Leslie Ingram-Brown reports from Regina:"Scotland came back from 6-1 down to pinch their last round robin game against the USA in the tenth end at the Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Regina. Tom Brewster, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow will meet Canada in the Page 1-2 game on Friday evening.
There will be a tie-break game between France and Norway this afternoon to decide the fourth team to qualify for the Page play-offs. How did all this come about?
On Sheet A the Czech Republic beat Switzerland with a last stone draw to win 7-6 and eliminate Switzerland from the championships. Second finished was Sheet B, which had no bearing on the positions, between the winless Denmark and the Czech Republic.
On Sheet D Norway and Canada were having a ding-dong battle. Going into the last end the score was tied 6-6 with Canada holding the last stone advantage. Norway were lying two shots when the Canadian skip Jeff Stoughton threw his draw shot for the win, was slightly heavy, slid past the tee leaving Norway winners 7-6.
The last game, on Sheet C, between USA and France was the final piece of the jig saw. If France won there would be a three way tie for the fourth Play-off place. If France lost then it was all over and there would be no tie-break games. USA lay two shots as Tony Angiboust, who throws last stones for the French, lined up a double on USA stones in the four foot. He executed the shot perfectly leaving France, Norway and Sweden all on seven wins.
Under WCF Rules the games between the teams were examined first and the teams could not be separated as they had beaten each other in the round robin. The Last Stone Draw/Draw Shot Challenge now became the deciding factor. Sweden were ranked third, and a tiebreak game between Norway and France will take place today (Friday) at 13.30 local time. The winner will play Sweden in the Page 3-4 game on Saturday."
Standings after Round Robin: 10/1 - Canada (QR1); 9/2 - Scotland (QR2); 7/4 - Sweden, France, Norway (Sweden R3 on LSD/DSC); 6/5 - Germany, Switzerland; 5/6 - Czech Republic, 4/7 - China; 3/8 - USA; 2/9 - Korea; 0/11 - Denmark.
The event website is here. Mike Haggerty's reports are here.
The photo of Tom Brewster is from the USA game and is courtesy of Leslie Ingram-Brown.
