc. So in late August / early September I encouraged our players to apply for their letters so they would have them in plenty of time to apply for their visa after 1st November.<br /><br />Time went on and nothing had arrived in mid to late October and so emails started flying. What transpired was that none of the players’ details were in Russia – and then we got an email in late October saying that we would get on better if we applied for the letters as a group!<br /><br />Anyway, by this time one of our players was flying off to South Korea and would not be back until late November and another was on business in Europe and would have to apply via the consulate in The Hague! Eventually, after re-submitting the details, the letters arrived last week and visits to Russian consulates in London and Edinburgh (and The Hague) are being undertaken.<br /><br />A number of questions could be asked – why so late for the players to apply for visas as they are the most important people in the competition? What happened to the missing data? Why was the website not clearer about applying as a group if it was that critical?<br /><br />And then yesterday an email arrived saying that if players wanted to use official transport between hotel and the arena it would cost them £84 for the week. Ours are walking!<br /><br />And then there are the juniors................but that is another story!<br /><br />Sorry for being Mr Grumpy but every day my inbox is full of emails – how the hell did I ever manage when I was working!<br /><br />Hopefully my travels will continue with my trip to Moscow in early December and my travails will lessen as the weeks pass. Fingers crossed.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FWgoqmOha3c/TsUy0Epy7-I/AAAAAAAAX5k/Qjp_U6vYhag/s1600/MDs-Dawn.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 319px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FWgoqmOha3c/TsUy0Epy7-I/AAAAAAAAX5k/Qjp_U6vYhag/s400/MDs-Dawn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675998775554011106" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Top photo is of John puzzling over strategy at the Braehead Open Mixed Doubles. Above is his partner in that event, Dawn Watson. Photos © Skip Cottage.</span>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-3132289054814819152011-11-01T09:14:00.002+00:002011-11-01T09:29:45.751+00:00Manson Wins After Fifteen YearsThe one characteristic of the Welsh Bonspiel which stands out, apart from its friendliness, is the loyalty of the teams which enter the competition every year. The first Welsh Bonspiel took place in 1978 and was won by Bill Crichton and many of the other skips that appear on the entry list are no longer with us, but in 1979 a certain Graeme Adam got his name onto the Trophy and here in 2011 he was still winning, this time the Stan Williams Trophy for teams finishing 3rd in their section.<br /><br />In 1981 Hugh and Christine Stewart won that same Stan Williams Trophy playing with Jim and Liz Jamieson who this year helped Graeme to win it. Hugh also won the main Bonspiel Trophy in 1991 but has so far not won the B Road Trophy which has had various names but is currently the J A M Trophy, after John Stone and Margaret Meikle who have been running the competition since I can remember.<br /><br />In 1982 a young Adrian Meikle won the B Road Trophy, and this year he was runner-up in the same competition while among the winners in 1984 and 1985 was Chris Wells who was very close to a final this year.<br /><br />Graeme Adam, Ena Smith, Gordon Crawford, Adrian Meikle and John Brown have all won all three trophies but until this year the main Bonspiel had eluded Janice and George Manson. Ironically their team mates Ian and Pam Paxton had won the trophy in 2004 with David and Mary Robertson when Janice and George had been unavailable but two previous B Road and three Stan Williams Trophy wins could not assuage their desire for the main trophy. <br /><br />In 2005 they had reached the final, only to be beaten at an extra end by yours truly, but this year there was no stopping them. An undefeated run through the sections games defeating the holder, Adrian Meikle, Graeme Adam and Michael Yuille (twice) led them to a final against Colin Martin, last year’s runner-up who had also won all four of his section games against John Brown, Elaine Semple, Hugh Stewart and Chris Wells (winning by one shot after taking a five at the last end).<br /><br />As with many games at the weekend the final went down to the wire, only to be spoiled by a pick up for Colin Martin on his first stone which left the way clear for George Manson to place a guard on the shot which Colin had been trying to get at and left no real shot for Colin’s last stone, Janice running out the winner by 8-6.<br /><br />The B road final was also a tense affair between Lesley Gregory’s team skipped by Andrew Woolston with Lesley at third, husband Martin at second and local girl Lauren Baxter at lead, defeating Adrian Meikle who this year, instead of alternating his daughters at lead had them both playing, Charlotte at third and Danielle at lead. The ever present Andrew Tanner swept his heart out at second (as well as playing some great shots of course). Final score in this one was 8-5.<br /><br />The C Road Final was the only one of the three which finished early with Graeme Adam, along with wife Julia and Jim and Liz Jamieson, defeating Elaine Semple, husband Colin and Pat and Graham Ross, by 9-1.<br /><br />As usual the Bonspiel was sponsored by Glenfarclas who provided the requisites for the Saturday evening tasting session before the customary excellent Greenacres carvery served up by Elma Paterson and her team.<br /><br />Next year will be the 33rd Welsh Bonspiel and also my 20th – see what I mean by loyalty – I hope to get back to winning ways but no matter whether I do or not it will be enough to go back to Greenacres and meet up with old friends and rivals and to enjoy the friendship of curling on and off the ice.<br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://skipcottagecurling.blogspot.com/2011/10/welsh-bonspiel.html">Winners' photos are here.</a><br /></p>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-33430153213320493552011-09-20T20:00:00.003+01:002011-09-20T20:16:59.624+01:00And here we go again...As I sit here in an almost deserted office life is about to change – in just ten days time I shall get my last salary from the Government and, a few years early, I will join the ranks of the unemployed / retired – a great opportunity you might think to go and play curling for seven days a week. Just a little snag – the lack of a regular income until I get my pension in three years time.<br /><br />But I will be frequenting my usual haunts in the coming months – at least until the compensation runs out – Greenacres and Stranraer are on my schedule for October and November and I am also adding a trip to Braehead for the Mixed Doubles because I am aiming to regain my English MD title in the New Year – have always fancied a trip to Turkey ever since I saw Midnight Express. Well, maybe not…<br /><br />What it does mean is that I will not be playing any Seniors curling this year but will be spending more time helping to build up our Junior squad and set in place the next generation of Juniors following close behind? Tuesday night and it must be Fenton’s Curling Club will be my motto for the next few months. Not being constrained by the ties of an office desk (and enough from those who cannot believe I ever was!), I will be able to take a leisurely drive to Kent and spend a couple of hours with the youngsters before relaxing on the ice with a game in the Fenton’s Leagues.<br /><br />Ernest Fenton and his son Forbes have run a Junior academy at the club for the past few seasons and it is hoped that some of the graduates from there will be the succession to the current junior teams who added to their experience with a trip to the Sweetlake Curling Camp in Holland over the summer. You can read an article about the camp in the ECA newsletter <a href="http://issuu.com/curlingfreak/docs/eca_news_32/1?mode=a_p">here</a>.<br /><br />This season we have timetabled a Junior Championship at the end of October when it is hoped that teams will come forward to challenge the current champions for a place in the EJCC at Taarnby in January.<br /><br />One of the girls in the Junior team, Angharad Ward, was chosen recently to attend the trial day for the selection of Team GB for the Winter Youth Olympic Games – full details of WYOG can be found <a href="http://www.innsbruck2012.com/en/about_us">here</a> while the details about the curling competition can be found on the WCF website <a href="http://www.worldcurling.org/youth-olympic-games">here</a>. The event is only open to players born in 1994 or 1995.<br /><br />There were six boys and six girls at the selection day and two of each will be required for the trip to Innsbruck. The selection panel is due to meet in late September and so it will be a nervous time for Angharad as she waits to see if she has cracked the Scottish domination of all things Team GB Curling. Also a nervous time for me as the WYOG overlaps with the ECA Mixed Doubles and Angharad is my partner in that event!<br /><br />With a trip to Moscow to the Europeans on her schedule as part of Fiona Hawker’s team and an EJCC in Taarnby to play in if they win the ECA Junior Championships it is potentially going to be a very busy year for Angharad – on top of which she has her GCSEs to sit!<br /><br />I am sure the resilience of the youth will keep her going.<br /><br />As a warm up for the season there was a bonspiel held at <a href="http://www.icesheffield.com/Curling_Sheffield">iceSheffield</a> last Saturday. Four sheets were laid out but unfortunately there were only 16 curlers in attendance – and quite a mixture too – two absolute beginners (from Australia – though not just for the day!), three who have been playing regularly at Sheffield on Saturday evenings on their half length sheets, a couple of the ice rink staff, an experienced curler who lives in Sheffield together with eight stalwarts of the ECA who had travelled from as far afield as Whitley Bay and Maidenhead.<br /><br />The ice was available for five hours and after a session of coaching for the new and inexperienced ones and a general limbering up of the limbs for those who already knew roughly what to do, and after a short lunch break, a mini round robin was played at the end of which the ice rink presented a little trophy and some medals to the first three teams, and a wooden spoon to the 4th! Hopefully I will have some pictures soon and full details of the results to accompany them.<br /><br />So an early start to the season here in England and it all kicks off at <a href="http://www.curlinginkent.co.uk/">Fenton’s</a> on October 3. Good stones and a successful season to you all.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-49938141950162305052011-04-27T10:02:00.002+01:002011-04-27T10:07:25.853+01:00Final Tale from 2010-11Well here we are at the end of another season and it seems to have been an awfully long one – and maybe it has – the European Mixed in September to the World Seniors and Mixed Doubles in late April mean that the season now stretches for a full seven months and a lot has happened in between.<br /><br /> Our teams returned from St Paul quietly satisfied that they had done a good job. The men were a bit disappointed that they had just failed to beat Australia in the quarterfinal and were more disappointed when they discovered that their draw shot challenge distance relegated them below Scotland in the final standings, even though they had beaten them in round robin play. The quirk of the system is that all losing quarterfinalists, while they all reached the same stage, are ranked on their DSC distances acquired during pre-game practice sessions for the round-robin games.<br /><br /> This also led to the women being ranked eleventh below Russia even though they had beaten them in the round robin. Ironically if New Zealand had lost their last game then we would have been ranked above Russia as we beat them, but the NZ victory over Japan brought them level on two wins with Russia and England, and since each had beaten one of the others the DSC came into play to decide the ranking!<br /><br /> Also, our Mixed Doubles pair of John Sharp and Jane Clark were disappointed that they had let slip a couple of opportunities to win from a leading position, but such is the nature of the format that big leads can disappear in relatively few ends.<br /><br /> And I will only mention it once but we cannot find any other instance in International Championship play where England beat Scotland twice in one week. No further comment.<br /><br /> So, looking back over the season from an English point of view, on an International front it has been disappointing – a fourth place in the European Mixed being the highlight. Poor performances from our teams in the Europeans in December left us as far away from World Championship play as we have ever been recently.<br /><br /> However the performance of our junior women in the European Junior Challenge in January and the emergence of a junior men’s team shows promise for the future which we shall try and maintain with a structured coaching and development programme.<br /><br /> Domestically of course the news was dominated by the uncertainty around the Four Nations with respect to the Scottish representation. As far as we are concerned that is water under the bridge now but I would love to be able to attend the RCCC AGM in June to hear how much the members make it an issue. Unfortunately other domestic appointments make my attendance impossible but I will no doubt hear feedback from those who do attend.<br /><br /> Fenton’s Rink in Kent continues to flourish and will re-open in September for an eighth season, while there is news that ice time has been offered to Preston Curling Club at Blackburn. Ice Sheffield is seeking to develop a curling pathway and to form a club, while Stephen Hinds is pressing ahead with plans for a rink North West of London near Chalfont St Giles. Unfortunately Solihull appears to have been a dead end and the local interest we had there seems to have dried up.<br /><br /> I hope that you have found these Toothy Tales to have been of interest throughout the year – they have been less frequent than I would have liked but other pressures have limited their production.<br /><br /> Have a great summer and hopefully we will all come back refreshed in the Autumn ready for another season of the world’s friendliest sport.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-14667144289554759152011-03-25T20:30:00.002+00:002011-03-25T20:36:16.946+00:00Then there was peaceAfter the excitement of the last few days it was a pretty uneventful Annual General Assembly of the World Curling Federation today. With 43 members represented and 15 proxies there were more than enough for a quorum. President Kate Caithness started proceedings with a minute’s silence in the memory of the people of Japan and New Zealand and also the recent losses of Frank Duffy and Jim Duff, one of whose roles of course was as Master of Ceremonies for the Pondhoppers Club.<br /><br />One of the banes of the organisers of major championships is the recent custom for teams to arrive late for things like final banquets or to appear in casual clothes when team uniform has been requested. In future if a complaint is received from an organising committee there will be a financial penalty for the infraction payable by the national association concerned.<br /><br />I have talked already a couple of days ago <a href="http://toothytalescurling.blogspot.com/2011/03/off-ice-at-esbjerg.html">(see here)</a> of some of the proposals. Time outs (as coach interactions will now be called) will remain as they are currently operated, with clocks stopped for a specified travelling time and then the coach having one minute to interact with the team with the clocks running; tie breakers will remain in operation for most competitions, but for the WSCC, WMDCC and EJCC, alternative skill based solutions which do not require extra games will be trialled from next season; more detail will be put on the bones for the new World Championship Qualifying system for further approval at Moscow, and the first World Curling Congress will be held in the autumn of 2012 though there will still be a General Assembly at Basel in April.<br /><br />And that was about it!Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-51572522675883655072011-03-25T00:06:00.001+00:002011-03-25T00:06:00.611+00:00And the fun continues...Yesterday was the Semi Annual General Meeting of the European Curling Federation and just 18 of the 37 members of the Federation were represented in person. The problem was that 50% are required to make the meeting quorate so no decisions could be taken! So bit of a waste of time for anyone who had travelled specially, though most are here for today’s WCF Annual General Assembly.<br /><br />The meeting got off to a sensational start when President Andrew Ferguson-Smith announced that he had come to an agreement with the municipality of Champery for the setting up of a European Centre of Curling Excellence in Champery of which he would be the first CEO. It was going to be set as a Société à responsabilité limitée, broadly equivalent to a private company limited by shares (Ltd) in the United Kingdom with 49% owned by the ECF and 51%% by the curling club and municipality of Champery. The HQ office of the ECF would also be there and the municipality was giving free office space.<br /><br />After the good burghers of Champery had given their presentation on the project, uproar ensued as many of the ECF members complained that they were being presented with a <span style="font-style: italic;">fait accompli</span> and that they had not had a chance to see if this deal was the best for their association and members. Even the Executive Board of the ECF had only seen the proposal last night and so were not prepared to fully back their President.<br /><br />After last year’s stand-off with the WCF this was a further blow to the credibility of the ECF President with his members. At the end of the day he was asked to go away and produce the paperwork for the project, which he hoped to begin in September, so that members could pore over it and check out the details.<br /><br />That is not to say that the members disagreed with the idea – all who spoke backed the concept of the proposal but unfortunately the manner of its presentation and sudden appearance on the agenda did not find favour. One can only hope that the visitors from Champery will not drop the idea as being too much of a hot potato and that the proposal will get the go ahead in due course.<br /><br />The rest of the meeting passed quietly. The one major announcement was that the 2012 EMCC and ECC – C group competitions would more than likely be in Erzurum, Turkey, the recent site of the World University Games. Just a few more details need to be finalised before the venue is confirmed. Interestingly to make the combination of the two championships easier the games in the ECC-C group will be limited to 8 ends, the same as the EMCC.<br /><br />The International Court of Arbitration of Sport had also thrown out Poland’s legal action against the ECF after the ECF had suspended them from the European Championships for non-payment of their annual subscription. It was also announced that ten countries had still to pay their subscription for this year – including Denmark, Germany and Russia. I hope the last pays in time or they will not be playing at the Europeans in Moscow!Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-23374764294504753612011-03-23T17:15:00.002+00:002011-03-23T17:22:23.613+00:00Off the Ice at EsbjergWhile the women battle it out on the ice in Esbjerg, happenings off the ice could change the face of international championships in the near future.<br /><br />Under the two tenets of the WCF wanting to have control over who plays in their championships and having the best teams on the ice at the major finals, a group was set up following the meetings in Champery last December to iron out the details of a qualifying competition for the Men’s and Women’s World Championships from 2014 onwards.<br /><br />As a result of that group’s discussions and further talk in the last couple of days it looks as though the following system will ultimately get the go ahead – but not until further details are added to the proposal and so not until Moscow in December.<br /><br />For the World Championships from 2014 onwards the participants will be decided as follows: the host nation, the top 7 countries from previous World Championships and then the top two teams from at least two qualifying competitions to be run by the WCF.<br /><br />The top seven countries may be from the previous season or from a weighted average of past performance (say over the previous three seasons) – this is one of the details to be finalised.<br />All other member nations would participate (if they wanted to) in a qualifying competition – let’s assume there will be two called Red and Blue. If the host venue for one of these competitions is in the entries then they would be placed in the respective group and then all other nations would be placed according to World ranking. Otherwise World ranking would be the sole determinant. Entries would need to be in by June 1st and the qualifying competitions would be held in November, except for an Olympic season when they would be held in January because the Olympic Qualifying Event is programmed for November (see below for details of that!). The top two teams from each event would qualify for the WMCC and WWCC.<br /><br />So this means the end of regional qualification via the European or Pacific Championships and also ends the almost automatic qualification of Canada and the USA who would have to finish in the top 7 or 8 to qualify for the next year. In the most extreme circumstances it could mean a World Championships made up entirely of European countries or alternatively with only three or four European Countries participating. It also calls into doubt the role and status of the Pacific and European Championships.<br /><br />With Olympic qualification dependent upon gathering points in the World Championships will national associations be forced by their national Olympic Associations to enter the World Qualifying competitions but then not offered any help to compete in the European Championships which will occur just a few weeks later? Will a country’s best players be able to get time off or to afford to attend both competitions?<br /><br />From an England point of view for example why should we send a team to the World Qualifying as we do not get any Olympic points even if we get to Worlds and even if we did it is certain that our champion teams could not afford to play in both – so do we send a poorer quality team to the Europeans? But then entry to the WCF Qualifier will presumably be free while an entry to the European Championships costs over £500?<br /><br />And then there is the Olympic Qualifying Event (OQE) – this was confirmed at the meetings in Champery – it will be held in the November prior to the Olympics and will be for all nations who have played in the three previous World Championships but not gathered enough qualifying points to automatically play in the Olympics. So for season 2013-14 (and other Olympic seasons) the programme begins to look like this: OQE in November, Europeans/Pacifics in December, World Qualifiers in January, Olympics in February and Worlds in March/April – quite a programme and is it sustainable in what is still an amateur sport?<br /><br />In non Olympic years the World Qualifying Competition will take place in November. One side effect of all this could be that the World Mixed Doubles and World Seniors will not be changed to November as was previously proposed – soundings will be taken of the teams in St Paul at this year’s competitions.<br /><br />Two rule changes will also be voted on at Friday’s General Assembly. Firstly the issue of time-outs has arisen again. In Cortina it was decided that they would be replaced by coach interactions when the coach could have a minute on the ice with his/her players but the clock would not stop. This led to some dangerous situations with coaches running or climbing barriers to get to their team as quickly as possible. In Champery it was decided to implement a travelling time for the coaches which would be specific to each venue and would be when the clock would be stopped. When the coach reached their team the clock would start and they would have a minute on the ice with their team.<br /><br />It is necessary for this revised rule to be defined in the Rule Book and so this will be done on Friday if voted for but in addition the option of doing away with time-outs all together will also be put on the table.<br /><br />The WCF is still keen to do away with tiebreakers as the need to allow time in the programme is not an efficient use of time if it is not needed and situations have arisen recently where insufficient time was allowed in the programme for tiebreakers, leading to the situation at the EJCC in Prague where the Czech Republic played four games in one day.<br /><br />There is no option on the table to do away with tie breakers but there is a motion to keep tie breakers for the moment in the WMCC, WWCC, WJCC, WWhCC and WMDCC but to try out a number of alternative systems in the EJCC, PJCC, WSCC and WWhQCC – these alternatives include variations on the Draw Shot Challenge, including more than one stone per game, a post round robin shoot out, as trialled at the EMCC last September, or a reversion to a previous system of a post round robin four-stone all team member draw shot challenge.<br /><br />The final major proposal put forward by the WCF Board was to disconnect the WCF General Assembly from the World Championships to allow attention to be focussed on the curling and allow WCF Board Members more time to network and entertain sponsors. The idea is that there will be a World Curling Congress in the Autumn which will not just incorporate the meetings but could be expanded to include clinics etc. While the WCF wanted to initiate this in 2011, they were persuaded that arrangements were already too far advanced for the semi-annual assembly at Moscow in December and so the likely outcome is for the General Assembly due for Basel in April to be abandoned and the first World Curling Congress to take place in Autumn 2012.<br />Further information on these proposals will follow the General Assembly in Friday.<br /><br />Watch this space.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-12444368858903455402011-02-09T14:44:00.002+00:002011-02-09T14:54:20.961+00:00The English Curling ChampionshipsJust ten days after all the foreigners had been seen off the premises following the Four Nations, the ECA’s second biggest event of the season - the English Championships - began at Greenacres. The five men’s teams, playing a double round robin, began on Thursday lunchtime, but they would be nearly half way through their schedule before the two women’s teams joined in for their best-of-five rubber on Friday evening.<br /><br /> Alan MacDougall, Jamie Malton, James Dixon, Neil Maycock and Ben Fowler were the male skips while Fiona Hawker and Sandra Moorcroft skipped the women.<br /><br /> Alan MacDougall, the defending champion and favourite, got off to the best of starts with a 4 at the first end against Neil Maycock and he was never seriously troubled as he raced to a 15-6 victory after eight ends. Meanwhile the two teams expected to offer the best challenge to Alan, Jamie Malton and James Dixon (skipping the Bruce Bowyer team after finishing second with that line-up at the previous weekend’s Haggis competition), were involved in a close struggle which eventually Dixon won by 6-4.<br /><br /> Session 2 introduced Ben Fowler and his fellow junior, Harry Mallows, to the Championships and in a switchback of a game they were unlucky to lose 9-10 to Neil Maycock after being 9-7 up after 9. Alan MacDougall had another emphatic victory over James Dixon who shook hands after 6 ends with the score at 7-1 to Alan. So already the leading challengers had both lost a game and things were looking good for the defending champions.<br /><br /> Session 3 and the MacDougall team were on a bye as Dixon and Malton both won, Dixon by 7-5 over Maycock, helped by a run of four singles, and Malton more easily by 10-3 against Fowler who was unable to repeat the form of the previous evening.<br /><br /> The next session is quickly dealt with - Malton beat Maycock 13-1 and MacDougall beat Fowler 15-4 but this then leads us to the third and last session of the day on Friday - and the closest and longest game of the weekend! The session began at 20.45 and finished nearly at midnight as Ben Fowler and James Dixon slugged it out. The other game in the session had seen Alan MacDougall deal Jamie Malton a serious blow to his Championship challenge by beating him 7-5 and so James Dixon needed to win this one to keep that one win ahead of Malton and be in prime position to attack Alan MacDougall over the weekend.<br /><br /> And he started off well and led 6-1 after five ends but then 'one of those ends' happened and before he knew it he had lost a 5 as Ben Fowler produced two great shots. Dixon nosed ahead with a single at the 7th but then lost a 3 at the eighth. However he then won the 3 back at the ninth before Ben Fowler levelled the game and forced the extra end which a last stone hit and stick secured for Dixon as the weary spectators prayed he would not roll out and force a twelth end!<br /><br /> So by the end of Friday and after the first complete round robin it was MacDougall on 4 wins, Dixon on 3, Malton on 2, Maycock on 1 and Fowler on 0.<br /><br /> The second half of the competition was due to begin at 0830 on the Saturday but an extra hour was found from some ice cancellations and the weary warriors trooped back on at 0930. The key game in this session was that between MacDougall and Dixon as a win for the former would open up a two win cushion between him and the chasing pack. And so while Malton sent Maycock off after seven ends for an early bath after an 11-3 win, all attention turned to sheet A and a thrilling game that was all square after 6 ends (3-3) and 8 ends (5-5) and which hinged on a 9th end where a complete miss by MacDougall gave Dixon a stolen 1 and a one shot advantage going down the tenth, but without the hammer.<br /><br /> Probably not the best position to be in and so it proved as MacDougall was eventually left with a straight draw to the rings for 2 and the game and a buffer between him and the opposition. Now he would have to lose both of his remaining games to take the competition to a tie break.<br /><br /> The first of those two games was in theory going to be the easier – against winless Ben Fowler, but it proved to be a tough battle only won by running the opposition out of stones deep into the tenth end and by a 6-4 scoreline. In the other game Neil Maycock’s team (now skipped by John Brown) went down 4-9 to James Dixon.<br /><br /> And so to session 8 and would we see the crowning of the champion - a simple win would do and this was achieved by 8-4 against John Brown, though once again the first half of the game was close and finished at 4-3 before Alan stole a couple of 2s to make things safe. It was irrelevant therefore that Jamie Malton finished with a repeat 10-3 win over Ben Fowler.<br /><br /> So an unbeaten campaign gave Alan MacDougall, Andrew Reed, Andrew Woolston and Tom Jaeggi their second championship in a row and they will head to Moscow in December hoping to improve on their 21st place in Champery.<br /><br /> Fiona Hawker and Anna Fowler first played together last year and they continued their partnership this year as one of only two entries for the women’s Championship. After eight years of representing England at the Europeans Kirsty Balfour had not entered and Fiona’s opposition came from the team that will represent England at the World Seniors in St Paul in April, skipped by Sandra Moorcroft who plays lead stones while Susan Young throws last stones.<br /><br /> The fomat was a best-of-5 rubber but only 3 games were necessary as Fiona won 13-1, 15-9 (12-6 after 5 ends!) and 14-4. Included in her team is Angharad Ward who will become the youngest player to represent England in a major International Championships at just 16 years and 4 months. The fourth player in the team is Debbie Hutcheon.<br /><br /> One other Championship was settled at the weekend. If you have been following this blog you will remember that the ECA Senior Men’s Championships was unfinished back in December after all three teams tied and only one tie break was possible. The final tie break took place alongside the main National Championships and was won by Michael Sutherland who defeated John Brown 9-0 after just 4 ends. It was one of those games that I was never going to win.<br /><br /> And so Michael Sutherland returns to the World Seniors for the first time since 2008 and is joined by Tommy Campbell, John Summers and Phil Barton. Only John Summers is new to the Worlds as Tommy (2002) and Phil (2006 and 2009) have previous experience there. The defeat brought to an end the amazing record of John MacDougall who had qualified for every World Seniors since they began in 2002, though the ash cloud meant he could not get to Russia last year to play in his ninth event.Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-72113503608481281272011-01-24T21:17:00.002+00:002011-01-24T21:23:42.124+00:00Reflections on the Four NationsPhew!<br /><br /> In addition to all the reporting from Bob on his blog from Fenton’s here are just a few thoughts from me on what was a successful weekend.<br /><br /> A lot has been written and said about the actions of the RCCC with respect to their selection policy and then the decision (later overturned) to withdraw their trophies from the competition. Ultimately this had no effect on the actual running of the weekend as we still had to deal with four teams curling, eating, drinking, needing transporting to and from airports and hotels.<br /><br /> Obviously it had an effect on how I used my time in the run up to the weekend, at least until the Scottish team had organised themselves, as it meant that I had an additional task of trying to raise a team to fill the gap which had appeared in our schedule.<br /><br /> At no time were the ECA ever intent on showing up the RCCC or causing them or certain individuals to suffer some of the name calling and vitriolic comment appearing on other Fora. Yes, we were disappointed by the RCCC’s late decision not to send a team but with the other countries having already booked flights and hotels, with the ice booked for the whole weekend and with a dinner and band booked, we had to run a viable competition or lose a lot of friends and money.<br /><br /> As president, secretary and competitions convenor of the ECA for many years combined I have often had to struggle to raise teams for the Four Nations when it is held in Scotland because of previous commitments and the time and cost elements so I can appreciate the difficulties which the RCCC had at this busy time of year. The difference may have been what each of us then did when the usual channels were not successful. I am not ashamed to say that in years past I have used Scottish friends living locally to the venue of the event to bolster the English teams (and also to help out the Welsh and Irish teams)!<br /><br /> What this year has done is, and it may be only temporarily, to raise the profile of the Four Nations so that for at least next year there will be a lot more scrutiny about how the teams are selected, particularly in Scotland. What is important is to know that the Four Nations is not one competition, it is simply a convenient way of packaging seven individual trophies into a time and money saving package – but it works. I am sure that the four of us will sit down or hold conference calls to decide on the future of the weekend in the light of this year’s events.<br /><br /> While the happenings of the last month will continue to have a high profile in Scotland, as far as the ECA is concerned what is done is done and we can look back on a very successful weekend. We raised a lot of money for the Make-A–Wish charity from our raffle – approx £1300 I believe and the first prize of the laptop was won by Ross Barr (ENG), the £100 M and S voucher went to Richard Pougher (WAL) and the third prize of a silver necklace to Catriona Cooper of Scotland – all very equitable so far. Unfortunately for the Irish the fourth prize of a bottle of brandy went to Bob Cowan! The Irish team apparently only bought green tickets but only one was drawn out throughout the whole raffle which featured more than 20 other prizes.<br /><br /> The shot of the weekend was undoubtedly Lana Watson’s draw to lie three within the four foot against Scotland which pinched the Connie Miller Trophy back from Scotland, but it is also pertinent to say that in the next session she took seven at one end off an Irish team skipped by…….no that would be unfair – he knows who he is!<br /><br /> My apologies also for the lack of scores on any website owing to an administrative cock-up involving cooks and soup – and not the ones producing the stovies, toasties and breakfast rolls!<br /><br /> As to who won – well all the countries won at least something but interestingly six of the seven trophies changed hands this year and only one was retained by last year’s winners. The Irish were the most successful, winning all three of their contests but only by the smallest margin of one shot against England and Wales and relatively comfortably by seven shots v Scotland. Wales beat England and Scotland, England won one (the Connie Miller Trophy v Scotland) and Scotland won one (the Tom Ballantyne Trophy v England).<br /><br /> So on the whole a successful weekend but one that I am glad we do not have to repeat for four years!Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3496772451052046143.post-29589590103295286322011-01-08T19:03:00.004+00:002011-01-08T19:14:32.584+00:00Czech and Norwegian Juniors for PerthIt started at 8 am and finished just a shade after 7 pm and in another extraordinary day at the curling club in Prague the local boys team skipped by Lukas Klima climbed back from the depths of despair yesterday morning after losing to Germany and seeming to be out of the competition only to be rescued by Austria beating Italy, to win the European Junior Challenge and the last place in the World Junior Championships in Perth in March. To do so they had to play and win four hard games of curling – beating Italy 8-5 after an extra end, Poland 6-4, by means of a three at the last end, Estonia 6-5, having to repel a great fightback, and Russia by 8-4 as a result of a four scored at the sixth end through a double take out by the skip.<br /><br />In contrast the Norwegian girls skipped by Kristine Davanger and including Pia Trulsen (two Olympic gold medal winners’ daughters) had it easy as they only had to beat Italy 5-4 and Germany 6-4!<br /><br />As for the English teams, the girls finished sixth in the final rankings on 3 wins and 5 losses while the boys were fifth in their group just ahead of Wales, both teams on 1 win and 5 losses. Overall this equated to ninth for England and twelth for Wales based on comparative draw shot challenge distances against the other group.<br /><br />And now it is time to party.......alcohol free of course!<br /><br />You can find all the results and standings on the event website <a href="http://ejcc2011.curling.cz/">here</a>.<br /><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:12pt;" lang="EN-GB" ></span></p>Bob Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14181424471290305561noreply@blogger.com0