In my blog post on Monday (here), I was speculating about the European Qualifying Competition which will decide who will represent Scotland in the European Championships in December. We know that David Murdoch's new team has been invited, because special arrangements have been made to accommodate his playing in the Casino Rama Skins which clashes with one of the weekends of the Scottish Championship Qualifying (see here). Murdoch gets to avoid the Scottish prequalifying because of his invitation to play in the Euro Qualifying.
In Monday's post I said, "Colin Hamilton, the RCCC's Manager of Competitions, has confirmed that invitations have gone out to more than one team, without giving details."
Colin has been in touch to say this is not true. I misinterpreted an earlier email about invitations sent to last season's top three teams, none of which turned out to be able to field a team which would be eligible to take part, according to the regulations in last season's rulebook.
I apologise for my mistake.
The sub-committee of the RCCC Events and Competitions Committee which is charged with sorting out who will play in the Euro Qualifying, and how it will be run, comprises Colin Hamilton, National Coach Derek Brown, Bob Kelly and Brenda Macintyre.
I understand that even though Team Murdoch is the only team so far invited to compete in the Euro Qualifying, there is every intention to hold such an event. Is this important? I believe so. The European Championships are in effect the European zone qualifying for the Worlds, and this is the first of the three years where Olympic points are on offer at the World Championships. It goes almost without saying that we should field our strongest possible teams at the Europeans. It all comes back to the playdown v selection argument, of course. I'm very much in the former camp.
But for now, we will all have to wait to learn just who will compete in the Euro Qualifying, October 29-31, if indeed such an event is to take place.
Anyone else remember when our sport used to be so much simpler?
