Prague, Thursday

So with just one day of round robin games to go we know at least one of the boys’ semi-finalists in Netherlands who maintained their unbeaten record with a win over Wales. And they are guaranteed to finish top of the group after Russia lost to Estonia in a result which gives Estonia a chance to grab the other semi final spot, either directly if the Netherlands defeat Russia and Estonia finish their campaign with wins over England and Spain, or via a tie break if they lose one of those games. After Slovakia scored their first win by defeating England 6-2 no other team has a chance of making a play-off spot.

The other section is still wide open – the easy option will be if Italy beat Austria as they will qualify along with the winner of Germany v Czech Republic. However if Italy lose to Austria who won their first game in beating France, then the winner of Germany and Czech Republic will qualify top and the loser will have to play Italy and possibly Poland if they defeat France. That would mean two tie breaks and would they cancel the banquet?.........

Clear as mud then! Wait there is more...

Then there are the girls – Norway extended their undefeated record with a win over Poland and then came through against a determined England team at the last gasp. After six ends England led 3-2 but a couple of misses let Norway pick up a three at the seventh and they ran England out of stones at the last end. Earlier in the day England had beaten Poland in an another low scoring game by 4-2.

Meanwhile Germany clung to their coat tails with a fairly easy 10-2 demolition of Slovakia and then an amazing low scoring 2-1 victory over Poland. Italy won their only game of the day 6-3 v Estonia but they still have to play Norway and Denmark and so are by no means secure in third place. And I had better not tell Alex Tordrup, the chief umpire, that a certain combination of results could end up with five teams tied for third place – Italy, Denmark, England, Poland and Spain – and the way the results have been going.......

One feature for me at this competition has been the relatively low scores, certainly compared to previous Junior Challenges. So far we have had the 2-1 German victory over Poland mentioned above, a couple of 4-2 scores, a 4-3, and numerous 5-2, 5-3, 6-2, 6-3 scores. Only five victorious teams out of the 56 games have scored ten or more shots to win. Does this mean that the weaker nations are becoming stronger or does it represent a growth of more defensive curling, playing the simple game and refusing to take a gamble with some guddling. Over three games last night there was only one score of more than one shot in the first six ends – and that was a 2.

Probably a combination of the two and I have seen some brilliant shot play but also some really naive tactics – to be expected from juniors of course.

One interesting contrast – in 2005 Poland’s girls played in the Challenge and lost to Germany by 19-0 – this year it was 2-1. They also lost 24-0 to Russia and 24-1 to the Czech Republic in 2005 – this year their scores have read 7-2, 5-3, 1-2, 5-6, 2-4, 3-6 – that is an aggregate tally of 23-23 for 6 games!

More tomorrow night when hopefully we will not have too much bad news for the Chief Umpire!

You can find all the results and standings on the event website here.

Prague Notes 2

So here we are halfway through the week and things are definitely looking up in the English camp as the girls recorded their second win this afternoon against a useful Estonia team, three of whom had beaten the full English team in Champery just a few weeks ago. It was a low scoring game and, without the hammer, England played well to steal ones at the first three ends. However the Estonians responded and had a chance to square the match at 4-4 in the seventh when lying one with last stone to come, but a bizarre choice of shot, which had the Estonian coaches in despair, resulted in them giving us another one and it was a measure for two which just went to them. So it was 5-2 instead and we ran them out of stones.

Earlier the girls had lost to the strong German team, though only in the last couple of ends, and the boys lost to Russia. There had been great celebrations last night after the boys defeated Wales and the girls Slovakia – it may not have been Germany and Russia but the thrill for the juniors of winning their first games in this company was palpable.

In the girls' event the two undefeated teams, Germany and Norway, met this afternoon and it was a tense thriller which was resolved by a very delicate tap-up by Norwegian skip, Kristine Davanger, to break a 3-3 deadlock after seven ends. Italy, Spain and Poland follow next on two defeats after Denmark continued to struggle yesterday, though they bounced back with two wins today over Slovakia and Spain, to leave themselves on three defeats, Poland having inflicted the third of those in a surprise yesterday. This is level with England and Estonia, with Slovakia bringing up the rear and still to record a win. Denmark could still get into the top three and a semi-final place, but it could all come down to their last game against Italy on Friday morning.

In the boys event, Group A is as expected the preserve of Netherlands and Russia, both undefeated after four and three games respectively and Group B is proving as tough as predicted.

France lost both games played until tonight at extra ends, and have just lost a third game to Italy and so are therefore not going to get to the semi-finals, a surprise after coming so close in the final last year. In another shock tonight Poland beat the Czech Republic at an extra end and have become a factor in this group instead of France.

So it could come down to tiebreakers and surprisingly there is currently no room in the programme for two tiebreaker games and when this question was raised at the team meeting the answer was not very satisfactorily answered – cancel the banquet, we have curling to play! And I thought it was only the ECA who failed to programme enough time for tie-breakers!

You can find all the results and standings on the event website here.

Prague Notes 1

Day 2 of the European Junior Challenge at this super Prague venue. My first visit and it is such a great facility but I reckon that might be all I see of Prague as there is a big schedule of games with two English teams involved.

And this is a serious competition with coaches of the calibre of Dan Raphael (ex Chinese coach and now coaching Italy), Tormod Andreasson of Norway with the task of coaching the daughters of two Olympic champions - Trulsen and Davanger, and Markku Uusipavalniemi on the bench for Estonia.

I am here assiting our new English Junior Coach, Greg Dunn, formerly of Holland and originally from Ottawa. I think we are going to be a bit thinner by end of the week - from nervous tension and a lack of time to eat! Today for example we have games at 0900, 1230 and 1600 - following a late night game last night at 2045! But at least we have the evening off.

I was last at this challenge two years ago and it is amazing how the standard has increased even in that short space of time. A bit too early to summarise form, but one surprise is that the Danish ladies, who last year just lost out to Germany on getting to the World Juniors, are already on two losses having lost to Germany again and, more surprisingly, Poland by 2-7. Having come down last year Germany are probably favourites to go back up but could still face a challenge from Denmark if they recover, Norway and maybe Spain and Poland with Italy an outside bet.

There are two groups of men and the balance does not seem quite right. In one group it is difficult to see beyond Netherlands and Russia for the semi-finals, though Spain and Estonia could cause an upset, but unlikely to go all the way, while in the other group there are strong teams from Germany, Italy, France and the Czech Republic. My tip for a quick return to the Worlds is Russia with Italy a strong second chance.

All the results are here.

ITMA

Well, that is Xmas over for another year and life can get back to normal soon. I was down at the curling rink in Kent today and it took me nearly three and a half hours to get home. Normal journey time is one and three quarters – it does not help that my route takes me close to two of the largest shopping centres in England, Bluewater and Lakeside, but what is that drives people mad to spend their money on items that they never even knew they needed until they were going cheap?

Also I hope you have had time to read my last epic. Don’t worry as this one will be considerably shorter as it focuses on just one event – the English Mixed Doubles.

And the title – see the footnote for explanation if you are too young and that might explain!

The ECA Mixed Doubles were held at Murrayfield in mid December – at the same time as the Scottish competition. Thanks to Murrayfield for including us and also for dealing with last minute changes to our programme.

We originally had six entries but injury forced one withdrawal and so the five teams left played a single round robin with no play-offs but tie-breakers would be used if necessary.

On reflection the Championship was decided in the first round of games when reigning champions John Sharp and Jane Clark defeated Sam and Anna Fowler by 7-5, the Fowlers only defeat, though the champions could have been drawn into a tie break if they had not got through 7-6 after an extra end against new entrants this year, Ken Maxwell and Katie Dolan, who eventually finished third with two wins.

The other two teams were Susan Young/James Gibb (one win) and Adam Bermange/Madeleine Tuz (no wins).

So Jane and John will head off to St Paul in April hoping that there will be no ash clouds this year – they got to Chelyabinsk OK last year but John was drafted in to play in the Senior team as well and so had to split his efforts between two very different styles of curling.

But what of the future of Mixed Doubles? The WCF has withdrawn their bid to have it included at the 2014 Olympic Games because it has failed to meet a number of the criteria set by the IOC, one of them being that at least 50% of the Federation’s members should have held a National Championship. Apparently only 18 of the 46 nations reported to the WCF that they had held a Championships though it appeared that some members may not have returned their monitoring form to the WCF to be included in that number!

However, it was agreed at the WCF meetings in Champery to continue to develop the discipline in the absence of any other proposals with the hope of maybe getting it included in the 2018 Olympics.

* ITMA stands for It's That Man Again which was a BBC Radio comedy programme which ran from 1939 to 1949. So why have I used it – well just check out the previous item to see whose picture is included in it and then compare to the above…..

The photo of Jane and John is from last season and is © Skip Cottage

Across the Generations

Time goes past so quickly and there is so much happening that I have absolutely shed-loads of stuff to write about - but to save your eyes and ensure your brains stay unfried we shall take it in easy doses – if that is OK with you of course.

So this particular blog is all about Seniors and Juniors.

Rewind back to November – yes only 4/5 weeks ago I suppose - and the start of this hectic period ...

I suppose in the 1960s when I started playing curling there were only a very few forward looking ‘older’ curlers who encouraged those much younger than themselves to play for them. I remember a chap called Bill Kean at Crossmyloof who used to ask some of us schoolboys and Glasgow Young Curlers to play with him in the many Inter-City matches that took place in those days – do they still happen by the way?

The latest version of the First English Province I’Anson Trophy took place at Stranraer on November 19-21, and the winning team was very much a mixture of the young and the old. John Sharp and Ross Barr who were about to play in the ECA Senior Championships at the beginning of December (see later), joined forces with Anna Fowler and Harry Mallows, who will be going to Prague in January to represent England in the Euro Junior Challenge, and defeated all comers to take the wonderful old silver trophy.

As usual, the 14 teams played in one Schenkel division and the top 8 after 3 games qualified for the last session on the Sunday. At that point John Sharp led on 6 points from yours truly on 5 points and then 5 teams all on 4 points and one on 2 points. In an amazing final session John Sharp beat me 8-1. I shook hands after 6 ends, clear in my mind that a defeat would not be good enough as other teams would end up on 6 points and I would at best get the 4th prize. However, much to my consternation the two games being played between teams which both had 4 points both ended up as peels and it was the last team with 4 points, skipped by Patrick Brown, who had been in 7th place at the start of the session that came through to win its last game and be the only one on 6 points!

So then with 5 teams now on 5 points the minor positions were decided by ends and third place went to Phil Atherton and 4th to Peter Bowyer. My early handshake did not prove too costly however as I would have needed to win both the last ends to come even 4th.

So a remarkable finish and congratulations to Patrick Brown, David Hills, Donald Haining and Ali Thomson on their second place and winning the magnificent Meggatt Trophy.

Another interesting entry in the competition was the first appearance of the team which will go to St Paul in April to play in the World Senior Women’s Championship for England. Skipped by Sandra Moorcroft, but with Susan Young throwing last stones (plus Jean Robinson and Alison Barr) they had a baptism of fire, but, following some experimentation with positions, they came through to win a morale boosting last game.

To complete the circle, in a roundabout kind of way, I discovered this photograph in a 1980 Scottish Curler which shows the very same John Sharp, this time as a Junior winning a competition with the older generation represented by Bill Allison and a not-quite-as-old Blogger!

Winners of the Open Weekends Final at Greenacres. L-R: Bill Allison, Bob Cowan, Helen Burton, John Sharp.

Moving on from Stranraer the English Men’s Senior Championships took place at Greenacres on a snowy weekend in December.

Since 2003, when the official World Senior Championships began, there has usually been just one and, occasionally (2005, 2007 and 2008), two teams interested in representing England, but this year 4 entries were received by the closing date. Unfortunately, one of the teams had to withdraw owing to an injury and it was left to the other three skipped by me, John Sharp and Michael Sutherland to fight it out for the title.

We played a double round-robin and as luck would have it we all won 2 games – I beat John Sharp twice and he beat Michael Sutherland twice and Michael beat me twice. Cue play-offs. Following a draw shot challenge Michael got the bye to the final and I had to face John Sharp again and, true to the form of the weekend, I won that one as well – by then my team had played three games on the Sunday and time was up and so the final play-off between Michael and myself will take place at Greenacres in early February!

As I said the weekend was snowy and if John Sharp had been drawn in the first game he would have had to start with just 3 players as one of his squad of 5 was stuck in Southampton and one could not leave Gatwick, as the airports were shut, and we would have invoked the 'volcano' rules first applied at the World Seniors in Chelyabinsk – allowing a team to start a competition with just 3 players owing to an 'act of God'.

However by the time of John’s first game at 8.45 pm Doug Andrews had used 3 trains to get from Southampton to Glasgow and hence Greenacres in good time! A typical example of a curler’s great fortitude to make sure they got to their competition – and there would be more later in the month with teams trying to get to the Europeans Championships in Switzerland.

I myself had organised a very demanding travel schedule that weekend which would have been disrupted by the wrong amount of snow in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I think I must have been born lucky. As well as playing in the Championship I was due to attend my niece’s wedding in London on the Saturday at 5 pm.

The draw meant that I played 2 games on Friday and 2 on Sunday with the other two teams playing both their games against each other on the Saturday, but I still needed a bit of luck with the weather.

I flew into Glasgow from Luton on Friday morning and by the time I was collected to go to Greenacres the snow was coming down and the roads were turning white. After arrival at the rink it then snowed for another 3 or 4 hours and things were looking bleak. Fortunately it stopped and by the time we left the rink at 11pm after our second game the roads were passable even down to Mrs Mackey’s bed and breakfast place looking over to Lochwinnoch.

Saturday morning and Robin’s 4WD took me safely to the airport where my flight to Heathrow left just a little late – I eventually got to the club where we were changing for the wedding at 3.45, the taxi left at 4 and we were at the wedding venue at 4.10 in plenty of time!

After a few dances it was time to go back and change out of DJ, grab a train to Gatwick and hope that the 07.00 Sunday flight to Glasgow would be running – my first game was at 10.30! There were twenty of us on that flight – spaced evenly out around the cabin of a BA Airbus. Yet again my luck was in and we landed in Glasgow before 0830 – and the road to the rink was passable.
Three games of curling later and it was back to the airport for flight number 4 – back to Luton and this time it was a bit late – but not because of snow but because of fog at Luton! However we got there safely about 90 minutes late and I got home to my bed before midnight – to be woken up 4 hours later to go to Gatwick to catch my flight to Switzerland – but that is another story.

Moving on from Seniors we come to Juniors. This year there are two English teams going to Prague for the European Junior Curling Challenge, January 3-8. For the girls it is a third trip but for the boys it will be all new. One problem we face is that some of each team are away at University and so it has been difficult to get all 5 together. The first and last chance for some competitive curling came at Lockerbie for the Junior Classic – another journey (by train this time) threatened by the weather, but they all got there and found out for themselves the standard that exists outside of Kent.

Some of the English squad with Eve Muirhead. Back L-R: Naomi Robinson, Hetty Garnier, Eve Muirhead, Angharad Ward. Front: Oliver Kendall, Lauren Pearce, Anna Fowler.

One problem we have is a lack of coaches for the Juniors. Ian Baxter, who coached them last year, has moved to a new demanding job and informed us in good time that he could not help out. I put myself down to go with the teams and we were fortunate to have in London Greg Dunn, a Canadian who has previously worked with the Dutch men’s team and played for the Netherlands in the 2006 European Championships (including beating England 9-3!).

So it is next stop Prague and that will be the subject of a later blog, but look out for Chapters 2, 3 and 4 (maybe..) of this one – I will give you a couple of days to digest this one before imposing another one on you all.

Future topics to whet your appetite – Can one man from the smallest curling nation on the planet really be the instigator of a dangerous split in World curling? How good were this year’s European Championships? Is the 4 Nations weekend important to British curling (or is it just an irrelevant sideshow)? What do we know about the woman who has to manage the £2.3m which British Curling has been awarded to deliver medal winning teams?

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Top photo is from John's Scottish Curler archive, the second photo is © Skip Cottage.

And the Swedes like haggis too

I'm sitting here watching the quarterfinals of the European Seniors at Greenacres and have just seen Finnish skip, Mauno Nummila, already five down after the first end against Pelle Lindeman of Sweden, saving his team from an even bigger loss at the second end. Lying seven against, a heavy take-out turned the tables to give him a score of one.

In the other quarters it is Colin Hamilton v Michael Sutherland of England, Gary MacFarlane v the other Finnish team of Timo Kauste, and an all Scottish clash between David Clydesdale, undefeated and top qualifier, and Keith Prentice, lucky to scrape in with just five points after a surprising loss to Wim Neeleman of Holland by 10-11.

My personal score for the week was 1 win, 1 peel and 3 losses, which converted into fourth out of six in my group, and one place ahead of the holder, Karl Nordlund of Sweden, a minor triumph one could say! The win came in the last session against Wales when a score of six in the fifth end turned things around.

The women go straight to semifinals tomorrow when Alison Reekie will play Ingrid Meldahl from Sweden and Kirsty Letton faces Jacqui Crawford.

More updates later but what is this competition all about – the European Seniors Invitation – not quite a championships but more than a bonspiel, it arose out of the 2005 World Women’s and World Seniors’ Championships held at Paisley and Greenacres. That event made a pretty profit, unusually for a World Championships, and it was decided to use some of the money to fund a new event for Senior curlers. An initial attempt in 2007 fell foul of an overcrowded calendar and the first event took place in 2008. This event featured 18 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams, though only 11 women’s eventually took part. Twelve countries were represented in the men’s event, but only Ireland and Netherlands added a bit of European flavour to the women’s event. Sweden’s Claes Roxin defeated Graeme Adam in the final after an extra end and Kay Gibb had the measure of Kirsty Letton in the women’s.

In 2009 there was a drop off in continental interest and we lost the teams from Estonia, Poland, Iceland and Finland from the men’s event, though there were still 18 men’s teams. The number of women’s teams increased to 17, but with only Sweden joining in from abroad the bulk of them were Scottish and thus the European aspect was a bit lacking. Sweden, in the shape of Karl Nordlund, retained the men’s title by defeating Colin Hamilton, while Isobel Waddell defeated the surprising finalist, Marie O’Kane of Ireland, in the women’s.

And now 2010 and we have new entries from the Czech Republic and Russia and the return of Finland to the men’s event, but we are down to 12 women’s teams again (though five of them are non-Scottish).

And the future – my understanding is that the original funding has one more year to run and then some other source will need to be found while there is also a general concern about the lack of interest from the women, both at home and abroad.

And now back to the action – after four ends. In spite of their skip’s heroics at the second end, the first Finnish team are 1-8 down v Sweden, Colin Hamilton is 3-2 up against Michael Sutherland, after two end saving shots from Michael and Tommy Campbell his third, David Clydesdale and Keith Prentice are locked at 3-3 and Gary Macfarlane leads Timo Kauste by 4-3 – but this latter game is now about one end behind in time terms!

Apologies by the way if this all history by the time you read it, but in my blog infancy I am dependent upon Bob to upload my contributions and if he is not around, then obviously there will be a delay.

And yes the Swedes do like their haggis as was evidenced last night at the Scottish supper here at Greenacres where generous helpings of our national dish disappeared down Scandinavian throats, accompanied, not by whisky but pints of Belhaven Best. The whisky tasting on Wednesday night was also well received and thanks to the organisers for making sure that our inner needs are well met.

And now the first quarterfinal is over after six ends as Pelle Lindeman comfortably beats Mauno Nummila from Finland 10-2.

So returning to an earlier theme, is there a place for a proper European Senior Championships in the curling calendar – we have a European Junior Challenge and a European Mixed as well as the main European Championships? Should we use a European Seniors as a qualifier for the World Seniors and thus give organising committees of WSCCs a reduced but guaranteed number of entries? Is that taking Senior curling too far into the realms of 'serious' curling?

Last year’s WSCC in Russia was a success in spite of the disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano because of the acceptance of the flexibility introduced by the Event Convenor regarding timetable, team composition and changing availability of players owing to illness. The players all accepted this, but would a more serious approach to the senior curling scene alienate the average senior curler and take away the fun element? Discuss!

And now Colin Hamilton has beaten Michael Sutherland 6-4 in a closely fought game with a lot of busy heads and we wait for the other games to finish or will we have extra ends? Well no is the answer as the third quarter final has Keith Prentice making good use of his qualifying luck to defeat David Clydesdale by 5-4, finishing with two blank ends, and Gary Macfarlane with a 3 at the last end defeats Timo Kauste 8-6.

All the scores are here.

Can you ever have too much curling?

The thought of retirement has been uppermost in my mind recently as my job in the Civil Service comes under threat from Government cutbacks. Mind you many people seem to think I have been retired for years otherwise why am I always up in Scotland curling! And it has been one of those months – after the Duncan Stewart Trophy (see my earlier blog post) – I have now spent ten days north of the border, mainly at Greenacres playing in the Welsh Bonspiel and the European Seniors. In fact I am sitting in Greenacres now in the middle of the latter competition just waiting for my session to begin.

The Glenfarclas Welsh Bonspiel was another successful weekend for the organising committee of John and Ann Stone and Margaret Meikle. Unfortunately a late withdrawal meant that one group was a team short and so one team had to have a bye each session. Bob has mentioned the winners of the main trophy, see here. Adrian Meikle, Andy Tanner and Adrian’s young daughters, helped this time by Kirsty Harrison, became the first players to win three Welsh Bonspiels in a row. What a story for those young girls to tell in the future! In the final they defeated a team from the Borders skipped by Colin Martin with his wife Liz and Glynnice and David Lauder.

Yours truly was fortunate to win the B road especially after being 0-11 down after the first four ends of my first game! Fortunately there was one team worse than us after the first session and they got the bye while we were able to boost our ends and shots totals by winning our next two games quite easily. The fourth session saw us play our old rivals,the Mansons and Paxtons, and, as is always the case between us, this one went to the last stone. In the B final we (myself, Dawn Watson, Donald Forbes and Jean Robinson) defeated Graeme Adam, Jim Jamieson and their wives. See photo above.

In the C final Chris Wells, Michael Yuille and Lesley McKenna (playing as a 3 after their 4th player had to leave early) defeated perennial finalists in the Welsh, Gordon and Jacqui Crawford and Joyce Young, helped this year by Robin Shand.

And so after two days rest, including nine holes at a wonderful little golf course at Anstruther (see here) which includes what has been described as a blind dog-leg par 3 rated as one of the toughest par 3s in the country, it was back to Greenacres for the European Seniors.

A late withdrawal by the Russian men owing to a serious illness taxed the organisers who were able to find a local ‘gather-up’ team skipped by Jim Becket – another reminder of the pleasures of retirement – being able to step in at the last minute to play in a competition. All the scores can be found on the Greenacres website, here, and I will add a few more personal thoughts in a later blog. But it has been good to see such a wide selection of teams here from Finland, Sweden, Norway, England, Wales, Ireland, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Russia.

The withdrawal of the Russian men deprived me of my chance to get my revenge for them beating me in Chelyabinsk in the World Seniors and served me up a tough first game against Jim Becket. I managed a peel at 5-5 and this was one of six such games in the first day – 20% of the total. With no extra ends and ends and shots counting it enabled the programme to stay nearly on track but it has to be said that some of the games have been quite slow going.

Interesting results from Day one were the failure of the holder, Karl Nordlund, to win either of his first two games, losing to Chris Wells of Wales and David Clydesdale. Also the defeat of Scottish Champion, Isobel Waddell by Els Neeleman’s Dutch ladies, and peels for Mauno Nummila of Finland against Gary MacFarlane, and Peter Wilson of Ireland against Colin Hamilton.

The photo of the J & M Trophy winners is by Hugh Stewart. L-R: Andrew Tanner (presenting); Jean Robinson (lead), John Brown (skip), Dawn Watson (third) and Donald Forbes (second).