The ECA Mixed Championships were played at Greenacres at the beginning of March. With just 2 entries a best-of-5 rubber was planned but it took only 3 games for Alan MacDougall, Lana Watson, Andrew Reed and Suzie Law to defeat John Brown, Glynnice Lauder, Robin Gemmell and Venetia Scott (5-4, 8-1, 8-3) and become the new champions who will represent England at the European Mixed Championships in Spain in September.
Friday March 30th
An exhausting day for England’s women curlers ended with a 1 shot defeat by Switzerland in the first of two tie breakers necessary to decide the 4th semi-finalist. Switzerland will now play Scotland tomorrow to decide who meets Canada in one semi -final. The other semi-final features Sweden and the USA.
An early start to the day saw England defeat New Zealand easily in the 0830 session by 10-1. After two pulsating men’s semi-finals which saw Scotland come from behind to score a 3 for the victory at the last end and Canada beat Sweden at an extra end, it was time for an extraordinary session from the women.
Fisrt of all Ireland raced into an 8-1 lead against Scotland and held on against a strong comeback to win 11-6. Meanwhile Sweden and the USA had assured themselves of semi-final slots by winning comfortably against Finland and Germany. This left Switzerland v England. If Switzerland won they would go straight through to the semi-final; if England won then that would let Scotland in and set up a three way tie breaker for the 4th position. The scores were level after 7 ends and Switzerland had the hammer in the 8th and last end. When the Swiss skip came to play her last stone the 4-foot was open and she had three English counters facing her. Amazingly she played it heavy to slip through the house and give England the victory.
Less than 90 minutes later the two teams were back on the ice. The draw shot challenge scores from earlier in the week gave Scotland the bye to tomorrow morning’s second tie-breaker.
If the previous session had been extraordinary this one was equally so. England began by stealing 3 at the first end, to which the Swiss replied with a 6 at the second end (all the stones within the 8-foot)!! Nothing daunted the English women replied with a 4! A single to the Swiss at the 4th end calmed things down and levelled the scores at 7-7. As had been the case in the previous game it came down to the last end with the scores level and the Swiss with the hammer. This time the Swiss skip put her first stone on the button and Glynnice Lauder, the Englsih skip just caught a guard as she tried to follow it.
So an eventual finishing position of 6th for the English ladies, maintaining their record of being in the top 6 at the World Seniors Championships for the last 5 years.
Thursday March 29th
A short day for both English teams with just one game each. For the men it was their last game, against Scotland, and again this one went to the skips’ stones at the last end. England were one down going into the tenth trying to steal and had one shot nestling on the pot lid behind guards. The Scots removed the guards and eventually found a narrow gap through which their skip passed with his first stone to remove the English counter and lie three. He managed to get a roll with his hit and forced the English skip to attempt a back ring weight tap and roll which just slid past and made the end score an unrepresentative 7-3 for Scotland who now meet USA in the semi-final. The other semi-final will be between Sweden and Canada.
England finished 5th in their group behind Scotland, Canada, Finland and New Zealand but above Switzerland and Ireland. This means that their final ranking will be 9th / 10th which will be known once the results of the draw shot challenge has been published. The French finished 5th in the other section and whichever of England or France has the better draw shot challenge score will finish 9th, the other 10th.
The women held Canada until the 7th end when a steal of two for the Canadians gave them a 9-5 lead which was unrecoverable in the one end remaining. The team has two games left tomorrow and currently lie in 6th position with 4 wins and 4 losses.
Wednesday March 28th
Overall a disappointing day for the English teams at the World Senior Championships in Edmonton with only 1 win from 3 games. In the morning the women played Scotland and were 0-6 down after three ends. A bit of a comeback ensued but they eventually lost by 5-8. Their second game of the day was against Germany and after a scare when the Germans fought back to 6-6, a count of 4 in the 7th end was sufficient to see England victorious.
This means that England, with a record of 4 - 3, currently lie 5th out of the 11 teams competing.
The men had just one game today, against New Zealand, and like 3 of their previous games this one went to the wire. After 2 blank ends, England scored 2, only to lose 4 at the next end when strikes just clipped guards. A further loss of 1 heralded another spirited fightback by the English team and it needed a hit by the NZ skip, Peter Becker at the 8th end on a half hidden English stone to secure a 5-4 victory.
This means that the English men can finish no higher than 7th overall and to do that they must beat the currently unbeaten Scots tomorrow morning.
Tuesday March 27th
Another full day for the English teams with each having two games and for both it was win one, lose one.
The men had a real challenge in taking on Canada skipped by Al Hackner, double World Champions and so it proved with the Canucks winning 9-1 after just 6 ends. The women followed against reigning World Senior Champions, Sweden, who had lost their first two games this year. The final score was 8-4 to Sweden but this obscures the fact that the crucial score was a 5 in the second end which left England with an uphill struggle, which they failed to conquer.
The evening games both featured England v Finland and it was a double victory. The men came from behind to steal 2 at the last end and win 8-6 against a hard hitting Finnish team who lacked, however, the ability to play some of the finesse shots, while the women had a fairly comfortable 11-2 win in 6 ends.
The real surprise of the day was the victory by New Zealand’s women over Ireland, only their second in 5 years, both of them against Ireland.
So after 3 days the English men have a 2-2 record while the women stand at 3-2.
Monday March 26th
A good day for England overall with 3 wins out of 4 - the only blot was the English men’s defeat by Ireland (5-7) but they bounced back later in the day to defeat Switzerland by 5-3. Meanwhile the women squeezed past Ireland by 5-4 when Glynnice Lauder the skip played a perfect draw to the button in the last end and they then had a comfortable 9-1 win over Japan in 6 ends.
The men got off to a bad start against Ireland losing a 3 in the first end, but they fought back to 5-5 after 7 before Ireland picked up a 2 at the 8th to record their first win over England at this level.
Against Switzerland a blanked first end was followed by a 2 and then a stolen 1. Switzerland replied with a 1 at the 4th and then stole a 1 at the 5th when the English skip caught a guard when striking for 4.
A single at 6th restored England’s 2 shot lead though it could have been more if the skip’s last stone had not been overswept. At the 7th end it was the Swiss’s turn to miss a shot for 4 and allow England to steal one and then at the final end the Swiss skip missed a chance for a 3 and the extra end, taking only 1, to leave England as winners by 5-3.
Sunday March 25th
The English ladies’ campaign in the World Seniors began today with a very closely fought game against the USA which they ultimately lost 5-6. The game was tied going imto the last end with England having the advantage of the hammer and a guddle developed at the front of the house. Two attempted guards by England were unfortunately too long and set up a raised promotion for the USA which left a stone fairly well guarded on the button. A final attepted wick-in by Glynnice Lauder the English skip was unsuccessful.
Other games in the session were fairly one sided with Finland easily beating Japan, Scotland overwhelming New Zealand and Germany being too good for Ireland. The surprise of the session was the 10-4 win by Switzerland over the defending champions from Sweden.
Daily reports on the progress on England’s teams at the World Senior Championships will appear here, direct from Edmonton, Alberta.
The men’s team of Michael Sutherland, John Brown, John MacDougall and Robin Gemmell will be hoping to maintain their record of finishing in the top 6 nations. They play 6 games in a round robin against Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, Finland and Scotland, (there is also another section of 7 teams) while the women’s team of Glynnice Lauder, Venetia Scott, Joan Reed and Moira Davison have a long week of 10 games beginning on Sunday evening.
Unfortunately Michael Sutherland’s broom has not arrived and John MacDougall’s was also delayed in transit before arriving safely this morning.
The weather in Edmonton is spring like with the snow melting rapidly though the Saskatchewan River is still frozen.
Two members of the South of England Curling Club, Steve Scanlan and Gordon Bryan have set up a website at http://www.englishcurlingforum.com/ to enable curlers all over England to chat to each other on a variety of topics. The ECA is happy to see this site being launched and hope all curlers in England will use it to contact others and discuss the hot topics in curling today. There is also an area where it is posible to contact other curlers if you are looking for a team for a competition.