I see though that the Scottish team of David Edwards, Kerry Barr, Dillan Perras and Louise Wood are working away and, as I write this, are on five wins and no losses, the same as Switzerland who they meet later today. The final round robin game is against Italy tomorrow.
The results of all the games are here. The top two teams from each of the three sections go automatically to the quarterfinals, tomorrow evening. If you finish third in the section, you MAY still qualify. This is where it all gets a bit complicated! After the round robin, the teams in each section will be ranked 1-8, according to WCF rules, ie teams are ranked firstly according to their win/loss record. Then, if two teams are tied, the team that won their round robin game will be ranked higher. And if this still does not decide the ranking, then ranking is determined using the Draw Shot Challenge (DSC). The DSC is the average distance of the Last Stone Draws (LSD) played by a team during the round robin, the least favourable LSD result being eliminated before calculating this average distance.
Are you keeping up?
Now, the WCF rules state that 'A team tied for a place in the play-offs is not eliminated in any way other than by losing an extra game.' So, much of the last paragraph is not usually relevant if you are tied on points for a playoff place. But in a break from the WCF rules, there will be NO tiebreak games in this competition. I assume that teams that are tied on points for playoff places will play what is being called a Post Round Robin Challenge, where usually there would be a tiebreaker. This Post Round Robin Challenge will take the form of a Draw Shot Challenge, post round robin, in which all four team members will each play one shot!
Once the third placed team in each section has been decided in this way, the three teams (one from each of the three sections) are themselves ranked according to their DSC average. The country with the best DSC goes to the quarterfinals. The other two play a Post Round Robin Challenge, the winner getting the last place in the quarters.
I hope I've got this down correctly. Chief Umpire Dor Borthwick took the time to explain it to me on Tuesday. But I know I'm getting old when it take me all my time to get my head round it all!
You will remember of course that doing away with tiebreakers was a suggestion that did NOT meet with approval of representative members at the last WCF Meeting. The ECF is going its own way on this one. I'm sure there will be a lot of interest from those involved with the WCF in what happens at Greenacres. It will be just the thing if it turns out tomorrow that there is no need for tiebreakers, or PRRCs, and the rankings are straighforward!
Thanks to Hugh Stewart for the pic of Louise, David and Dillan (above) from their match against France.
