Scotland will be represented by the Keith Prentice and Barbara Watt teams (see here) at the World Senior Curling Championships 2012 in Taarnby, Denmark. The first games are on Sunday.There are fourteen women’s teams which will play in two groups. Scotland (Barbara Watt, Jean Hammond, Maggie Barry, Valerie Mahon with alternate Judith Carr) is in Group A with Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Russia and USA. Russia is the first opposition for the Barbara Watt team on Sunday afternoon.
Group B contains the Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Each group will play a round robin. Then the team ranked first in Group A will play the team ranked second in Group B in one semifinal, and the team ranked second in the A group will play the team ranked first in Group B in the other semifinal. No Page Playoffs in this competition. The winning semifinalists will contest the Championship final. The losing semifinalists will play for the bronze medals.
The twenty-three men’s teams play in three groups. Scotland (Keith Prentice, Lockhart Steele, Robin Aitken and Tommy Fleming, with alternate Archie Craig) is in Group A with Canada, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands and New Zealand. Poland, who were originally listed in group A, have had to withdraw from the championship. So each team in this group will have a bye during the games scheduled against Poland. As Team Prentice was due to play Poland in the first round at 09.00 on Sunday, Scotland has the bye in the first round, and will play New Zealand in the afternoon.
Group B has England, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and the USA. Group C has Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Wales.
It's always a bit complicated to get the playoff teams sorted out when there are three sections, but after the round robins have been played (plus any tiebreakers) the top three teams in each section will be ranked. The 1st and 2nd ranked teams from the three sections qualify for quarterfinals, as well as the 3rd ranked team with the best Draw Shot Challenge result. The other two 3rd ranked teams play a qualification game to decide the last team to go into the quarters. Thereafter it will be straight semis and final.
The event website is here where you will find the team list, draw, and results.
