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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Armchair Olympics 14

I've watched so much televised curling these past days that I almost feel I've actually been at the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre, above!

Eve Muirhead's Team GB went down fighting to an extra end of their last game against Canada (report here). It has been a hard week for them, but they have represented GB creditably. I'd like to say thank you to Eve, Jackie, Kelly and Lorna for putting me through a rollercoaster of emotions for a week!

It will be Canada v Switzerland, and Sweden v China in the women's semifinals.

There will be much debate I suspect in the weeks and months ahead about the selection process, the selection itself, and the coaching and preparation. Could we have done better? Can we do better for Sochi in four years time? What future for British Curling, and those behind the scenes? But this is not the time for me to comment.

Especially as David Murdoch and his team are keeping all our hopes alive. What a game against the Norwegians! With Royal approval for their colourful trousers (see here), Thomas Ulsrud and his team were on top form and forced the mistakes from Team GB. See Mike Haggerty's report with quotes here.

Dave, Ewan, Pete and Euan now play a tiebreaker against Sweden to earn a place in the semifinal against Canada. Norway plays Switzerland in the other semifinal.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images © VANOC